World Film and Television Progress (1937-1938)

How to Build a Set (con l.) Next, mix some whitewash or ceiling white and spray the top wall sections with a thin coat, trailing it down towards the floor in the corners. This will impart a damp appearance to the walls. Follow this by tearing the paper in places, be careful to tear the paper from the top downwards and leave the torn piece hanging, spraying the hessian revealed with dirty grey whitewash. Paint the door and window frame with dark grey paint, the range a dull black, touching up the oven door-knob and ash-pit cover-knob (if any) with light grey. Then comes the floor. This can be covered with cheap lino having a tile pattern, then scratched to represent cracks, the scratches darkened with paint, and the gloss removed with a thin coat of medium grey, or alternatively manufactured as in the studios. For this method, cover the floor with hessian stretched tight and nailed down along the edges with large headed nails or tacks. Brown paper is then pasted over the top and painted with the required pattern and varnished with copal varnish. The question is one of personal choice. For the cross shot of the door and window the 3 ft. panel, E, is removed and as the door opens inwards revealing the space outside, a black curtain is stretched taut against the back studio wall. For those who wish to produce a foggy effect, stretch a grey gauze about 1 ft. 6 in. in front of the black curtain, and back light it. Outside the window duplicate the curtain, and if used, the gauze. Lighting is largely a matter of personal taste, but there are several fundamentals to watch. First the scene must be lighted in a low key, keeping to the atmosphere associated mentally with a house of this type where the only illumination is gas. Handle your lighting as in the picture on the cover of this month's technical section, but lighting in a slightly higher key than that particular example. Put some well diffused light on the back walls, and use fairly heavy diffusion on the camera if the scene is a foggy one. If a fire is wanted, place a photoflood light behind a couple of thicknesses of gauze and one or two small pieces of dark paper between, to give thebrokeneffectofacoalfire. As a general rule, try to balance the lighting so that the highlights receive slightly less than twice the light of the shadow side. In some cases, with super fast film, it may be safe to increase this amount slightly. In cases as the above, expose for the shadows, and if the light is properly balanced, the highlights will be all right. When tracking from a close shot, mount a lamp on the camera dolly, dimming the light by one half when close in, increasing the intensity as you pull back. Never use the same lamps to illuminate the characters and the background, otherwise you will have well-lit people moving against an under-exposed background. Shadows are necessary so don't get panicky and avoid them, for without shadows one cannot perceive the highlights, thus both are necessary to the success of the picture. Super Sensitive Panchromatic film should be used for these shots, with the highlights preferably from Photoflood lamps. Next month the details of revamping the set for the police station, hotel bedroom, village pub, and steel mill manager's office will be dealt with. Any questions or criticisms about this series will be welcomed and answered. (1) Opening sequence camera angles. Scale |" 1 ft. (2) Closing sequence camera angles. Scale I'lft. ' i. a i \ 1 T WALL )FT WALL DOOR SECTION i REMOVABLE *— 56CTION 2 'Ft WINDOW SECT/ON », ~ WINDOW * 3 FX SfCTION"" 4i T — x ■ v^ 12 .FT ' 'ft WALL 3 \ r 4 SECTION .. k I I FT -x 5 FT (3) Key plan. Scale §" 1 ft. Notes : The human eye is so sensitive that it can differentiate a variation in illumination intensity of the order of about the constant fraction of 0.01. Well, what of it? Only this : don't be misled by the salesman's lumen story, judge the light from a projector by comparison with another, and take the best. * * * * Speaking of light, a new condenser will shortly be available in this country for use with the B. & H. 16 mm. machines, known as the "Magnilite." It will increase the projection illumination by 35 per cent and simply slides into the existing auxiliary slot in the condenser housing chamber. Use of Kodachrome in Daylight Your correspondent, J. Masterton, in the May issue of W.F.N., expresses an opinion that the average amateur does not use artificial light when using Kodachrome owing to the high cost, and is therefore forced to rely on daylight. I have to join issue with him on these points, as my experience has been that the 'average amateur' will probably use his first film of Kodachrome in daylight, but after seeing the processed film, will immediately decide that in future he will use Kodachrome 'A' in artificial light, as he will then have the lighting under local control, and it is possible to film quite satisfactorily using four Photofloods in reflectors— the cost of which would only be 30.v. Using Kodachrome in daylight calls for much experience, either in judging exposures — even with the aid of the Kodachrome charts — or the intelligent use of an exposure meter, and even then one cannot just point the meter at the subject and, having obtained the setting of the diaphragm, just fire away. It's not so simple as that. One must — if one requires correct colour renderings — take readings from all the variously coloured surfaces and, providing the readings are within reasonably small limits, decide on a mean aperture. However, one rarely encounters that state of affairs, it being more normal for one to find tremendous variations, a case in point being the recent Coronation decorations. Here one is confronted with blue and red giving two entirely different readings, and the white high lights which will give a reading in no way comparable to the blue and red readings. I would venture to suggest that more than half the colour films of the Coronation decorations have the same characteristic fault, viz., reds a muddy brown, and blues "washed out," with the whites absolutely devoid of detail. I have found — by experiment and observation — that the tendency with exterior Kodachrome film is under-exposure and lack of colour planning. Why will some people try to take a girl with, say, a dark blue jacket, white jumper, grey skirt, "pink and white" complexion, red lipstick and "blonde" hair, sitting on a green lawn nursing a black and tan puppy, and then grumble if they don't get correct rendering of all the colours. It just can't be done. The results have to be seen to be believed and, as on an average day the light conditions are constantly variable, a successful shot is more luck than judgment. For general exterior work — providing exaggerated contrasts are avoided — 1 have found that the following film speeds are suitable for exposure meter settings when using Kodachrome film. Weston Bewi A vo Hod Zeiss Universal Photoshop Drinsen Electro Helios Model 650 Tempophot Tempiphot Hod drem Bleudux Sixtus Meter Type Quitrux Meter Speed Settings 4 15 200 21 18 GEORG1 R. COOI'I R 47