Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

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Bottle or remit $1.97 (Postpaid) to: STANDARD FILM PROCESSING CO. Dept. A, 723 7th Ave., New York 19, N. Y. (Good only in the USA, its Possessions and Canadr) [Continued from page 53] and then flew due west across the Gulf of California to La Paz near the southern tip of Baja California — two hours. From La Paz it was due west across to Magdalena Bay, due north to Santa Rosalia and then east-northeast to Guaymas back on the mainland — two hours. Finally, there was a four hour hop northwest to Tijuana — and we were a stone's throw from the American border. I claim that this sort of thing is fun. Also that it makes more time for movies and less time wasted in overland travel. We found also that the airports in the small towns were fun. Usually former (or even present!) cow pastures, they have gravel or grass runways on which the takeoffs and landings of the agile DC-3s are surprisingly smooth. There is, also, a friendly, informal feeling about them. Once or twice a day, perhaps, a plane will come in ; but in the meantime life goes on across and around the field as it always had. At Ensenada goat herders were tending their flocks one hundred yards from the runway. At Guaymas, as we were sight-seeing by auto, it seemed to me that I had seen this particular locale before. The public roadway, it turned out, simply ran right through the airport. So if your vacation time is short, and if you are looking for a new and altogether engaging adventure, try wings over Mexico on your next cine safari. Your domestic travel agent can book the reservations. But remember — Aerovias Reforma does not exchange tickets with any American airline. No! Incidentally speaking . . . [Continued from page 47] dium closeup of a child outdoors (see Fig. 4), it might be desirable to use the sun as dramatic back lighting and to draw the general front illumination from sky light or reflected light. This effect will have impact on the screen, however, only if it is reproduced as the eye sees it. Obviously it would not do to use the exposure indicated by the meter on the shadow side of the subject. Because if one were to do so, the reading would be too low and the face would be reproduced as if the sun were shining full upon it. In any such reproduction the dramatic highlight would be washed out. FIGURING IT OUT What, then, can be done? Step one is to keep in mind that colors will be reproduced satisfactorily if the light illuminating the shadows is at least 25 percent as bright as the light which causes the highlights (the familiar 1:4 ratio). In this type of lighting, the rim of highlights represents the maximum degree of exposure which would ordinarily be indicated by the meter. Therefore, what we are trying to decide is how much less exposure (than the meter indicates) will cause the shadow side to be reproduced pleasingly without spoiling the dramatic highlights. Our decision might be arrived at as follows. Regarding the low-key limit on the shadow side as 25 percent of the total illumination, and the high-key back lighting as 100 percent of the total illumination, why not compromise on something halfway between these two? This means a discount of 37^2 percent; and so for dramatic effects we might set the lens at one stop smaller than the meter indicates. (Specifically, on the scene illustrated, the probable exposure in color for the sunlit area would be //8, so that a full 4:1 difference for the shadow would be //4. Under the compromise suggested, the exposure arrived at would then be //5.6.) If an overall brighter effect were preferred, V2 stop smaller might be used. This calculation has been explained in full to show the importance of knowing exactly why compensations are made. When the reasoning is clear, the cameraman can then indulge his own personal tastes rather than hold to prescribed rules — which often may be imperfectly understood. SPECIAL EFFECTS Strong cross-lighting — outdoors or indoors— also calls for a decision by the cameraman. Either the exposure indicated by the meter may be followed ; or, if the emphasis is to be on the lighting, a V2 stop smaller opening could be used. Outdoors again, there is another form of what is essentially back lighting on which special use of the incident meter is indicated. This includes the intended silhouette shot and the sunset (see Fig. 5). With these it should be obvious that if the meter is directed toward the camera and away from the light, marked overexposure will result from the reading. Hence, the standard procedure is exactly reversed, and the meter is pointed toward the light source. For even richer effects, % a stop smaller than the meter shows might then be used. There are today a number of different incident-light exposure meters available to the cameraman, some basically so and others of the reflected light type convertible to incident light. Full instructions and suggestions are furnished with the meters, these having to do mostly with the dials and settings. When one gets the hang of the meter, the steps in connection with the actual operation of it are done automatically. And that is as it should be. For far too many cameramen are so absorbed in their meter that they lose sight of their picture.