Home Movies (1953)

Apple for the Teacher m Amateur hints from a | HOLLYWOOD PRO H By DENNY PLUMLEE By BEN LEPCIN 1. M.S. Freddy, a small boy, is at the kitchen table where he is dawdling over his breakfast. His schoolbag, a couple of books and a pencil box are strewn over the table. Freddy's mother is busy tidying up the kitchen. 2. M.S. Freddy's mother looks at the kitchen clock. She calls to Freddy. 3. Title: "Hurry up, now. or you'll be late." 4. M.S. Freddy's mother points at the clock. 5. M.S. Freddy looks at the clock. 6. C.U. The clock. It is ten minutes to nine. 7. C.U. Freddy is startled. It's later than he thought. He hastily gulps down a last mouthful. 8. M.S. Jumping up from the table, Freddy grabs his books and pencil box, crams them into the schoolbag which he slings over his shoulder. Waving a hasty farewell to his mother, Freddy rushes out. 9. C.U. Freddy's mother breathes a deep sigh of relief. 10. M.S. The kitchen door is thrown open and Freddy bursts into the room. 11. C.U. His mother looks at him in surprise as Freddy tells her: 12. Title: "The apple. I forgot teacher's apple." 13. C.U. Mothers opens a cupboard door and takes out a bag of apples. She hands one to Freddy who is hopping around impatiently. 14. M.S. Freddy grabs the apple and dashes out. 15. C.U. Freddy's mother mops her brow. FADE OUT FADE IN 16. M.S. A classroom. Teacher is at her desk. There are some books and papers on it. Behind her is a small section of blackboard with a few simple words on it. 17. M.S. Freddy walks up to teacher's desk. He puts the apple on the desk. 18. C.U. Teacher is pleased. She picks up the apple and smiles at Freddy as she thanks him. FADE OUT FADE IN 19. Title: The next morning. 20. M.S. The classroom. Teacher is again at her desk. There are some new words written on the blackboard. Otherwise the setting is as before. 21. M.S. Freddy walks up to the teacher's desk. This time, instead of an apple, he places a parcel on the desk. 22. C.U. Teacher looks at the parcel in surprise. 23. C.U. She unwraps the parcel and is even more surprised to find a piece of pie. Perplexed, she looks at Freddy who smiles at her. 24. Title: "My mom used up all the apples, so I had to bring the pie." Mr. Ralph E. Winters has been under con=^ tract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for years and has been the film editor on many of their ^= most outstanding productions. He won an Jjg Academy Award for the best film editing in 1951 for his superb job on "King Solomon's Mines." He has edited some of the top pictures to come out of Hollywood, and a few of these are: "Gaslight," "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes," and "On The Town." Since Mr. Winters is said to be one of the best editors in the motion picture business, gjj he should be the best qualified to give film ^= editing advice to the movie amateur. ||1 44 TT IS amazing that the many peo K X pie outside the studios think a movie is shot just as it appears on the IB neighborhood theatre screen. Of EB course, in Hollywood the scenes are Bj shot in no order at all; they may shoot SB the last scene first or the first scene SB last, depending on many factors. For jgj example, if the set is used in the first SB scene of the movie and again in the SB last scene, it would be much more SB economical to shoot the two scenes and BE then strike the set. In that way, the SB sound stage is available for another ■J set," said Ralph Winters, of MGM. BE "Of course, it is a great compliment BB to the film editors to have someone BB say that the picture looks as if it were shot in order, because this is just what all film editors are trying to achieve in their finished product," he added. Most photographers make poor film editors when they have to edit their own footage. This is usually true of both the professional and the amateur cameraman. "A good photographer hates to discard any footage that he considers good," said Winters, "but the audience that will view his film will not have the same appreciation for the footage; therefore, the picture becomes draggy and uninteresting. Many times the professional editor has a fifty-foot scene that he cuts down to a couple of feet. Many times a sequence is highlighted by using just a foot or two of footage. This adds spice to the scene, but if the entire footage were used just because it was good, it would lose its punch, thereby ruining the entire scene by making it slow and uninteresting." I asked Mr. Winters what actually determined the length of footage for a scene. He replied, "That depends on the mood and tempo that the scene is striving to produce. In a musical • See EDITING on Page 73 51