Home Movies (1949)

WORKSHOP Tripod Live Action Titles An effective way to introduce a character is to superimpose white lettering across the bottom of the first scene in which the character appears. This usually involves double exposure and a certain amount of bother, but an easy way to get the same result without extra camera manipulation is to paint the title on glass and shoot the scene through it. Should you try this, use a small stop for the necessary depth of field, and avoid bright surface reflections from the glass. Should you have difficulty in making the paint stick to glass, try the old sign painter's trick — wipe the glass with a little stale beer and let it dry. The beer will leave a slight tooth to which oil paint will adhere. Stencil Titles Something different in typewriter titles may be made by typing the copy on a mimeograph stencil, using an area just large enough to fit the titler. (The typewriter ribbon must be set in neutral position so that the type faces strike directly on the stencil; if the ribbon comes in, the characters will be blurred.) These stencils may be obtained at any stationery store, a lettersize stencil costing about twenty cents. The stencil material is a transparent blue, and the letters cut through will be white. The titles should be illuminated from behind. Place the title over a sheet of white paper, or a ground glass, and put a light behind. Since the stencil material has an appreciable thickness, a relief effect may be had by placing the light a little to one side. On color film, the result will be white letters on a blue background. On black-and-white reversal film , the lettering will be white on dark background. Morley Whitman, of New York City, suggested this idea. A similar effect may be had with soft carbon paper, but the stencil is probably better. Chair-Side Projector For comfortable projection and viewing, Jack Turner, of Freeport, Texas, built the pictured unit for his Ampro projector. The cabinet holds the complete projector and case, so that the unit can be easily lifted out for portable use. This is the kind of furniture which necessarily must be designed individually, depending on the equipment to be housed and on the other furniture in the room. The easy availability of the unit minimizes the work of setting up the projector, and keeps it at finger-tip reach for use at any time. A compartment on the front holds three 400-foot reels and one 2000-foot reel. These are stacked on a bolt with a wing nut. This table is 26}4" long, 14}4" wide and 23" high. The reading lamp is useful when threading the projector, or when perusing Home Movies magazine. Novel Title Spinner A phonograph turntable makes excellent spinning title effects. However, V.J. Harvey, of Dallas, Texas, did not have a phonograph, so he improvised a means of using his electric fan for the same purpose. The title is printed on a cardboard disc, which is fastened to the fan blades (after removing the wire guard.) Then the title is turned so that it is upside down, and with camera inverted enough footage is shot to permit reading the text. Then the fan is started and a few feet are made of the spinning card. When the film has been processed, the title is turned end for end, resulting in a spinning title, which stops in exactly the right position. Editor Improvement Owners of the older model Craig Editor, which has no on-off switch, may be interested in an alteration made to this device by Gary Kaess, of TelAviv, Israel. Finding it inconvenient to go to the wall outlet and pull out the plug every few minutes, he mounted a toggle switch on the editor. The only place where this can be done without interfering with film travel is the left side wall of the viewer. Any convenient type of switch may be used. Display stands can make good table top tripods, and one with a heavy base, such as pictured by Hal Coolidge, can support quite a heavy still or moviecamera. As a display item, these stands are everywhere and can usually be procured cheaply from dealers in second-hand store fixtures or makers of window display equipment. In some, a secondary rod is already threaded yi"20, which is standard tripod thread. It this is not the case, it is a simple matter to thread the rod. Easy Projector Editing Every one who has tried to use a projector as an editing viewer is familiar with the difficulty created by the heat of the projection lamp. Unless the projector has a special heat-absorbing filter for still projection of individual frames, the film cannot be slowed down much without dropping the safety shutter, and if the shutter is held open the film will be damaged. A. C. Nesbitt, of Venice, Calif., removes the projection lamp, and temporarily replaces it with a 10-watt bulb in an adapter. This cuts the heat down to the point where the safety shutter may be held open by means of a bent wire or hairpin without risk. The image is then projected on a small screen about six inches from the lens, or a ground glass. If more convenient, a first surface mirror (a common surplus item) set at 45 degrees to the lens may be used to throw the picture to the side for easier viewing. The film is fed through by hand. 519