Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

Clini 303 LABEL ON FILM After having my films mixed up and misdirected a time or two at the processing laboratory, I had the following legend printed up on small cards of a size suitable to my titler: This Film is the Property of A. N. SHAMBLIN 209 King St. Dalton, Georgia Now, at the beginning of each new roll of film, I run a one foot take of this card in my titler. The result is obvious. If my film is returned to the wrong movie maker, he can immediately identify the film as mine and send it on to me. A. N. Shamblin Dalton, Ga. PARALLAX POINTER In looking over the problem of parallax, I first arrived at the fairly obvious conclusion that it is at its worst with the camera working close to the subject — as in title shooting, for example. With most titles shot within the distance of 36 inches from camera to subject, I then worked out a parallax corrector which I call the Centerpoint. Basically, it is a lightweight but adequately sturdy pointer in telescoping metal sections, something like the leg of a tripod. Beginning at THE CENTERPOINT, a simple system of parallax correction, extended full 36 inches. IN OPERATION, the base of the pointer is centered against lens in taking position. 12 inches from the camera, the Centerpoint extends in 6 inch units to a total distance of 36 inches. At its base end there is fitted a flat wooden shield which, in use, is centered and held firmly against the front of the lens to be used. The pointer is then extended sufficiently just to touch the center of the object to be filmed, and the camera is aligned with the object. The field area covered can then be determined by reference to the simple tables giving these data at all convenient distances. Dr. 0. L. Patterson, ACL Willoughby, Ohio LIGHT FROM PROJECTOR In a film I was putting together recently I had planned for the insertion of a series of movie scenes apparently being projected for friends in my living room. To introduce this, I decided on staging a shot of myself standing behind the projector in the darkened room, with my face lit only by the light filtering up through the grid of the projector lamphouse. An exposure meter test soon showed that this light was not strong enough for filming, even from the 750 watt bulb in use in the machine. After some fooling around, I solved the difficulty by simulating the effect. A No. 1 flood bulb was mounted inside a shiny metal housing, much as if it were inside a tin can with the top off. The "can" was concealed behind the circular shape of the lamphouse, and the direct light from the No. 1 bulb then projected up on my face. This setup gave a satisfactory exposure on Type A Kodachrome at about //2.3, with the lamp not more than 2% feet away. P. J. Jarvis Boston, Mass. AUXILIARY VIEWER MOUNT When mounting my Eastman movie viewer directly to the board of my Craig senior rewinds I could not find a position in which the film was aligned to both reels at the same time. (I use the back-and-forth editing method instead of the cut-'emup-in-advance system.) So, I bent a U-shaped support Pictures, plans and ideas to solve your filming problems ELEVATED EDITOR, recommended by one amateur, is mounted on angle iron with twist. from a 31 inch piece of Ys inch by 1 inch strap iron and centered it against the board as shown in the photograph. The vertical members are 91/4 inches tall, while the horizontal unit is lO^A inches long. The feet came to about 1% inches each. The Vs twists showing at either end of the horizontal member gave better film alignment and put the viewing screen in almost ideal operating position for a tall man. When using 400 foot 8mm. reels, the film clears the viewer support nicely during rewinding. The only drilling necessary is for two small machine screws for mounting the viewer and for one wood screw in each foot. The strap iron used is light enough to be bent "cold" in a small bench vise, yet it is rigid enough for the purpose of support. In fact, I soon found myself using the viewer mounting as a carrying handle for the whole setup. Laurence E. Baty, ACL Salt Lake City, Utah 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.