Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

138 BUDS AND BONNETS CtTS The rebirth of spring is as much the Easter story as Milady's bright new hat DOROTHY M. PEPER THE FAMILY FILM F ROM Fifth Avenue to Wilshire Boulevard, from Main Street to MacDougal Alley, you will want a film record of your own Easter Parade. It goes without saying that you will use color stock, making the most of the bright new day in every film-step you take. For the very meaning of Easter is resurrection, or new life. So concentrate on newness, freshness and rebirth from the first scene to the last. Perhaps your best beginning is with the rebirth of nature itself. There will be the first green blades of grass, the trees leafing out in new dress and the bright and tender crocus. There's a whole new generation of animal life — baby lambs gamboling in the pasture, new calves and baby pigs, amazingly awkward new-born colts, tumbling puppies and kittens and soft yellow baby chicks. If possible, run out in the country for a few atmosphere shots. In the barnyard, in the orchard, in the pasture — everywhere you will find manifestation of new life. Film the baby animals feeding, or exploring, or just staring curiously at you and your black box that clicks. And — if you are lucky enough to find one — get a closeup shot of a nest of hungry young birds. If you can't get out in the country, you can find a dozen or more signs of spring on most any city sidewalk. There will be boys playing marbles and girls at hopscotch. Baseball, the high jump and the hurdles may be in practice on the vacant lot. Girls playing jacks or skipping rope, boys flying kites or teen-agers strolling arm in arm, all are fine cine signs of spring. There come now the first traditional activities of approaching Easter — dyeing the Easter eggs. Perhaps, to Philip Gendreau ONE BOY AND A BUNNIE make an engaging entry in your says the author, there is more to the subject than just pets and simplify lighting, you'll want to stage the sequence around an old table in the backyard. Here are assembled dyes, crayons, bits of yarn and ribbon and lace. Try to get the entire family to participate. As usual, stand back and get a group shot first. Then move in and begin your individual closeups. Concentrate on the egg decoration business, of course, but don't fail to get the intent expressions on each egg decorator's face. There'll be laughter, inspiration, admiration, disappointment, surprise— and dye in a lot of places besides on the eggs! Some of the eggs will be so pretty you will hate to think of their being cracked and mussed up, as inevitably happens in the hide-and-hunt process. But here is where your movies will pay off. Make the eggs as colorful and elaborately patterned as you wish — even fix a few with faces and yarn wigs and beards. Then take a closeup of the whole lot of them, grouped together on the grass. In this way you can preserve their beauty intact, for as many years as you wish to admire them. Next comes the action-packed sequence of the egg hunt. Our youngest, after watching the older children rolling eggs down a grassy slope, decided to pitch a few, a la Bob Feller. It was a strike-out scene. Then, at the windup of festivities, four year old Kathy provided us with one of our proudest shots — a closeup of her cracking two eggs to peel and eat. Every time the eggs came together, her nose wrinkled and her eyes blinked. It took several concentrated efforts on her part and, watching her on the screen, you could all but hear the egg shells crack! It was Kenny, two and a half, who unwittingly provided a perfect climax to the Easter egg sequence. When his chubby fingers had painstakingly removed most of the shell from a brightly colored egg, he turned triumphantly at last toward the camera — and crammed the whole thing into his mouth! And what Easter film would be complete without an Easter bunny sequence. Put a pure white rabbit with a bright ribbon bow on a patch of new green grass. Surround him with children in colorful play clothes and you will have a shot to please the most avid camera bug. No need to worry about action here — just leave things up to the rabbit and the kids. Comes at last the climax of your continuity— the Easter Parade. Even if you live in a small town, there must be some sort of fashion festivity. Picture the people strolling down Main Street, after church. Film the town's dignitaries, if you like. But more particularly, catch your special friends. For in time to come, they will be the ones with whom you'll want to share and enjoy the pictures you take that day. Easter diary. But, And, by all means, film your own home parades. folks on parade. [Continued on page 153]