Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

264 THE AUTHOR, left, models his portable editing rack to show its general size. At right it is open and ready for use. EDIT WHEN YOU WISH TO With this portable editing rack and storage case, your film clips are always at the ready AT first thought, a portable editing rack suggests that i you are going to do this sort of work on the road, in the field or otherwise away from home. Nothing, in my experience, could be farther from the fact. For the editing rack here pictured was designed specifically for use in a smallish city apartment. And, unless you are blessed with a separate work or play room, you too may find it a handy accessory. It permits compact and dustproof storage of your film clips between editing sessions and, during these sessions, it provides for the easy transport of your film footage to whatever room you are accustomed to work in. Want to try one? Very well . . . The chief component is a piece of plywood, in my model 30% inches long, 16^/2 inches wide and % of an inch thick. Into it are drilled 120 circular holes in 8 rows of 15 holes each. These holes, which are 1% inches in diameter, penetrate the plywood and thus in the finished article are % of an inch deep. To provide a flooring for them, a baseboard of identical dimensions as the hole board, but only ^4 of an inch thick, is then nailed and glued to the bottom of the storage panel. And to protect the coiled film clips against scratching, each hole is lined with self-adhesive green baize obtainable at most dime stores. To frame this component, strips of wood % inch thick are now mitred and affixed around the four sides. Since these strips are l1/^ inches wide, if you position them flush with the baseboard at the bottom of the unit, they will leave a rebate % inch deep at the top. Into this you can then fit the cover to your editing case, since it will be made of a sheet of plywood just % of an inch thick. Since this cover (which is hinged at the bottom) fits flush into the recess left by the frame, it is necessary to insert near its upper edge a small, brass finger-pull opener. The cover is held in the closed position by a pair of small turn-catches mounted along the upper edge which rotate into position on the top of the lid. A suitcase handle for carrying, and four small rubber feet on the case's undersurface, round out the construction. You may then finish off the case as your taste dictates — either with black paint as I did or by covering it with one of the many artificial leather or fabric compounds. MAURICE DALLIMORE, ACL The entire cost of this editing unit, which I was forced to have made by a carpenter, came to exactly ten dollars. If you have and can use the simple carpentry tools indicated, you should find your expenses far less. The technique of using this type of editing file is probably known to many of you. But, for those amateur filmers who have just joined the class, a quick rundown may be in order. To begin with, the 120 storage holes are numbered consecutively from 1 to that total. With the empty case before you, now project your processed rolls of film slowly, stopping after each scene (or related scenes) to number and list it on a sheet of paper. With the list complete, you may then cut the scenes apart and file them in holes corresponding in ordinal numbers to your scene listing. A second scene listing is now compiled on paper, in which you rearrange (or edit) the scenes into the order you feel they will best tell your film story. For example, the first scene on this edited list might read: 1 — LS of Ocean House Hotel with beach in foreground (6). The numeral "1" in this case will indicate that you want this scene first in your edited footage, while the "6" shows that it is in compartment 6 on the editing rack. With all of your scenes edited on paper in this manner, it is then a simple operation to splice them together in the order indicated. In closing, let me say that my editing rack as dimensioned was designed primarily for 8mm. film — which is the gauge in which I work. As such, I have found that the 120 compartments will accept easily the footage from five full reels of 8mm. film. Used for 16mm. footage, the rack will be almost equally capacious, since the % inch holes are more than deep enough to accept this width. However, since each 16mm. scene requires twice as much linear footage to tell its story, it may prove that the 1% inch diameter of the holes as shown is a bit snug. In that case, you can easily expand the diameter to 2 inches. And remember, with this portable and self-covering editing rack you can commence and break off your editing operations at any time. No longer need you stay up half the night to finish the job against the "little woman's" wrath at a littered living room the next day.