Home Movies (1944)

HOME MOVIES FOR JULY • Closeups, where people are subjects of our filming, should picture something interesting in their actions to be most effective as in this closeup of a business machine instructional film. A QUESTION we frequently hear while watching a home movie being screened is "What is he doing?" This is proof enough that the filmer failed to move in close and answer that question with a closeup before it could be asked. If, for example, the picture shows the baby busily poking some object in its chubby hand, by moving in close — real close — with the camera, we reveal what the object is that causes the interesting expression on the child's face. Human nature is naturally curious. When we see something that attracts our attention, we instinctively want to get a better look at it. If there is a fire, we have the urge to hop in our car and drive to the scene. Arriving with our camera in hand, we cautiously circumvent the cordon of police and get inside the fire lines to make shots at close range of interesting action of the firefighters. Closeups provide the means for more dramatic emphasis in filming. Since that which is close to the camera becomes large when thrown on the screen, so does it command more attention. A bee on a flower filmed ultra-closeup is far more interesting than when filmed with the camera farther back and showing some of the adjacent flowers which thus divide the attention of the audience. People, flowers, or bees — no matter the subject — closeups intercut with the regular scenes impart drama and climax. With this fact firmly established in our • Ordinarily, when we see something that attracts our attention, we instinctively want to get a closer look at it. Moving the camera in close for a full frame shot of a subject such as this provides a rare screen thrill. move in close with your camera! B y A R T H U M . S H A R minds, we pursue our filming — almost second nature — with the audience's inquisitive viewpoint ever before us. In our zeal to tell our story in closeups, it is possible to encounter difficulties. There are some people who do object to being pictured closeup. Take my mother-in-law for instance. I recently made shots of her, many of them at close range. When the pictures were projected, she protested that her wrinkles showed and her age was over-emphasized. She insisted the shots be destroyed! Closeups, where people are subjects oi our filming, should picture something interesting in their actions to be most effective. While almost everyone likes to see a closeup shot (head and shoulders) of themselves on the screen, a more pleasing technique and one appealing more to general audiences is to use the closeup to explain action or answer our earlier question: "What is he doing?" Filmers who engage in making documentary, educational or training films should be particularly alert to opportunities for emphasizing a line of action or operation with one or more revealing closeups. To leave the audience guessing at what is taking place, as pictured at a distance with the camera, is to miss the point entirely and invalidate the production as a whole. But getting back to the average movie maker: there are abundant opportunities for improving with closeups the ordinary homey, backyard type of movies. This month, one can go out into the garden and film the flowers which are to be found there in abundance in number, variety and color. Here, use of the ultra closeup is a must. The • Continued on Page 295 • Here is author's complete outfit for filming ultra closeups. It consists of an assortment of supplemental lenses of various diopters, a filter holder for securing same before camera lens, a steel tape used in measuring distance between subject and camera, and a prepared data card containing charts on focusing distances, field areas, and supplemental lens sizes 281