The Cine Technician (1939)

[6 T II E ( I N I. I E( HNICIAN April-May, [937 was simply to make an interesting pattern of visual material. Our idea was to give an impression rather than an explanation of the subject. (.1//-. McLaren then showed his first film) The scenario of that film took a week to plan. It was composed, to begin with, of a series of very small drawings, a rough sketch for each shot. Every drawing fixed a particular angle, distance and lighting. Then, mentally, I timed the action of each shot and put down against each drawing its exact duration in seconds. By the end of the week I had a very tight script visualised, and timed in every detail. For amateurs, I think the following is very sound advice. Think before shooting rather than after shooting. This will save time and — which is even more important to amateurs — it will save stock. The shooting took three weeks ; there were three of us engaged on it. We worked in the evenings during those three weeks. In 90 per cent, of the film we kept strictly to the scenario, and only in 10 per cent, did we depart from it, when we found that the actual handling of the situation suggested a course of action which we had not thought of before. We always aimed at using lighting to emphasise our points. For instance, when we were taking a shot of pottery, we illuminated it in such a way as to show up the rotundity of the pot. When we were shooting a student's hand painting on a canvas, if we wanted to emphasise what he was painting on the canvas we lit the hand in a flat manner and the canvas more brightly than the hand. Whereas, if we wanted to emphasise the movement of his hand or the way he held the brush, we lit his hand in a modelled manner and more brilliantly than the canvas. Again, in a shot of the polishing of a piece of metalwork we arranged the lighting to achieve the maximum specular reflection. As to the duration of each shot, we aimed at avoiding the slightest redundancv at either end. When shooting we calculated in terms of seconds. When editing we reckoned in terms of frames. The editing of the film took one week, and amounted to a purely mechanical job. We had shot according to script, and as a result had only 20-ft. of scrap in a 400-ft. film. With the film finished we were only £8 out of pocket. The next film you are going to see took a very different course. It was our second film, and it was shot with quite a different camera. A comparison of the film you have just seen with the one I am now going to show you, brings out very vividly the difference of treatment caused by the use of a different camera. We were working with a < ine-Kodak special camera, a very efficient instrument which has dozens of gadgets all over it for trick work and special effects. To use it after the ordinary Cine-Kodak was like playing on an electric organ after tootling on a tin whistle; and our first impulse was to press all the stops and use all the gadgets. I was so enamoured with the possibilities of the Cine-Kodak Special that I designed a film specially to exploit all the possibilities of such a camera. The film, when finished, was appropriately called "Camera Makes Whoopee." The film took about nine months to make and had a very fluid script. We shot about 900 It., 7(H) ft. oi which we used, so that we had a 'M) per cent, scrap, due to .1 much less tight script. We also tried out sound effects lor the liist time on sound discs, built our own recording apparatus and cut our own records. To cut our final sound dis< s we used three channels, fed simultaneously by a microphone and two turntables. The theme of the film was the Christmas Carnival Ball, .1! the Glasgow School of Art, a subject specially chosen to justify extravagant use of trick work. All the superimpositions, dissolves, bisected frames and effects were done m the camera. We were to a certain extent working blind. In many of the shots we superimposed about seven or eight times and had to plan it all out very carefully before taking the shot. (Mr. McLaren then showed his second film) In reply to questions, Mr. McLaren said the method by which the musical instruments got into the cases was by the usual single frame animation process. First of all, the instruments were tied on threads and lowered into their 1 ases, but the threads snapped, so the method was adopted of moving each instrument a fraction of an inch and then photographing it, and repeating that process until the wLole movement was completed. A great deal of money had been saved by using very cheap sets. None of the film was photographed at the ball ; that had been tried, but the material obtained was found to be no use, so it was all built up afterwards. Sprechen Sie Deutsch ? QIX thousand miles from Hollywood, he came, to this O proud shore, To film a British epic, upon a British "floor." The studio, to greet him, presented a brave sight, Bedecked with flags and Union Jacks, to symbolise our might. Upon the set, he asked the camera artiste— "If you please " But, "Me no spleekee Engleesh," replied that quaint Chinese. So, with a hopeless gesture, he approached the leading man, Who merely shrugged his shoulders, for he came from Japan. Then he tried the lighting expert, and to him a mouthful spilt, Though he guessed him either Greek or Scot, because he wore a kilt. So he rounded up the clapper-boy and muttered, "Listen, Bill, Are these guys nuts r The boy replied, "I, too, am from Brazil." The leading lady chatted with some friends upon a bench. But the gist of it was lost on him, because lie spoke no French. He tried the "props" and "make-up." and delivered them his sermon, But they looked askance ami murmured, "You undress us, plees, in German." He tore his hair, while 111 his hand the script he kept on crushin', Then, with a yell, cried, "What the hell, the darned thing's all in Russian ! " lie raised his voice, in language new unlit tor reproduction, Which, censored and in mildest Eorm, was: British production." (Reprinted from the Kinetnatograph Weekly, b\ kind permission oi the Editor).