Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1944)

Record Details:

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240 JUNE 1944 'goo? rve« Vtfr»e pep* MM CUSTOM TITLES All Professional Effects Kodachrome or B & W BAY STATE FILMS 458 Bridge Street, Springfield, 3, Mass. •••••••••••••••••••-A-******* * low Cost SOUND Rentals £ BETTER FILMS if ~f 742 New Lots Avenue Brooklyn 7. N. Y. jj. Out beyond your depth? ffien you need The ACL Data Booklet It gives depth of field tables as well as width of field tables for lenses for 8mm. and 16mm. cameras. Other charts and helpful information are included in this thirty page handbook. ACL members on the booklet mailing list have already received copies. If you are a League member and are not on the list to receive booklets automatically, send for your copy today. It is free to all ACL members. AMATEUR CINEMA LEAGUE, Inc. 420 Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. MAKE YOUR OWN TALKIES this new EASY way! Own a FILMGRAPH. the modern miracle in sound. It records and reproduces on fi'm instantly, without processing nr treatment. Low cost; high fidelity. Wide volume range. You will be amazed at the simplicity of this device. No technical skill or knowledge needed to operate. Constant, automatic speed. Completely portable. We now have a few special demonstrate* models lease to the public at sale price, prices and circular. MILES REPRODUCER CO., INC. Dept. MM 812 Broadway, New York 3, N. Y. SPECIAL MODELS FOR DICTATION, TELEPHONE AND CONFERENCE RECORDINGS whi-h we can reWrite at once for FILM GRAPH .VOICE AND MUSIC RECORDINGS single experience — symbolize and express. I suspect you can overdo that sort of thing, but up to a point it adds a great deal to a story. In preparation for the actual filming. I wrote as detailed a script as I could possibly imagine; I tried to visualize every single scene, every change of the camera's position which would necessitate stopping the machine. Then I went over it with our filmer who still further divided a few scenes. Finally I made a card — an ordinary index card — for each scene. There were about 140 of them, all numbered to correspond to the scenes in the script. They could be sorted as to interior shots requiring lights, daylight exteriors, daylight interiors, night scenes and so on. They came in very handy, for the filming was spread over about a month, what with uncertain weather and the necessity of getting our children together only on Saturdays and holidays. (We borrowed about thirty well behaved youngsters from the Parkchester Housing Development near the Zoo.) As soon as a scene was shot, its card went into a separate pile, and could be forgotten. We have a modern record cutter in our Education Department, and we spent a lot of time recording the dialog scenes and a few sound effects, such as the ringing of the breakfast bell, on the actual site. We expected to have these sounds transferred to film and put into the movie. Technically the idea is all right, but it takes time, and, in the end, we compromised by renting a bell record and having a commentator provide the whole dialog. We used John Reed King, a professional, for the comment, and he gave it with great success. I think that we shall continue that method in later pictures. Eventually we shall have a sound camera, but, even then, we shall probably add effects and voice in the studio. Around a zoo, there are too many distracting sounds. You start out to record a cow mooing, and you finish with not only the cow, but also a horse kicking the stall next door, a mother shouting for her lost child in the middle distance and the subway rumbling past about a quarter of a mile away. As a minor point of interest, the musical background we put on the picture could have been much better. We tried carrying music all the way through — a harmonica player who rambled through a series of bucolic tunes, with a vocal trio that burst into song about the Farmer and his daily chores, to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb, at an appropriate spot. It seemed to be a good idea in the beginning, just as the script had looked good, but music all the way through is somewhat distracting, and it is not really necessary. Next time we shall use it at the beginning and at the end and at carefully selected spots — if at all. I have gone into the making of The Farmer in the Zoo at considerable length because, as I said before, some other beginner may be in the position of myself last year when, suddenly, we started to make a movie with a story — and may be just as dazed as I was. When you come out of the daze, you feel wonderful; you realize that here is an inexpensive medium that can be of unbelievable value to you in telling a story, presenting an idea or promoting a particular phase of your work. It is late in the day to discover the capabilities of 16mm. motion pictures. Actually, I think, we were not quite so unaware of the possibilities as I intimate— but the fact remains that we are just now beginning to take full advantage of our opportunities. We plan to make at least one single reel motion picture, in color or black and white, every year, telling about some phase of the Bronx Zoo. This year our subject will probably be the Children's Zoo, simply because it is bright, colorful and popular. Our filmer will be Sam Dunton, for years the staff photographer at the New York Aquarium and for the past two years our staff man at the Zoological Park. He had made 16mm. movies before, and was experienced in all the technical intricacies. That helps. It certainly helps. The clinic [Continued from page 235] Slin behind ^ y°u c°Uect several movie makers who turn out consistently good color films, you have an interesting discussion on your hands if you simply say, "Do you think that it is always important to have flat lighting for color filming?" The best of them will disagree. While it is generally true that flat lighting (afforded when the sun is directly behind the camera) is best for most shots, there are many cases where side lighting or back lighting will produce some very fine effects. If you want to try back lighting, make sure that you expose properly for the shadow side of the subject. The same would be true of side lighting. Every foot counts In these days when a roll of film is a priceless item, we must use every means at our command to utilize the entire roll. One of the best ways of full utilization is to make sure that you are starting your exposures at a point where the first usable film is behind the lens. If your camera has a removable lens, unscrew it or unsnap it from its mount before you load your film. After threading, replace the camera cover, run the mechanism and observe the film passing the aperture by looking