Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1932)

485 iilii njk J' | #i With simple tags, hooks and board the trick is done IN the editing process, the technical skill and mechanical contrivances, which play so large a part in every other phase of motion picture production, while important, count for less than the creative ability of the film editor, himself. Whether or not this expenditure of mental energy is enjoyable depends, to a great extent, on the particular editing method that is employed. The simple and inexpensive editing board shown in the accompanying illustration is an improvement over the usual editing board in that identification of each scene of a film is facilitated and the rearrangement of the scenes in their final order is greatly simplified through the use of movable tags suspended from a series of small hooks attached to the board. Both the tags and the hooks are numbered for the purpose of identifying and locating the various scenes. The tags, which are made of cardboard, are about two inches long and an inch and a quarter wide. They may be obtained from almost any stationery store at a cost of about twenty cents for one hundred. The small brass screw hooks, which should be long enough to protrude about an inch from the surface of the board after they have been fastened in the wood, may be purchased from any hardware store at a very low cost. The hooks are spaced about two inches apart on the board, which may be an old drawing board about twenty four inches long, fifteen inches wide and half an inch thick. An odd piece of three ply veneer of approximately the above dimensions will also serve. In the editing board shown in the photograph, sixty six hooks were used, one for each scene. As the average 400 foot, 16mm. reel contains fifty scenes, ample provision is made for the editing of almost any one reel amateur film. If more than one large reel is to be edited at one time, additional boards may be employed. The usual procedure is followed in the preliminary steps of the editing process. If, for example, four one hundred foot spools of film are to be edited and arranged in one large reel, the leaders and trailers of each small roll are cut off before the films are spliced together and wound on the 400 foot exhibition reel. Then the film is run through the projector, or viewing device, once or twice in order that the editor may become thoroughly familiar with the various scenes, after which it is rewound. The next step is to run the film very slowly through the Eugene Katz projector in a room where there is some light. As the first scene appears on the screen, a short objective description together with any additional notations (such as eliminating faulty frames) are written, with pencil, on a tag. The number of the scene (a figure 1 in this instance) should be placed in the lower left hand corner of the tag. It is then hung on the first hook in the upper row of the editing board. In similar fashion, the other scenes of the film are briefly described on the tags which are then numbered to correspond to the order of the scenes as they appear, whereupon the tags are hung on their respective hooks. Thus the tag representing scene 2 bears figure 2 in the lower left hand or index corner and it is hung on hook 2 ; scene 3 is described on tag 3 and so on. After the film has been completely catalogued in the fashion just described, the result will be an exceedingly flexible and simple miniature card index arranged in such a form that transposition of the tags representing the various scenes may easily be accomplished. Here, the actual editing or story building begins. It is in this step, especially, that the editing board and the tags prove their value. The extreme ease with which the tags may be shifted about, coupled with full visibility of all the tags on the board, permits the editor to concentrate solely on the creative process of story building. With the board carrying the descriptions of the different scenes in front of him, the editor rearranges the scenes (tags) by transferring them from their original positions to those they will occupy in the completed film as it is visualized. If, for instance, original scene 18 is to be moved so that it will be the fourth scene of the completed film, tag 18 is shifted to hook 4. The tag originally placed on the latter hook is moved to hook 18 where it remains until it finds its final place. The hook and tag numbers, which should be of sufficient size (about ^ mcn high) permit ready association of any scene of the film, itself, with its corresponding tag regardless of the changed place of the latter on the board. After the tags have been arranged in their final order, the location and wording of the titles may be selected. If a title is to go in front of scene 18, for instance, a [Continued on page 506] A convenient way of arranging the chores of editing WILLIAM S. HALSTEAD Editing neatly