Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

132 Little subjects— big reward FRANK E. GUNNELL, FACL OF the many, many films, sequences and scenes that we have created during eighteen years of moving making, none has resulted in greater personal satisfaction, nor more regularly brought eager audience reaction than those portions of our pictures dealing with bird and small animal life. The inclusion of wild life material in our predominantly travel footage was purely accidental. We began with a scene or two here and there, caught as w*e stumbled across a bird or animal subject. Today we deliberately seek out w ild life material ( and domestic birds and animals too), for these sequences are often the life of our travel studies. We have found that the successful filming of wild life subjects results from a combination of things: some knowledge of the habits of the bird or animal being filmed; lots of patience; at least a couple of telephoto lenses; and finally, plenty of ingenuity in planning the sequences and prompting the desired reactions from one's little actors. KNOWLEDGE IS A HELP Of course, the first essential in picturing wild birds and animals is to locate your subject. This is not so difficult as one might think. The photographer need not be an expert naturalist, although some knowledge of the wild life in any particular region will certainly help. \\ e carry regularly a pair of 8 x 30 binoculars on camera field trips and find them very helpful in tracking down and studying small bird and animal subjects before we move in to film them. Some cameramen may find the 6 x 30 binocular easier to use, as the 8 x 30's must be held with very steady hands for good vision. GUIDE BOOKS AND GUIDES A good bird guide book, such as Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds (with a Western bird edition also available,), or the pocket Audubon Bird Guide, will assist greatly in identifying and following up the subjects you observe. In national parks and forests the rangers and naturalists are often most helpful in telling one what animals and birds to look for and where to find them. Local museums and bird or natural history groups are another source of information. And we have often found that a surprising amount of wild life film material can be found simply by conversation with local inhabitants in the region where one is working. PATIENCE GETS THE PICTURE Assuming that you have located your subject, the next step is to study its actions for a while. This has two purposes: first, it helps you decide how and what to photograph and, second, it gets the bird or animal somewhat accustomed to your presence. We have found that deliberate movements in the presence of wild life often have such a reassuring effect on birds and animals that a hiding place or blind is seldom necessary. And, contrary to what one might expect, the hours of patient waiting sometimes necessary to get desired scenes are not at all tiresome. One soon finds all sorts of interesting ac tivities going on about him, as he waits for his particular camera subject to come within range. WATCH FOR PARALLAX Almost any motion picture camera can be used in wild life filming, provided some method is available to correct for the parallax between viewfinder and lens. The longer the focal length of the lens, the more difficult is the matter of parallax correction. Completely accurate correction can be obtained only by the use of a reflex viewfinder, an alignment gauge or the magazine type focusing finder. With them, by noting the limits of the area covered by a given lens for any particular shot, it is then not necessary to use the viewfinder again unless one wants to. For, once the bird or animal is within the noted area, we can go ahead and shoot. The patience to outwait the camera subject is the main problem! USE OF TELEPHOTOS Telephoto lenses are a must for bird and small animal closeups. We think of our telephoto lenses as having three functions: first, that of cutting the distance between our camera and the subjects being pictured; second, that of enabling us to enlarge the essential image that we want on the film; and third, that of .providing an element of safety for the cameraman. With the long focus lens he can often avoid climbing into dangerous locations or having to approach too closely to dangerous subjects, such as poisonous snakes. CHOICE OF TELEPHOTOS We have found that telephoto lenses giving a 2x to 4x magnification are generally more useful than lenses of even longer focal length. This is partly because the lenses of greater power do not focus down to short distances as readily as do the shorter telephotos; also we realize that the longer the telephoto lens the more critical must be the focusing from camera to subject. Our favorite lens for wild life movie making is a 2!/2 inch f/2.7, which we use on our 16mm. cameras. Next in popularity with us is a 4 inch f/2.7 objective. FOCUS IS IMPORTANT With either a reflex viewfinder, a critical focusing device or a magazine focusing finder, the problem of sharp focus on the subject is taken care of quite simply. Without such equipment, an optical rangefinder or a tape measure will be necessary. Since most really good wild life closeups are taken at short range, even a slight error in judging the distance from camera to subject may result in an out of focus scene. EXPOSURE METHODS Some wild life subjects may present special problems in proper film exposure. Birds' nests are usually in shady locations well within the foliage of trees or bushes, or, in the case of ground nests, may be deep in a clump of grass or under a low shrub. Sometimes it is possible to get sufficient light on the filming area simply by observing the time of day when the [Continued on page 152]