Home Movies (1943)

PACE 182 HOME MOVIES FOR JUNE THE EXPERIMENTAL Editing Aid To speed up the winding of short strips of film, a flange-spindle is a decided advantage over a reel or winding by hand. Individual scene strips can be quickly coiled and placed on pegs or in compartment ready for editing and splicing. Such a flange-spindle can be made by cutting one flange away from a camera spool. This may be done with a file, cutting as close to the spool hub as possible, then smoothing down the rough edges so coiled film may slide easily from the core. Finishing with emery paper will insure no rough edges remain to scratch film. To use, place flange-spindle on rewind. Do not insert end of film in slot of core but hold it on core and wind film one or two turns until the film binds itself. Then wind full length of the film, secure it with scotch tape. To remove roll of film from core, hold film with one hand and slowly turn rewind backward, at same time, sliding film forward off core. — Roger M. Jo/mston, Glendale, Calif. Finding Start Mark In winding back film in camera for dissolves and other trick effects, it is important that some dependable means be employed for marking and subse WANTED! Those ideas for gadgets, tricks or shortcuts in filming, titling, editing or processing home movies — pass them on to fellow cinebugs through these columns. For each idea published, you'll receive two new projection reels. Write description of your idea plainly and when possible accompany it with a photo, sketch or diagram. There's no limit on number of ideas you may submit. Ideas not immediately published will be held for possible future publication unless they dupicate ideas previously submitted. Important: Be sure to mention whether your cine equipment is 8mm. or 16mm. so we may promptly forward award adaptable to your use. quently locating the exact "starting point" in the film. A dependable method to follow is to remove the camera lens, after film has been threaded in camera, and allow film to run at slow speed until the serial perforations appear. As all film preceding these perforations is removed at time of processing, no regular footage is lost in this operation. As soon as perforations appear, stop camera and release one frame at a time until the first frame following end of perforations appears. Make a pencil mark on the film, then set frame and footage counters on camera to "Zero." Should it be necessary to remove film from camera at any time before it is fully exposed, note footage and frame number before removing. It may then be re-inserted in camera at a future date and the film run to the exact starting point by following the routine above described. — Jas. N. Whitaker, West EnglewooJ, N. J. Film Scraper Like many other cine-bugs I have a pet film scraper. Alongside of my Splicer I fixed a narrow square strip of wood, the width of the film and about two or three inches long. Combined with an ordinary ten cent three-cornered file, this completes my scraper. I merely lay the film on the block and with one or two well placed strokes, off comes the emulsion. With a little practice the correct amount can be removed each time. With this method there is no messy business of wetting the film and scraping it off, also no chance of tearing the film perforations. — Jas. Rich, Chicago. Color Titling I have had considerable difficulty in determining just what is the best title to use with Kodachrome. Having found what I consider the ideal title, I will pass it along to others. The title has a light tan background with dark brown letters. To obtain this I merely photographed an ordinary printed title (white background and black letters) on positive film. I developed this in D-72 and then proceed to reverse the film in the conventional manner. Instead of using a second developer, I wash the film in a 5 ' 1 solution of sodium sulphide. This turns the remaining emulsion into a sepia tone. Follow this with a short wash and a fixing bath. — /. D. Barton, Denver. Title Letters I made my own block title letters cut of balsa wood. Using a sharp razor blade, I cut a number of strips of balsa in thickness. From this material I cut the necessary pieces to form block letters of the alphabet, in height, using glue to cement the pieces together. Sanding down surface of each letter after the glue had dried, the letters were then ready for use. I found that using them unpainted provided a unique effect in that the natural grain of the wood was more attractive than color. They can readily be painted however with either oil or water colors. — Roland Clark, Baker, Oregon. Makes Enlargements Sketches show a gadget that will enable movie amateurs to enlarge single frames of cine film to any desired size. Its greatest advantage is that it employs, for enlarging purposes, the highly corrected and large aperture enlarger lens. Necessary, of course, is a regular photo enlarger. Gadget consists of a square piece of plywood A cut to fit lensboard holder of the enlarger. A hole is cut in center slightly larger than area of single frame of film. Fitted over hole is film track and gate D. I used the film gate from an old toy projector. However, a suitable gate may be fashioned from a piece of light metal. Two narrow pieces of wood B were glued at either side of plywood square, as shown, and another plywood piece C was cemented then screwed to form a two-ply lens board. A A etao p,£cr to tIMS 80A*a H on ENipaeta S-BLOCtfS TO HOtb IfV/ ppopfp D'irpMcr FPONt FILM Q C-LFNS POLOIK D-gatf FOR Film £ • FMLPPOtA LFHt hole was drilled in board C and the enlarger lens E screwed into it, thus completing the unit. In use, it is placed in the lens board holder of the enlarger, in the place of the ordinary lens board. The desired