Super8Filmaker - Volume Five Number Six by FilmMaker8

This Is Eumig...

Unveiling the Remarkable

824 Sonomatic

And Bringing Dual 8 Projection

A Few Steps Closer to Perfection

First we gave Super 8 film makers a chance to edit Super 8 mag sound with the precision of a computer in our revolutionary 820 Sonoma tic projector. Now the new 824 Sonomat ic Dual 8 projector gives you that benefit - and morc. Here's what we've done to make Super 8 and Regular 8 projection more precise and professional than ever!

• Your choice of automatic or manual sound level control with a professional VU meter to tell you exactly when your input level is optimum. • Eumig's exclusive High Quality Sound system wi th a iO watt RMS (IS-watt music power) amplifier performance assured by a factory issued Test Certificate on each projector.

• Fail-safe accuracy in the recording mode wi th Program ma ble start and stop at the exact frames you select. That means you can erase flubs and clicks, record musical transitions, or add narration with split-second precision. • Double-Track Recording on either the regular sound stripe, the balance stripe, or both stripes simultaneously. Now you can mix sound without diminishing your existing sound track. • A M ulti- Coated f/1.2, 12.5-25mm Eumig Suprogon zoom lens that delivers amazingly sharp and bright images, even at the fringe s of the screen. A Hi -Low intensity lamp switch is also provided with a blue indicator light.

level

• Sonoma t ic Programming Buttons and true • Profe5sional VU meter.

fram~

Counter.

And, of course, a host of carefully planned convenience features, all geared to make it easier to obtain the results you want, whether recording or projecting. Features like a master on/ off switch; standard remote control microphone; multiple voltage settings for world wide use; automatic threading with 600 ft. reel capa city; universal recording jack; optional Daylight Preview Screen; and an optional heavy duty carrying casco See the projector that leaves little room for improve ment at your Eumig dealer today. And own it tomorrow! Eumig (U.S .A.) Inc., Lake Success Business Park, 225 Community Drive, Greal Neck, New York ll020 CIRCLE INFOCARD 11

Publisher Paul M. Sheptow Editor BruceF. W. Anderson Associate Editor Joanne Jacobs Associate Publisher Diane Benjamin Des ign Co nsul tant Chris Blum Prod uct ion Artist Hideolwata Editorial Cons ultants G unther Hoos Mark Mikolas Contributing Editors Yvonne Andersen Mik Derks Dennis Duggan Rod Eaton L.enny Lipton Betty McAfee Jim Piper Elinor Stecker Donald Zimmerman Typeselling L.ehmann Graphics Advert ising Patricia Corbett Editorial and Advertising Offices 3161 FillmorcSt. San Francisco, Ca. 94123 (415) 563·4630

Subsc ri ption Inquiries Super-S Filmaker P.O. Box 10052 Palo Alto, Ca. 94303

Sl]PER·8 F1LMAXER

Editor's Page Out of the Golden West, above the roarofliny servo motors and the cricket clicks of film frame advances, rides a band of men and women notorious for urging filmm a kers to get the lead out (and the cell uloid) and shoot up the town. Wha-hoo! Yippee-ky-oh! As the rarefied dust of Cali fomi a's drought settles about their eart h shoes, you ask. "Who a re these guys and gals?" They're the s taffofSuPER-S FILMAKER, if you haven't already guessed. An d that 's them above. The newest member is assoc iate publ is her Diane .. D eadeye" Benja min (bottom left). She rides shotgu n on the magazine's fina nces and makes su re your copy of the magazine gets to you on time. Diane's the magazine's ace troubleshooter. and has recently been seen toting a loaded Super·S camera. Look out. Most of you know publi sher Paul .• Doc" Sheptow (righ t) a nd have seen his mug on this page before, He's the Butch Cassidy of the gang and knows the Super-S trail bettert han Kit Carson knew his horse. Why , he raised SUPER-S F ILMAKER up from a time when it was on ly knee-high to a postage stamp. Office ma nage r and s tunt rider(that's he r on page 32, May 1977 issue!) is Patricia "Corky" Co rbett (ce nter). Among many other things, Pat ride s herd on Su pe r Services, so if you've got a filmmaking service you want others to hear about, drop her a line, If you need a back issue Of SUPER-S F ILMAKER. give a holler (and a do lla r and six bits), and she' lt fire one off to you. J oanne " Jake" Jacobs (top left) receives more mail than Doll y Parton orConway Twitty. The Pony Express drops off saddlebags fu ll of your letters, tips and queries each day. Nice to be so popu lar. If you've got a rip-snort in ' tip, a chin scratc h in ' question orju st a howdy· do, Joanne's the one to w rite to. Chie f ed itorial wrangler of these desperados is Bruce " Blai se" Ande rson ... e r, that's me (cente r right). Out hereon the tumbleweed flat s, I'm rounding up the lalest in Super-Sactivity. Wit h a gang of straight s hoot ing writers and our hard riding art director. C hris Blum, we're out to turn more greenhorns o n to Super-S, and lend a he lping hand to you that already have the burr under your saddles. F rom all of us at SUPER-S FILMAKER, happy fi lm trai ls. U ntil we meet again.

Re-Introducing the SuperB Sound Recorder

In 1973, just six months before Eastman Kodak introduced single-system sound to Super 8, a group of filmmakers, scientists, and engineers in Cambridge, Mass. formed SuperS Sound , Inc. and introduced the SuperS Sound Recorder, the first fullcoat magnetic film recorder for Super 8.

Today SuperB Sound, Inc. is pleased to offer two SuperB Sound Recorders.

Why You Need a SuperS Sound Recorder

Oplional Reel Extenders increase Ihe 19-minute running time 0/ SuperB Sound Recorder I 10 on e hour.

that of comparable 16mm The SuperB Sound Recorder SuperB Sound Recorder I is an equipment, isn't it time you got puts into your hands all the improved version of the world's into Super 8? capabilities of a 16mm or 35mm most widely used Super 8 full颅 film sound studio. You can coat magnetic film recorder. It Whether you're just entering transfer your own location sound now includes a built-in sync filmmaking, or a veteran 16mm to magnetic film , you can dub meter and reel extenders are filmmaker trying to lower your your own music and narration optionally available to provide film stock and equipment costs, tracks, you can cut separate one hour of running time. you should be working in tracks and mix them without Super 8. And if you're already SuperS Sound Recorder II is the high labor charges of the using Super 8 as a silent smaller and lighter than sound studio engineer, and film - isn't it time SuperS Sound Recorder I, yet because you do it yourself you you got into with a metal case; instant startl keep direct creat ive control of sync? stop/pause control , and higher your own sound track. fidelity: better signal/noise ratio and frequency response.

SuperB Sound mUWpl8i/ang mOlori1M editing bench es allow /rame-/or路/rame editin g 01 sound and piClUre.

Unlike 16mm where optical

How to Get into Sync 1. Send us your name. We'll put you on our mailing list and send you technical brochures on our SuperS Sound Recorders and Editing Benches.

sound is normally prepared by a Both SuperB Sound Recorders laboratory, with Super B you combine all the functions of can then transfer your finished location recorder, laboratory composite master sound track resolver, sound studio dubber, 2_ Send us $3_ We'll send you to the edge stripe of release and transfer recorder for stripe颅 the User's Manuals for both prints, or to the sound channel to-fuUcoat, fuUcoat-to -stripe, SuperS Sound Recorders, and of a video tape recorder. and fullcoat-to-video sync our 8O路page comprehen sive transfers. Now that Super 8 offers all the equipment Catalog. professional The SuperS Sound Recorders techniques of are compatible with sync sound all sync sound filmmaking at a systems, including capital cost one-fifth crystal and pllotone, and with lone hundred do,ubl~e-s'vst,em SuperB Sound Cryslal single-system sync sound Camera Conrrols provide Super B cameras. caOleless sync Iirm lnQ

with bOlh SuperB Sound Recorders .

From the Super 8 Professionals . ...

Super B Souna, Inc. 95S Harvey Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02140

CIRCLE INFOCARO 61

VOLUME FIVE NUMBER SI X SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 1m

FEATURES

COLUMNS

21 Secrets ofan Israeli/Super-S Spy Moyie Arnaldo Veice rand Ed Orshan To test both actors and script in scenes of sex, political intrigue and viol ence , Israeli fi lm director Niss im Dayan shot a pilot for his feature fi lm DanillO in Super-So Cameraman Arnaldo Veicerand film editor Ed Orshan take you on a behind-the-Iens look at the making ofthis action drama.

Home Moyies: Make Yourself a Star Betty McAfee Tools and Tricks: No-cost Effects Box and a Sync Signal Device Gary Seals, Joel Kauffmann Special Effects: Magic with Film Rod Eaton Animation·8 : Money Savi ng T ips Carl Lamm Profi les: A Triple Exposure Sheila Highiet Filmcraft : Answers to Your Questions Lenn y Lip ton Product Probe: Bolex S122 Camera Dennis Duggan

Score a Hit wit h Music for Your Film 24 Sam Hall Sooth the savage beast in your film audience by adding music to those mov ing pictures. Whether you record it on the film stripe or play it separately, the right music can help create a mood , set a tempo or undersco re the feelin gs and actions of your actors. Author Sam Hal l. who' s been scori ng fi lms for years, tells you where to get fi lm music. how to se lect the right piece and how to use it effecti ve ly in you r film.

