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 #:
000489
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Switzerland, Early Cinema, and Global 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 sets are browns, yellows, greys, black and white (if you ^ill allow me to include the last two in a list of colours) . The colours with actintic value are blue and violet, while the other end of the spectrum, namely the reds, have little actintic value. Blue photographs as white and red as black. That is why a ruby light is used in a dark room. It has little actintic value, and does not affect sensitive film. The make-up on face of artists might influence the hghting. With exterior work the camera man must grade from dazzling snow clad fields (good actintic value) to stuffy little streets (actintic value absent). He must remember that light and shade are his media and he would be a poor cameraman indeed if he overlooked the subtle half-hghts, and indulged only in startling black and white effects. For amateurs I am told that there are some portable lamps ■on the market, but the amateur can take reasonably fair pictures if he uses an ultra-rapid lens with a stop of fi. 9. The beginner is sure to make mistakes, there are so many difficulties in his path, too many for me to discuss, and many again which are common trials with the kodak snapper, such as 'halation' (the white aura). He will find a lighting test an advantage. This is usually taken before using a big set. Should things run smoothly for him let him not forget those who are responsible for most of his success — the patient electricians. Everyone should spread the doctrine of studios b)uilt with good accoustics, and save twenty years of the electrician's hapless life. Or would it after all be doing him a good turn ? 47