Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

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MOVIE MAKERS 189 flatter screen of CinemaScope, on the other hand, permits it to serve a much larger auditorium without distortion at the sides and with less curvature of horizontal lines ; but the lack of picture detail makes most of the seats in the front half of the theatre undesirable. What I am suggesting is that Cinerama flatten its screen to some extent. This probably would cause some loss in dramatic effectiveness for patrons lucky enough to get what are now choice seats. But it would benefit the great majority of the audience who now miss much of Cinerama's impact. In addition, flattening the screen would move the projectors toward one another — perhaps into a single projection booth! With a few such technological changes (I understand that recent experiments at Oyster Bay promise a decided improvement in the vertical panel joins), I believe Cinerama has a bright future. It already is a superior and profitable piece of showmanship. STORY STILL PARAMOUNT And, even with its faults, I think that CinemaScope can perform an invaluable service for Hollywood; it will undoubtedly coax people back into movie houses just out of curiosity. But the prognosis of CinemaScope — in fact, of Hollywood movies — will depend primarily on what they see on the new screen, not how wide or deep they see it. There was nothing wrong with the shape of the old screen that good movies couldn't fix. And whether CinemaScope is the dawn of a new era in motion pictures or a spectacular sunset in the twilight of a great industry depends on this one question: "Is it a good movie?" FACL and AACL, 1953 [Continued from page 181] founder president and moving spirit of the recently organized Federation of Australian Amateur Cine Societies, comprising nine clubs. To these tasks and to his filming Mr. Bartlett brings the resourcefulness and showmanship of a good advertising man ■ — which is his profession. Married and the father of three sons, he has passed the fifty two years of his life in Brisbane where he was born. He is now, however, on an extended business trip around the world, which will bring him to the United States early in the fall. Five of his award winning films ride with him, and American movie clubs will have an opportunity to screen them under the League's sponsorship. TIMOTHY M. LAWLER, JR., AACl In his movie making, Timothy M. Lawler is one more example (the League's president, Joseph J. Harley, is another) of that rare combination of the engineering precisionist and the imaginative creator. Of his six award winning pictures, for example, three of them have been what he himself quite rightly calls "cinematic interpretations." Take Trilogy: it was based on lyric poetry. Take Isle of the Dead: it was inspired by a classic painting. And there was Pastorale. You come then to Duck Soup, the Lawler Maxim Award winner in 1952, and you find this amateur fUmer at his warmest and most human. The engineering precision is there all right; but it has been overlaid with a sensitive understanding of the subject matter which he depicts. Perhaps both of these characteristics are easily explained by the thirty-four full years of Mr. Lawler's life. A graduate engineer from Marquette University in 1942, he married Delores, his co-picture-producer, in 1943 and is now the father of six children. They live in Kenosha, Wise, where Mr. Lawler was born and where he is now employed by the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation as a special test engineer. Mr. Lawler has been a movie maker for a round ten years. For nine of them he has been a member of the Kenosha Movie and Slide Club, which group he has served variously as a board member, program chairman and president. In addition to these local club activities, he has screened his films widely and generously before other clubs and church and school groups throughout the Chicago and Milwaukee areas. WILLIAM MESSNER, AACL Countless movie makers, as you know, have begun photography with a still camera — and then drifted into movies. But with William Messner this transition was made by well planned intent. Joining the Amateur Movie Society of Bergen County, N.J., in 1946, he attended their meetings for a whole year before buying, in May 1947, his first cine camera. It was a Bolex H-16 and still is in active use today. The Messner movies which were to come from this machine carry the same stamp of careful and intensive planning. In 1948, for example, Maxine's Big Moment, Mr. Messner's initial entry in ACL's annual competition, took a solid and unquestioned Ten Best award. Hands Around the Clock, in 1950, and Blades and Sails, in 1951, as well as several Honorable Mention winners, were equally exact both in their planning and execution. But such personal pictures were not the only ones to benefit from Mr. Messner's studied yet creative approach to movie making. He has given generously of his time and skills in producing films for more practical purposes. Pheasant Rearing Project, produced in the same year as Maxine, was GEO. W. COLBURN LABORATORY INC. 164 NORTH WACKER DRIVC'CHICAOO 6 TCLCPHONC STATE 2-7316 8 and 16mm SERVICES HOW TO MAKE MOVIE TITLES IN COLOR! Write today for a FREE A-to-Z Sample Title Teit Kit. Make titles (hat are different . . . better and tailored to your taste. Try our method . . . FREE. COMPLETE COLOR OR B.&W. OUTFIT $6.50 A-to-Z MOVIE ACCESSORIES 175 Fifth Avenue Dept. M New York 10. N. Y. 1453 N. Vine Street Hollywood 28. Calif. Magnetic Film and Tape Users: • For perfect re-recording of music and sound effects, get the NEW MODEL C FIDELITONE TWIN-Table. Three-speeds, microphone mixer. — Write for details. KODACHROME DUPLICATES 8mm. or 16mm. 11' per foot Mail Orders accepted HOLLYWOOD 16mm INDUSTRIES, INC. Dress up your tl ACL COLOR 8mm. 16mm. ms with LEADER . $1.50 . $2.00 an Amateur 420 Lexington Cinema League, Ave., New York 17, Inc. N. Y. Safeguard your Film. Ship in FIBERBILT CASES. 400' to 2000' 16mm. FIBERBILT CASE CO. 40 WEST 17th ST. NEW YORK CITY