Home Movies and Home Talkies (Jun 1932-May 1933)

322 HOME MOVIES & HOME TALKIES something of. To ([uote the script : — "M.S. of Jellacott outside the front door. By his manner he has evidently .seen Jill go in. The camera pans with him as he goes to open the door. He then stops and listens." The plain description of the action without psychological verbiage and other embellishment suggests crude, melodrBmatic peiformance, and should be a challenge to you not to let it be. So, first of all, the Director and actor .should between them be on their mettle to play it as natuiallj' as possible, at the same time not letting it be so " natural " that it is purposeless. The next endeavour of the Director should be to elaborate the action interestingly — so long as he doesn't embark on unnecessary footage. Think of Jellacott's character, as you conceive it, and that will help is the caution of the man of action or the sly cunning of an entirely different type. The next scene is an interior M.L.S. of the door, with the table in the foreground. Jellacott will be in a M.L.S. as he enters the door, but will be faiily close to the cameia as he comes uji to the table. Since he has the table to "anchor "on to and the parcels on the table as his objective, this is an easy scene for the artist to remember his camera positions. It is often necessary, with a difficult scene or a forgetful artist, to "cheat" the furniture slightly so as to provide "anchorage" as objectives for your artist. Scene 27 is an interior of Jill's bedloom — just a fraction of it by the window. As there are no long or complicated scenes in the bedroom, it is not nece.ssarv to build a set. This An example of how the Cameramin has to waicn trie microphone boom. The two microphones shown must be placed as near the artists as possible, but must be kept clear of the camera's line of vision. (From the Paramount film, "The Night of June 13.") you. Is he hot-tenrpered ? Is he domineering ? Is he sullen ? Is he cunning ? Your decision will help you to evolve the manner of his movement and fiom this will come your inspiration for " bu-siness." Scene 24 shows Jill unconcernedly unpacking her shopping basket on the table in the living room. Here is another opporturity for good direction. A confiiient fcti€.ss, but one who is not a real aitist, will Kct unconcern for all she's woith and give you a slice of celluloid that can let your audience's inteiest and belief in her reelity light t own. So wi tch her. Scei^e 25 is of Jillfcott agrin. He looks round to see if Alt.n hf s observer! him and then goes inc oois. According to j-our decision as to his character will depenri your artist's inteipietation of this looking round — whether it can easily be done in a real interior, when the sun is coming in at the window and when you are on location, Then when you come to the exteiior of this winc'ow (Scenes 29, 31, 34 and 36) you will have had a perfect mstch so far as the Art Direction is concerned. But, in any ca.se, I have puiposely arranged the sciipt so that you don't get two consecutive shots of the inteiior and the exteiior of the winc'ow. Scene 28 shows Jellacott looking out of his wint ow. That is what the .script .si'ys — it places him already theie. However, a wise Director will go further than the sciipt, if he knows anythirg about e< iting ; he will shoot a Lit of extra footage of Jellacott coming into the scene, as from Scene 26. This will enable the Editor to join up the enu of Scene 26 with the beginning of Scene 28 if he wants ; hemay even decide to keep the wholeof Scene 28 here and then follow it with Scene 27. Be careful, in shooting Jellacott's entrance into Scene 28, to see that he comes into the picture the opposite side of the screen or camera to that which he went out of Scene 26. If in Scene 26 he passed out on the left of the pictuie, tlien in Scene 28 he must come in on the right. Sometimes on the set you will argue about this, until you come to despise each other's stupidity ; some will say that since such and such is the geography of the set, the characters must be photographed continuing their walk in the direction they would actually go — West to East, say but, however right they may be geographically, cinematically you must proceed in consecutive shots by going out left and entering the next shot from the right, or vice ver.sa. Scene 29 is an exterior of Jill's window. You want a reliable tripod for shooting up at such an angle, and in ort'er to get close enough, you may need to use a longer focus lens than usual. If this presents difficulties, you can often get round it by " cheating." Should any of the groimd floor windows be more or less the same as the first floor windows, then bring Jill downstaiis and shoot up at her from a camera position close to the floor. Your Cameraman will like lying on the ground — it looks so wholehearted and exjiert. You may have noticed that in nearly all publicity photographs of a production in progress, the technical people love to be photographed crouching at tlieir work. Scene 30 is a distance shot — from Jill's viewpoint. Shoot a little more than you think you'll want, because you may want it after all. As I have said, a wise Director will always be bearing the Eiiitor in mind. That extra footage rniy enable the Editor to cross cut cjuickly two or three times with effect. The same remark applies to all the scenes from No. 31 to No. 37. Scene 38 is another tracking shot, in which the camera has to follow an artist as he walks from the window to the bookshelf and from there to the table. One says " the camera follows " as if it were tlie whole responsibility of the Cgmeraman, but the aitist has a responsibility to the Cameraman ; he must adjust and moderate liis walking so that the Cameraman can follow him and, having worked out the mechanics of his movement with the Cf.meraman, the artist should not vary it. AVhat a joy to the Cameraman is an artist who acquires the knack of keeping in his limits, and what a joy to the Continuity Girl and the Editor is the artist who alwa3's remembers in every detfil how he was dressed and how he finished a certain scene. It seems so simple and yet some of the most intelligent artists are incredibly slow to acquire this camera-sense and this grasjj of continuity.