48 51

56 58

62 64

DEPARTMENTS

30 How to Select a Projection Screen Eli nor Stecker Want to improve your image? Know ing what screen will give yo u the brightest, sharpest image in your view ing room is a good place to start. All projection screens are not created eq ual , and author Elinor Stecker tells how to separate the beaded from the lenticular.

Headliners Leiters Queries Readers Tips Take One T he Collector Calendar Super Seryices

6 II

12 14

40 47

65 66

Build Your Own Film/Sound Studio 34 Rod Eaton Why would you want to bui ld your own sound studio? Rod Eaton answe rs that question in a nuts-and-bolts rundown on costs, materials and tricks for turning that unused corner of your home or apartment into a fu ll-fledged sound mixing studio . Rod offers money saving tips on buying equip. ment and soundproofing your room , and a detailed guide to making your own patch bay. Step-by-Step Guide to Home Processing 42 Robert Price Process ing your own mov ie film can save you time and money, as well as allow you to experiment with various effects. Best orall . it gives you good on-the-s pot developing from a lab you can trust-yourself. Author Bob Price roll s up his sleeve s and gets down to the nitty and the griuy of soup in ' yerow n.

Cover Art: Hold the lett uce! Illustrator Ron C roci takes a gourme t approach to mix ing mu sic and fi lm. Caesar salad anyone ? see page 24.

SUPER-8 FILMAKEA II puOloS,*, 8 urnes . actI ~ear (JarVFet>. Marl ....,... May. J...,.. JI.I'/IAug . SepvOcI. Nov. Dec) by the PIAS PuIlItSl'IIng Company. i",._3161 Fillmore SI, San FrancISCO . Ca. 94123, Copyflgnt c 1917 Oy the PMS PubIIlhlt'lg Cor'n\>8ny , InC All IlQhts r.wve<l Reprod~IIOI'\ MM. '" """"" 0< "' patl w~tIout Ihe con _I 01 the copyright owner is '~ i<: ~y proM'ted, E<I<I""., contrlbuoons .... D<Jt ITOJsl be aocompanoed by r~"m PC!l1age and WIll be handled sonable "-"""t . pubO$MI' as""","" no respOnS~ tor ,~",n Ol ulery oIlIt1 WO/~ . pI>o\ogrll'l'ls, 'ilms 01 ....... salPl. Manu,."..". ,' accepted , WIl De paOll . l pr l'$efl! late and all 'VIIS. \.OlI8'ss ........., lI*" oeo OIhtfWIM, '.....n WIIh 1M pu_ PrOClUC1S -..sed are no! _ " I ~ Oy SUPER-8 FJlMAKER. and any _ "prf:$S(l(l ", ...,or.. COpy ar e no! 01 SUPER·B FllMMER AI _ • .ooresSM 10 SUPER-8 FILMAKER or .. _ ...e _ to be _ 1 0 ' putIIoeI ...... SUPER·!. FILMAKER II "" ~...ed l r _.. ~ 01 PMS ~ Company. Inc. _ edo...... can tle.,.."... !rOm UNIVERSln'

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MICAOfL MS . 80, 1346, """ - " -. t,I; .'106 ISSN ()(1.19-2S74 SecorcI-da.. pos1. pooa a l San Francl$CO. C • ...., , I ar:I<IIhl' 'lAlmldong olf>ces. U.S newsstan:! and pnooo Slor."'strol>ul>On by EASTERN NEWS DISTRIBUTORS. INC . 111 E'9"'" A• • . , N V . N V 10011 Canadoan do slrlbubOn I)y CAPITAl. OISTRIBUTING CO . LTO . 261 Wy«fOI'I Rd " Oakville. OnlatOO, Can""", $9 ,00, IWO yMrs $11 ,00 ltv" years $25 00, 001.0<1& USA, ad(l $1.00 per year Subo<:r"".,.., r"'ormatlOn ava,lai)lll Iram SU PER ·8 FILMMER . 3161 Filmore St.. San One Fr...:lSCO. C •. 94123. P"nled ,n U.S.A , POllmUI. : Pl.... Hnd lorm 3579 10 SUPER-8 fl.MAKER , P.O. 80. 10052, P.!o Alto. C •. "'303. 5

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SUPER-8 F I LMAKER

The French connection If your film wins honors al a festival. it s days of glory may be just beginn ing. A nte nne 2. one of the French te levision networks. hopes to broadcast outstanding amate ur film s in a series of programs s potlighting major Super.8 fest ivals. The F rench network is contacting fes tival d irectors for names and addresses of Ihe aWllrd winners. T hose who agree 10 partic ipale will ma il lheir orig inal or a copy to France to be 1o ,, ,,,,", Crabbe zips about sav tra nsferred to videmape and Ihe unive rse in th is earlysubtitled. if necessary. The Star W MS. The firs t revideotapes will also be entered will be limited to 100 prints. and Ivy will in the Internat ional Televi sion Festival in Monaco. which will a cert ificate proclaimdevote two days 10 Super-8 authenticity of the priOl the number. First orders presentations in 1978. the lowest numbers. so Antenne 2 broadcast 200 hours now to Ivy Film. 165 ofSuper.8 programming in the 46t h St.. New York. first six mo nthsof I977. and the .Y. 10036. Don 't worry if total is steadily increasing. ac miss out. though. Ivy cording to J acques Locquin. other limited editions if head of the Super-8 departmen!. He reports: "'Not only ground and a unn umbered release amateurs contribute to ourTV 1will be available in programs. but profess ional camemmen in our news de partmenl are using Super-8 don ' t have to be Sherlock mo re llnd more for 'non I o r even Sam Spade to electro nic news gathering." " up the goods on yo ur favo Ho ll ywood stars. T he Na Collectors' Items Film Soc ielY operates a What' s you r favorite Warner bureau to help butTs Brothers film? To Hal'e and historical data . memora H(II'e NOI? Rt'bel Wilholll a or o ld movie posters and Calise? Till' Vall ey of . Collectors who join the t can take advan tage of GW(I!! gi? Columbia Pictures 1 location service. will be marketing Super-S con-. densation s of Warner' s fea tures. For more information. Membership is free with a $10 wri te : ColumbiaiWarner subscription 10 the bi-monthly 8mm Division. 711 Fifth Cfll ssic S crUII . Ave.. ew York. N.Y . 2502 Princeton Blvd" P.O. 10022. Box 3641. Lawrence. Kans.

I'''''"''"

feed ing are also shown.

working Super-S production system and be fluniliar with si ngle- and double-system sync sound, editing , mixing and transfers to video. Names and phone numbers of cons ul ta nts will be listed in SUPER-8 Fr LMAKER and other nat ional magazines and mailed wit h llll Super8 Sound catalogues. To apply. subm it a resume in con· fide nce to E.G. Dyett , J r.. execulive vice-president. SuperS Sound, 95 Harvey SI" Cambridge , Mass . 02 140. In clude a lisl of you r production eq uipment and a filmog raphy and sample film. if possible.

In Maryland. Super-8 is keep ing train ing coSts dow n at Greater Southeast Commun ity Hosp ital. On e media s pecial ist equipped wi th a single-system sound camera prod uces training films fo r 1.600 statTers. T he cost of pro ducing a 10-minute film , tra ns fe rring it to videocassettes and making d uplicate copies aver ages less than $350.

Viva Super-8! Accion Super 8, an organiza tion of Spanish fi lmmakers, has started 1I mo nthl y maga zine on independent cinema called Milli- Paso ES/fecho .

Healthy movies

A movie a day keeps the doc tor away-if it's a Super-8 soap opera at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Georgia. hos pit al' s s pecialists eremed a serial called Th rough Life's Wille/oil' to dramatize how hy perten sion and res ult ing high blood pressure can atTect the lives of a ghetto fam ily. Light weight Super-8 cameras allowed a two-mlln team to follow real patients through their daily lives at an average cost of onl y $500 for a IO-min ute film. Lat er. the fi lm was lransferred to videocassettes for screening The first issue incl uded news, thro ugh the hospital"S closed fest ival repo rts and articles on circ u it televi s io n sys tem. the Barcelona Cine Co-op and H igh-risk m:uemity patients "Super·8 in the University."

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and their fami lies view the hypertension serial in the wait ing rOOITI. Super-8 film s on trition, obstetrics and breast

66(}44.

Ivy Film has come up with a I wanted new wrinkle in fi lm collecting. the "Iimited edition." ' Accord-IS" . ;", Sound, Inc. is beating ing to Sidney Tager, president bushes for independent of Ivy. "' Limited Ed ition and teachers to consullan ts helping Series will be printed from govern me nt age ncies. original negatives. will be ind i vidually numbered and will be and other customprefaced with a spec ial title plan their fil m produc tion . Consultants will eam cllfd designed for these Lim ited Editions only."' T he first : on the sale of " edition" will be the 1936 se Sound equi pment and be free to earn outside inrial. Buck Rogers. with all 13 chapters complete and uncut. Applicants must own a ShOOling in Matyland hospita l 6

Joanne Jacobs. Editor

For informat io n o n t he Spanish Super-8 scene. write: Enriq ue Lopez Manzano, Ac cion Super 8, Calabria 241, Barcelona 15. Spain.

