Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

JANUARY 1949 HE*E «S YOUR OPPORTUNITY T° OWN A GENUINE EXPOSURE M£TER AT "SS THAN ft PRICE ith B,ond n«" "SaNTEE. Supply FACTORY GUARAN ^ (o REGULARS $2650 OUR PR,CE $11.95 This department has been added to Movie Makers because you, the reader, want it. We welcome it to our columns. This is your place to sound off. Send us vour comments, complaints or compliments. Address: The Reader Writes, Movie MAKERS, 420 Lexington Ave.. New York 17, N. Y. THE TEN BEST Dear Sirs: It was a very pleasant surprise to receive word that my picture. Rowdy Clam Bake, was selected as one of the Ten Best for 1948 by the staff of Movie Makers. Like most enthusiastic filmers. I have always looked forward to the day when I might produce a film worthy of such honors. Now I shall continue in my efforts, in an attempt to one day achieve the distinction of producing a film worthy of the Hiram Percy Maxim Award. Wilbur W. Krimpen. ACL Jamaica, N. Y. To The Editors: It gives me great pleasure to learn that the staff of Movie Makers has selected Life Hangs By A Thread as one of the Ten Best of the year. The idea of the film belongs to my co-worker. Chaplain Paul R. Elliott, who wrote the story and supplied the narration. I photographed the picture in Washington. D. C. at the home of Crawford Brown, jr.. who is now an intern at the Germantown Hospital, in Philadelphia, and whose hobby is making and performing these marionettes. He sweated out a week of day and night labor in creating one of these little characters and in performing his troupe for my camera. Joseph Dephoure. ACL Boston. Mass. HOWARD at MULBERRY • BALTIMORE 1, MD. PRODUCTION crew of Life Hangs By A Thread is Joseph Dephoure, ACL, at the camera, Craw ford Brown, jr., puppeteer, and Paul Elliott. Gentlemen: I am deeply grateful and happy for Movie Makers' confidence in choosing my film. Life Hangs By A Thread, as one of the Ten Best. It will mark for me a standard to do even better next time, if possible. Paul R. Elliott Milford, N. H. Dear Movie Makers: The judges who reviewed the films in the Ten Best contest may be interested to know that the Honorable Mention winner, No Credit, was made almost entirely by single frame technique. I would like to state particularly that the film was made in collaboration with Ralph W. Luce, who shared with me the many tasks of production. It was only through oversight that his name was omitted from the entry blank. Leonard W. Tregillus, ACL Berkeley. Calif. LAUNCHES TRADITION Dear Mr. Moore: It was indeed a pleasure to have another of my pictures selected as one of the Ten Best films of the year. As one who has won several Ten Best honors in recent years, including the Hiram Percy Maxim Award in 1945. I'd like to start a tradition that any movie maker who has won several Ten Best honors and the Maxim Award will voluntarily withdraw from the annual competitions for a period of several years from the date of his most recent award. With this in mind. I am voluntarily retiring from the Ten Best competition for a period of five years or more. Frank E. Gunnell, FACL Staten Island. N. Y. League Fellow Gunnell's generous modesty is equalled only by his outstanding ability with the camera. In fourteen years of competition, beginning in 1935, his score is seven Ten Best Awards (including his 1945 Maxim winner) and five Honorable Mentions. Movie Makers accepts his retirement with regret and his tradition with thanks. VALUE MY MEMBERSHIP Sirs: I do value my membership in the ACL and wish to renew it for the coming year. Sorry I've been so slow in handling it. The new Movie Makers is swell! Charles Bennett, ACL Pueblo, Colo. ONCE BURNED, TWICE SHY Sirs: Concerning the question of Don Bateman on filming firelight, in the Question and Answer column for November: You really are a discouraging fel