Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1939)

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SERVICE b REPAIR On All Movie CAMERAS — PROJECTORS SOUND SILENT Call Circle 6-0445 World Film Enterprises KM'" What a World of Good Shots You Will Get at the WORLDS FAIR Surely, they'll merit professional MOVIE TITLES and EDITING Let us give them the artistic touch with tinted, black and white and genuine Kodachrome titles. We'll edit them, too, if you wish, on a reasonable, hourly cost basis. Our skill and personal interest assure you professional results that will make us both proud of their exhibition. Come in and see us when you come to the fair. H O RN E MOVIE SERVICE 342 Madison Ave., Box M1, N. Y. C. which are the center of interest, and distances of over fifteen feet must be avoided. Salt water, which looks very clear when viewed from a height, such as the deck of a ship, is not always clear to the camera. A white sand floor with shallow water is the most practical underwater stage for a sea study. Underwater movie making offers adventure for amateur and theatrical cameramen, alike. It is something that one must learn by doing, but the doing is not difficult. Build yourself a small camera tank and try beneath the surface shots in a clear stream or in a swimming pool. The inconstant moon [Continued from page 222] contention by explaining his procedure and pointing to the visible movement of the moon, which would be indicated by an elongated, instead of a round, form. Such exposures usually required from half an hour to an hour. But that was long ago, and film has been improved. It is far faster — so much so that now there is no difficulty in shooting the moon. With considerable success, I have used moon shots as inserts in theatrical short subject series, such as Magic Carpet, Going Places and Pathe Sportscopes. I have found that one need not even use the widest possible lens opening under favorable conditions. You may film the moon with supersensitive panchromatic film, and the camera may be run at a sound speed of twenty four frames a second with the lens stopped down as far as //4.5. I have found three distinct general conditions under which one may effectively film actual moon pictures. First, there is the shot which shows the moon in the sky and, in addition, both a scenic background and some appropriate action in the foreground. Both scenic background and foreground action may be pictured in sufficient detail. The calendar must be your guide in deciding just when such a shot can be made. Depending upon the topography of the country in which you are working, this scene should be made on the night of the full moon or from one to three days before the full moon. In the desert, the night of full moon is ideal. In the mountains, two days before full moon is right. When the sun sinks behind the horizon on a desert landscape, the full moon comes up over the opposite horizon. That is your time for filming. It will last for about fifteen minutes. At the end of that time, the reflected light from the sinking sun loses its effectiveness on yt>ur foreground and background. It is this illumination that makes the shot possible. When you have selected an attractive subject and shoot it at the right moment, no camera tricks are necessary. Open the lens diaphragm wide, use supersensitive film, and the scene is yours. The result should be a properly exposed picture, with an image of objects in the distance against the sky, where the moon stands out light on a gray background. Objects in the foreground should have sufficient detail to distinguish them from silhouettes. Such shots as these are best made in the middle of the summer on a day when the sun goes down in a clear sky while the moon is already high enough to be above the distant horizon. Examples of this type of moon shots are the scenes of the young couples by the lake and of the moonlight riders on page 222. The shot of the riders is from the Pathe Sportscope, Dude Ranch. The second type of moon shot is the silhouette foreground against a moon pierced sky. This shot can be made either toward the east or the west whenever the moon is in the sky in front of the camera and there is enough light to silhouette the foreground object. If the foreground actually looks black and appears to be in silhouette, you have the necessary conditions. However, as in the case of the first example, this type of shot should be made very soon after the sun goes down. If the camera is pointed toward the west at a half moon, as soon as the sun has set, you will obtain a true silhouette of the foreground objects. Your audience will believe that moonlight alone produced the silhouette, but, in actuality, it was greatly aided by reflected sunlight in the sky. The third example covers shots made of the moon and of its light upon clouds. Such shots can be made hours after the sun is down. The shot of moon and clouds on page 222 was filmed at about eleven o'clock at night, with the camera pointed almost straight up. It required Super-XX, wide open fast lens and a camera speed of sixteen frames a second. An earlier moonlight shot, the moon rising over the Parthenon, also illustrated on page 222, is obviously a trick. The moon was filmed in Macedonia in 1932, on a crisp fall night when it was convincingly brilliant. While driving from the Nomad mountain country toward Salonica. I found this full moon so impressive that I stopped and set up my 35mm. sound camera. I swung an eight inch lens into place, to magnify the size of the moon, and I adjusted the camera angle so that the moon would be registered in the upper right hand corner of the frame. The camera was loaded with panchromatic film, and the largest opening of the telephoto lens was f/5.6. However. I felt that I should get a satisfactory picture by opening the lens wide and running the camera at a speed of about eight frames a second. I exposed thirty feet of film. Four feet of the beginning of the shot were developed and dried, and I discovered that the results were excellent. The