Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

MOVIE MAKERS 125 ter, ACL, and Las Vegas Nights, by T. D. Perkins, ACL. San Diego club officers for 1952 are Mr. Potter, president; Mr. Garner, vicepresident ; Katherine Cooley, recording secretary; Viola Ford and Avis Reeves, corresponding secretaries, and A. H. Erickson, treasurer. L.A. 8's Places in the spring scenic contest sponsored by the Los Angeles 8mm. Club, ACL, were won by Spring, by Barry Dance, ACL; Land of Sunshine, by Katherine Guerrieri, and Grand Canyon of the Colorado, by Louise Fetzner, ACL, in that order. Winners of the club's shortie contest, run earlier this year, were Mr. Dance, for Greeting Card; Robert Browning, with Three Wishes, and Dominic Mumolo with Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better. The short-film contest was run off at the plant of the Los Angeles Brewing Company, where the club had the use of the Mission Room, complete with stage, projection room, a kitchen — and, of course, brew! A record crowd was on hand, we are told. New Zealand Election of officers for 1952 was the highlight of the annual meeting of the Christchurch Movie Club, ACL, in New Zealand. C. B. Fowler became president, with W. Glasgow and R. Geoghegan as vicepresidents. T. M. Evans is secretary, and W. Boyd is treasurer. Mr. Geoghegan was appointed editor of the club's publication. E. A. Adams is patron, and Mr. and Mrs. Glasgow are official host and hostess. | A.C. winners Notice has reached us of the prize winners in the 1951 Amateur Film Competition sponsored by the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers, in England. The Daily Mail Challenge Trophy went to H. W. Catton for Virtue Triumphant, a burlesque of the old melodrama. The trophy winners in the 16mm., 9.5mm. and 8mm. divisions, in order, follow: A Penny for Your Thoughts, by Laurie and Stuart Day; The Brownie Version, by N. R. Butterworth, and The Caretaker, by Phillip Grosset. Helen C. Welsh, ACL, the only American in the listing, was highly commended. New in Mass. Movie Makers Club is the name taken by a group of cine fans in Haverhill, Mass., who have recently organized. Leo W. Bourcpie is president, with Richard Fenlon and Henry Rusha as first and second vicepresidents. George J. Hewis is secretary-treasurer. The board of director^ in-ludes the foregoing officers and Steven Dagason. James Valiant, Arthur Arsenault. Arthur Johnston and James Bougioukas. TABLE OF FOCAL FRAME SPECIFICATIONS FIELD SIZE (8mm.) (inches) FIELD SIZE (1 6mm.) (inches) FRAME SIZE (inches) FRAME DISTANCE (inches) PORTRA LENS (diopters) Height D Width C Height D Width C He:ght B Width A Portra lens to frame F /; 10 5 3% 2'/2 2 V/l % 13 1/2 6% 4'/2 3% 2% 2Vs 3/4 11 5% 3% 2% 2V4 1% 5/8 15 V/2 5 3% 3 2V4 % 13 6'/2 4V4 3V4 23/4 Vk 1 17 8'/2 5V2 4V4 3% 2% 1V4 39Vi 191/2 13 10 8 6V2 lYs + 1 + 2 + 3 +4( + 3, +1) +5 (+3, +2) + 6 ( + 3, +3) 2" (50mm.) lens This table is for use with 8mm. cameras having 12.5mm. lenses and 16mm. cameras having 25mm. lenses. Focusing lenses must be set at infinity. Let's make a nature movie: 2 [Continued from page 106] Choose a sunny, windless day to do your insect filming. For only a bright sun will do justice to the brilliant coloration of these tiny creatures and at the same time allow the use of a smaller diaphragm opening for maximum depth of field — certainly two requisites for top quality closeup photography. There's a beautiful Monarch butterfly on that flower over there. A plus 3 lens should be about right for his fourinch wingspread; so slip it on your camera and slide the appropriate focal frame into place on your camera baseboard. Now the trick is to approach near enough to the butterfly to place the focal frame around the butterfly as shown in Fig. 6. This may sound difficult, but it really can be done, and oftener than you may think. The trick is to move the focal frame towards the butterfly very slowly. Avoid quick, abrupt motions and you will be rewarded with superb butterfly movies. Here is one branch of photography where persistence pays off handsomely. Easier subjects to film are caterpillars, beetles and spiders. Some are pretty; some are ugly; and a few are just plain gruesome. All of them are splendid movie material, however, guaranteed to make your audience sit up and take notice. For filming them a plus 5 or plus 6 lens combination will be best. The ease with which they can be filmed makes them good subjects for beginning insect filmers. For plenty of action in your closeup filming shoot a caterpillar's head (with the ultra closeup apparatus shown in Fig. 5) as it greedily chews plant leaves! Of course, insects provide action for your closeup movies — and often beauty as well. But let's not forget the exquisite beauty that only flowers can offer. For unusual effects try filming back lighted blooms with the closeup camera. Or try sprinkling water on the flowers; then film them in closeup so that side lighting brings out the sparkle of the droplets on the petals. It's so easy to take closeup movies of unsurpassed beauty when you combine imagination with your filming. For something new and something different, do try nature filming! (This is the second and last part of a series on nature filming which began in March Movie Makers — The Editors.) Put order in your editing [Continued from page 110] over or underexposure and scenes which are too short. Now you are ready to disassemble the film in order that it can be rearranged and spliced into the proper sequences. For that operation I employ a prepared sequence sheet I designed to index the scenes for ready reference and location. This sequence sheet is made up of three columns. The first column {Hole # ) lists the number of the hole in the file board in which a coil of film is placed. The center column {Description) is used for the description of the scene; and the third column {Scene #) shows the order in which that scene is to appear in the finished film. Okay. Put a reel on the rewind and draw the film through the viewer until the first scene appears. Chances are that this scene has no continuity relation to