Home Movies (1944)

dress UP YOUR FILMS WITH PRINTED TITLES By GEORGE W. CUSHMAN P J. RINTED title cards offer certain advantages which make them popular with many movie amateurs who do their own titling. A printed title card, for one thing, rarely has that "thrown together" look. Lettering is uniform and the lines neatly spaced, and because of general familiarity with type faces, printed titles are more easily and quickly read on the screen. Printed title cards, of course, rate first in preference with the average title maker, and many, as yet, have not used them because they do not know how easily and inexpensively they can be made up. But if you can afford a small hand printing press — or even just the type and ink alone — or reside conveniently near a print shop, then getting your title cards printed should be an easy matter. Let's say you do not want to fuss around with the composition and printing yourself. If you will lay out the text for each title on a sheet of paper, exactly as you wish it to appear in the printed title cards, then take it to a printer, he will, for a reasonable charge, set the type as prescribed and furnish you with "proofs" of each title on individual cards which you can trim to size to fit your titler. Usually, printed title cards are restricted for use with typewriter titlers or with home made titlers where the title card area does not exceed <)"xii" in size. Where possible, it is best to keep the size down to around by 6". This permits using type set on a linotype machine, making the composition considerably cheaper than when set by hand — which is required where title cards are larger in size. Where the amateur is equipped to do the printing himself, he may also have the type set by machine by the printer. Rate for linotype composition is usually on an hourly basis, and although the charges are reasonable, it will be money saved to have the title properly composed for easy reading by the compositor as a means of saving time. The amateur, with a strong yen for the workshop end of the home movie hobby, will, of course, never be satisfied with anything less than his own type, ink, paper, and means of printing his own title cards. For these title makers, the following items will be required: a small printing press or "proofing" equipment large enough to print a card the size of the titling area, one or two fonts of type, a tube of regular black printer's ink, a case in which to store the type, a "typestick" in which to hold the type while it is being set, and cleaning fluid to clean the type after it is used. If a press cannot be secured at present, a "proof" can be printed by other means which will serve equally well if carefully made. To make a proof, the type is set as usual, then inked, and an impression made by pressing a piece of paper over the inked type. For such proof printing a small hand roller will h;. needed for distributing the ink, a small panel of heavy glass or other material with flat smooth surface on which to spread the ink, and a "planer" or block of hard wood used to apply pressure to the paper when making the impression. In securing type, one font of lower case and one font of capitals are usually all the title maker will ever need of one particular style except in extreme cases, as when extra long running or traveling titles are required. A "font" is a full assortment of one size and style of type. It does not contain the same number of each letter, but is made up of letters according to the frequency with which they are used. A font will have something like 10 "e's" for each "z" or "x," since either of these two letters aren't used nearly as often as the letter "e." Other letters are in proportion. Fortunately, type is one metal article which hasn't been rationed, nor is a priority or other permit required for its purchase. Practically all large cities have • Continued on Page ))8 321