Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1932)

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Tricking it up EPES W. SARGENT Simplest of devices Shooting into a reflector mirror gave this effect arvey White wi put tiresome spice into sequences THE probabilities are that everyone has attended at least one dinner where the postprandial orator told a story about those two most famous Irishmen, Pat and Mike. Maybe it was a flat story but the interjection served the definite purpose of retrieving attention sent wandering by the still more prosy speech. This, however, is not a dissertation on after dinner speaking. It is merely a suggestion that you put a little Pat and Mike into your straight filming and to the same end. Like the stories, a little will go a long way, but it will help out of all proportion to its footage. Few who own cameras can escape the occasional demand for some wholly uninteresting photography. Uncle John may want to see how he looks coming down the street or climbing into his new car. It may be politic to humor him. And, since he has no well developed sex appeal, try a little trick stuff on him. He comes toward the camera, hesitates and his overcoat is on his arm. Another few feet and his hat is in his hand. Very simple stop camera work and, yet, you not only have tickled Uncle John half to death but others will not squirm in their seats when they are led by the proud subject to the optical slaughter. Simple trick work will put spice into the deadest landscape or pep up the comedy that is a little unsteady on its story legs. You probably are familiar with the effects gained by stopping the camera, reverse motion, obtained by merely turning the camera upside down, and cutting and patching. You can also avail yourself of the numerous forms of trick lenses and lens attachments. A distortion mirror will give some unique effects. You can get a lot out of your camera as it stands. For instance, while you are patching up a series of detached scenes, it seems that a little pep is needed. You cut in a title, reading Things were going topsy turvy and shoot a few seconds of the closeup of a chimney with the smoke going into instead of out of it. Just enough for a laugh and go on with the straight subject. You can show people all hurriedly backing in or out of a city hall or police station, reverse street traffic or similar stuff. Or, with half straight and half reverse, by a careful joining you can show someone tossing water out of a pail into the air and catching it in the pail again. This is done by filming the same scene twice, once in reverse. Just a little gag like that will Pat and Mike three or four minutes of dull stuff. The original backwards effect was developed in 1896 when an operator, turning back the film, discovered that motion was reversed. The following week the theater had a picture of divers jumping into the water and out again. Since then there have been 1,964,583 pictures showing divers jumping out of the water. That's plenty. You do something else. It takes no more film to show a football player in reverse, the ball apparently striking his foot and bouncing into his hands. And that's newer. It is just as simple to show a boy sliding up a pole instead of down. Another good reverse effect is to show someone scooting up a snow or grass bank, head forward. This goes well with a chase sequence and was often used in the old comedies. Work the gag into a story when possible. The policeman chases little Willie. Willie gets on top of a wall or the roof of a shed and thinks he is safe, but the policeman gracefully leaps up beside him. Of course, the policeman jumps off the wall backward and then backs out of the field of the camera while being filmed with the camera held upside down. This is easier than it sounds. For that matter, it can be done without reverse. Cut when the policeman starts to jump and match neatly with a shot of a man apparently just landing on the roof. Your spectators will think they actually saw him go up. If not, it still looks funny. Use the same technique to have a man jump in or out of a barrel, go through a length of sewer pipe, scale a ladder in nothing fiat or go through a plate glass window without breaking the glass. Show the subject on one side of the glass. Mark where he stands. He starts to jump up and down. Cut. Put him on the other side of the glass and have him jump up and down again. Trim off the upward motion of the second jump and splice the scene of the upward jump on one side of the glass to the scene of the downward jump on the other side, selecting the highest point in each jump for the splice. It will really fool them. Using the same technique you employed on Uncle John, you can show a chase with the victim losing his garments until he is sprinting along in his shorts. It is the lowest form of humor but it seems that a laugh is guaranteed. It has been used in hundreds of professionally made comedies and you might do it once. You might show a person running down [Continued on page 220] 200