Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

340 REEL REINFORCEMENT Any home projectionist who uses 8mm. or 16mm. short subjects in making up his film programs probably has found out, as I did, that the cardboard reels on which they are spooled tend to fray and tear at the center hole with use. In time, these holes may even become so enlarged as to let the reel fall off the projector during a screening. To prevent this wear and tear, I found that a generous coating of clear fingernail polish, applied to both sides of a new reel around the holes, does the trick. My reels so treated now last the life of the film. Lawrence H. Siders Roxbury, Mass. SIMPLE SPLIT SCREEN Amateur movie makers lacking expensive equipment may take heart from the excellent results of an experiment I recently made with a simple 8mm. roll film camera. My scenario called for an opening sequence showing a telephone conversation between two friends. To dress up this action a little, I decided to try it in split screen — with one talker on the right, the other on the left of the same frame. As a start, I simply covered the right half of my sunshade with a carefully cut strip of masking tape. I then threaded the film into the camera and marked the first frame at the gate with a small nick on the edge. After running off the leader film, I shot the first person at the MASKING TAPE, placed alternately on the left and right tides of sunshade, creates a simple split-screen effect, says author. left, facing toward the center and talking heatedly. The footage indicator was noted carefully at the beginning and end of the scene. Then, with the lens cap on, I ran the rest of the roll through the camera, turned it over and ran it through back to the beginning. Now, referring to the nicked starting mark, the film was rethreaded in the camera, the left half of the sunshade was masked off, and I pictured the second person on the right gesticulating wildly. Although I had no frame counter, the start and finish of the two scenes were off by only about ten frames — which I spliced away. The split screen effect matched perfectly. Costing but a few cents worth of tape, this system offers untold variations for the imaginative movie maker. Irving Zeichner New York City NICE SPLICE For those filmers who are fussy about the finish of their splices, and especially for those using the Griswold negative (1/16 inch) splicer, I can recommend as a scraper the thin steel ignition files generally found at auto supply stores for around ten cents. You'll rarely use more than two gentle strokes to loosen the emulsion. You then flip the file over and clean the scraped surface with one light stroke. The resulting splice is thin but strong. It is possible to scrape hundreds of splices with one of these little ignition files before they even begin to show wear. Ralph R. Eno, ACL New York City EDITING AID If an editing-viewer does not have a notching device (as many do not), it is often difficult, especially with 8mm. film, to relocate a given frame when the film is removed from the viewer for cutting. I have found that the single frame device now offered on many cameras (or a tap of the button, if it is not) is a real help in solving this problem. I use it in this way. Whenever I am shooting a scene which I know will require rearranging in the film's 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. Pictures, plans and ideas to solve your filming problems continuity, I cover the camera lens, run a frame or two and then proceed with the out-of-place scene. At the end of this take, I then run one or two more frames with the lens covered. On reversal film, these frames return from processing dark and opaque. They are easily located during editing, even without a viewer, and mark clearly where the scene begins and ends. They are, of course, spliced out in the final cutting. Jack Judy New York City MORE TYPEWRITER TITLES Reading the advice of John W. Naish in the July Clinic (about typing titles on carbon paper with the typewriter set on stencil to withdraw the ribbon) prompts me to send you my suggestion for accomplishing the same end — the avoidance of a fabric-like impression outlining the letters. My method is simply to type each letter and line twice, preferably using a new ribbon. What happens is this. When the typewriter carriage is returned for the second typing of the title legend, it automatically draws into position a fresh length of typewriter ribbon. Thus, whatever fabric-like impression might have been created in the first typing is inevitably blocked out by the impressions of the second. Furthermore, with this method you can see clearly what you are typing, which aids in an equal spacing of the title copy. E. N. Rahusen, ACL Velp, Holland