Video opportunity Super-8 fi lmmllkers in search of an audience can contact Homecast. a comp.1ny pro ducing programs for cable television systems. Original work is fi lmed in Super-8 and transferred to videocassette for re lease. The company plans to produce a series of dramat ic programs adapted from Super-8 . acco rding to Joseph Blanco . general ma n ager. Wri te: Homecast. 50 Pine Brook Road . Monsey. N.Y. 10952.0 SUPER·S FILMAXER

OUT

SFX

(In Hollywood-talk_ SFX means "sound effe,cts_ In your movies, SFX means real life instead "walk, wave, smile.") If you're interested in taking movies, if you want to take movies, if you can pull a trigger-then you can take excellent sound movies and do it fearlessly, startirlO Day One. Even in most low light situations.

Let us tell you

You drop a film

cartridge into the

new Cosinasound Low light 130M, you focus through the view

finder, and you pull the trigger. That's how_ Th e

In the sound department, our standard mike gives you remote ani off filming COJ'1troi from the mike. For a little more, our optional directional boom mike gets you closer to the sound source, and for a little more than that our optional FM wireless mike and receiver lets you record sound and control filming without connecting wires.

See the complete line of

Cosinasound 130M does everything else.

Everything else includes a 13:1, f 1.7, 2 speed pomT zoom lens, macro focusing,

single frame, intervalometer, slow mo tion , backlight, automatic fade control, and automatic exposure with manual override.

Cosinasound cameras and acces sories at your photo dealer, or write to Cosina Division , Berkey Marketing Com

panies, Dept. 336, PO_ Box 1102, Woodside, NY 11377. In Canada,write to Berkey ~~ Marketing Companies, 70 Roral Park-

way, Toronto, Ontario M6L2C1.

THE NEW COSINASOUND

WE'U HElP YOU END YOUR AMATEUR STANDING

CIRCLE INFOCARO 52

the

How to maker.

You don't have to look at a lot of films to tell the difference. Just look at the equipment. At any level of filmmaking from super 8 all the way up to studio Mitchells in 35mm, the pro~ fessionals always pick the best. In super 8, there's only one camera that is unequivocally the best ... the Beaulieu. Here is a simple technical explanation of why.

Almost all amateur movie cameras use a beamsplitter prism. It's an inexpensive solution to the problem of di recting light to both the viewfinder and the film. But the light loss will be as much as 50% at the film plane. And even the finest prism will in some way degrade the image. In super 8, only Beaulieu uses a reciprocating mirror shutter system that transmits 100% of the light to the viewfinder and the film. There is nothing between the lens and the film. Aside from vastly superior light transmission. there's another impor足 tant advantage to this design. The Beaulieu can use any C-mount lens or any movie or still lens with C-mount

frame as well as rewind capability lor super-impositions. 80th cameras allow the use of all filming speeds when us ing either sound or silent supe r 8 film cartridges. The top of the Beaulieu fine is the 5008S Multispeed. The 3008S Multispeed allows you to buy a Beaulieu at a lower price. And, of course, for the professionat who only uses double-system sound

SOO8S Mult .. peed

cameras are preferred by professional film足 makers. The schematic diagram really tells the story. It's a simplified drawing of the Beaulieu super 8 viewing, focusing, and shutler system. It's also a simplified drawing of the viewing, focusing, and shutler system you'd find in professional 16mm and 35mm motion picture cameras which sell for $8.000 to $30.000.

it 35mm SlR lenses, a big bonus. Ano ther professional feature of Beaulieu cameras are the highly acclaimed Schneider power zoom lenses that have zoom ratios uptoll.7tol. When it comes to sound. Beaulieu is again uniquely superior with the most sophist icated high fide lity single system sound. Plus the capability of using double-system sync sound. You can even use both systems, simultaneously. The frequency range is 50 to 12,000 Hz賊 1.5 dB at 24fps. Two Beaulieu superB Multispeed cameras are available. Both have the widest range of fi lming speeds available in super 8 plus sing le

recording, there is the extremely ve rsatile 4008ZM4 with speeds from 2-80 fps. See the whole line of Beaulieu super 8 motion picture cameras at your Beaulieu dealer. They're the only super8 sound cameras you can still use when you turn professional. For a beautiful cata足 log, write to R.lundquist, Dept.S9, Bell and Howell/Mamiya Company. 7100 McCormick Road, Chicago, Illinois 60645.

Beaulieu

BELL & HQWELl,/MAMIYA COMPANY CI'~"

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CI RCLE INFOCARO 10

BOLEX PRECISION. ,

Works agic in Super-8 sound.

You've done your pest to put your ideas on film . Now it's up to your projector to show them w ith all the sparkle and excitement you captured with your camera. The new Bolex $ound-S projectors will do that .. . and more. These are the most advapced projectors Bolex has ever offered ... an uncommon blend of ionQyative engineering and superb precision that produces a qualit~pf image and sound never before available in Super-B. Double Your Sou~d Capabilities ... The new Bolex SM路 aO Electronic, the finest 01 loday's Super-a projectors, offers not just one but two magnetic sound heads. So, you can record a second sound track on the'''batance stripe" (which is on every sound-striped film) and play both tracks simultaneously or separately. Add background music or commentary without affecting the original in-camera recording. There's also provision for starting a tape recorder, automatically at any preselected frame . ...With Unprecedented Sound Fidelity The 8M-80, with its fully transistorized 15-watl music power amplifier, delivers a vo lume of quality sound thars crystal-clear, totally even and virtually free of wow and flutter. Fascinati ng sound effects, fades and dissolves are made easy by calibrated superimposition and erase controls. Four LED indicators monitor the recording level. ... And Superb, Steady Images Your films reveal new crispness and details when shown through the multicoated Bolex Vario f1.2 zoom lens and optically-matched illumination system. Project sound or silent movies at 18 or 24 f.p.s., plus reverse projection for ' instant replay '. Loading is automatic. Yet the most significant feature of all is Bolex quality-the difference you can see and hear. Your Bolex dealer offers a complete range of projectors with features and prices to match your requirements and budget. For information, write for Lit/ Pak P-76 to Photo Products Division, Ehrenreich Photo-Optical Industries, Inc. , Woodbury, N.V. 11797.()ilI

BOLEX SOUND路8 PROJECTORS CIRCLE INFOCARD 51

The Trouble with E40 Lenn y Lipton had a Jot of praise for Ektachrome 40 in his " Film c raft" column in thc Jul yl August issue, say ing th at E40 is great ly improved s ince its early days. In addition, he w rote: "Except for the fi rs t develope r, it uses exactly the same process as that employed for E I60." However, I have learned th at some processo rs fudge on Kodak's instruct ions and develop E40 exactly as they de velop E I60. o r else use acorn pro mise development . I can't say how com mon th is procedure is, but I have gotten back E40 fro m various processo rs w hich s howed the symptoms of extended develop ment: overexpos ure, increased speed, graininess and colo r sh ifts. Since these Raws resemble the problems Mr. Lipton fo und in the "old " E40, it occurred to me that the improve me nt he now sees may be due to a change in p((lcess ing qualit y rather th an a change in the fil m stock itself. In any case, read ers should be warned ofth e vari ables in Ektac hrome process ing. Make sure your lab will process E40 correctly befo re you send in your film. Stephen Mills C harlottesv ille, Va. An Eager Customer l like to do animation and lately I've gone all ou t fo r sou nd pic tures . The problem is that onl y my silent camera permit s me to shoot one fra me at a time. wh ich is rcq uired forgooda ni mation. 1 be lieve it wou ld be a grea t service if Kodak would package ils sound st riped Ektachrome 160 in car tridges that fit si lent Super-8 cameras. That way . I co uld add the sound track afte r I s hoot .he film . If anyone out there is listen ing. you'd have a customer right here fo r sound film in silent car tridges. How about it? Norman C . Gui nard Madawas ka. Mai ne Go Dutch on Silent Stripe There's good news fo r owners of s ilent cameras. Now you can buy sound s triped fi lm in s ilent cartridges. The bad news is that you have to order it fro m Europe. Here in Holland , Agfa has re cently introduced Agfachrome Pl us Super-8 fil m with Agfa 's normal colo r (not bad) and very SUPER-8 FlLMAXER

good sound . includi ng a balance stripe. The cartridges sell fo r about $6 .60 . which includes processi ng by Agfa. ( Howeve r, you have to send the fil m bac k to Ho lland fo r processi ng). T he Agfachrome Pl us can be used in any s ilent (or sound) Su per-8 cam era. It s ASA rati ng is 25 wit h the fil ter in place and ASA 40 without th e filt er. Write to: Agfachrome Se rvice, Agfa Gevaert B. V., Postbus 98, A rn hem. Holland. You' ll have to enclose an inter nat io nal re ply coupon to have them s hip fi lm abroad. bu t it may be wo rth it to you. Wit h the pre striped cartridge, adding so und to you r processed film is easy. Agfa also clai ms t hei r fi lm sustains trop ical heat we ll . J an Bolk A mstelveen. Ho lland Good Buddy Revisited In yo ur May, 1977 issue(" Let ters"), J ohn L. Cook writes that he picks up com mercial radio s ta

