American cinematographer (Aug 1936)

352 American Cinematographer • August, 1936 Amateur Throng to nior W HEN! the American Society of Cinemotogrophets orgcnized the junior branch, it was the opinion that in the course of several years a membership o,' substantial numbers would be enrolled. However, the first few months has already brought more members than the organizing board had set down as the quota for the first two years. This charter membership is not confined to this coun- try, but has already spread over every civilized country in the world. Amateurs as well as semi-professionals are seeking admittance to the Society of Amateur Cinematog- raphers as they feel membership in it represents real cine- matic achievement. As laid down in the rules, applicants must submit a pic- ture made by themselves. This picture most be complete and fully titled. Qualifications for membership ore judged more from this picture than from the requirements set forth in the application form. The most frequent question from amateurs is whether they are barred from this Society if they have made com- mercial or other pictures for pay. It is the purpose of the Junior branch to accept for membership all worthy cinefilmers, whether purely amateur or semi-professionals, who have not the qualifications to become members of the American Society of Cinematographers. It is obvious that the out-and-out amateur will gain con- siderable from his semi-professional fellow members. These men will have some experience that borders on the pro- fessional about which they can tell them and from which experience they should gain a great deal of good as these semi-professionals are using the same type of equipment as the amateur. As occasion arises and members of the Amateur Society have in mind a certain type of picture or a certain effect they wish to secure in a picture, they write us to deter- mine whether we have a picture on hand that has used this particular effect. If we have we are pleased to loan this picture to the member for him to study. This will permit him to observe at first hand just what certain filters or other effects will do under certain circumstances. It is these things that lead to better photography. Even back in school days we soon learned that the things which we attempted after we had learned the theory, remained in our memory longer than the things we learned merely by rote. This is true of photography. After you have read of a certain thing and possibly seen it in a picture, it then be- comes necessary for you to do that thing in order to really know how to do it. Constant practice in a thing will make you proficient. We know of a beginner who had difficulty in determin- ing the right exposure, and that is always the stumbling block for a beginner. He finally learned from a profes- sional that there was such a thing as a "normal” for ev- ery film. Here was a starting point. The great mystery of how the professional determined the proper exposure was wiped out. It was really a practical thing. When he learned that the normal for the film he was using at the speed of his shutter was f.l 1. he spent much of his time merely looking at a scene as he went to and from work or as he rode around and tried to determine from his own judgment just what the f. value of that scene would be interpreted into the terms of his motion picture camera. Society He did not really have to make a picture in order to become proficient in the knack of determining the proper exposure. He learned in that way what a normal scene was. He learned what open shadows were and all of the other standard scenes by which exposure is gauged. Another thing he did for himself without wasting a lot of film in learning, was the locating of good photographic subjects. He used his camera for this and merely looked through the finder. That he was not taking pictures was not evident to anyone. However, he did not shoot every- thing at which he aimed his camera, but he did walk around a scene until he felt he had the right balance and one that was the very best composition. At times when he came across a picture that he felt was irresistible, he exposed his film on it. In this way he developed the "feel" for composition. And after all that is what you cultivate when you obey all of the rules of photography. You develop the "feel" for photography the same as a musician develops the feel of the mood of any certain piece of music. If they play it mechanically they are equivalent to our snap-shooters who expose film regardless of subject matter. We have rambled off a bit in order to demonstrate the advantages of being associated with professionals and those who know just what make good pictures and good photog- raphy. It is evident that those eager to advance will re- ceive better information and more outhentic knowledge from those whose business it is to moke motion pictures; from those whose salary for making these pictures some times runs os high os that the President of the United States. These men in the studios are the acknowledged photographic masters of the world. They ore giving to the world the finest examples of photography done under very trying conditons at times. They are able to do good work because they have the proper foundation, they have the finest training and are constantly attempting to improve their art. They have brought photography to a real art in a commercial atmosphere. These men are not I'ke artists who have all day to study a subject, or who can go for weeks waiting for an inspiration. They must in*-erpret the mood immediately and they must maintain this mood in their handling of the photography of the picture on which they are working. It can be seen from this that those amateurs who are at all eager to moke real advancement in their hobby could not turn to a more reliable authority than the American Society of Cinematographers. The service to the members does not only include the matter of photography itself, but also the other phases of motion picture making as the amateur can use it. Con- tinuity is an important part of cinematography. However, the Society does not encourage a man to say, "I want to moke a picture of the sea. What sort of continuity shall I build around it?" This man should have some idea ot what the theme of that picture should be. The sea would be a documentary. It has many moods, just which Ciontinued on page 358