American cinematographer (Sept 1935)

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September 1935 • American Cinematographer 375 Same scene as opposite page, but pola-screen is used to wipe out reflections. Angles on the Use of Pold-Screens by Clyde De Vinna, A.S.C. vidual Cinematographers have made tests of them; some few have even had opportunities to use them on actual production. Therefore, while it is yet too early to soy with any finality how for their uses extend, we con already cite several examples of their application to proctical production problems. For instance, applied to the problem of toning down "hot" skies, and producing red-filtered sky effects, pola- screens have proven that they can produce a wide range of effects from a light grey sky down to an almost black one for special effects—and at all times do this without changing the rendition of other colors, such as faces, and the like. As a rule, too, it may be said that this action is less dependent upon the purity of the sky's color than is conventional filtering. Ta a limited extent, also, these screens will eliminate the glare from brilliantly lighted white walls, roots, and the like. Shooting into a strong back-light against water, as at the seashore, has always been regarded as a difficult problem. In a test made by the writer, such a situation was chosen. The scene was made at the beach, with a pier extending seaward from the camera, several people and a bit of beach in the foreground, against a background of surging water illuminated by a brilliant, high back-light, and a "hot" sky. Without the pola-screen, the shot was almost a silhouette; the figures were virtually silhouetted, there was no separation between the sea and sky, both of which were lost in a blaze of white glare, into which the end of the pier also melted. Rotating the pola-screen to its optimum position, the glare was almost entirely elim- inated: the tone of the water was darkened from white to a fairly dark grey; the figures stood out cleorly, with an apparent increase of detail in the shadows due to the re- moval of the glare; the end of the pier became pleasingly visible. Since the lens was pointed almost directly toward the angle from which the sun shone, the sky was not affected; and since the highlights from the curving crests of the waves did not always present the ideal 32° angle to the lens, enough of these moving catch-lights remained to give a pleasing effect. Similarly, tests made by Virgil Miller, A.S.C., indicate that by using pola-screens, shots into water can be made, eliminating all glare and reflections from the surface, and shawing rocks, fish, divers and so on to a considerable depth. Reflections from plate-glass stare windows are fre- quently very troublesome, especially when working on location. Tests have shown that pola-screens will elim- inate these reflections almost entirely, and a few days ago, Leon Shamroy, A.S.C., used the screens to simplify such a problem on actual production. The action required the camera to follow one of the players past a large store-window and into the store. Across the street was a large, light-calored building in brilliant sunlight; in the normal caurse of events, the reflection of this building would have made the shot obsolutely impossible: at best, the scene would have had to be made in cuts, from less favorable angles. Thanks to the pola-screen, the shot was made as written, quickly and easily. In the same way, reflections from the highly polished sides of automobiles can give the Cinematographer infinite trouble, and slow up production expensively. Milton Kras- ner, A.S.C., encountered two such shots recently, ond solved the problem with polarizing screens. One of these scenes was a travelling-shot, in which camera, perambu- lator, track, etc, reflected strongly in the side of the car. A twist of the pola-screen—and the reflections were wiped away! The other shot was a stationary one, in which the best lighting required a reflector at exactly the point where it would also reflect in the car. The pola-screen eliminated the reflection of the reflector—but did not affect the light it threw on the player: a case of "killing" the reflector but keeping its light! Henry Freulich, A.S.C., in the course of his tests of the screens, was particularly impressed with their ability to darken skies under atmospheric conditions where nc ordinary filter could be used. Photographers of outdoor films will agree that at certain times of the year the sky takes on a whitish glare which defies even the strongest rec (Continued on Page 387r