Home Movies (1943)

HOME MOVIES FOR MARCH PACE 89 On the screen, Olsen's film unfolds in a glory of color for which Arizona is famous. Opening scenes set the locale nicely, then we are shown Nevills' headquarters and see men at work putting the boats in shape for the journey. Identifying each member of the party in interesting closeups, Olsen then recorded the overland trip of the boats to the river's edge. And here, after what was to be their last substantial meal for days, the party take to the boats. The craft are towed to mid-stream by a motorboat where they enter the mild 6 mile-per-hour current above the rapids, and thus begins their perilous journey. Filming alternately from boat and land, Olsen secured some of the most vivid and spectacular scenes of the boats shooting the rapids. The action of every boat as it traversed every one of the 289 rapids was filmed, although only the most dramatic of this footage was used in the final editing of the picture. Highlights are the several slow motion sequences of boats shooting the rapids. These were filmed at 64 frames per second. Capsizes were frequent — about four a day — but Olsen succeeded in filming only one of them. "They always occurred just as I laid my camera down or while I was reloading film," said Olsen. Most vivid and awe-inspiring are scenes of the turbulant rapids — huge rollers of muddy water rushing over boulders submerged fifty to seventyfive feet below. Speed of the rapids is estimated at thirty miles per hour. The party on several occasions explored some of the interesting canyons and rocky cliffs in vicinity of the river. They found ruins of cliff dwellers, substantial windowed rooms hewn from solid rock in the cliffs edging the Colorado. They found the skeleton of some unfortunate explorer who preceded them; and farther down the river the battered hulk of a light rowboat which probably brought him to his tragic fate. The last of the rapids safely navigated, the dauntless crew of the boats enter the calm waters of the Colorado just above Lake Mead and eventually terminate their voyage near Boulder Dam. Preparations are now being made to add a sound track of Olsen's narrative accompanied by background music and sound effects and when this is achieved, undoubtedly prints of the film will be given widespread exhibition, enabling interested movie amateurs to enjoy this superbly photographed document. staking, multiple expoiurei • Continued from Page S2 16, and it is desired to make a 2 second lap-dissolve, it may be executed by making a 2 second fadeout, then winding the film back 28 frames (equivalent of 2 seconds at 14 f.p.s.), then making a 2 second fade-in. Where the filmer has a mechanical fading or wipe-off device operated by a spring motor mechanism, it should be carefully checked and timed as well as the camera. Here the film test strip may be put to good use again: thread film in camera with the lead end marked as previously described. Start camera and fading device simultaneously, allowing the device to run continuously to complete 4 cycles — fadeout, fadein, fadeout, fadein — stopping the camera as accurately as possible at conclusion ot the last fade-in. Mark stopping point on film, as before, and count the number of frames between starting and stopping point. Divide number of frames by number of transition cycles and this will give the number of frames of film required by each complete cycle of the effect device. Next to be considered is winding back the film. To those who are fortunate in having a backwind on their camera, this operation presents no prob lem. Those who have to wind back film the hard way — fumbling gingerly in some light-tight closet — don't let the prospect of this chore discourage you. It becomes quite easy after the third or fourth try. It's advisable, though, to equip the improvised darkroom where the windback operations are to take place, with a table and chair so the work can be carried on comfortably and with greater speed. The "blind" method of winding back film in the dark involves some guess work when it comes to measuring the amount of film to be wound back. Some amateurs notch the film; others tit bits of thread through one of the sprocket holes and depend upon their sense of feel to locate the marked point ir. the dark. A simpler method is to employ use of a special darkroom measuring stick such as the one shown in Fig. 1. This consists of a strip of heavy cardboard step-notched in sections equivalent to sixteen frames. With this gadget it is possible to lay it over the film and by feeling and counting the number of steps, measure the film to be wound back on the basis of one notch-step section per second. Another important step is timing. 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