t io ns and C B chan eron his pro jecto r when transferring sound d irectly fro m a ta pe recorder to magnetic stripe. I had exact ly the same problem. I even tried making the transfer in a d iffe ren t part of town with no success. The solu tion was s imple. All I had to do was to s ho rten all the wires con necting the proj ec tor and the tape reco rder so that none was over2 feet long. With s hortened wires, even shielding was unnecessary. It see ms t hat wires ove r 2 feet tong can act as some ki nd of anten na, feeding s ignals directly into the reco rdi ng system. Paul Hara Li ve rmore, Ca lif. Although I'm not o ne to j ump to the defense of C B'e rs, I s uggest that John Coo k's problems with inte rfere nce may be caused by his equipment. High. unfi lte red or il

legal signals might cause conside r able interference. but it probably wouldn ' t include so wide a range as to pick up both C B conversa tions and rad io stations. More li kely his radio freq uency inte rfer ence is caused by poo r shielding in the audio ci rcui ts of the projector or im pro per ground connections. Th is can be t he result of poor workmans hip or even s loppy de sign ing. Tro ubleshooting this ki nd of problem might take someone with considerable savvy o f elec tronics. Jo hn Ma liga New Yo rk C ity, N.Y. I was disappo inted in your reply to Jo hn L. Cook regard ing C B and broadcast interference with his sound record ing gear. You s uggested that he contact the ove rworked and understaffed local FCC offi ce in hopes of find ing a cure for his proble m. The correct advice wou ld have been to suggest t hat he wri te to his U.S. Senator and req ues t early passage of Senator Barry Goldwater's Bill S.864. which would req uire all makers of consumer electronics equ ipment to use' 'p rotective componen ts ... w hic h are capa ble of red ucing interference ... from radio frequency energy:'

As a matter of fact. I would urge all users of Su per-8 sound equipme nt to su pport enactment of thi s im port ant bill . The rea l CUlprit a~ far as audio interference from rad io transmitters is concerned. is t hat ti ny solid state marve l, the transis tor. Si nce it is me rely an updated version of the galena crys tal, the t rans is tor wan ts to detect radio s ignals ju st about as bad ly as it wants to ampli fy audio s ignals. Conseq uently, if a manufacturer fa ils to tame the transistors in his electronic eq uipment, they will la tch o nto every stray bi t of rad io freq ue ncy interference and pos sibly goofup some precious record ings. Hartland B. Sm it h Birmingham, Mich. Change ofAddress Tile address givell for T eei Hauser ill "Queries." lillie, 1977 is I /O IOllger correct. The new address is 607 i rvillg St.• Westbury, N.Y. 1l590. IJ

.-. . .~

A local laboratory made a duplicate print ormy Super-8 Western, but when I screened it, almost every _ splice caused a "jump" on the . . . . screen. Are my cement splices to blame?

P_II

11:1

Kenneth Laymon, Lakewood, Calif.

p.. _

A well-made cemen t splice should register perfectly in a contact printer a nd there should be no ~ jumps in the print .. Your problem . . . . may be caused by poorly aligned - . . splices. To check whether the per ' - " forations are precise ly registered al the spl ice , hold your sp liced original against a piece of un spliced original. If the sprocket holes don', allUne up perfectly, your splice r needs adjustment. C heck with the manufacturer. What is meant by " timing? " Is it the same thing as color correction doneal a lab? Margaret Merrill. Fresno, Calif.

Timing is simply adjusting the brightness ofeach scene during print making. It 's the same idea as finding the correct exposure when making still print s in a darkroom. Color correction refers to chang ing the color ofa film scene by scene with the use of color filters during printing. Allhough you oc casionally see co lor correction advertised as possible with opt ical printing or blowups, for a ll practi cal purposes color correction is unavailable in S uper-S . A Super-S filmmaker must use fi lte rs and lighting tec hniq ues wisely when he exposes his origina l film to insure proper color rendition. Limited backwinding makes matte shots difficult in Super-8 and the lengthy dissolves I need for my matle scenes are very expensive at a lab. I am consideringlilming my matles on an "A" roll and arrang ing the scenes I want matted on a parallel "8" roll. When both rolls are printed together, will I end up with a good matte effect? Donald Phillips. West Palm Beach, Fla.

Your idea should work well, but keeping the edges ofthe various mattes perfectly aligned could be a problem. To be safe, use a device like the Ewa Matte Box, w hic h is available from Super8 Sound (95 Harvey St., Cambridge, Mass. 02140) for $125. There are a number of alte rnatives you may a lso want to consider. If 12

you have a steady hand and a little patience, you could try drawing mattes on your film frame by frame wit h opaque ink. By printing A and B rolls w ith these drawn mattes, you can create w ipes in which the incomi ng and the outgoing scenes are both on the screen fora time. In the most common wipes, a line moves from one side of the screen to the other with the new scene pushing the old one out of the frame. However, you can also introduce the incoming sce ne in a small circle in the cenler of the old scene'. Make the circle grow steadily larger until the incoming scene fills theentire frame. Or you could take the lazy man's way and order stick-on wipes from S.J . Seccombe Cine Services, 11 Coun tess Wear Road, Exeter EX2 6LU, England. See "Special Ef r"ects" (Ju ly/Aug.1977)fordetails. Yet anothe r alternative is to invest

My film group is working on a science fiction movie, and we want the effect-of stars moving toward a spaceship, as though someone in side the ship was looking out a window. How do you work this cffect? Stan Lusk. Hayward. Calif.

Start by punching pinholes in a sheet of black paper to create a star background. Backlight the paper and zoom in slowly as you film. Then turn the paper to create a different pattern and shoot again. this time zooming in slightly faster. If your camera a llows backwind ing, make this a double exposure. Reposition the stars a third time and shoot with a fast zoom . When the film has been processed. you'lI need three projectors. unless you shot a triple exposure. Project the three sections of fi lm on a small. white paper screen a nd reshoot the composite star image. S ince the three zooms are at different speeds, it will seem as though you are moving through stars . •, How To Make Your Own Optical Ef fects" (Jan .l Feb. 1976)expla ins some of the ways to reshoot movie footage .-Rod £atoll How do you film a shot of someone looking through a rifle sight or through binoculars? H. Paul Schuster, Minnesota Lake, Minn.

in an inexpe nsive Fuji Si ngle-8 came ra with total back wind or convert an old Standa rd-8 camera for Supe r-8 use. If you plan to do a lot of matte work, this coul d payoff. Recently I removed a partially exposed cartridge of film and later reloaded it in the camera, When projected, the film showed evidence ofa "lost loop" in the cartridge, flash frames followed by ajumping ofthe image. Is this a common occurrence? Michael Backauskas. Hollywood, Calif.

The problem of jumping when a cartridge is reinserted is not very common, but it has happened a t least once to eve ry prolific Super-8 filmmaker. It may be caused by removing the film cartridge incor rectly and pulling more film out of the chamber than is safe. When the cartridge is reloaded, these ext ra frames a re not taken up and pre vent proper engagement of the pull-down claw, causing the jumping to occur.

Shots like this are done with a mane, which is essentially a cut out . You can cut a circle in a piece of black cardboard. leaving lines for the cross hairs. and hold it in front of the lens to make it appear as though your character is looking through a rifle scope. Howeve r , if the camera is focused on the scene, the edges of the cut-out will be out offoc us and may look soft . A matte box such as the" EWA ,. available from Super8 Sound (95 Harvey St.. Cambridge Mass. 02140) will hold the matte fart her from the lens to improve the focus. Or you could rephotograph the scene with the matte superim posed -see .. How To Make Your Own Optical Effects" (J an.lFeb. 1976) for details. To strengthe n the illusion that a character is looking through binoc ulars or a rifle sight, start out offocus and focus as you s hoot.

Query replies are prepared with the help ojMark Mikolas. G IlIlther H oos and Dennis Dllggall. SUPER·S F1LMAXER

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CIRCLE INFOCARO 23

Magic, Disappearing Splices I used to wince eve ry time one of my cement s pl ices Ha shed on the sc reen. Then I discove red an almost-easy way to make my splices invisible. You start with your two pieces of neat ly cut, sc raped and brushed fi lm. Take the piece with the base side sc raped and turn it over so the emliisioll side is up. Now open you r handy bottle of"SK RIP" permanent jet black #32 in k, which is available at stationery stores. Very ge ntly. painlt he emulsion side of the sc raped frame with the ink. I used a very fi ne. soft came l paintbrush. but I suppose any small tip ped brus h wou ld do. Let the ink dry until it is no longer glossy before splicing in the us ual way. If the ink is not complctcly dry there's a ve ry good chance it will smear or spot othe r framc s. If you take a. look at the s pliced film. you should see one and only one black frame be twecn the two scenes . When the section offilm goes through your projector, the s plice will not show. especially at 24 fram es per second. Des pite what you might th ink. there is no Hash of darkness to distract youraudience. Grant Sumic h Fremont. Calif. Show, Don ' t Tell Wondc r why your sou nd fil ms put your friends to sleep? You may be so en tranced by that mic that you' re ignoring what a movie is all about: mov ing pictu res . Aft er you write a sc ript. sit down an d try to subs titu te an action for every bit of dialogue. Try to make your fi lm visual rather than verbal. Instead oflhe he roine saying, ·'Oh. I'm so mise rable, I could cry." have her cry. Your audience may not be lieve what she says. but they will accept the evidence of their own eyes. Camera work . ac tion, set ti ng, costumes and props will pro duce a greate r impact than speech. In fact, the less you use dialogue, the more effective it will be when you do. Th is doesn't mean your movies havc to be fi lled with long pauses and meani ngful looks. BUI keep those "talking heads" o ut of your talk ies. Will Ross II haca, N. Y. Sssssh . ..

