Close Up (Jul-Nov 1927)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jul-Nov 1927
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000488
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Global Cinema, Switzerland, and Early Cinema
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
Library of Congress, MBRS, Moving Image Section
Sponsor:
Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
As an active film magazine, CLOSE UP lasted only a short time, from 1927 to 1933. Yet the legacy of this English-language periodical, which was published in Switzerland, continues to matter. Edited by Bryher and her husband Kenneth Macpherson, CLOSE UP became THE magazine for energetic debates about the nature of cinema and manifestos imagining new forms of filmmaking and spectatorship. The magazine published articles by filmmakers, such as Sergei Eisenstein, and female literary modernists, such as H.D. and Gertrude Stein. As film scholar Anne Friedberg explains in the anthology CLOSE-UP, 1927-1933: CINEMA & MODERNISM, 'CLOSE UP became the model for a certain type of writing about film -- writing that was theoretically astute, politically incisive, critical of films that were simply 'entertainment.' For six and a half years, CLOSE UP maintained a forum for a broad variety of ideas about the cinema; it never advocated a single direction of development, but rather posed alternatives to existing modes of production, consumption, and film style.' Like Friedberg's own writing, CLOSE UP continues to be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of film and media theory. -- Eric Hoyt, 2014
Date Added:
August 29, 2022
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CLOSE UP for distance effects. If there is a mirror in the room it is not a bad plan to concentrate all your light upon it, and get a natural reflection. A realistic effect can also be obtained if there is a lamp hung in the middle of a room by arranging your lamps in a circle round it, this is only apphcable to closeups or the lamps will be in the picture. Arches, doors and even fires present opportunities, while glistening vases and tall pots are obvious prey. For example, you might place the hero and heroine by an archway for a ' close-up'. Pick them out with a sun, and catch the girl's hair from the back with a spot, with a high-light on the pot at her feet ; but our friend, who does not recite Shakespeare, would say that I was teaching you some naughty tricks. When you are picking out people with lamps be careful not to get double reflections of countless lamps in their shirt fronts, though of course this will not be possible if their clothes are of the regulation yellow ; but the same warning applies to eyes. Neither should you forget reflectors when you are lighting your set, these give roundness to the faces of the artists. If a girl has blue eyes you will find that a reflector will 'take the pupils out'. You must use a gold reflector. Exercise number three is to have Uttle front hghting and to point what lighting there is towards the camera. Not into the lens but in the direction of the camera. This will give you a silhouette effect. The next thing that must be studied for correct Ughting is AcTiNTiSM, the colour values of your set. The best colours 46