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

HOME MOVIES & HOME TALKIES 415 rouR CINE QUERIE/ AN/WERED Free Service for Readers Is there a cine problem bothering you ? Have you some difficulty in which you would like expert help ? Do you want to know where to obtain certain apparatus and what it will cost ? HOME MOVIES is at your service in this and many other ways. Address your query to : The Service Department, HOME MOVIES, Messrs. George Newnes, Ltd., 8-ii, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C.2, enclosing the free Query Coupon printed in this issue. A selection from queries and answers of general interest will he printed each month on this page. All others will be replied to by post. SPECIAL NOTE. — Owing to the rapid growth of the circulation of " HOME MOVIES " and the large number of queries now sent in, readers are asked to limit the number of questions in one letter, so as to enable an early reply to be sent. F. W. P., Loughborough, writes : " As an amateur photographer oJ long standing, I invariably tad that I get much better results by processing and printing my own " still " films. I have recently taken up cine photography with 16-inm. film, and I am wondering whether I should get better results and incidentally save money iJ I processed my own film. Answer. — There are two separate and distinct questions here. Taking first of all the question of saving monej', this depends on the kind of iilm you use. Agfa, Kodak, and Boles films are sold at a price which includes free processing, a film ready for projection being delivered to the customer a few days after the exposed negative is sent to the processing station. Messrs. Selo, Ltd., can now supply their negative film on spools without right to development and printing service for 12/C for ICO feet, or 6/6 for 50 feet and the super-speed at a slightly higher rate. Gevaert 16-mm. film is also sold on the same basis at 13/6 for 100 feet ortho, or 17/6 panchromatic, with 7/6 and 9/6 respectively for the 50 feet reels. The cost of development of pan. film is about 3/ per 100 feet, so that the saving, if any, of developing alone is small, particularly as large quantities of solution must be used which is only economical when a large number of reels are being developed. Processing, as carried out by the big firms, is now of a very high standard and so far as the 16-mm. reversal film is concerned we would have no hesitation in saying that it is impossible for the amateTir to obtain results comparable with those given by Agfa and Kodak. Wliat you are overlooking, however, is that although it is practicable, if tedious, for the amateur to develop 50 feet and 100 feet lengtlis of 16-mm. negative film, the actual printing requires a special machine and there is again the question of purchasing the right positive film and developing it. Processing short lengtl-s of positive film which have been used for the taking of titles is quite practical at home and very many experienced amateurs do this themselves, but as tar as the ordinary rim of film is concerned, we would strongly recommend you to get it done professionally. It is rather a different matter, however, with 9J-mm. orthochromatic film. The 30-foot lengths are not too long to handle on home apparatus and home processing by the reversal system is by no means diificiilt for one, such as yourself, who has had experience in still photography development work. H. V. H., Famborongh, asks: (1) What is the minimum number of watts for interior work ? (2) What is needed, as to lighting, for exterior work ? (3) What make-up is needed for film acting ! " Answer. — (1) This is a very broad question and the answer depends on many factors. The light requii'ed depends upon (a) the area to be illuminated ; (b) the kind of illumination (for example, in some dramatic work a few high lights and much deep shadow is most effective, while in comedy work it is usual to give full illumination to the whole scene) ; (c) the speed of the film ; (d) the lens aperture used ; (e) the colour of set and costumes and reflecting power of the walls. To give you a very rough guide, if you use an //1 .8 or //1 .9 lens and super-sensitive film, such as Kodak Super-sensitive, Asfa Novopan or the new Super-speed Selo, then two ,500 watt lamps of the Nitrophot type in reflectors should enable you to get good illumination of a medium shot including three or four people. (2) It is impossible to answer this in a few words. Everything depends upon the area to be illuminated and the kind of lighting. As you have no benefit of the reflecting power of walls and ceilings in external shots and as such shots usually embrace a fairly large area, several thousand watts would be the minimiun for even simple work. (3) Special make-up has been prepared for oin6 work ; it can be obtained from Max Factor, 10, D'arblay Street, W.l, or from Messrs. L. Leichner, Ltd., 32, Acre Lane, Brixton, S.W.9. J. W. H. Cambridge. Inexpensive cut-out paper letters for making cine titles can be obtained from Messrs. Ensign, Ltd., through your local dealer. J. B., Rugby, wishes to know whether any firms are producing talkies for 9.5-mm. users ; also where he can obtain a good motor for driving a turntable for talkie discs. Answer. — Several firms are at present experimenting with 9'5-mm. eound-on-disc talkies, but we have not yet heard anything comparable with 16-mm. sound-ondiso equipment. Some interesting and important amateur work with 9"5-mm. sound-on-film has recently been done, and we hope to describe it shortly in our pages. In this case two films are used, one for the picture and the other for the sound track. You can obtain a suitable motor for your experiments from Messrs. Leslie Dixon & Co., 218, Upper Thames Street, E.G. P. D., Eastbourne, is anxious to produce a film of an explosion, in which a large box is supposed to blow up, producing a cloud of black smoke and other effects. He also desires to super-impose a title on the black smoke cloud. Answer. — Shots of this kind are best "faked" — in fact, a faked shot of this kind is usually much more effective than would be a film of the real thing. We suggest you adopt the following procedure : First of all take a piece of thick string and soak it thoroughly in a strong saltpetre solution and let it dry. Join this to your box as if it were a fuse and light it. It will now smoulder and bum like a fuse, and if you take a few feet of film periodically as it burns (close-up shots, of course) you can cut these in with other shots giving the passage of time, as the fuse gradually gets towards the box. As soon as the fuse has burnt down close to the box, cut in a shot taken of some flash powder igniting (only two or three frames), then a further shot of a cloud of smoke, followed immediately by a shot of the box smashed to pieces. The cloud of smoke need not be big, as you can photograph it close up — probably a thoroughly satisfactory shot can be obtained of the smoke produced by burning rags which have been soaked in paraffin. Do not on any account act, as you yourself suggest, by using explosives, otherwise we are likely to lose a reader ! The super-imposed title can be made by double exposure, using the method described on page 301 of the March issue. A. H., Croydon, writes: "I am up against a ' hold-up ' scene and want some cartridges that will make smoke and not too much noise. Can you tell me whether such a thing is made for this purpose and where they may be obtained ? "