American cinematographer (Aug 1936)

August, 1936 • American Cinematographer 349 Just How Short B eing a confirmed 16 mm. devotee during ofter-of- fice hours, I con drow o number of onologous lines of structurol composition between the so-termed short-subject of the cinemo holls ond the product of the omoteur cine-lenser who goes in for the production of do- mestic dromos ond other story-forms of household picture moking. Close observotion of short-subject films which ore on importont port of every theoter progrom should be illumi- noting to every omoteur who prefers to hove his celluloid creotions opproximote the professionol roting of enter- toinment content. The screen "short" is commonly o one-reel or two-reel item. It is entertoinment in copsule form. It is highly concentroted screen fore. Unlike feoture productions, costs of moking ore definitely limited; there is o top figure be- yond which the overoge cost must not go if it is to show Q profit. Budgets ore rigid in every phose of production. This economy is not unlike the omoteur's desire to keep his filming within reosonoble boundories ond to get os much on the screen os he con without spending o lot of money. Some shorts ore very short indeed, others stretch out in screen time. A one-reel subject will ronge from six minutes to eleven minutes os screened. A two-reeler will run from seventeen to twenty-one minutes. This at sound speed of ninety feet o minute, or twenty-four frames o second. The ideal length for o one-reel is seven hundred and twenty feet, or eight minutes screen time. This corresponds to two hundred and ninety feet in 16mm and one hundred and forty-five feet in 8mm. Fifty feet is given to the main title and twelve to fifteen feet to the end title, which should be deducted from the total length figures to give the net picture footage. The one-reel of overage length will hove from forty to fifty different camera set-ups; in other words, that many scenes. It will hove fifty to seventy-five cuts, os close-ups are inter-cut with longer shots. These same figures con well apply to the overage omoteur production. The most important factor in a short is the basic idea or story. Requirements ore rigid. The story must be sim- ple, easily understood, not complicated os to plot and pro- gressing in o straight line. There is no time, os in fea- tures, to develop character. A player's character must be established on his first screen oppearance and he must re- main in that character throughout. The picture must jump away to a fast start, as a sprint- er coming off his starting mark. Likewise, it must come to a rapid close once the story is told. A good rule to follow is to launch the story with a flying start, tell it in proper speed increasing to the climax, and then get it off the screen just as fast as you can without too noticeoble abruptness. Experience has taught us the sure way of making shorts. You can make your reels in the very same proved pro- cedure. First we evolve the basic idea or theme of the story. Then we put it on paper in synopsis form. If it still seems good, we make a more detailed synopsis filling in all the salient a/ ■ Bert Gilroy Associate Producer, RKO Studios particulars. This is polished and divested of any trends to stray away from the central line of the tale. Now we write the script or scenario, breaking the story into the forty to fifty scenes needed to pictorialize it. This is where we get our basic continuity. The story as a whole is cut into scenes; it is not a matter of trying to fashion a story out of scenes. The next step is to consider this scenario for length. First drafts invariably run too long and must be condensed. This is determined by actual trial. Two or three of us walk through the scenes, simulating the specified action in cor- rect timing, and a stop-watch clicks the elapsed time. Just like you, we have a given amount of negative and have to moke every foot of it count. We try to work in short scenes. Speaking in 35mm meas- urements which you can readily reduce to your 16mm. or 8 mm. needs, a ten-foot scene is relatively short, although to gain the effect of speed in comedies we will use six- foot or even three-foot cuts. A fifty-foot scene is just about the limit for any one set-up angle. Now as to the nature of the subject matter. Cartoon films are the most popular of the shorts, as witness Mons. Mickey Mouse. But these are beyond the production ken of most of us amateurs. Next in popular esteem come comedies, particularly what we call situation comedies. Here the premise or locale is quickly established and the central character or characters put in situations which of themselves are amusing. It is rather a comedy of action than of acting. This type of film is well within the reach of every cine-amateur. Continued on page 359