You can cu t came ra noisc by half

with a home made barney that costs about $2.50. Buya few fee t ofcorduroy ,a piece of thi n foam and two rivet snaps at a fabric store. Measure a patte rn 10 fi t around the camera, leaving the fro nt and back ends exposed. Make the pattern ~ bigger than the camera's actual le ngt h. Us ing the pattern as your guide , cut out two pieces of corduroy . Sew the cor duroy together on th ree sides, then tum the material inside out and insert a piece offoam slig htly small er than the pattern into t he open side and sew it up. Fit the cord uroy and foam barney around you r camera and insert rivet snaps at the bottom to keep the closed barney tightly on the camera. T he barney leaves the lens, eyepiece, zoom leve r and elec tric eye ex posed. You'l l have to un snap the barney tocheck the footage counter and other dials . Si nce the

camera and signal an off-screen assistant to turn on the com pressed ai r valve at the right mo ment. The earth or debris will fly. as though a bullet hadjust struck the ground. To make a bu llet hit the wate r ,j ust place the hose underwater near the surface and open the valve. You can even simulate gunshot wounds. Hide the hose underthe actor-victim's clothi ng. Use a but to nho le or cut a small hole in the ac tor's clot hing so the en d ofthe hose prot rudes sl ightly. Now, place a small amount of ketchup or other fa ke blood into the hose with an eyed ropper and add a tin y piece o f clo th to hold in the blood . When the valve is o pened, blood wi ll spurt out from the wound ala Sam Pecki npah . D ub in t he gun blast sound later for a fi nished effect. Dominick Barone, Schnectady , N.Y.

Tilt-A-T itle I made a terrific title r fro m an old commerc ial view camera. the sort used by large photo st udios. T he camera's adj ustable wooden spine holds two mount ing frames (lens board and fi lm holde r). These can be raised . lowered. swu ng or tilted in all directions. Remove the bel lows and inse rt title cards in either frame, and you' re in business. To superim pose a title o n live action, barney is relatively thi n, you can stick yourt itle o n a piece of glass in operate th e power zoom cont ro l right t hrough the material. You can the fi rst mounting fra me and pro ject li ve act ion foo tage on the rear also use the co rduroy barney to frame . ' keep your camera and batteries warm when shooting in cold Creat ive tit ling is easy: fi nding a weather. used com mercial view camera Kirk Krekeler may be you rtoughest lask . Check Detroit, Mich. the la rge photo stores which ac ce pt trade-i ns, and tell them you' ll Blow the Bullet accept one with a bellows in poor You can produce the effect ofa condition. Si nce you' re going to bullet hitti ng an object easily and disca rd t he be llows anyhow, you safely with the use ofcompressed may get a real discount. You could air. Buy a small aeroso l ca n of also buy a portrait view came ra, compressed air, such as .. Dust wh ich is very si milar. However off," which sells for around $3 at this is less versatile, because it came ra and elect ronics sto res. ca nnot do the front tilts an d You' ll also need a piece o f viny l or swi ngs. rubber hose and an automotive Louis Vl ach hose clamp. C lamp a 6 to 8- foot Monsey, N.Y. length of hose to Ihe com pressed air nozzle . Hide the hose with We Will give a tree. one -year subSCription 10

eart h, sand , shrubs or other de readers who submillips thaI we publish.

bris, and bu ry its end in similar Send your tiPS wllh a se lf-addressed,

material where you want a bullet to slamped envelope 10: "TIps." SUPER·8

appeartos tri ke. When you're FILMAKER. 3161 FillmoreSI_.

ready to fil m the guns hot, start the San FranCISco. Ca. 94123.

SUPER·S FlLMAKER

fado-ins, fado-outs, lap dissolvos, rovorso, multiplo oxposuros, macro filming, zoom... Singlohandod.

You expect a professional -calibre '8' from variable shutter (with viewfinder indicator), variable Nikon to provide filming capabilities beyond the speeds to 54 fps, reverse filming up to 100 frames, ordinary. In the Nikon R8 and RiO, you'll find they X-synch for single frames, sound capability and, of exceed yourexpecfafions course, thru-the-Iens metering with selectable, auto All the most often used controls are grouped mafic over- and underexposure. The optics are in a on a single panel. right at your fingertips. You only class by themselves. The RB has a 7.S-60mm (8-fo-1) need one finger to operate the single control that f1.8 Nikkor Macro Zoom Lens; the RiO, a 7-70mm produces those effects - the camera does the rest, (10-to-1) f1.4. Both feature Nikon Integrated Coating automatically. Quoting Super-8 Filmaker magazine: (IC). Their resolution, contrast and color rendition "The Nikon R10 is not just another camera with a 10:1 are exemplary, and both offer powered 2-speed zoom,...dissolve mechanism, macro focus, and all zoom as well as manual action. Note the word thaLlt's a cameraman's camera in a field domi· Macro in the lens designatio n. Simply slide the noted by engineers' cameras.... the controls you'd zoom ring forward, and you can focus on objects most likely want to operate in unison-(2-speed) close enough to touch the front element! power zoom and dissolve, or power zoom and outo Here. then, are two cameras from Nikon whose mafic fade control - can be oper unmatched performance and ated simultaneously by fingers of capabilities h<?ve engen?ered a the same hand..." ~ ~8 new concept In film making. ProAll this applies to the Nikon ,. fessional · 8. Total, ~~mmunication R8 as well as the R10. Both offer a through low-cost 8 film.

r' . 18 rOIE::>SSIOna" N on

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CIRCLE INFOCARD 34

lin Conooo

A"OIOO~OIO lid

PQ)O

Sanlw9wade.n -e

-""---~':"---

Janey's wedding. The most important day in my Sister's life. The most

expensive in Dad's. So I bought a Sankyo sound movie camera. To make sure we'd remember every minute (and every dollar), I'd expected a quality sound movie camera to be expensive and complicated. I was wrong. My Sankyo cost much less than the flowers for the wedding. And it was a cinch to learn how to use it! All I did was pop in a Kodakn.· sound film cartridge. Plug in the mike. Aim and shoot The entire day turned out beautifully. I zoomed in to catch the happy couple up close. The microphone even caught the slight tremble in Janey's voice when she said "I do. " After the ceremony, I got a sharp, clear record of the toasts and dancing at the reception, even by candlelight. The Sankyo sound movie camera took care of all the adjusting by itself. Automatically. 50 I didn't have to worry.

By just looking in the viewfinder, I couJd tell that the picture was perfectly focused, the film was running properly, the sound was correct, and the exposure was right-on. By using the optional remote control feature, I was even able to film myself congratulating the groom. Sankyo made it impossible for me to goof. Thanks to 5ankyo's simplicity, Janey's Wedding is the most beautiful movie we've ever seen. And every time Dad sees it, he feels a Uttle better about the $5000.

THE SANKYO X L 04005

Shown here wllh optlonll boom mike lor p icking vp dist, nl sounds. A h, nd held mike is; inclvded . BOlh h,v, wlndscre,ns lor lOp qVBb'ry feCOId/ng.

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Drop lit • not,•.... ·"...,d rou fh9 ~.tofy. SANKYO Sellrl (AlMrbj Inc., ' " F/tfIr ...... NrN Yorlr. N.Y. 10010

CI RC LE INFOCARD 17

All the tn/v,.. • 'pro' Ilpectl."

Plalla ba!jl in my . ub. c:ripllon II loon II pOllibla:

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PLEASE CIRCLE YOUR INTEREST IN SUPER-8 : A. Prolessional B. Educational C. Student O. Hobbyist

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PLEASE CIRCLE YOUR INTEREST IN SUPER-8 : A. Proless lonal B. Educational C. Student D. Hobbyist DO YOU PLAN TO PURCHASE SUPER-S EQUIPMENT IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS? E. Yes F. No ARE YOU INTERESTED IN VIDEOTAPE INFORMATION? G.Yes H.No RUSH INFORMATION ON THE ITEMS CIRCLED I to 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ~ ~ 27 ~ 31 32 ~ 34 35 ~ ~ ~ 41 ~ 43 45 46 47 ~ ~ ~ 51 52 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 00 61 ~ U ~ ~ ~ 67 ~

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San Francisco, Ca.

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL No postage stamp necessary II mailed in the United Stales Postage Will Be Paid By

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Place

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We've made hearit}g y~pr movies

as easy as seentg u.em.

Showing sound movies should be a simple pleasure. That's the whole idea behind all Kodak Ektasound Moviedeck projectors. They're designed to make things as easy as possible-without sacri ficing the niceties that your movies look and sound their best. Easy screen options. These Kodak projectors give you a crisp, brilliant image on your choice of screens. For small groups, use the unique 31fz x S· inch pull·o ut screen. (It even lets you show movies in nonnal room light.) For larger groups. project on a conventio nal screen. Easy film handling. Kodak Ektasound Movied&k projectors in· clude automatic thread· ing and automatic rewind. Simply insert the film lead· er into the slot and the projector takes over. At the movie's end, the film is rewound automatically so it's ready for the oe,,:t showing.

