Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

95 Photographs by Alan Probert, ACL I • ' Jr~w EDITING SETUP of author, housed on movable bench, includes rewinds, splicer, shielded viewer and extra idler posts. FILM STORAGE is effected with box of painted shoe polish cans and three layers of numbered holes in portable case. HIGH STOOL and movable apparatus make for ease and comfort in the editing process, as demonstrated above by author. Editing aids ALAN PROBERT, ACL IF YOU read a magazine from front to back (Alas, a lot of people don't! — Ed.), you will have found on the three preceding pages of this one the following: (1) a fact and photo survey of equipment used in editing, and (2) a discussion of how to select from among these items when you are bent on buying. I believe that the editor intends you to read these articles first (You're darn right we do — Ed. I — and then come to this catchall of aids and ideas. For able and ingenious as are the editing gadgets cited in the survey, it is our experience that they are at their best when arranged as you want them. I have made a few such rearrangements myself. And, if the editor will kindly keep out of this article from now on, we'll try to get to them. ( Okay, get going — Ed. ) . Take rewinds, for instance. I like them spaced a little farther apart than they generally are offered on prepared editing boards. This allows me to attach to the board an empty film cement bottle filled with water and a regular film cement bottle filled with cement. Some prepared editing boards, I know, offer this arrangement, but the bottles are only inset lightly into the wood. Mine are fastened down to wood blocks and unspillable. Again, a wider spread between the rewinds permits the erection on each side of the viewer of extra idler wheels. I find them desirable first in winding back long films during the cleaning operation; they give added support to the film as it pases between feed and takeup reels. Secondly, during splicing operations, loose film ends from either reel can be looped over the idlers and then pinned back on themselves with spring clothespins. This prevents the reels from unwinding a couple of turns and spilling film around. Such extra idler wheels can easily be made at home from plastic, fiber or even wood. They should be mounted on small ball bearings such as SKF 1-C, to offer the least possible friction. To minimize slippage of the film on the idlers, they should be as large as is compatible with the rest of the outfit; 2V4 inches I find a reasonable diameter. Most important feature of their design, of course, is that they should be undercut across the central portion so that only the outer, perforation surfaces of the film come in contact with the idler. Efficient and indispensable as it is, a viewer is another editing gadget I like to fool around with. Some models, for example, have employed for illumination a small projector lamp, designed [Continued on page 110] Ideas and arrangements for getting the most fun from your editing tools £ • rjk ■ !l tfj/xt* Wr ^W^^^ POWDER BLOWER method of marking film defects during projection positions atomizer just beyond lower loop and sprocket. CLEAR DOT of powder in center of lighter powder smudge is easily identified on rewind and as easily removed from film. DUSTPROOF cover for editing bench protects loose ends of film left in working position and discourages the meddlesome.