Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

50 II JUST FOR FUN! n How effort, editing — and the help of her husband — made a finished movie from a lady filmer's scrap bag VERNA TURNEY, ACL PERHAPS no self-respecting bird dog should ever be named Betty! But ours had been; and it occurs to me now that this may explain an otherwise inexplicable habit of this capricious canine. She eats bananas! Crazy about them, in fact. So, anyway ... If your dog eats bananas, why naturally you take some pictures of it. And if the neighbor's kingsize Collie shares his saucer of milk with a tiny waif of a gray kitten, why you take some pictures of that too. And what female filmer — or male filmer either — could resist the visiting toddler who holds Mother's hat aloft with both hands, jams it down over one eye and then, turning her baby face up to yours, claps her hands in delight over the triumph she feels has been hers? You can't resist, of course. So you take more pictures still, until one day you find your catchall box of odds and ends is running over. That's the time to take action on the growing pile. And perhaps an outline of what I did may suggest to yrou some similar solution of this "snapshot" picture problem. TITLES START THE STORY First off, you will need a good, general it-covers-everything lead title. I settled on Just For Fun (see 1), which certainly leaves the door wide open for most any sort of human interest sequence. Secondly, you will need some sort of simple connective (other than subtitles) to tie together your varied subjects. A husband, for example, can come in handy. But plan the part you will ask him to play shrewdly and with an eye to his comfort. My chosen setting was the seclusion of our backyard, with a high hedge for privacy and as a neutral background (2). My properties were a red and white checked hammock in a green metal frame, a white tea cart near the head of the hammock, and on it a stack of books and a cooling pitcher of refreshments. And, amid this luxury, my plans called for friend husband to lie flat on his back and appear to read the books. He played this demanding role perfectly (3) . And now for the titling. As you will see in the illustrations, the lead title of Just For Fun was decorated with a number of objects suggesting the subjects to follow. The subtitles were, as shown, the cover names of the several books; these I had hand-lettered in India ink and attached to the regular book covers with cellophane tape. KEEP SUBTITLES SIMPLE The first of these (after an opening sequence establishing That Man in the hammock) was Small Fry. Goodness knows, you could introduce any sort of kiddie comics with that one; but the sequence I had in mind was one made some time ago at a tiny-tots amusement park. At the entrance, setting the fairy-tale atmosphere, stood a giant model of that rollicking residence of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe (4) . Pictured from several positions, to reveal the many small heads peering from windows and the clothes flapping on the line, it made an ideal opening for this sequence. THE FAMILY FILM But the real meat of this part of the movie was the sequence on a miniature railroad (5 and 6) . No toy stuff, this; just kid-size reality. And no undramatic Diesel engine either; ours was a genuine huff-and-puff steamer. The opportunities for angles seemed unlimited — first a medium shot of the kids getting aboard, then a full shot of the locomotive, followed by a closeup as the engineer stoked his half-pint Iron Horse. In shooting the actual train ride, I tried always to create a sense of progression and to keep the outfit moving in one general direction from the audience viewpoint. Later, editing helped this along byr cutting out any possible overlaps. VARYING THE ROUTINE At the close of the Small Fry series, I returned to That Man in the hammock as he closes the book, places it on the table and, taking the next book from the stack, opens it and begins again to read. On the cover of it (7) we see the subtitle Pets. Although this same procedure is employed to introduce each new subject, variety can be infused into these actions by changing your camera angles and distances. Also, further along in this book business, I suggested to T. M. that he swing his legs over the side of the hammock, reach for the pitcher on the tea cart and pour himself a glass of water (8). Despite the demand here for action (not to say acting), he played this part of the drama with alacrity. BETTY, THE BANANA HOUND Featured, of course, in my Pets series was a sequence on Betty, the banana hound (9). I opened with a closeup of a bunch of such fruit on the backyard table. From this, in a medium shot, we establish That Man seated beside the table as the bird dog comes running into the picture. Her master reaches for a banana and peels it, as Betty whimpers, whinnies, prances and begs. Then there are a number of near shots as the tasty morsels are broken off and dropped into her watering mouth. The sequence ends (as does the banana!) when T. M. tosses the empty banana skin aside and Betty hurtles after it and out of the picture. (That king-size Collie, of course, and the little kitten were included also under the Pets subtitle.) FLOWERS AND FISHING Now, do you have a flower fancier in your family? Well, with a little preparatory fixing, then, it will be as easy as picking posies to feed your favorite flower closeups into this picture. After a Gardening book subtitle, I opened with a closeup pattern of crossed hoe and rake with a trowel couchant between them. Into this pretty composition there then reaches a grimy hand groping for the hoe, and as we cut back to a medium shot there is Guess Who giving the geranium bed a going over. Under a stuffy, legalistic interpretation of my lead title (Just For Fun), I suppose this scene might be charged with stretching the truth a little. In any case, it offered me a fine opening to mix into this pot-pourri my choicest closeups of floral beauty.