Kodak Ektasound MO'viei

Easy speed control. You can adjust the speed continuously between approximately 17 and 24 fps so du,t the sound is played back just as you heard it during filming. Easy format change. To switch from super 8 film to 8 mm film, flip a single switch. T he only difficult thing about Kodak Ektasound Moviedeck projectors might be choosing the model that's best for you. The Ektasound Moviedeck 265 projector offers playback featuTL'S. T he 275 projector has playback and automatic full TL"Cording-for total recording o r adding an entirely new sound track. T he 285 model gives you playback as well as both full and sound-on -sound recording capabilities. Dub narration or music onto existing tracks, or record a whole new track. All three projl.'Ctors are available with a 22 nm, jll.4 lens o r a 20·32 mm jl l .5 zoom lens. See you.r photo dealer S(X)n. A demonstration can make you.r decisio n a little easier.

Sim ulaled projected image.

CIRCLE INFOCARO 14

~ BELL ..HoWEll

SECRETS OFAN ISRAELI SUPER-8 SPY MOVIE: ARNALDO VEICER AND ED ORSHAN

Next time you wonder where in the world Super-8 is being w idely used , think about the Middle East , and especially Is rael . As it has elsewhere, Super-8 has come of age in Israel. Previous ly used 10 film weddi ng ceremonies, Super-8 is now recording everything from documentarie s of kibbutz life made by residents, to a pilot for a feature film. C lasses in shooting and editing techniques are much in demand and have greatly ex panded in the last few years . In tensely involved in this surge of Super-8 activity are A rnaldo and Lucha Veicer. Arnalda and Lucha began their Super-B careers when a friend asked Arnalda 10 buy him a Super-8 camera in Manaus , a duty-free Brazilian port on the Amazon. Arnaldo was working there on a 16mm televi sion docu mentary. Although his knowledge ofSuper-8 was limi ted , Arnaldo decided to buy a camera for him self too. His work as a news cor respondent left him considerable free time to pursue his interest in filmmaking. While touring in Af rica and Brazil he and Lucha shot about 1Y.! miles offoot age with the new camera . When they decided to make their home in Israel , they began to explore the possibilities

A maldo Veicel' i.~ ([1/ il/depel/dell! filmmak er, cameraman andfilm ill~·tru(.'tor , amI Ed Orshan is {/ professional film editor workin g in israel. SUPER-8 FrLMAKER

of producing professional Super-8 lit as the y appeared to wal k toward films. the painting. When the legs of the couple merged with those in the Once in Is rael, Arnaldo fir st 10 painting . the light on the legs was cated some key technical person faded out and the light on the nel, then began the tedious searc h painting was brought uP . mak ing it fora producer. One day quite by look as if they had walked into the chance , he ran into a painter a nd painting. sculptorby the name of Buc hbin der whom he had known some 20 Using the Buchbinder film as an years earlier. Arnaldo' s en e xa mple of the capacity of Super thusias m about Super-8 was so 8, Arnaldo won a contract from the convin cing that Buchbinderde Israeli government fora se ries of cided 10 commi ssion a film on s hort tourist promotion film s . him selfand his art. The 30-minute These show , a mong other things, fini shed product depict s the a rtist agric ultural tec hniques in the des at work and with his fa mily. It e n , the educational sys te m, ar contain s s ync sound seque nces as chaeological s ite s and life on kibbut zim,

Veicergets II high angle vie... ror his doculIlentar}' of the Isnlc li painter Buc h binder.

Incidentally , kibbutz membe rs have become increasingly aware of the possibilities offilming all kinds of activities-festival s. holi days, weddings, a nd simi lar e ve nt s-for their archives . Such kibbutz industries as farming , animal husbandry and s mall scale ma nufacturing have been filmed in orde r to train workers in these fi eld s. Many kibbutz res idents have al so bee n drawn to Super-8 filming as a hobb y. In addition to hi s produc tion ac ti vitie s, Arnaldo has organized e x tre mely s uccessful Super-8 work shops conducted by professional s in the fi eld s ofdirec tion , sound , editing a nd cin e matography. 20 to 30 members of kibbutzim from allover Is rael gathered for these work shops at a selected

well as narration a nd mu sic , and has a number of s triking visual sequences . Forinstance , there is an unusual s upe rimpos ition in which the bare legs ofa couple seem to "walk into" a nd merge with the legs of Adam and Eve in one of Buchbinder's paintings. Th is effect was achie ved by firs t placing the painting directly in front of the camera with a beam s plitter mirror pos itioned between camera and painting at a 45 degree angle (see "Special Effect s, " Jan ./Feb. 1976 for more on beamspliuers). The mirror al lowed the came ra to see the paint ing with an image at a right angle to the mirror s uperimposed over the painting. The couple walked to ward the mi rror at right angles with the background behind them com pletely black. Only their legs were 21

T he decis ion to s hoot the D allillo pilot in Super-8 was not an easy one, and the rationale for using the s maller gauge was not as appare nt as you might at fir st th ink. Al in though Super-8 turned out to be a cheaper format , thi s was not its primary value, As Dayan put s it , " The actors' appet ites aren't any smaller when we fi lm in Super-S ." That is, aside from the costs offi lm film and processing, all the other prin cipal production expe nses-food fo r the cast and crew on locat ion , Danino. " transportation, rental ofequip ment (except the camera itse lf) and kibutzcultural ce nter for an inten salaries, etc.-are the same as in sive wee k-long course in film 16mm or 35 mm. production . The participa nt s were The real savings derived from pleasantl y s tartled to discove r the using Supcr-8 were bas icall y un new wo rld ofSuper-8 sound and ex pected. Who cou ld have pre left the workshops in an excited that most se rvices and labor dicted and creat ive frame of mind. would be donated gratis? If Dayan Orall the Super-S activ itie s thai had done the pilot in 35mm, each have occurred in Israel. probably person wou ld ha ve expected to none has been as imponant oras receive payment for hi s or her exci ting as the makingofa pilot for contribution. Ce rtainly the studio N issim Dayan 's feature. D(lIIil1o. that provided the equi pment Dayan's fir st featu re. Light 011/ of (8erkey- Pathe- Humphries) would Nowhere , is cons idered by many have, and if they were paid. then critics to be an important step in why not everybody? But because the development or an indigenous the pilot was in Super-8 , which in Is rae li cinema. He recent ly com Israe l is considered a non-pro pleted the sc ript for DClllino, his fessional gauge, t he studio' s at second feature. and chose his lead titude was. , , " LeI's give the ing actor, Tuvia Tavi . Toget her, poor guy help. Ifhe has to s hoot in they decided to make a pi lot. At Super-8, he must not have any that point , Dayan met with Ar money , so we'll give him the nalda and Lucha , who vol untee red equ ipment free." If the st udio their equipment and se rvices to perhaps the mos t mercilous in do the pilot in Super-8 . Da yan stitution in the film world-was accepted. prepared to provide services for Dayan had done a pi lot be fore. In 1972, when he was searching for investo rs for Ligh t 0111 of No where, he had also made a 10 ~ minute pilot in 16mm con sisting of .-~ two sce nes from the fi lm. At that \ time , he had on ly one short to his c redit. The pilot was designed to convince investors of his abi lity as a director.

"Of all the Super-8 activities that have oc curred Israel, prob ably none has been as important or as excit ing as the making of a pilot for Nissim Dayan's feature ,

ble ways of the Middle East. Thedonation of equipment was absolutely crit ical in view of Day an' s insistence on thoroughly pro fe ss ional quality results, He de manded , for example , that the lighting be capable of producing the same qualit y in the Super-8 reversal fi lm that he would obtain in 35 mm Eas tman color negative . One of the scenes s hot at night required 40 kilowatt s of lighting. Dayan could neve r have affo rded to re nt the large amount of light ingeq ui pment necessary forthe project. D(ll1il1o is intended to be a political thril ler with ele ments of science fiction. It projects future development s in t he Israeli society and government. The lead role. Danino. is a siml?le, frustrated laborer, a typical member of the neglected , underpri vileged sector of Is rael. He li ves in a small town where he s pends most of his time engaged in petty crimes and purs u ing married wo men. Ten years ear lier, he had served in the army as the driver of Colonel Dov Lavie, who now heads a secret intelli gence sec tion of the government.

•

I mounted on top ofa prof~ional came ra do lly.

Numerous lighting problems hlld to be solv~d in th is §(~ o~ where Dllnioo holds th e chief of police host age in an old fllctory,

nothing , how could the actors and crew refuse to work on a volunteer basis? And so, quickerthan you could say "act ion ," Dayan ob tained the free services of some of Israel' s leading profess ionals . A small restaurant in Tel-A viv even provided free d ri nks for the pro duction. Such are the unfathoma

Since lhe acton; were nude and th~ CII merli crew kepi to II mlnimum , V~~r had no h~lp follo wing focus in the love SC1'nes.

