Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

MOVIE MAKERS 313 furnish thrilling sequences for your sports film library. Trail riders, hiking groups and mountain climbers provide many other breath taking shots. On the rangernaturalist tours the rangers point out the rich wild life, the hundreds of wild flowers and the weird geological formations, all of which provide an endless array of unusual and beautiful picture material. The intense blue Montana skies, with their white cumulus clouds drifting and breaking against the peaks, are a moving picture unto themselves. Etched sharply against the sky, the peaks climb from a gentle carpet of flowers, through the varied green of meadow and forest to the stark cliffs at the summit. And blazing blue-white in all this color are the ever shining snow fields and glaciers. You will turn homeward from Glacier National Park with happy vacation memories — and the makings of a great movie. Shot and sequence [Continued from page 292] figure shot. These in-between shots give the cameraman flexibility and variety in constructing a movie sequence. Their use should be guided by the action filmed, plus a sense of proportion. Just as walls have cornerstones to unite them, sequences are brought together by reestablishing shots. These can be either a long or medium shot, or even one of the in-between shots. Its important feature is that it reestablishes the general scene, recalling the attention from the specific closeup. If, for example, our housewife were to go from the stove to the refrigerator, the reestablishing shot would tie the action together by showing her movement from one object to the other. The sequence can consist of three, thirty or more shots, according to need. They can be simple or complex, consisting of single brief actions or groups of actions. A kitchen sequence can be comprised of several simple sequences at the stove, the refrigerator, the ironing board. A dining room seqence might consist of simpler sequences showing the housewife setting the table, polishing the glassware and tuning in on her favorite soap opera. When these longer sequences have a time lapse or space transition between them, they are often connected by a dissolve or wipe or whatever optical effect is available to the movie maker. But, whatever the nature of the shot or the sequence, the vital thing is that they are all part of the same structure, that the component parts take on meaning only when they are joined together. Bricks do the job they were meant for only when joined with others to form a wall, walls when grouped together to form a building. You have a motion picture only when the various shots are brought together in pictorial continuity. This is true of good movie making whether done by professionals in Hollywood, by students in the workshop of the New Institute or by ACL members in their own backyards. So, when you shoot your home movies, don't just think in terms of shots as does the still photographer, but think in movie terms of shot and sequence. In short, be a motion picture cameraman, not just a guy exposing movie film. Reunion in the Southwest [Continued from page 295] o'clock in which the performers appear in the costumes they are to wear in the Ceremonial dances and chants of that afternoon and evening. The performers are brought by truck from the Ceremonial grounds to stations on North Third Street, where they form for the parade. Until they are ready to fall in, they lounge in the shadows of the buildings or drum up a jam session on the sidewalk — with the drummers beating hard on their tomtoms and the singers chanting heartily for the amusement of the other Indians. This is a golden opportunity for lively and unhampered human interest scenes in near shot and closeup. As the parade begins to form, the movie maker should get back across the tracks to the south side business district, preferably on Coal Avenue, somewhere between Third and First streets. For it is in this section of the line of march that the performers break into their dances, displaying some agile footwork and fluttering feathers. Spectators line both sides of the street, and if the dancers are filmed against their faces and clothing much of the color and detail of the Indian costumes is lost. On Coal Avenue it is best to shoot from the north side of the street, for the background is then in the shadow and the color details of the Indian costumes come out bright in the sun. One thing to watch for, however, are the shadows from banners strung across the street overhead; they may sometimes spoil what you think is going to be an effective head-on shot of a chanting chorister. Yes, photographers are allowed in the street so long as they don't interfere with the marchers. 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