Home Movies (1950)

This is . . . YOUR DEPARTMENT To all of you who have asked us for filming ideas, we dedicate this new department. The suggestions outlined are edited from letter and suggestions submitted from cine fans all over the country and we are sure they will be welcome. If you have ideas for short film subjects, send them along — your fellow hobbyists need them. Anyway, let us know your reaction to this new department. — Ed. EAS for fun and the plot revolved around a few women who found a delight in circulating tales and exaggerating the circumstances at each telling. Finally in an effort to stop this snooping and babling a few of the towns people cook up a red hot but fake situation and go so far as to provide a couple of the talkative ones with an eye witness acount of what undoubtedly looks like a murder. When the gossips make good use of the story and have been given enough rope to hang themselves properly they lead the constable and most of the towns people to the scene only to discover the victim and perpetrator of the believed crime quietly playing a friendly game of poker. — (By Fred Wakefield, Chicago, Illinois). WHEN WINTER COMES Most of my friends' movies of a national park were made in the summer months when it is generally believed that these localities are the most scenic and colorful. Nothing could be further from the truth. I found this out when I decided to shoot a picture of Yosemite National Park in summer and winter as well, and discovered that its charm is altogether different and even more appealing when a white blanket of snow covers the scenery. While most parks close to the public at large during certain months of the winter it is always possible to get in if some effort is made. Others are often open for winter sports and this too lends a new approach to the filming opportunities to such places contrasted in the same reel with the summer activities of the locality. — (By Ed. Hills, Toledo, Ohio). AN ADDED ATTRACTION A couple of years ago my wife and I purchased a motel along one of the busiest highways in this state. Fortunately our place is surrounded on every side by a number of scenic and historical sites which are visited by tourists throughout the year. Being an ardent movie maker I filmed a few of these places at first, for my own amusement and pleasure, but on occasions to answer the countless queries of my patrons, many of whom traveled with cameras, I would exhibit my movies with a description of where this or that might be seen or photographed. So tremendously was this excepted that I began to earnestly prepare movies on each interesting locality limited to within a day's journey from our premises and remodeled my work shop into a theatre. Posting a notice in each cabin it informed occupants that promptly at 8 p. m. each night free color movies would be shown upon request and I listed the films in our library. These showings have not only provided my guests with a means of entertainment but in turn has served some informative value answering such questions as show they may get to each area, what the roads were like, what to see and do while there, etc. We have made many friends with this service who invariably recommend our motel to their friends. But most gratifying of all is the fact that we have noticed our towels wearing out from use instead of just disappearing as they formally did. — (By Don DeCosta, Yuma, Arizona). CHALK TALK While traveling through the southwest this summer I carried with me a ten-cent box of common school chalk. This proved itself a worthwhile accessory to my filming supplies when I found I was able to film such things as the acient Indian petroglyphs carved into rocks by a prehistoric people. By chalking in the wierd pictures worn almost indistinct with the centuries, the camera was able to record these odd writings for close-ups or longshots. The chalk brought out the epitaphs on many a boot hill marker as well and in addition I was able to letter an on the spot title on the side of a long-abandoned old wagon. — (By Olen Chandler, Kansas City, Missouri). TAKING A WALK One of the latest toys on the market gave me an idea for adding action to my main titles. The toy is a wind-up walking bear that stands about two inches high and walks on all fours. It actually moves so realistically that I am now planning to make a table top movie at greater length using this same toy as one of the characters. When I learned that they are being sold everywhere I thought others may be interested in knowing how I utilized this plaything which animates without stop motion. Building a small table top set of a woodland I had the bear walk along a tiny path and panned the camera with him until he comes to a sign which is my first title. Planning the length of his walk with one winding I worked it out so that he would stop and appear to look at the sign, where he remains until it is time to move on. Then stopping the camera I changed the angle slightly before winding him up again to walk out of the scene. Using the same table top set-up but changing the sign for thet next title, and a few of the trees, I had him again approach the stop position from another point to make the scene vary a little from the previous one. In the final shot I fade out as he walks away from the camera and into the woods. — (By Ted Bochner, Washington, D.C.) A DUCKY MOVIE When my health demanded that I retire last year it was through my physician's advice that I became interested in home movies. Showing me some of his films and explaining how to properly operate the camera he gave me some of my first movie ideas. Living near a very popular duck hunting resort he suggested that I buy a telephoto lens and try to record the birth and life of the wild ducks that migrate to a near-by lake, to hunt duck as he put it as I once did but now with a camera which possibly required even greater skill. I spent many days filming scenes of these fowls nesting, hatching their eggs and teaching their young the ways of wilf life until I had a picture that graphically displayed the family habits of these web-footed creatures. The patient hours I spent waiting for some of the scenes as I hid out of sight paid off when I was able to make movies such as few others have done. Biggest compliment to my efforts arrived when a reprint was bought by a motion picture company and shipped for exhibition all over the world. — (By E. M. Smart, Milwaukee, Wis.) Look on Page 473 for valuable prizes for contributing that movie idea you used in your last film. 465