Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

"THE LINE IS BUSY" might be the easy-to-act-out theme of a family film, as Dad fumes waiting for an important phone call. I SETTLED back in my chair as the lights came on, sighed deeply and prepared to smoke a long-needed cigarette. My host's face was beaming. "What do you think of 'em?" he asked. Well, what could I tell him? His exposures were practically perfect. Good focus. Composition better than average. No fast panning. But — after an hour or so, his movies became monotonous to anyone outside his immediate family. Why? Because he actually had captured nothing but reels and reels of moving snapshots. He had no continuity. No interest. NO IDEAS. We all tackle this home movie business with different goals. Some of us want family records, such as the kids growing up. Others hunt or fish with a camera instead of a gun or rod. Still others want to catch a breath-taking view of scenery which they encounter on their travels. Good enough. I'm not suggesting that a movie fan with a growing family should attempt Class A productions and shoot entirely from script. It would be fine if he did, but most of us don't have the time or patience to make too much of a science of our favorite hobby. Yet by instilling an idea, or a central thought, into each reel we take we can heighten the interest of our movies and greatly step up the audience appreciation. For example. I have three daughters, ages three, five and eight. So naturally I want to film the birthdays, the Christmases and the activities at the lake in the summer. By so doing we will eventually have a priceless library of the kids' childhood. For a few years I took movie "snapshots" of them: opening their birthday presents; waiting for Santa Claus; splashing in shallow water at the beach. That was fine as far as it went; but I noticed that our friends and indulgent neighbors began yawning after the first 100 feet of film had plodded through the projector. Asa result I decided to have a theme, a bit of continuity, or at best a running ga^ in all my future pictures. It works this way. Last Christmas the popular tune was /// / Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth. I de Got any ideas? Even the simplest theme, says this family filmer, will change your cine snapshots into a real motion picture WILLIAM L. LUCAS cided that was to be my idea for our Christmas picture of 1948. It so happened at the time that none of the youngsters was minus two front teeth, and my wife forbade me yanking any of them. That made me the goat. Well, I wanted mostly to film the kids at play with their new toys, but I started the film with a shot of my wife walking over to the record player. She selects a record. There is a closeup of the record entitled All I Want . . . etc., followed by a semi-closeup as the record is placed on the player. The platter starts turning. Then follow shots of the kids, with plenty of closeups, discovering and playing with their toys. The three year old has some marbles. Throughout the picture she keeps hiding them in shoes, chairs, everywhere. More shots of the youngsters at play. Finally, the kids retire on Christmas night. My wife brings the turkey carcass from the refrigerator, sets it on the dining room table and begins picking at it. I join the repast, reach into the turkey for some dressing, slap a handful in my big mouth, then grab my mouth and yell bloody murder. Yep, I'd brought my teeth down on some of my daughter's marbles. Closeup of me removing hand from mouth — two front teeth missing! (By means of black masking tape.) That was the picture. Throughout the entire film I kept reverting to a shot of the record player turning around and around. This kept the title in mind. Simple. No plot, really — just an idea. But wherever I show it — and I play the record along with the projection of the reel — folks get a kick out of it. In the above sample idea I didn't shoot from a script. I wasn't sure at the start how many scenes I'd have, or what footage to shoot of each scene. But I had an idea, and I made sure to plant, early in the picture, the motivation of that idea — the youngster hiding marbles throughout the house. You say you don't specialize in filming youngsters, but like to shoot travel pictures? Well, the same thing holds true. After gazing at a beaded screen for two hours, one mountain looks a heck of a lot like another mountain. So, use your natural beautiful scenery as a backdrop for some action. Maintain a running gag throughout your entire vacation filming, such as (if you have two cameras) shots of yourself always running out of film just when you arrive at some outstanding subject. Or, shots of you deciding wherever you go that you aren't quite ready to expose your one reel of precious film — you're waiting for something better. Then, as the vacation nears an end, dark rainy weather [Continued on page 385] /f^%^^^ THE FAMILY FILM