Lavie' s task is to monitor the ac tivities of the "troublesome" ele ment s, to prevent s trike s and pro test demonstrations and all o ther attem pt s to c hange the status quo. Lavie en li sts Danino to perform a special ass ignment. The in tell i

gence section has identified the

princi pal source of unrest in the

society as Mitraini, who is a member of the Knesset ( Israel's parliament). Although currently a member of the governing party , Mitrai ni is attempting to establi sh an opposi tion party to combat so cial injustices , which he fee ls are tolerated and even encouraged by the established ruling part y, SUPER·8 F1LMAKER

Danino infi lt rates Mitraini's movement. ingratiates himself and becomes one of his trusted lieutenants. and then murders hi m. Afterwards , Lavie o rders Dan ino to leave the country, but he re fuses. This sets in motion an in ev itably violent cl imax that brings about Danino 's own death. but not before he had al so managed to kill Lav ie. The concl usions suggests the possibility ofa new order in a society in which Danino was a victim caught in the struggle between the haves and the have-nots.

attracted to him. Arnaldo filmed this volatile sequence almost en tirely handheld. In the last sequence , Herzl , one of Dan ino ' s friend s, is murdered by Lavie's men. Danino asks to meet the intelligence chief face to fa ce . but instead is brought by his aides

Su and violence a re difficult subjecls 10 portray co nvinci ngly in Israeli fi tms.

For the pilot , Dayan chose four sequences whose to tal sc ree n li me

Director Dayan wanled 10 pullhe ab llilyof

his acoors 10 the lest with Ih isaction se

quence.

Vlolenl sce nes such as the murderof Henl

werecorerullyc horwgra p hed before Ihey

wereshol.

is 12 minutes. Each was chosen because it posed some kind of challenging problem in terms of the acting, direct ing, lighting, erc. In the first sequence, Danino aids followers of Mitra ini. who without their leader's knowledge kidn ap the chi efofpolice. It was shot at night in a fac tory. and requi red 40 kilowatts oflight to illuminate an area about 100 square meters . Numerous lighting problems needed to be so lved in order to convey the action and drama o f the scene. In the second sequence. Danino is searc hing for a friend but allows himsel f to be seduced by the friend' s neighbor. A 16mm 5. 7mm ArriHex wide-angle len s was used to max imize the depth of fi eld in these shots. Since the pla yers were nude and the crew had 10 be kept to an absolute minimum , there was no one toaid A rnaldo in fo llowing foc us. The third sequence consists ofa quarrel between Nora, who is Lavie's mi stre ss, and Danino. While apparently de spising Danino and res ist ing hi s crude and blatant ad vances , Nora is actually SUPER·8 FlLMAKER

to the place where Herzl has been murdered. These scenes we re shot at dawn to ach ieve a day-for-night effect. T he camera 's exposure system was stopped down 2Y.z stops to gain the nece ssary under exposure and thecame ra 's bui lt-in filter was removed to give the scene a "blue" nighttime look . Dayan' s general aims in the pilot were 10 lest the credibilit y of his

"Israeli films have consistently lacked plausibility when at tempting to portray violence and sex. It was very important for Dayan to test his abil ity and that of his ac tors in such scenes." script and his ability as a director, as well as afford a screen test for the actors and examine the suita bility of the locations. The pilot sequences were chosen to provide a maximum of political and sex ual conflicts and violence. Regarding this. it' s important to note that Israeli films have consistently lac ked plausibility when attempt ing to portray violence or sex. It was very important for Dayan to test his abilit y and that of his actors in such scenes.

As may be imagined , there was one othe r fundame ntal purpose in produc ing the pilot: to attract in ve stors. Dayan conseq uentl y wanted it to look as professional and as technically competent as poss ible. In add ition to enlisting Arnaldo as camerama n and Luc ha to ass ist him, Dayan brought in Moshe Blum, one of Israel's foremost lighting specialists , and Ed Orshan as edito r. An expert in staging film violence helped des ign the mu rder ofH erzl , and there was a make·up specialist as well as prop . sound and script people everyone work ing voluntarily. Thc pilot was shol in Kodachrome 40 wi th a Beaulieu 5008. A Nagra 4 was used to record sound. The film was edited by Ed on a table built especially for Arnaldo . It consists ofa converted 4-track 16mm syn chron izer linked to a Super-8 viewer. A variable speed motor with a time belt drives the syn c hronize r a nd the viewer simul taneously. How successful was the pilot? It confirmed Dayan's feeling that Tu via Tavi was an excellent choice forthe lead role. He also fee ls now that he can succe ssfully direct se quences with sex and violence. Perhaps most important , however, was that he became fond of the Danino character wh ich earlier had caused him much ambi valence and difficu lty. It is too early to tell if the Supe r-8 pilot will succeed in attracting in vesto rs, but the early response has been fa vo rable . There is no doubt , howeve r, that professional Super-8 filmmaki ng has arrived in Israe l and sho uld have a success ful futu re. 0 2J

SCORE BIG WITH

A MUSICAL MIX SAMUEL HALL

Trumpets blared. dru ms boomed an d voices rang OUI. Rock y

bounded up the steps of Philadel phia' s stately Art Museum , and viewers' hearts pounded to the

emotional beal or"Ganna F ly Now." Their hearts got another workout when the Jaws theme built up ever so s lowly, h in ting

of lhe presence ora certa in under water fiend. And when the sad

strains of Mozart we re set to Elvira Madigall. hearts melted. The possibilities of moving your film audience w ith a mus ical score

arc as lim itless as the range of avai lable mus ic. Walk into any

record store and the majo r categories will grab your eye j azz, class ical , rock , fo lk. pop. rhythm and blues, country. And each mus ical family has its own

li neage. Take rock. the youngest sty le-you can take your c hoice from t he punk ish Tubes to the fol kish Paul Simon. W her e 10 Gel M usic

The first step in scoring your fi lm is to consider the source of your music. You have th ree options. If you play an inst rument, you migh t compose your own score . Maybe a friend or two wou ld be excited by the project and willing to offer their musica l ta le nts. Othe r ready sources of mu sical energy are local rock groups who haven't made the big time yet and would be eage r for a li llie name recognition in your film' scredits . In many areas, local folks ge t to

5 alii H 1I1111f1s beell scorillg alld mixillcfilm track s/or over 10 years. H e opermesl/ ~;o/lnd sll/(Iio ill San Frallcisco called Play It Again, Sam al/d /'as Ihe majo,. music lib,.aries (li'(liJable /0,. filmmakers.

gel her in amate ur jazz. vocal and classica l ensembles. Ot hers play in ba rs. C hec k out any of these groups fo rt heir original composi tions , ortel! them about your fi lm and see whatlhey come up with. A second option is commercially recorded music. If you plan to show your fi lm in public suc h as at a film fe stival , you need clear ance to usc someone else's music, When music is copy righted. per mission must be obtained from the recording com pany and publ isher. Ifg ranted, clearance may sti ll be fina ncially out of reach. Keep in mind that it is illegal to tran sfer

"The possibilities of moving your film au dience with a musical score are as limitless as the range of available music. " music from a record o r tape o nto film withou t consent of the copy right holder. Music has valuejust as your fi lm does. You probably would n't want someone else usi ng you r hard-to-come-by footage without permiss ion or compensa tion. If you' re rest ricting film show ings to your own home, how eve r, th is is not conside red publ ic use , and you needn't worry aboul copyright infr inge ments. T he third option is a film music library. These companies put out music on records and tape espe cially for the fi lm and television markets. T heir recording fee o r royalty is much lowertha n fees charged for commerc ially re corded albums. T he libraries stock

every possible mood , tempo and style of music in small and big instrumen tation. A nd they span the musical ages from medieval to electron ic. sa lsa and disco. For more informat ion. contact one of the libraries listed at t he end of this art icle. How to Use Music

A haunting me lody appears throughout Doctor Zhivago, reminding the audience of the tragic and beaut iful Lara . " Lara's T heme" is evocative theme music. used in films to iden tify a character or set a mood, Th ink of other popular film s, and you' ll probably recall thei r theme music, as in200l, Jaws, and Love Siory, Title shots: The opening and clos ing til les are the most obv ious spots for music, If your subject is light, give th e litles a light musical touch . Instrumentation can be tricky. Music intimates size by the scope of orc hestration. But a sim ple me lody takes on a serious tone when ren dered by a full sy m phony. Wit h a fi lm tit led " Men to Move My Mou ntai ns," you cou ld go wit h a full orchestra. But" Per sonal izi ng Reading for C hildren" would shy away fro m the Bell H 1/,. trealment. If your fil m deals wi th small subjects, chances are that small ensemble music will fit the title,

Usually iI's best to use the sa me piece of music at the close of you r film as was used al the openi ng. T hisgives cont inu ity and is often the only music needed . But don't give away the en ding of the piece at the starl of the film. Fade it out and use back-tim ing near t he end of you r fi lm when you fade it back in. T hen you can run it to its SUPER·S FILM A KER

natu ral end to sync with the last framesoffilm. Sometimes it' s effective to under play the title . Let' s say you havea preface situation, with the title coming on two minutes into the picture. Select music to fit the mood of the beginning sequence. If you use narrat ion, dialogue or ambient sound (something in the e nvironment), keep the music under the voices or sound and bring it up to fu ll volume when the titles appear, supe rimposed over contin uing scenes. When the titlt:s a re fi nished, fade out the music under the voices or sou nd effects. It's also effective to bring on the music alone, with noother sound.

