Home Movies (1943)

HOME MOVIES FOR DECEMBER PACE 419 Plan fltrUtma* Continuities . . . • Continued from Page j y/ cring together the toys and presents and starts for the living room, arms loaded. As he enters living room, mother almost collides with him, as she tiptoes hurriedly to help. They both scurry about, admonishing one another to make no noise, while they arrange gifts and toys beneath the tree. To inject a little human interest, show them, in their anxiety to be careful, colliding with one another, juggling packages and toys in attempt to keep them from falling to the floor, and having a restrained hilarious time. Gifts arranged, they extinguish lights and exit from the room, with the camera fading out at this point. Here a transition effect is necessary to indicate the lapse of time between midnight and the next morning. Picture the alarm clock in closeup as the hands rotate from 12, to i, 2, and on. Dissolve at this point to the hands just approaching, then stopping at 7 o'clock. Cut to the kiddies awakening. They suddenly realize it's Christmas. They scurry from bed and exit from the room. Pick them up with the camera as they enter the living room. Have them stop and admire the tree with awe from a distance, then continue on to their presents. Thereafter, make closeups of each as they unwrap and admire gifts, etc. — until your film runs out. If vou wish to inject a real live Santa into the picture, here is a gag good for a laugh. Earlier, make shots of Mother and Dad trimming the tree. Dad hangs a particularly conspicuous ornament in one position; Mother disagrees, re-hangs it on another bough. Later, when Mother's back is turned, Dad cautiously moves the ornament back to its original nosition. And a little later on, when Dad isn't looking, Mother, without a word, changes the ornament back again. They retire, and Santa arrives. He distributes gifts, fills stockings, and is about to leave when the controversial ornament catches his eye. (A "doubletake" here will produce the right effect.) Santa nonchalantly removes the ornament and re-hangs it in the very position Dad originally placed it, then turns to go, with the camera fading out at this point. A pleasing opening for a child's Christmas movie is to picture Mother reading "The Night Before Christmas" to him as he snuggles in her lap prior to bedtime. The story ended, the child is tucked in bed to dream of the good things Santa is to bring on Christmas morn. Another is to show the child writing, then addressing his letter to Santa. A timely gag this year would be to have the child show the letter to Dad before sealing it. Dad gets a sudden idea. While the child turns its attention to something else for a moment, Dad takes his pencil and adds a postscript to the letter as follows: "P. S. : Also please bring my daddy a roll of movie film." Dad then folds and seals the letter, handing it back to the child. If there's a baby in your household who'll experience it's very first Christmas this year, the continuity can be enlivened by picturing events from the baby's viewpoint, accenting the idea with plenty of spoken titles expressing thoughts of the child. Begin with the baby watching Daddy and Mother Christmas eve trimming the tree and placing gifts beneath — this, of course, in closeup. A title states, "Something queer going on here." It is imperative that closeup of the baby show the child actually looking beyond the camera in wonderment at the tree. This can be assured by having another person stand back of the camera and dangle an ornament or toy in view of the child. Then continue with these titles, intercutting them between shots of the child and of Daddy and Mother trimming the tree: "People are tying up things and hiding 'em." "Gee, why don't they let me help?" Continuing with this same thought the following morning, picture the child near the tree surrounded with toys. Try to get a closeup of the youngster staring wide-eyed at some object, then cut in this title: "So, this is what all the fuss was about!" Remember, it isn't necessary to make all shots in the order they are to appear in the completed film. Nor is it always desirable. Often many shots can be staged before or after Christmas day, when there is more leisure to devote to them, and far better results can be obtained. Where the camera is to center on grownup groups, the Christmas spirit can be injected by the usual shots of tree trimming, gift wrapping, etc. But don't waste too much footage on tree trimming. Allow just enough to show the beginning of this delightful task, then cut back to the scene later showing the tree completely trimmed. 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