Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

99 A scissors scenario with ready-to-shoot subtitles WHETHER the ground hog saw his shadow or not, it won't be long now before those first telltale signs of spring are all about us — the pale green bud, the slim blades of grass pushing up through the hard ground, the earliest robin. Mother, of course, will be fretting about spring housecleaning, while Father studies that corner of the backyard he never found time to work over last year. Follow your first subtitle with a quick-cutting series of brief scenes shot close to home. The children are exploring the yard and the nearby fields, hunting the earliest harbingers of the season. Their sight of the first redbreast should be a magic moment for your movie. Even if you don't catch Bobby and the bird in the same scene, you can create the effect by cross cutting from one to the other. At the end of this sequence have Bobby call excitedly to Mother to come share his excitement. But Mother has other plans. She is hanging some rugs on the line out back and Bobby is reluctantly roped in to beat them. Dad is far too absorbed in examining the garden tools, affectionately fingering his fishing gear or hunting for a missing golf stick. Your second subtitle can introduce a sequence of "young love," with Bobby and the engaging young lady next door as the principals. She first gains his interest with her roller skates, but soon his new kite seems more important. At the end he joins the baseball game across the road. With the third subtitle, you will have a fine chance to use that odd footage you shot on a visit to the farm last year. There is nothing more appealing in a spring film than shots of the baby chicks, a clumsy colt or a litter of playful kittens, as the children gaze rapturously at the young animals, trying to pet the calf or play with the silky kittens. If you don't have a farm handy for these shots, how about a springtime visit to the zoo? Dyeing Easter eggs and preparing the children's baskets will make a colorful and engaging sequence to follow the last subtitle. Get your camera set up early Easter morning and catch the kids as they hunt the hidden treasures, their gleeful expressions as they discover the gay baskets and bunnies. Later, as a fitting climax for your spring movie. you will want to film the Easter parade, with your friends and neighbors in their spring finery heading for church, the sun glowing on the distant steeples. The full magical beauty of a spring day will come to life at this moment, a lasting memory for your family film album. —D. C. Cine-Clip Scenarios, a Movie Makers feature unique in the field of filming, present every needed picture part in one handy package. Complete on this page are a lead title and the subtitles for a simple family picture. Printed with them are general suggestions for the subject matter treatment. These possibilities are elastic: you can edit in odd-shot and unused footage, or you can shoot new scenes to order, as you think best. The area of the titles, including the surrounding rules, will be covered easily by your camera (8 or 16) when filmed at a camera-to-title distance of eight inches. Use a five diopter supplementary lens with fixed focus objectives. In use, clip out each title just outside the rule, paste it on a white card of suitable size for your titler and proceed as usual. There are many easy ways of adding color to these captions. Simplest will be to water color or crayon in a colored border on each of the cards. Equally effective is to have the titles reversed on blueprint paper, thus creating clear white letters on a bright blue ground. Or, if you'd like to double expose these captions over relevant action scenes, reverse them this time in photostat, for white letters on a black background. Ides of /^*\ P 2^/ Spring A prelude to spring, the March winds beckon youngsters and oldsters to new activities. More things than love can turn a young man's fancy in the spring. These youngsters want to eat and sleep, —and eat again. Eggs and dyes, bright ribbons and toys, will gladden hearts on Easter morn.