Home Movies and Home Talkies (Jun 1933-May 1934)

HOME MOVIES & HOME TALKIES LAPSE OF TIME Useful Continuity Tricks By HENRY ^VALDEN WHIilN one sees a good film at the cinema it may Vieeome so absorbing that everjiihing is forgotten except the fortimes of the characters on the screen. If it is not such a good film it is sometimes more interesting to watch the film itself; to watch its construction and the little tricks of its makers in telling the tale. If one makes films oneself, ev'en if they are only little ones, the way the film is made may often become more interesting than the story. If, however, a film is so good that you forget to watch how it is made you can be sure that it is worth seeing again ; for the best artist is one who gets his results withovit apparent effort. Essentially *' Cinema " Pictures Now that all films are sound films the amateur will find less at the cinema which will be of value to him in his own work. Fortvmately, however, more films are now being made which are essentially cinema pictures to which the talk is wedded. One very good example of this was the film "Michael and Mary." From time to time there are also shown silent films to which representational sound has been added, and these are nearly always worth seeing. " Tabu," made by the late F. W. Murnau, is a case in point, while the films of Dr. Fanck are of similar value, although his last film, "Avalanche," had some talk added. On the screen one incident follows another in chronological order. One shot commences where the last left of?. It is not possible, however, to devise stories so that one incident immediately follows another throughout the film, and when a break in the sequence of the action occvixs, whether of a minute or of years, it is necessary to adopt some trick or another to l)ridge the lapse of time. " Later " In the early films this was very simply effected by putting on a title with the one word " Later." It is my private belief that, in those days, the laboratory staff would every now and again run off a mile or so of film on this particular title in the certain knowledge that it would come in useful ! But such titles need not be so crude. In the recent Chaplin film, " City Lights," there were several periods and at the beginning of each was a title: first "Spring," then "Summer," followed later by "Autimm " and " Winter." The writer was responsible, some years ago, for a story (never made into a film) in which the consecutive titles were " March Winds." " April Showers " and " Maj' Flowers." Captions of this type suggest, rather than state, the passage of time which has occurred before the next moving picture appears on the screen. Titles may convey the same meaning in another way. I recently saw a picture in which titles appeared from time to time (althovigh it was a talkie), and in one corner of the background picture of the title was a photograph of a clock. Each title showed the hour of the action which King Feisal using his 16-mm. camera on H.M.S. " Renown " was to follow. This is a reminder of the much older device, which is still often used, of showing a photograph of a clock, the hand of which moves slowly round to show the time elapsed. Similar to this is the calendar along which a pointer moves. In " City Lights " there was a tear-off calendar, the leaves of which were blowai off by the wind. Another pictorial method, less direct, but none the less effective, appeared in " The Man at Six." The detective sits up playing himself a game of chess while the rest of the house is asleep. Simple Incidents He smokes a cigar and takes another. There is then a close-up of the a.shtray with a cigar-end on it, and the pictm-e slowly dissolves into another of the ash-tray full of cigar-ends. He pulls back the blinds. Clearly, morning has come. In "Michael and Mary ' ' there were several such examples, although they were usually designed rather to break a conversa 101 tion which, in full, would have been wearisome. In this film there was also a very clever " cut -back " in which a father is telling his son the circumstances of his jDarents' wedding and the boj^'s upbringing. The father is speakmg. There is a fade and dissolve to a poodle dog (which has previously entered the story) ; another dissolve to a picture of a wedding ring being placed on a woman's hand ; a further dissolve shows a child's hand with which a man's hand is playing ; then a howitzer gun being fired ; a casualty telegram, and so on. The meaning is perfectly conveyed without re-introducing definite characters which would have upset the thread of the story at the end of the film. This example is a reminder that the commonest dodge for showing the lapse of time is the simple fade out followed by a fade in. Family Films It is not only the maker of story films who will find such examples useful. Those who merely take pictiu-es of the yovmgster, or wish to make a better job of their film of a holiday, will find something to learn. Baby at six months may not be taken again until he first walks. One picture smartly following the other requires verbal explanation, and to the stranger will come as a shock before he realises what has happened. If a short title between the two shots says " Getting a big boy now," then the friend who is seeing the film for the first time gets ready for what is coming. Again, on holiday, a shot of a train or char-^-banc moving or a shot from a moving car will convey the sense of movement from place to jjlace. Or, if the mileometer can be manipulated or faked, a very close-up showing the reading of the dial at different places will form a very usefid commentary. The Marchioness of Londonderry making a cine picture of Professor Young at a Garden Party