Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

14 CINE MAPS THAT MOVE How your travel route and vacation visits can be animated without frame-by-frame filming IN THE December, 1948, number of Movie Makers, under the heading of Masks For Your Movies, it was my privilege to describe the construction and operation of a simple masking device which I have worked out for use with my 8mm. camera. At that same time, some of the many interesting and effective opportunities for its employment were discussed in general. Movie Makers has now asked me to outline specifically the filming procedures involved in one of the more attractive uses to which I have put this masking method. I shall be glad to do so. For, although the screen results in question have been hailed by a few kind friends as "spectacular,"' the creation of them, cinematically, was simplicity itself. ANIMATION NOT NEEDED My problem was a familiar one — the production of a series of map inserts which would trace pictorially the progress of an automobile vacation trip. I knew that this had been done by others in variations of the animated line or figure system. I knew as well that any variant of this system involved the use of frame by frame shooting — and I was not equipped to undertake this technique. I resolved to put my masking device to work in some new solution of this common problem. For those facing the same need, here's how to work it out. LARGE MAP EASIER On a piece of white-faced artist's board, first sketch in (or have sketched) a simple outline map of the region to be traversed. Featured on the map should be the names of the principal towns or places visited and a broad line marking the route from one stop to the next. All other detail (if any) should be subordinated. Your basic outlines should be drawn with India ink, using a stub-pointed lettering pen. Major areas can then be attractively colored with water-color paints — blue for bodies of water, green for the land and a bright red, say, for marking the broad route line. The size of your map will depend on your technical facilities for filming it. But^ in general, the manipulations soon to be described are easier to carry out with a reasonably large map card than with the smaller sizes usually associated with title shooting. Specifically, my map was drawn on a sheet of artist board 30 by 40 inches in area, and I filmed it with the standard !/2 inch lens from a diManre of approximately 4 feet. G. A. HALL, ACL DOUBLE EXPOSED SCENE, with place name illuminated from rear, is suggested above. Details show 40 watt lamp housing, glowing route and place marker. SIMPLE OUTLINE MAP is first need for ingenious animated effect. Route is perforated and place names lettered on translucent panels. ROUTE IS PERFORATED With a map of this size, the route band is now perforated with small holes about 1/12 of an inch in diameter, spaced at intervals along the band of about % of an inch. The names of locations where stops are to be indicated are now lettered boldly in India ink on strips of tracing paper (or any other translucent material). These strips, in turn, are then pasted on the back of the map so that they cover slots of appropriate size which have been cut out at the several locations. You are now nearly ready to film the route of your trip, using whatever technical setup is convenient to you. The only requirements are an ability to get at the back of the map during filming, a fixed lighting arrangement (I used one flood lamp in reflector on each side at camera distance) and a fixed relationship between camera and card — much as in title shooting. MASKING FOR EFFECT Before pressing the camera button, however, you must now bring into play the simple masking device mentioned at the start of this discussion. For the effects to be achieved, you will need a pair of complementary circular masks in which the first exposes a 270 degree segment of the circle, with the second exposing the complementary 90 degree segment. For the first run-through of your film footage, insert the 270 degree mask in the masking slide so that it will expose the lower right, lower left and upper left sections of the map. For the filming which follows you will probably need the assistance of one other person, either at the camera or behind the map. Here's what happens — and it isn't a bad idea to rehearse it with a dry camera run to perfect your timing. First take a regular 40 or 60 [Continued on page 32]