Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1948)

26 CONTRIBUTORS TO The Clinic are paid from $2.00 to $5.00 for ideas and illustrations published. Your contributions are cordially invited. Address them to: The Clinic, Movie Makers, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. Please do not submit identical items to ii her magazines. TITLE TRICK Many interesting title effects can be created by mounting your title card on the single turntable of a record player. I recently filmed an end title in this way, which, on the screen, is first seen as a whirling blur. After a moment, the whirling effect begins to slow down until the wording, The End, comes to a stop exactly centered in the field. The problem, of course, is how to get your title wording to stop in this centered and level position. The answer is simple. You shoot the whole thing with the camera upside down, beginning with a still title accurately aligned — but with it, too, inverted. Run enough footage to record the wording and then switch on the turntable. The finished title is later turned end for end when spliced into your film. Louis Chalmers Berkeley, Calif. AUTO CUT-INS To round out my vacation travel picture, I recently faked a series of closeups of two persons in the front seat of an automobile, seemingly in motion. The camera was placed in front of the car, but high enough and close enough so that only the rear part of the hood and the windshield showed in the finder. The chief difficulty lay in killing reflections on the windshield glass. I found that this could be done by shielding it from direct sunlight with a large umbrella held by an assistant perched on the car's top. Silver board reflectors lightened the shadows on the faces of the two travelers, while a second assistant joggled the car to create a realistic effect. Harry D. Williams Waco, Texas SPRING RING FOR FADES Under most light conditions, an adequate fade out can be made by closing down the lens diaphragm from its operating exposure setting to the smallest aperture the lens affords. But a good fade calls for smoothness of execution, and this is hard to achieve if the diaphragm ring is small or is tightly fitted. To get a smooth turn, I made a springed ring with a lever. The ring is made of one brass strip. 1/16 inch thick, soldered to another. 1/32 inch thick. This ring must fit loosely on the diaphragm ring, as it is to be tightened by a bolt. This bolt, serving as a lever, should be made one and a half or two inches in length, to achieve the desired smoothness of operation. The illustration on this page shows the details. This device can be used not only for fading scenes out, but also for fading them in — which makes dissolves pos SOLDineD ? 5OIPCKC.0 D . Man. DiflPHnnan nirta. VJ= w/jor/i EASY to make diaphragm control ring for creating smooth fades and lap dissolves. Pictures, plans and ideas to solve your filming problems sible. So that you may know when to stop the fade in at the correct aperture for the indicated exposure, the diaphragm ring is first set at that aperture. The control ring is then attached so that the lever handle is just visible in the view finder. Then, with the diaphragm set at its narrowest aperture, the fade in is created by moving the control lever from that position until it is again seen in the view finder. You will have brought the fade in to the exact stop number which the light condition requires. Corn. J. Bulte, ACL Amsterdam, Holland TWO STROBOSCOPIC SPEEDS The drawing on this page shows a double duty stroboscope, which will indicate correct projector speeds for both sixteen frames a second and for twenty four frames a second operation. With its use, the time required for preparing for sound on film showings and for returning to silent projections is reduced. This disc is designed for attachment to the projector's sprocket hub. There are two conditions that must exist, if the device is to operate in that position. First, the sprocket must have eight teeth and the projector must operate on a sixty cycle current. The hole for mounting the disc should be made at the intersection of the two crossing lines in the center of the drawing. The disc is observed by the light of a half, or quarter, watt neon glow lamp, burning on alternating current only. When the spokes of the disc appear to be stationary, the projector's speed is correct. Laurence E. Baty. ACL Salt Lake City, Utah