Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1945)

144 APRIL 1945 $OSS picks up Cameras I hope that you feel drawn by this magnet to sell your unused equipment to Bass for cash ... or send it in at once. Check by return mai President 179 W. MADISON ST. CHICAGO 2, ILL. STOP "APOLOGIZING" for your movie titles Write today for a FREE A-to-Z Sample Title Test Kit. Try making titles the easy A-to-Z way. Test our method before buying the complete outfit. COMPLETE COLOR OR B.&W. OUTFIT $6.50 A-to-Z MOVIE ACCESSORIES 175 Fifth Ave. Dept. M6I New York 10. N. Y. COLOR FEATURES IN 16 MM SOUND GENTLEMAN FROM ARIZONA PHANTOM OF SANTE FE ASTOR PICTURES CORP. 130 W. 46 ST. NEW YORK 19, N. Y. FLASH! MacARTHUR LIBERATES MANILA and U. S. Marines Capture Iwo Jima both in the same reel Now available at regular Castle prices ORDER NOW! JAMES A. PETERS Commercial & Home Movie Service ALLENTOWN 1, PENN. HERE'S AN f»X INTRODUCTORY OFFER which will interest any roadshowman, any dealer, anytime, anywhere: — Complete Sound Program, — feature, comedy, newsreel or sport film — only $9.75 per week. Hundreds of features to choose from. Unexcelled Service. Shipped Everywhere, only $#\75 9 PER PROGRAM PER WEEK *This special introductory offer applies only to our GROUP ONE pictures and is open only to roadshowmen and dealers. Better write today. Address: INSTITUTIONAL Cinema Service, Inc. 1560-M Broadway, New York 19,N.Y. general subjects. The search for suitable title materials for a particular film may well commence as soon as the enterprise begins to take form in the movie maker's mind. If it is to be a film of a particular locale or region, some small souvenirs may be found that will harmonize with the subject. Here are some sources of items that have been found useful in "dressing up" titles. Children's games. There are whole series of games for very young children that consist in matching small cutout cardboard objects with holes in a master cardboard. Many of the cutouts of such objects as trees, household and garden implements, tame and wild animals, birds and similar things make useful decorations for films about the family, the garden, outdoors, nature and the farm. Souvenirs. The tiny orange and blossom and the Mexican vase mentioned before are but two of many small souvenirs suitable for title decoration. Others might be tiny dolls or figurines indicating a particular locale, sea shells, cacti and pine cones. Often the natural souvenirs that one collects out of curiosity may serve well in a title. Projected 35mm. slides. The title maker with a little artistic skill — and very little is necessary — can obtain many interesting title effects by projecting carefully selected 35mm. slides upon a plain colored title card. Using the projected picture as a guide, the filmer may then trace or outline the main features of the picture upon the card lightly in pencil. The outlined result should be kept very simple, only the salient artistic features appearing on the title card. After the projector has been stopped, the card may be taken to a desk and the outlined scene carefully gone over with India ink. This work will complete the title card. Letters may then be lined up on the card, and the title can be filmed in one operation. Greeting cards. By browsing through a greeting card collection, one can often find just the needed title decoration in a portion of the card. For example, two small, highly colored, overlapping sombreros in a greeting card with a Mexican theme have been used for an attractive series of titles for another film of Mexico. Decalcomania transfers. Available again in local five and ten cent and household supply stores are the familiar transfer decorations intended for furniture or bathroom and kitchen walls. Transfers of boating scenes, birds, animals, flowers, butterflies and many other subjects are available; they make excellent title decorations, especially on mottled cards. The transfers readily apply to most title card surfaces, and, if excess water is quickly blotted up, there will be no danger of a warped title card. Magazine clippings. Often among magazine advertisements one may find small pictures that make good title decorations because of what they symbolize. For example, the compass appears in many of these; carefully clipped out in outline, it may make an effective decoration for The End title of a travel film. Flags of nations, State or national shields, military and other insignia are to be found in this group, too, as well as attractive pictures of foods and flowers. Colored papers. For color titles there is an unlimitedly possible variety just in the use of little, bright colored pieces of paper or cardboard. In a title where white letters have been placed on a mottled, textured or even a plain card, a small square or rectangle of bright color may be spotted under just the first letter of the title. Of course this colored square or rectangle should contrast sharply with the background. Or, using some of the familiar geometric forms — the triangle, square, rectangle or circle — a small touch of color can appear just at the top left, or beginning, of the title or in the center below the last line. A recent film of jewelry making used plain, blue background cards, with small circles of different colors here and there on the title card, resulting in very appropriate titles. 16mm. scene by Frank E. Gunnell, FACL Small fish is used to indicate that film deals with aquatic incidents Objects connected with the film. Often a film may call for or offer a suggestion for title decoration peculiar to its subject. A film involving card playing may suggest using some small playing cards for title decorations. Tiny sets of such cards can often be found in souvenir or toy stores. Films based on athletic events suggest the use of very small models of athletic equipment as title decorations. Christmas and other holiday films are almost unlimited in their titling possibilities. With these suggestions as a beginning, the interested movie maker should be able to add many ideas of his own, and he should soon be on the way to accumulating his own collec