The cinema as a graphic art : on a theory of representation in the cinema (1959)

THE CINEMA AS A GRAPHIC ART will not be more than twenty to thirty long-shots, it should not be difficult f the camera-man to fill in such tables. Copies are handed to the lighting depar ment, and the electricians can carry out the positioning of the lighting equipme exactly, as the tables provide them with a general outline of the composition scheme of the shot. Now to deal with the problem of noting down more complex technic methods. If the camera-man has to take a shot involving a pan he is frequent faced with the necessity of making a preliminary estimate of the length of tl pan. Without such an estimate it is extremely difficult to determine ocular the rate of movement of the panorama head. And the difficulty is increase when the director requires the pan to occupy an exact length in the editing The panning of the camera is achieved either by turning the correspondii handles (one for horizontal and one for vertical pan) on the head of the came tripod, or by shifting the camera by hand with the aid of a special lever provide on tripods of certain types. In the first case the result is a slow, flowing pa in the second a swift, abrupt pan. When reckoning the speed of the pan we tal into account the angle formed by the direction of the chief optical axis of tl lens before and after the beginning of the pan, and the magnitude of the effectr angle of vision of the lens used, in the plane in which the pan has been carri( out. On these magnitudes will depend the footage of the pan shot, and also tl degree of lack of definition of the image in the shot due to the swift moveme: of the pan. Usually the mechanism of the present-day tripod is constructed shift the optical axis of the lens through an angle of one degree for every turn the panning handle. It is difficult to turn the panning handle smoothly ar steadily at a speed greater than two to three turns per second, and so in practii the speed does not exceed this rate. Turning the handle at two to three tun per second, we shift the optical axis of the lens at a steady angle speed of thn degrees per second. And this figure provides us with a basis for estimating tl length of film required for shooting the given pan. Let us suppose we are taking a pan through an angle of ninety degree Dividing ninety by three, we get the time-length of the pan, i.e. thirty second In shooting sound film at a speed of twenty-four frames per second, eightee inches pass through the camera in one second. So that in the thirty secon< occupied to take the pan through an angle of ninety degrees forty-five feet of fil pass through the camera, and the scenario should provide for this. We will analyse another complex technical method of shooting which al; requires preliminary estimates and noting down in chart form. In order to avo errors the estimate of a complex shot including lap dissolves and fades shou be made not only by noting down the number of handle-turns, but also withtl charting of a diagram which at any moment will render it possible to see at glance which stages are already shot and which remain to be shot. We suggest a simple and convenient system of charting the processes of sue a composite shot, based on the principle of co-ordinate construction. This sy tern saves both the camera-man and his assistant the necessity of making ar supplementary note during the actual shooting process. In Fig. 68 we give a graph of notes for shooting processes involving dissolve or transitions to exposure magnitudes other than the magnitude of exposui adopted at the beginning of the shot. Along the horizontal axis of the system of co-ordinates are placed the numer cal turns of the camera handle. Along the vertical axis are given the magnitude corresponding to the aperture of the angle of the shutter in degrees. 132