American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1952)

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Other counties will be heard from, too: the Legal Department, having ex¬ amined your script, has discovered that out of 37 proper names mentioned in dialogue or registered visually on office doors, signboards, newspaper headlines, and telephone directories in the story, exactly 22 have real life counterparts who might conceivably institute lawsuits for invasion of privacy. Attached you find a list of suggested substitute names — all of them impossible. You call your writer and director, and the three of you start dreaming up new ones. Censorship has finally gotten a deci¬ sion from the Johnston Office about the moonlight bathing sequence in the mountain pool. You can do it if there isn’t any moonlight. The only trouble with that is there’s no way for the cameraman to photograph it. So all of you had better sit down again and try to figure out an alternative sequence. Last but not least, comes a memoran¬ dum from the Research Department. There were no spikes on telegraph poles prior to 1863. “Jeepers creepers” was not in common usage as a slang ex¬ pression at the time your story takes place. According to the common law, a morganatic alliance is recognized as legal matrimony in the State of Oregon, so your hero, if he marries his child¬ hood sweetheart at the end of the picture will have committed bigamy. Can you do something about this? You not only can — you must. And you do. Because tomorrow shooting begins. The picture is finally on paper — hut it’s an awful lot of paper. Your wife, by the way, left for Palm Springs exactly eight days ago — by herself. CONTEST FILMS (Continued from Page 26) it is projected. It is amazing how many minor improvements will immediately become apparent when one brings a fresh mind to bear upon the subject. In a 400-foot picture, I usually manage to remove a further thirty or forty feet of film and it is only then ready to be sub¬ mitted for competition judging. “Even though I usually see my films many times again, when visiting other clubs, I can still spot further improve¬ ments that might have been made. But, by that time, I am invariably so sick and tired of the wretched thing that I leave well enough alone and let the film remain as it is.” Following the practice of the profes¬ sional film makers, who each year select the best films for Academy Awards, American Cinematographer’s annual competition is not divided into classi¬ fications of film subjects. The competi¬ tion is for the TOP TEN films, with each of the ten receiving a Gold Trophy, properly inscribed; 8mm and 16mm films, sound or silent, compete on equal terms. Quality of the photography is the basic factor in the evaluation, with the other factors receiving proper con¬ sideration in the final tabulation of points. If you have been a winner with a film in your local camera club contest this year, you may find further reward await¬ ing you in American Cinematographer’s 1952 competition. If you are just com¬ pleting your film, hurry it along and give it a good start for recognition dur¬ ing 1952. Remember, the fact your film has won an award in other national or club contests does not affect its eligibility in this competition. One of the final purposes of this event is to give you additional opportunity to show your films publicly. So don’t hide your light under a bushel, as the old saying goes; there may be an American Cinematographer Gold Trophy Award just waiting to have your name inscribed upon it. Write the contest chairman today for an entry blank, in event you have not already done so; there’s a coupon else¬ where in this issue. Then be sure to mail or express your film ahead of the dead¬ line — midnight March 1st. 'WESTWARD THE WOMEN' (Continued from Page 15) Half way to California one man breaks the rule and is shot on the spot by Taylor. This leads to dissension among the men, and that night, all but two of them desert, taking some of the women with them. The remaining women, along with Taylor and the two faithful males who stayed on, are now faced with driving the wagon train over the desert wastes to California. The trials and tribulations which they en¬ counter make a stirring picture. There are raids by roving bands of Indians, windstorms, desert heat, stampedes of their cattle and horses, and accidents — all played against the spectacular back¬ drop of desert, canyons, hills and cloudflecked skies enhanced by skillful cam¬ era work. To point up the desolation, the relent¬ less heat from the barren desert, and the wind and dust storms, the use of skydarkening filters was avoided. Where others might have resorted to filters to gain high-contrast skies and thus bring out the clouds for added pictorial effect, Wellman would have none of it in this picture. “I want the audience to feel the intense sunlight, the desert heat and 42 American Cinematocrapher January, 1952