Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1934)

126 MARCH 1934 Scenarized Film Plans has just been added to the list of bulletins published by the League for its members. This illustrated, thirty-two page booklet contains four scenarios completely ready for production. They are — THE STAR BOARDER, an outline for a baby film that features the baby as the principal actor but involves other members of the family as desired. THE WISHING STONE, a clever scenario of a plot for children which includes effective but extremely easy camera tricks. Your audiences will wonder how this one was made and the youngsters will be delighted. WHAT, NO OATMEAL?, a plot for children and their parents in which Dad is the victim of a bargain made by Mother and the children on the morning oatmeal question. PICNIC PECULIAR, a burlesque that can be filmed on an outing or picnic by any group of people. This is a broad farce and will not put an undue strain on any one's acting ability. In addition, this booklet includes a discussion of the closeup, medium shot, long shot, etc., with an illustration of each camera position. This is the latest of the League's bulletins, but it is just one of the many that are available free of charge to all League members on request. League membership will bring you these bulletins if you wish them ; the 205 page handbook and basic guide to filming, Making Better Movies; MOVIE MAKERS each month; the aid and service of the League's consultants; all the special helps of the League. It's a Big Bargain for $5°° a year Amateur Cinema League, Inc. 105 W. 40th St. New York, N. Y. CJoseups — What amateurs are doing 8 M M REDUCTIONS FROM 16 MM. & 9.5 MM. CEO. W. COLBURN SPECIAL MOTION PICTURE PRINTING 7100 N. WASHTENAW AVE. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Yugoslavia, declares Konstantin Kostich, ACL, is a paradise for the amateur travel filmer, a pretty strong claim which he is well prepared to back up with three reels of delightful stuff that he has shot there. Snow covered mountains in the interior contrast dramatically with the perpetual spring of the Yugoslav Riviera, and the whole country is a colorful background for the picturesque dress of the peasants which varies from town to town. On the staff of the Yugoslav Consulate in New York City, Mr. Kostich passes on the helpful information that the customs regulations of that country permit the free entrance of all cameras and reasonable supplies of film belonging to tourists. Here in the effete East a rattlesnake is something that you look at, a little nervously, during a Sunday visit to the "zoo"; but out in Pendleton, Oregon, these things are different. Out there, in the spring, a bunch of fellows will get together of an afternoon and go out to see how many rattlers they can catch or how many they can kill. The time J. T. Snelson, ACL, went along with his camera and two hundred feet of film, they caught a good twenty five and killed about that many more — and Mr. Snelson shot the whole show, closeups and everything. A forked stick, a sharp eye and a steady hand seemed to be all that were needed. It looked dead easy, but our choice of views is still the "zoo." Dr. Etley P. Smith, ACL, of Fairmont, W. Va., is another movie maker who gets around a bit and brings back on his films some records of things which you and I will never see. With him the lure is big game, a devotion of which he writes, "I am primarily a hunter and secondarily a photographer, but I will say that after getting back home from a hunting trip I am finding that my pictures are becoming as valuable as my trophies." So far, Dr. Smith has compiled his pictures in five 400 foot reels, which comprise a mighty interesting subject known as Big Game Hunting in Alaska. Through its footage stalk bears, moose, caribou, mountain sheep and a host of lesser creatures. Next trip he will add the giant brown bears of Kodiak Island and in a picture as carefully planned in advance as the countless details of his pack train. Two of Dr. Smith's trophies were first prize winners in the James L. Clark Big Game Hunters' Competition, in 1932. Now, sequences of the largest broadcasting studio in the world, that of N. B. C. in Rockefeller Center, have been added to the ever growing list of scenes of famous places and celebrities in that unique film diary, Here and There with Famous People, by Neil P. Home, ACL. An apparent master in the delicate art of getting special permission, Mr. Home had the close cooperation of F. Richard Anderson, of N. B. C, Rudy Vallee, ACL, and Lowell Thomas, as he filmed a rehearsal of the Fleischmann program, the control rooms and the master mixing panel, from which gleaming nerve center there are relayed, on order, all National programs to both networks. Mr. Vallee, himself an able and enthusiastic movie maker, got so interested that it wasn't long before he had loaned Mr. Home the lighting units, which he always keeps in the studio, and finally he loaned him his new camera as well. Frame enlargement of effect shot made by Neil P. Home, ACL Neil P. Home, ACL