Home Movies (1943)

PACE 344 HOME MOVIES FOR NOVEMBER The Reader CRAFTSMEN * ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ * * * * ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ cube dcUtUf tUei/i dJta/ie The production line of "GOERZ AMERICAN" is formed by skilled men, who through painstaking work create high-grade photo-lenses and optical units for military instruments used by our armed forces on Land — on the Sea — in the Air — rhese precise optical units are of the greatest importance to our armed forces, for without accurate military instruments for sighting, fire control and photographic aerial reconnaissance their fighting machinery would be of little value to them. aptical science together with our craftsmen, doing their duty on the job in the production line, will hasten victory. aur production is keyed to fill the requirements of our Government, and of others on orders with priority certificate. "GOERZ AMERICAN" lenses for civilian use will again be available after Victory. TO SPEED VICTORY • INVEST IN WAR BONDS • C. P. GOERZ AMERICAN OPTICAL CO. Office and Factory 317 East 34th Street New York It, N. Y. n PRECISION OPTICS t 6ince 1899 ¥ HM-II Color Experimenter Gentlemen: Your article in the August issue regarding Mr. Birch-Field's experiments in producing motion pictures in color from ordinary black and white films interests me very much. I, too, have experimented in this field. I have used an ordinary piece of glass for the filter and, of course, this has not given a very good image on the screen. For coloring the filter I used "Velox" transparent water colors that I used years ago in tinting photos and slides, before the days of Kodachrome and Kodacolor. The results obtained were very poor. It seems almost impossible to get a proper balance of color. I obtained somewhat better results by using blue, yellow and red as colors in the disc. Sometimes, though, I think it was mere imagination that made me see the grass as green and the faces of people within a scene a reddish hue. Incidentally, I obtained better results by placing the filter in front of the projector lens, mounting it in a lens shade. —Harold W. Hanmer, Wethersfield , Conn. Liked Contest Article Gentlemen: I was just reading George Cushman's article in a recent issue on building a titler. Glad to see him still plugging for titling, as I think it is half the fun of amateur movie making. Probably the lettering of titles is the greatest bugbear to amateurs, to say nothing of the wording. Never any good at freehand lettering myself, I long ago bought a 3"x5" printing press and several styles of 18 point type and standardize on 4x5 title cards. Using a 1 -inch lens with a 116" shim behind it I focus down around 11". I have never used photofloods for title making or for interiors either for that matter, because they so soon start to blacken and lose their light quality. In this connection I was interested in the article on substitutes for photofloods. They are just what I have been using for years with entire success. True, they pull a lot of current but not for long at a time. I have some heavy duty cables made up that will reach clear through a house. It is a three wire proposition and hooks right on at the meter box, 220 volts across wires and 1 10 either wire to neutral with a four receptacle box on the end. By keeping SPEAKS the load balanced on the two sides the line drop at 220 v. is little or nothing. Another article that I was interested in was the one on "How to Judge a Movie Contest" because I have often wondered how any one could fairly judge travel pictures against photoplays, etc., or color against black and white. I know that they are divided into classes, but for top picture in a contest it could be several pictures in different classes against each other, and I suppose often is. I have been told that a travel picture has just little or no chance of being top picture in a contest. Yet, I have found that of all amateur pictures the travel picture has the most entertainment value. I have always felt that titles should not carry too much weight in a contest unless the amateur made his own titles, and the same way about musical background. In other words the amateur should certainly receive the highest praise and credit for what he himself had done, but not for what he paid some expert to do for him. Anyone can run phonograph records with their pictures and add to the entertainment value or enjoyment. I often do this myself but I wouldn't want to resort to that to rate high in a photo contest, where photography is the thing of prime importance. • Continued on Page 380 No Annual Contest Rather than encourage a wider use of film than that necessary for purely personal home movie filming. Home Movies early this year decided to forego its customary Annual Amateur Movie Contest for 1943. We have been surprised and delighted to find that many of the most avid of hobbyists who ordinarily would have produced a film for our contest, found other avenues of activity in re-editing and titling some of their older films, many of which were submitted to the editors for review. From among these films, a few have qualified for the Movie of the Month certificate regularly awarded by Home Movies to the amateur submitting the best home movie film each month. In recognition of this laudible duration activity, Home Movies has decided to award a trophy to the maker of the best Movie of the Month submitted during »943 The winner's name will be announced next month in the December issue of Home Movies.