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FIG. 1: Beginning of zoom travel title (left) has camera 42 inches from letters. Note even pressure of hands on camera stand.
FIG. 2: Zoom is completed with camera 24 inches from letters. Depth of field will cover shift in focus.
FIG. 3: Start point of zoom, having been determined visually, is taped off on tracks.
ZOOM TITLES with ZOOMING
WILLIAM MESSNER, ACL
EVER since last March, when I read Zoom Titles Without Zooming, by George Merz, ACL, I have been going around muttering to myself. Old maxims, mostly: stuff like "One man's meat is another man's poison," "There's no accounting for tastes" and, especially, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."
Now, mind you, I don't make a practice of skinning cats (Boston correspondents please note!). But I do make a practice of shooting zoom titles, and my claim is that the easiest way to zoom them is, simply, to go ahead and zoom them. So far, in the course of a couple of Ten Best winners, the results of this system seem not to have affronted the ACL's judges. But then, that frame-by-frame system of George's (the guy's really a friend of mine) has fared pretty well too, Ten-Best wise. Probably there is plenty of room for both plans.
The Merz method, you may recall, was based on a horizontal titling setup, frame-by-frame exposures, and (to my thinking) some pretty elaborate technical preparations before the shooting started. Mr. Merz had resorted to this system, he explained, to avoid two difficulties inherent in true zooming: (1) smooth camera movement, and (2) accurate follow focus as the camera moved. Theoretically, these do sound tough. Practically, I haven't found them so.
THE BASIC TITLER
But let's get down to cases. The center of my zooming system is my regular titler. As you will see on these pages, it is essentially a vertical setup (although it can be used horizontally as well) in which, on a laminated wooden baseboard, two metal tracks are erected vertically and
steadied at the top by a metal strap leading back to the baseboard (see Figs. 1 and 2). To these tracks, the camera carriage is attached (see Figs. 3 and 4) via two snugly fitting metal sheaths.
PREPARING TO ZOOM
To assure smooth, accurate and easy camera movement, here are the simple preparations I make before each zooming session. With a wad of lightweight steel wool I rub down and polish the two metal tracks. This is followed by a thin application to the rails of quick-drying wax. Then, after this has hardened, I make a few practice runs with the camera to feel out just the right pressure for smooth movement.
ZOOM LENGTH FOUND VISUALLY
Finally there is the matter of beginning and ending your zoom at the proper points for the effect you want. This length of camera travel I find is determined most easily by visual inspection. Working vertically, I pull the camera up the tracks until the viewfinder tells me that it (the camera) is at a suitable beginning point. I then wind tape as a blocking point on the rails just above the top arm of the camera carriage (Fig. 3). The camera is then zoomed down (dry-run, of course) until a satisfactory end point is determined. Similar tape blocks are then applied just below the lower arm of the carriage.
16 FRAME CAMERA SPEED
In my actual shooting of zoom titles (as well as other small objects) I have been using a 16 fps camera speed