The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

110 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October, 1943 chamber, and otherwise keep it in the shade. A smart thing for the keen type is to have constructed an air tight box containing some dehydrating agent such as dried salt, rice and tea. Each week redry the agent. This will keep the film at least free from humidity troubles, which sometimes cause the film surfaces to stick as they unwind with a consequent jam. It is v< r\ important to have the film developed as soon after exposure as possible as the latent image appears to fade. Exposure and Meters. One day in the desert T discovered that my meter was all screwy, but fortunately remembered an "old timer's" tip passed on to me by Borradaile, which is to look at the pupils of a man's eye. If just a dot, the aperture is f 16, and if an innocent and trusting look is present it is f/4.5. Kodaks will look after the rest. However when the light looks yellow. as it does about sun-up or sun-down, give much" niore than you or your meter think is correct. Inside jungles, when the light is dappled and umbrageous shoot full Open, which is equivalent to shooting indoors lit by green safe lights. The decks of sunshine will be hard and chalky, which is quite realistic. It is very important to remember that green is a colour to which film is more or less blind. I overlooked this fact once while shooting Spies of the Air for David Macdonald. It was a night location in a fir tree forest: I exposed per meter on the principals and built up the resi of the picture visually, taking great care to make the trees look like Christmas ones. Unfortunately none of the background came out at all, and Dave was pleased to say that it was a good night scene against black velvet. We live and learn ! Light meters want to be watched with great suspicion as the magic parts inside them are sensitived In heat and often over-read the light. Speed Of working. One very essential thing in the make-up of a newsreel man is the ability to work fast. There are no retakes in this racket. The ess. ntial thing is to get the picture, even if it has 1c be badlj exposed and not quite sharp, depending on the importance of the story. But the newsreeler is seldom caught out in these matters as lie plans his battle beforehand and has all ready tor action. While covering the tour of the Duke of Gloucester in India 1 evolved the following technique for fast working. As often as possible the camera was out of 1 he box and ready to shoot by having a fully loaded magazine of film in the camera; the springs wore always lull\ wound; a 28mm lens used as a stan dard to reduce errors of distance judging to a minimum ; the focus scale set at 15 feet at which distance most things are sharp on a 28mm and the aperture adjusted in accordance with the d light, usually f/11. Thus to shoot was simph a matter of sighting the subject and firing trigger. I got candid shots in the following manner with my Eyemo, by using a 75mm lens and setting the focussing scale to, say, six feet. Then I would the range finder also to six feet, ease in to subject until the two images overlapped and then fire, meanwhile looking through the sights. . is a very successful bit of ju-ju. When about to cover a job I would quickly decide from where to have a long shot, close up and so forth, and get them as soon as possible so as to have these essential things in the After which I could iook around and do the buildup stuff, and maybe retake one of the essential shots if something better occurred than I had taken. This premeditated planning does not always work out that way. however, as can be seen from the following story. I was sitting in a Singapore slit trench waiting for the bombers to appear, my Eyemo was at the ready with a 4in. lens in place, with the focus at infinity, the stop ai f 11 aud a 23a filter in front to darken the sky s() chat the ack-ack fire would be more contrasty. Over came the bomber's, I sighted through my \ finder; to my horror I could not hold them, swung in the 50mm, and even this was not wide enough and so had to use the 35mm. Suddenlythe realisation what this meant struck me like a ton of bricks .... It was a nasty moment which cameramen will appreciate. Some tips for the even more efficient operation of the model "E" Newman. The first time I took my model " P^ " up in an airplane the wind pushed the lens over from the shooting position to tin' focusing one. This was cured by In cut, on all lens panels, a slot so that to shift shooting position one has to depress the locking lever. Exactly a reverse operation to shifting from, focusing to shooting. When using the camera in the hand I invariably twisted the speed regulator from 24 to some other speed: this was prevented by having notches cut at each speed indication on the dial and into which a small spring plunger fell. Now these things are adjusted the camera is a pip and" works like a charm, even though it has been horribly ill treated from a camera point of view. 1 trust these above notes will serve some useful purpose. Who knows that after the war he will not come out East and make a movie.