Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

264 The Clinic SWATCH INTO SCREEN Reading the June item of Avery Sutton, ACL, called Secondary Screen, reminds me to tell you how I accomplished much the same thing. Many filmers should be familiar with the swatches of beaded screen which are given away by screen manufacturers so that prospective purchasers can compare the material with the screen surface they are using. Radiant and Da-Lite, I believe, both give away these samples to anyone who writes for them. Receiving my sample at a local photo supply store, I very soon decided to put it to practical use — and for exactly the same purpose as Mr. Sutton. I first cut it to 3 by 4 inches in size, then glued it to a larger piece of black emery cloth, trimmed the cloth to leave a ^4 inch border and finally glued the whole works to a sheet of heavy cardboard. Result — a dandy little editing screen which I'll bet is brighter than a painted one. Fred E. Beyer, ACL Rochester, N. Y. SINGLE FRAME EXPOSURE In what articles I have read on the technique of single frame filming there does not seem to be enough emphasis on the fact that, with most cameras, the exposure given each frame will be greater at any given aperture than if that camera were operating normally. This fact — which I discovered by sad experience — is due, of course, to the inability of the shutter to attain full speed instantly. To correct for this difference I recommend closing down the camera aperture one full stop over that which would be used at regular 16 frame a second shoot ing. Another way of arriving at the same correction is to set the camera speed at 32 frames per second. T. J. Nicol Detroit, Mich. SIMPLE RIPPLE FADER Some time ago there appeared in this department an excellent outline of how to create a fading glass by the graduated exposure and development of a 5 by 7 inch photographic glass plate. A fine idea, if you have a darkroom to do it in. In what I have chosen to call a "ripple" fader this is not needed. To begin with, the base material of the fading device is a strip of stiff celluloid. Old X-ray film with the emulsion washed off in hot water does fine. Secondly, the fading elements of the device are created by the simple application of film cement or of India ink mixed with the cement. First cut a strip of celluloid to a size of about 2 by 7 inches. Then cut section A into curly teeth, streak section B with the clear film cement, and paint C with the mixture of cement and India ink. Merge the sections into each other as smoothly as you can, and be sure to make C long enough to be easily held and manipulated. In use, the device is simply slid across the camera lens at the end of one shot (fade out) and then pulled slowly back in reverse at the beginning of another (fade in). Lap dissolves, of course, would be created in the same way but with the film rewound between exposures to superimpose the fade out and the fade in on the same strip of film. Neal Dubrey, ACL Durban, South Africa CONTRIBUTORS TO The Clinic are paid from $2.00 to $5.00 for ideas and illustrations published. Your contributions are cordially invited. Address them to: The Clinic, Movie Makers, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. Please do not submit identical items to other magazines. A B C RIPPLE FADING DEVICE, described by author, consists of 6 to 7 inch strip of celluloid, dear over A daubed w.th film cement on B and painted on C with a mixture of cement and India ink. PARALLAX CORRECTION A simple but effective means of centering titles — that is, solving the problem of parallax in title making — can be worked out easily for all cameras where the viewfinder is offset from the lens either in a direct horizontal or a direct vertical. First measure the exact distance between the center of your camera lens and the center of your viewfinder. Now measure off this distance on a strip of cardboard and draw with a compass % inch circles around the points at the ends of this distance. Mark circle A, on the left, with a cross and circle B, on the right, with a small hole in its center. In use, the cardboard strip is placed in the title card position, the cross in circle A is centered in the viewfinder, and the title card is then moved until its center point lines up with the hole in circle B. Arnold H. Macy Dallas, Texas TYPEWRITER TITLES Handy though the method may be of preparing small title card copy on the typewriter, in my experience these titles are not always wholly attractive because of the fabric-like imprint (when magnified on the screen) left by the typewriter ribbon. I got around this defect recently by putting a brand new sheet of carbon paper face down on the title card, setting the typewriter on stencil position (so that the ribbon would not come up), and then typing directly onto the carbon paper. The imprint which it leaves is clean, sharp and, even under magnification, free from texture. John W. Naish Laramie, Wyo.