Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

321 tf-edi Harold M. Lambert from Frederic Lewis W£> (Z Planning, patience and plenty of closeups are the keys to fine Christmas films DENIS M. NEALE CHRISTMAS DAY, New Year's Eve, winter partiesall these are first class movie material. But good material does not always mean a good film. A lot depends on how you set about shooting it. Running through some of my early attempts at Christmas movies, I find much of them unsatisfactory for one reason or another. The pre-war ones were little more than an unplanned succession of snapshots. The lighting was crude, too, as the photofloods were usually rushed into the room after the turkey arrived! Two years ago I resolved to do the job properly. I decided to rough out a scenario beforehand, shoot the essential parts on Christmas Day and the rest within a week or two after. And so I worked out the following simple story to cover all the highlights. To begin with we see Junior waking up and starting to unpack his Christmas stocking. His first find is a box of candy at which he nibbles while he unwraps his new toys. One of these is a clockwork tractor, a closeup of which forms a bridge to a short sequence in which Junior is trying to make the tractor climb over a box of dates. Next, of course, comes the Christmas dinner with turkey, pudding and all. Afterwards, we see Junior looking out of the window, awaiting the arrival of his Grandma. He sees her coming, lets her in and is rewarded by more candy. Tea time brings a closeup of the Christmas cake, with a decorative Christmas tree on top. A lap dissolve takes us to the real tree, standing on a table in the corner. The room lights go out, the tree lights go on, and Dad hands out more presents — including still more candy. Then the family look at Junior in horror, the lights go up and Junior's face is bright green! Mom whisks him up to bed and we fade out at the end of a pan along a row of open candy boxes. Before the event, the scenario looked ideal. Christmas fare provided a strong connecting link throughout and brought in all the high spots without calling for detailed treatment. No explanatory subtitles were required because the story element was concealed until the very end. When it came to the shooting, however, the snags began to show up. My wife remonstrated at the repeated rehearsals I demanded for the entry of the turkey in order to get the photofloods positioned and the meter readings checked. Then the carving had to be delayed while I re-arranged the lighting to cover the bird (now half cold) on the table. I had intended to rely on daylight for this shot, but YOUR JUNIOR, or Sister, under the Christmas tree will be the highlight of any well-planned holiday reel. Note soft lighting. a final meter reading showed that some boosting from photofloods was necessary. As I was shooting in color, this raised the problem of matching the two kinds of light, daylight and photoflood. Rather than attempt this, I decided to make use of their difference in color values. I shot the sequence with stock balanced for daylight and arranged the photofloods so that their yellowish glow appeared to come from a candle in the center of the table. The result is so good that I intend using daylight stock for faked firelight scenes lit by photofloods. Another lighting problem arose with the Christmas tree sequence, although here I had opportunities for retakes. To get the full effect of the colored lamps, I first tried giving time exposures to single frames. The lamps reproduced as white blobs colored only in the halated glow around them. For a retake I used photofloods to create a lighting level which permitted shooting at 16 fps at f/2.5. The lamps then produced less halation and, in color, are very satisfactory. At its first screening, the finished film was approved by the family. But after a time we became more critical. In fairness to Junior, we had to explain to visitors that he does not really gorge on candy. And then we know that he does not open his Christmas stocking in his own bedroom. We have an arrangement with Santa Claus that the presents shall be left in the grown-ups' room so we can keep track of what the uncles and aunts have sent. For my movie making last Christmas I therefore made different plans. My two principal aims were to keep the record strictly factual and to preserve domestic harmony by getting all the lighting arranged in advance. To simplify matters, I concentrated on two sequences only: the opening of the presents and the Christmas dinner. Continuity had to rely purely on title wording or any useful device that cropped up. Eventually I used Christmas Crackers as a main title and subtitled the first sequence Crack of Dawn. I banked a good deal on get [Continued on page 335]