Home Movies (1951)

WORKSHOP Titles from TV As an owner of a television set I am amazed at the countless number of title ideas the amateur movie fan can obtain from this medium. One idea which is used quite often is a title falling into view over a moving or still background. With good results, I built a titler with 8" x 10" open frame with two hooks on both upper ends. I then cut a number of 8" x 10" sheets of cellulose acetate (depending upon the number of main and credit titles used) and punched two holes at both upper corners. Upon these I lettered my title with white or coloured cellophane ink purchased at any art store. Oneneed not be an artist to do this for he can easily trace any title or cut-out pasted on a piece of paper. I then hooked the titles in order on the titler, and held them out of view. With the camera running upon a desired background, I let the first title drop, ran the desired length of film, stopped and removed the title and repeated for each one. After the last title I began my story with the same background. I used a two diopter lens to focus at 20".— (By Frank Btrtola, Bronx, N.Y.) Framing Ideas for Titles When I calibrated my 2.5 fixed focus lens, for focusing, as described in your Dec. issue, I ran into centering difficulties. I use a Mittens title board with Y" letters. Centering these within the area covered by the lens at 1 — 2 — and 3 feet, proved to be too laborious. Too many calculations. I solved this problem by cutting a heavy piece of cardboard as shown in the diagram. This gives me 3 nesting cardboard frames, each of which frames the area covered by the lens at the marked distance. Now the letters are simply centered in one of these frames. I have used this method to make titles for my Christmas picture. I find it much faster than laying out the area covered by the lens — each time the distance from the lens is changed. At 4 feet the letters are centered on the 14}4"xl9}4" board and no rings are used. At 3 feet the letters are centered in the opening of the largest ring of cardboard. At 2 feet the large ring and the second ring are nested together on the board, and letters are centered in the opening 9Y"x7/i" in the second ring. At 1 foot all three rings are nested 4 Ft 3 FT. 2 FT ONE FOOT 1% 9>/£ \9</£ and the letters arranged in the J>Y" x4Y" opening in the third cardboard ring — (By Harry C. Detiveiler, Rochester, N.y.) The movie amateur who wants to duplicate some of Hollywood's tricks and make transparent titles with background scenes visible through the text, can do so without much trouble. If the services of a printer are available, the title may be set up in the kind and size of type desired, and printed on a sheet of transparent celluloid. In printing titles on celluloid, a socalled "kiss-impression" should be made. The printed celluloid will dry over night. To use, the celluloid is placed between two clean pieces of glass and photographed. The scene beyound the titled piece of celluloid, will photograph along with the title. No difficulty should be experienced in mounting the two pieces of glass with the printed title, in front of the movie camera lens, in proper focus for photographing with the scene beyond, slightly out of focus — as is generally the case with such titles. Where the services of a printer are not available — a variation of this method can be used. If the movie producer uses the familiar letters for for title making, he can tip them slightly on a piece of glass, and after the title has been put into place, another piece of glass can be laid over this. The two pieces with the title spelled out between the two, can then be mounted in front of the movie camera with the proper scene beyond — and the title made. By sticking the letters to the one piece of glass, lightly, (the one fartherest away from the movie camera) then the pasted side of the letters will not show. The side of the letters next to the camera are not to be pasted, since it is only necessary to fix them to the one piece of glass. Either of these two methods will produce an excellent transparent title. — (By Sherman MacLaren, Odenton, Md. A Prop Moon Recently, a part of the script of a home movie called for the scene where the moon gradually came from behind the horizon and climbed high up in the sky. After a couple of nights awaiting for a few time-lapse shots of the moon rising, only to have a cloud blank out part of the scene from time to time, I decided to make a "Moon of my own". The accompanying sketch will give you seme idea of the set-up used. The scene of trees and mountains were cut from Y" thick masonite or quarter board. This was painted dull-black by using blackboard paint. The "sky" was a translucent gauze, in which a circle was neatly cut to represent the moon. Sufficient gauze was used so that the "moon" could be hidden behind the hills before the filming was started . Then the flood light was turned on BEHIND the gauze, and the hand crank on the "top" of the scene was turned slowly, and the camera started. As the "moon" appeared, it was much brighter than the surrounding "sky", and a perfect effect was obtained. The foot controlled rheostat was used to give a "low-to-high" amount of illumination, the amount of light gradually increasing as the moon climbed higher and higher. This idea makes a fine hit with the audience and gives a touch of continuity that even the smallest child can readily grasp. — (By Gerald W . Rickard, New Brunswick, Canada?) 97