Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1950)

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416 The Clinic CELLOPHANE BACKGROUNDS For making a beautiful background for a title, take a piece of slightly wrinkled yellow cellophane. Place this over a background card of another color (I use the green Mittens titling board), and then align your white letters on top. Shooting out of doors, as I do, you should work in open shade so that there will be no highlight reflections. The result is really beautiful and quite different. I have had several compliments on my titles made in this way. VlTELLA ZEISLOFT Toledo, Ohio * * * PART OF THE FUN of personal movie making is experimenting with new materials and new ways of telling a story. Titles that are pleasingly different often result from this approach. * * * IF YOU HAVE a favorite musical recording with a pronounced rhythm, it might be interesting to develop a sequence with action specifically matching the sound. -x * * PROJECTION POINTER We started out with wanting to get a longer projection throw for a larger screen image, so we moved the projector into the next room and began shooting through the open doorway. This also tended to reduce projector noise, which was what led us to the following. Simply build of the lightest weight "compo" board a partition which will fit snugly into the frame of the doorway. Set into it at appropriate heights two plate glass ports — one for the projector beam, the other for use by the projectionist. A couple of metal handles screwed to the partition make installing it easier. Ian Pollard, ACL Dunedin, N. Z. •X * * TRY TO AVOID ever touching the soft optical glass of your camera or projector lens with your fingers. To prevent scratching the delicate surface, clean with lens tissue or a special brush. USE OF A RUBBER LENS CAP is an excellent protection for the eye of your camera. But don't forget to take it off while filming! * * # HAVE YOU EVER thought of making still picture enlargements from your best frames of movies? There are special enlargers on the market for this purpose — working in color, too. MANY FILMS are too skimpy — jumping from scene to scene without proper build-up. A subject worth showing at all is usually worth several scenes from different camera viewpoints and distances. * * * IN USING PHOTOFLOOD lamps for indoor filming, avoid overloading your electric lines. The usual house circuit is fused for 15 amperes, enough to carry three No. 2 lamps or four of the 375 watt mediumbeam units. * * * TRAVEL FILM TIPS Item 1: For keeping some sort of reference record of key scenes in my travel shooting, I borrow my wife's lipstick, daub the number of the scene on a window of the car, and shoot two or three frames of it as identification. Later, in editing, I can check this against a similar number and accompanying data in my notebook. Item 2: For a title background of universal mood and meaning, try shooting a blue sky flecked with drifting white clouds in the corners. Type A Kodachrome without the correction filter will intensify the blue tones; it also makes possible working under photofloods later when you double expose your white letters on a matte black background. If the clouds aren't moving fast enough to suit you, expose at 8 frames per second. Homer E. Carrico, ACL Dallas, Texas * * * IF YOU MUST USE Type A (artificial light) Kodachrome for daylight scenes, be sure to use a conversion filter. Otherwise your scenes will be over-bluish. * * * HAZY AUTUMN SUNSHINE has certain advantages over the brighter summer sun for filming. Diffused light produces softer highlights and shadows, very effective in closeups. * * * ANTI EDGE FOG We all know and, I hope, follow the basic caution of loading and unloading roll film in shadow or other subdued light so as to avoid edge fog. However, sometimes in the field this may not be possible. Under these conditions especially do I recommend using a simple film "loading box" as an added precaution. Secure an empty roll film can of the correct size. Using the bottom half (which fits more snugly), cut a slot in its rim from the edge to the Pictures, plans and ideas to solve your filming problems base; about Vs of an inch in width will do. Now line the edges of the slot with adhesive tape so that film may pass through it without being scratched. In the loading operation, place the new roll of film in the can with the spindle slotted side of the spool facing out. Position the spool and can on the camera spindle and carry out the threading operation with the protective can still in place. When all is in readiness, swiftly remove the can and close the camera door. F. C. Moultrie Toronto, Canada HOW ABOUT COLLABORATING with the local police in making a movie on highway safety? Good films on such topics are needed to cut the high accident toll in our country. IF YOU ARE FORTUNATE enough to have a television set, you have a constant stimulus to make better films. You will get many ideas for camera angles from television. * # # THAT UNDEREXPOSED EFFECT of certain landscape films may be due to haze instead. A Skylight (ex-haze) filter is helpful under these conditions. MORE ON A MATTE BOX I would like to add my suggestions to the item on matte box use in the August Clinic. For my 16mm. camera, I find the Cooper Series 7 sunshade a very good unit. Square in shape, it offers a sliding drawer in the back in which filters and masks can be interchanged swiftly. A Series 6 would probably be about the right size for 8mm. cameras. Hugh Moad, ACL Kansas City, Mo. 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.