Home Movies (1944)

UL KASSEN Presents Photographed in Natural Color SUPER COLOSSAL PICTURE HOME MOVIES FOR APRIL movie oft/.* uovni B y I H M ..lAANY serious amateurs have dedicated their movie making hours to achieving the goal of true color rendition in their Kodachrome pictures. Failing, many have blamed errors in exposure, processing, age of film, atmospheric conditions, or the camera lens. That Kodachrome film is capable of rendering color scenes of highest fidelity is borne out in an interesting 1 6mm. picture, "Desert Playgrounds," filmed by Paul Kassen of Los Angeles, a film which has been awarded Home Movies' certificate for the Movie of the Month. While the remarkable color in this film is not its only virtue, it is the fidelity of color that interests most of those privileged to see it, chiefly because the subject covers scenes in which color is normaly delicate and devoid of contrasts. "Desert Playgrounds" is a scenic documentary of three areas in the southwest renowned for colorful natur al formations — Death Valley in California, the Painted Desert in Arizona, and Petrified Forest National Monument. This picture started, as do many, on a vacation trip. Eventually, after the rolls of scenes laid dormant for sometime, Paul Kassen, no longer able to obtain film for his camera, sought other methods for keeping busy with his hobby. Re-screening and editing of his desert scenes followed, then a period of research was undertaken to obtain material for descriptive titles. The titles were made, and a new and interesting document came into being. There are those who will argue that too many titles, or titles with lengthy text "slow down" interest in a picture. But here again, "Desert Playgrounds" proves the exception with 13 five and six-line titles throughout its 400 foot length. Authentic with fact and made compelling by serious thought, the titles • Frame enlargement from "Desert Playgrounds," 16mm. Kodachrome picture filmed by Paul Kassen which is remarkable for its fidelity of color. bind the assortment of scenes together to form an interesting and informative motion picture. The opening sequence introduces Petrified Forest National Monument in Arizona and shows fossilized trees and interesting cross-sections of petrified wood. Informative titles borne of considerable research explain this vast natural phenomena. Next is introduced the Painted Desert of northern Arizona in scenes delicately hued and accurately reproduced in Kodachrome. The third and final phase of the picture illustrates Death Valley, a locality admittedly difficult to film by most veteran cameramen. Filmer Kassen quite obviously bided his time until the light was "just right," before making his shots. In discussing, with Mr. Kassen, the remarkable photographic quality of his desert scenes, he said: "Atmospheric conditions play a big part in getting good color movies. Best photographic conditions in Death Valley, for instance, can be expected immediately after a heavy rainstorm followed by a wind that clears the valley of haze. This also holds true in the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. "My records show that I used pretty consistently f 1 1 as normal exposure in all desert regions filmed. Also I have filmed the snow-covered Panamint range of mountains from a distance of 10 miles at f 16, using one three and six-inch lenses with excellent results when atmospheric conditions were right. "Petrified Forest is not a cameraman's paradise, as is generally supposed. The entire area is very grim and colorless and good rendition of color was obtained only through use of both haze filter and Pola-screen mounted together before the lens," Kassen stated. It was suggested that superior lens equipment was probably responsible for the high fidelity of color obtained in this picture, to which Mr. Kassen replied: "In filming 'Desert Playgrounds,' I used a Bell & Howell 70DA equipped with turret and critical focuser. My lens equipment consists of three TaylorHobson-Cooke lenses — one-inch, three • Continued on Page 166 146