Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

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204 Good judges make good judging The ACL adds three experienced cameramen to its veteran staff of film analysts in judging the Ten Best contest JAMES W. MOORE, ACL ELSEWHERE in this issue you will find a full-scale announcement of the official rules and regulations governing the conduct of ACL's impending selection of the Ten Best Amateur Films and the Maxim Memorial Award winner for 1952. These are, we believe, a code of contest operations unique in their clarity and simplicity. To begin with, they are based on ACL's unparalleled experience of almost a quarter century in conducting this competition. Inaugurated in 1930, the Ten Best contest is now in its twenty third year and, as such, is unchallengeably the oldest continuous competition in the world of amateur filming. During this period, the rules which govern it have changed and developed to keep accurate pace with developments in our hobby. Secondly, our rules by design are kept as simple and as explicit as possible. Each paragraph comprising them — and in fact each phrase within each paragraph — has been written into our decalog only when experience has shown a practical need for it. You will not find among ACL's contest ideology those arbitrary standards of ivory-tower experts, neatly and numerically assigning so many winning points to "theme," "interpretation," "tempo" and other esoteric oddities. Nor will you find here any finicky — and largely undefinable — divisions of the competing films into classes, groups and categories. For these artificial dividing lines, in our estimation, are not suitable yardsticks by which true movies should be measured. Good judging is not guaranteed simply by hedging in one's judges with a maze of contest regulations, counts and categories. Contest rulings, as such, should be compiled only as a road map to the competitor on how he may engage in the competition. When it comes to the judges, our experience indicates that the less you direct them, the sounder will be their decisions. For good judging is attained primarily — and perhaps solely — by enlisting good judges. To begin with, such a solon should possess a reasonably informed acquaintance with the creative arts in every form. He should be coldly objective in his reasoned analyses, but warmly subjective in his emotional reactions. Because of the specialized nature of the art form he is judging, he should have a sound knowledge of how amateur movies are made and feel a sympathetic relation with the people who make them. But, above all else, a good judge of amateur movies should have an instinctive recognition of creative film making in any form. In past years, the discharge of these critical requirements has been the sole responsibility of the League's headquarters staff — men and women who, for five, ten or twenty years, have been evaluating more than a quarter of a million feet of film annually. The continued success and unquestioned standing of the Ten Best competition speaks eloquently of their informed and impartial decisions. This year, to assure an even wider impartiality to our Ten Best selections, the ACL's board of judges is being augmented. Added to that panel for the 1952 contest will be the League's three ranking officers — each an experienced, able and honored amateur movie maker in his own right. These men are, in order, Joseph J. Harley, FACL, president of the League; Frank E. Gunnell, FACL, vicepresident of the League, and Walter Bergmann, FACL, the League's treasurer. Brief resumes of their outstanding qualifications as Ten Best judges follow. JOSEPH J. HARLEY, FACL Mr. Harley, who has worked with equal success on both 8 and 16mm. film, has been making movies actively for more than fifteen years. During that time his pictures — of a rewardingly varied character — have won well over a dozen top awards in contests from local to international levels. In His Own Judgement, his Maxim Memorial Award winner for 1944, was hailed by many informed persons at that time as the finest film so far created by our craft. A sensitive student of music and a research engineer on the staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Mr. Harley will bring also to the Ten Best councils an informed knowledge of the best in present day recording techniques — whether on disc, wire, tape or the film itself. FRANK E. GUNNELL, FACL With thirteen placements in over seventeen years of Ten Best competition, Mr. Gunnell is without question the most honored amateur in the field today. Included among these honors is While The Earth Remaineth, Maxim Memorial Award winner for 1945 and one of the most lyric testaments to the splendor of our natural world yet confined to film. A teacher by trade, a traveler by choice and an informed devotee of the out of doors, Mr. Gunnell will add to ACL's evaluation of nature films a wealth of practical experience both as a producer and a competitor., WALTER BERGMANN, FACL Mr. Bergmann's forte among the infinite variety of amateur filming has been pictures on the personal side. Included among his Ten Best placements ( which are listed at six in six years) have been family and story themes, pets and animals, and, in his more serious moments, productions for the Community Chest and the American Humane Association. Added to this active experience in film making, Mr. Bergmann has sharpened his abilities in film evaluation during recent years by conducting a series of adult-education courses in the techniques of film planning and production. The ACL takes unusual pleasure in announcing to amateurs everywhere the addition of these three active and able filmers to our panel of Ten Best judges. And in doing so, we should like to close with a few forthright comments concerning this announcement. The addition of these men to our Ten Best board is not done simply as window dress [Continued on page 221]