Home Movies (1944)

PACE 8 REVIEWS... of c4mateur film* By J H. SCHOEN What " Dog Patch" lacks in continuity it makes up in action and color in an entertaining 200 feet of 8mm. Kodachrome produced by W. P. Dixon of Ft. Worth, Texas. Taking the "Sadie Hawkins' Day" idea made popular by the comic strip as his theme, Dixon conceived a pleasing story and cast it with a score or more of enthusiastic young people who did right well with their parts. The story concerns the measures taken by the fair maidens of Dogpatch to snare a man when Sadie Hawkins' Day arrives. All the men, of course, are bashful and reluctant suitors and the girls are shown subduing them with shotgun, club or rope and eventually bringing them before the justice of the peace for tying of the nuptial knot. The locale, as established by the comic strip, offered unlimited opportunity to clothe the characters in colorful and outlandish costumes, yet Dixon did this without going to extremes with the result that there is a constant play of lively color in every scene. The occasional tendency of various actors to overplay their parts often leads to the continuity getting out of hand. A little more objective direction would have made this an outstanding amateur picture. The photography is generally good, but there is a noticeable lack of closeups and the progressive moving in of camera to build interest in a character or situation. This type of story affords rare opportunity to play up interesting characterization, which could have been done in "Dog Patch" if the various characters were pictured in more closeups and under more restrained direction. A fault is the lack of a series of spoken and descriptive titles which would add more interest to the story and tight en up the continuity. As it is, action frequently occurs on the screen that is not fully understood until succeeding scenes appear. Insertion of titles would clear up questionable action and improve audience perception. Filmer Dixon has demonstrated a real "feel" for making action movies and with the experience acquired in filming "Dog Patch," his future productions should arouse more than ordinary interest. A 3 -Star Home Movies Merit Leader has been awarded the film. if EVERY filmer of amateur movies, whether a subscriber or not, is invited to submit his films to the editors for review and helpful criticism. This free service applies to any type of picture whether it be your first movie or a pretentious photoplay effort. Aim of this service is to help you make better pictures. Reviewed films will be rated I, 2 and 3 stars. Those rating 2 or 3 stars will receive Free an animated leader indicative of its merit. Best film reviewed each month will receive a special certificate award as the Movie of the Month. All films are returned promptly by insured express together with merit leaders and special analysis report. An interesting feature of "A Christmas Wish" is the opportunity it afforded its producers, Merle and Les Williams, of Los Angeles, to undertake some trick effect filming. Consisting of 100 feet of 8mm. Kodachrome, this well developed continuity concerns a young mother who reads a newspaper announcement of a Christmas tree shortage. Thus, she decides to provide a substitute, and goes out into her yard where she cuts several branches from a cypress tree. These she fashions into a Christmas tree and while trimming it, expresses the wish for a fairy to help her. Fatigued, she falls asleep beside the tree and soon the fairy appears, wand in hand, to magically change the homemade tree into a beautiful spruce, gaily decorated with tinsel and ornaments. The fairy awakens the mother, then vanishes. The night before Christmas, her little son is playing with last year's toys. Mother urges him to write a note to Santa. Sealing the note, he scrawls Santa's name on the envelope and scampers off to bed. Downstairs, Daddy is placing toys under the tree, and additional trick photography shows some of the toys appearing magically. Christmas morn, the little boy awakens to discover all the gifts he asked of Santa, HOME MOVIES FOR JANUARY and closing scenes show him playing with them. While there is underexposure in some of the scenes, photography is generally good with a nice choice of camera angles in most action. Execution of the trick sequence picturing the fairy were especially good. The trick shots of toys magically appearing under the tree can be omitted as they play no part in the continuity, are merely another demonstration of trick (stop motion) photography. While titling was quite complete, the titles would have been easier to read if lettering had been larger and bolder. This is a fault prevalent with many 8mm. films and is especially important in view of the smaller area in which 8mm. pictures are screened. For this reason, title letters should be bold and sharply outlined, and there should not be too many words to a line to crowd the letters and further add to illegibility. Good continuity and editing weighed favorably to net this picture a }-Star Home Movies Merit leader. "Oh Daddy!" filmed by Joseph J. Palko of Hammond, Indiana, runs 100 feet in 8mm. Kodachrome and presents a continuity idea for picturing two little girls objectively instead of by the '"snap shot" method. Daddy and the two girls visit a park. Daddy brings his camera and tripod along, ostensibly to make movies. Lacking a plot, he consults Eastman Kodak's book on How to Make Good Movies while the children romp on the lawn nearby. Presently Daddy falls asleep and the kiddies take his camera and tripod and set out to shoot some pictures. When Daddy awakens, he hurries to his camera to find it unharmed but with the film entirely used up. Removing film trom the camera, after admonishing the girls, he sends it away to the laboratory for processing. Two weeks later, indicated by a title, a package arrives. Daddy and the girls open it and find a huge trophy, evidently awarded the little girls for making a prize movie. While the story idea is good, it was not properly developed from the camera point of view. After the little girls take over the camera, there is too much left to the imagination. We have merely assumed that arrival of the trophy indicated an award bestowed on the girls. Palko may have run shy on film in making the closing sequences, and had no footage to make scenes that would clarify the action after film was sent away. But informative titles at this point would easily bridge the gap. Additional informative titles are needed elsewhere in the film to claarify meaning of action. Picture received a 2 -star leader.