M ixillg music with other ~;o/lnds: I would avoid us ing a music background with lip sync dialogue, other than perhaps fading in your music under someone 's closing remarks. It tends to give the effect ofa radio being played in the background , which can be confusi ng. Of course, you may want a back ground radio to add a sense of

place or time to a "period piece. I I In A mericDn Graffiti, most oft he action cente red around Mel's Drive-In orcars. In eithercase, the radio was on, rem inding us of the early '60s. If you use this techn ique, place a radio promi nently in the visuals. The actual music can be recorded after you shoot the sequence, a nd mixed 0010 your Irack (see "Creative Sound Mixing Techniques," July/Aug. (975). Sound effects and mus ic a re not easily mixed, especially light , even sounding noises such as w ind and water. A bad matc h can sound like a poor qual ity music track with lots of noise. At that POiOl, you may have to do without either the mu sic or the background so unds. Music is a powerful tool, but it won't cover up camera noises or other unwanted noise accidentally re corded on your sound track. The result will again sou nd like badly recorded mus ic. Music is best used to enhance the mood and action of your prod uction , not to cover up flaws or fill empty space. It 's agood idea to use music s par

ingly, fadi ng it in and o ut for ap propriate scenes. "Wall-to-wal l" music, which goes from opening to close without a break , can get tedious. If you fade selections in and o ut, the music's entrances will carry much more wallop. When you fa de in a piece of music , car ry it for a long enoug h period to establ ish the mood and theme. A udiences don't like to be tan talized by one phrase ofa melodic t heme wh ich is then dropped. A n exception might be when your fi lm call s fo r a n exclamation point. Then you cou ld use a short, self contained piece, such as a fanfa re. How to Choose Music Remember the bicycle scene in B weh C (U'sidy alld the S undaru:e Kid? Paul Newman and Kathe rine Ross bounced happ ily a long to the strains of "On a Bicycle Built for Joy." The musical lempo pic ked up quickly and offered a carn ival rendi tion that was agood match fort he scene. When selecting music for your fi lm , keep four elements in mind-lempo (or rhythm), instrumentation (size of the orchestra or g roup), mood and slyle.

Tempo: Probably the hardest ele

ment of music to adapt to you rfilm is the tempo . It sho uld match the natural o r implied tempo o f the visuals. Fo rexample, a fi lm shows downtown traffic poking along at ru sh hou r. But the scene is bustli ng with people hurrying along on the sidewalks. The feelin g is give n by the fa ster tempo of the pedes trians. The same location filmed at dawn would be deserted , calling for slower paced mu sic. The trick is to watch the movement of the people (or animals, machines or whatever dominates the action) in your film , fee l the natural rhythm and find a matching musical tempo . Within that tempo or rhythm, it' s also a good idea to con sider the weight ofthe beat , which might range from a lightl y plucked harp to heavy roc k. Unless you're mak ing a com ic counterpoint. scenes ofa pile dri ver wouldn 't match sounds of light ly plucked strings. Driving rock music migh t be a perfect fit. Save the plucked strings for a sequence offalling autumn leaves.

Fast cut montages are great fun to pace with a fast, strong rhythmic piece. Each cut must be ed ited carefull y to match the music, with visual images changing on a beat. This us ually works best if the mu sic is faster than the tempo of the c uts. You can create intere st by syncopati ng the cuts, making some fa ster and some slower than the beat of the music.

"Don't be afraid to branch out and try a style that isn' t obvious." To do this accurately wou ld re quire elaborate double-system sound editing (see " Hear's the Word on Double-System Sound," May/June 1976). However, you can approximate cutting on beat by timing t he music with a stop watch and cutt ing your film to matc h the beat intervals as best you can. It may not be pe rfect, but whe n you' re slightly off, the visu als will appear to syncopate with

the mu sic. If you know the piece well, yo u can simpl y " play it by ear" as you edit. C hances are you won't be far off. and image and music will seem made for each other. Some pieces of music have two layers of rhythm . The se a re the easiest to sy nc with pictures. The basic beat is almost always han dled by the rhythm section (drums, bass). On top of the basic rh ythm , another section (s uch as trom bones) play s a very short , repeat ing rhythmic motif. Musicians call this second layer a "riff." The rest of the band plays a broader melody. Wi th all this mu sical ac lion. you're bound 10 have many picture cuts in your montage fa ll on an accent in the score.

Instrumentation: The great out doors and other large-scale sub jects generally call for large in strumentation. Stee l mills,jels and the big city all feel big musically and are often set to a fu ll orchestra. Sometimes, though, ju st the oppo site can be very effect ive. A har mon ica and guitar accompanying a panoramic scene can give a very

personal and aesthetic fee ling. A solo oboe in the broad desert can evoke a sense ofloneliness . Indoor subjects usually need smal ler instrumental treatment (except places like the As trodome). For th is close, more intimate setting, an ensemble of one to five instruments is suffi cient. This size group also offers a good balance for outdoor shots involving a lot ofclose-ups.

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Mood: Mus ic is usually selected to enhance the mood of the visuals, not to dom inate the scene. Th is is tricky, because each viewer per ceives music different ly. But try to make the music and visuals com plement each other. lfthe mood of the sequence is subtle, the music shou ld be the same. An overdone musical mood distracts the audi ences from your film. InOll e Flew Ol'er the Cuckoo's Nest, scenes of the mental hospital ward were set toa subd ued string treatment in "Med ication Valse," co nveying a sleepy , unreal feeling of drugged patients. Style: Baroque,jazz baroque, classical bluegrass, Nashville, country and western . rock , Afro rock ... musical styles are virtu ally limitless . When choosing a style for your film . be consistent. If one sequence of an industrial process is set to classical music, don't treat a similar scene later in the film with bluegrass. lf you have original music, it will naturally be in one sty le-the composer's. Try to do the same with library and commercial music. Of course, there are exceptions. You may have ageneral st yle of music for your production and another sty le for a particular sub ject. Scenes of New Orleans may cry out ford ixielandjazz, while Fresno calls for country and west ern. Historical sequences can be scored effectively with the music ofthe period, even if the rest of the film is ofanother mood entire ly. As with mood , yoursubjective senses will guide you in choosing a musical style. Some are difficult to mix with voices, such asa classical piece with sudden loud chords that may drown out t he narration or dialogue. Also, vocal music can be confusing when mixed under dialogue. To the viewer, it's like try ing to hear two conversations at

once--one close at hand and the other on the radio. Cliches a~ Okay I see nothing wrong in picking up one of the many cliches used in scoring films. A piece of music becomes acliche because it works so well. But don't be afraid to branch out and try a style that isn't obvious . If the mood and tempo fi t, you' re probably safe. T he use ofa Strauss waltz in 2001: A Space Odyssey was brilliant, but it did n't break all the rules. T he tempo was slow and t he orchestration big, both fitting our concept (and cliche)ofouter space. Even

"Put the same creative effort into your sound track as you do with your camera work. Your production will be all the better for it." innovators like Stanley Kubrick regard the rules before breaking them. Fee l free to break any of the rules I've given, but do it fora posit ive reason. And don't be afraid to follow the traditional approaches I've outlined- they

have a proven track record. But

think about your music. Put the

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Regent Recorded MUSiC. Inc.

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IMPROVE

YOUR IMAGE HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT SCREEN ELINOR STECKER

You can project film o n almost any surface--on a giant balloon or a piece of sculptured sty rofoam. You can even project fi lm on the human body. These are exciting if you' re looki ng for expe rimental

su rface s and weird effects. But nothing can beat s howing your fi lm on a good, conventional movie

sc reen. Choosi ng a screen isn't as bewil dering a task as c hoosing a camera

o r a proj ecto r-there aren' t that many options you have to con sider. On the o ther hand. you

don ' t wan t to walk into a dealer and fall fo r the first screen that meet s you r eye. Before you inv ite that sc reen home to meet your

projector. make sure it meets the needs of your viewing room. Screen Size How large a sc ree n do you need? Good question. Many projectors like the Kodak " Moviedeck" series come equipped wit h a little bui lt-in screen , and this is adeq uate for one o r two people huddled afoot orsoaway. It obvious ly won't do if you're show ing fi lm s to a group offriends in your living room orthe enti re fourth grade in the school au ditorium. An accepted rule of thumb is that the last row of the aud ience s hould be no further away than six times 30

the width of the projected image. You can also calculate this dis tance by taking eight times the height of the image. Since the height to width proportion of the Super-B image is 3:4. the distance will be the same calcu lated by eithe r met hod. Because movie sc reens generall y come in square shapes, we'll consider on ly the long dimension or width for our calc ulations. With this in mind, my little pocket calculator and I worked out a table indicating the minimum sc reen size needed in orderforthe person furthest away to view the picture comfortably (see Figure I). If the fa rthest away from the screen in yourview ing room is 25 fe et. for example, you' ll need a scree n at least 50 x 50 inches. Viewing Angle Several different typesofprojec tion screen surfaces have been developed, because all view ing situations are not created equal. A sc reen 'sjob is to reRect the light from the projector back to the audience. Mos t screens do the job equally well, reflecting nearl y all of the light the projector se nd s ou t. So what's the fu ss? The fuss is that different scree ns have diffe rent light di strib ution characteristics. The re are s urface s which wi ll reffect most of the light

in a narrow cone, while others wi ll distribu te it over a wide angle, And since there is j ust so much light to be reffec ted, the wider the angle over which the light is spread, the less bright the image will be, Of course, you want to have the brightest possible image the screen is capable ofgiving, especially since the light thrown by many Supe r-B projecto rs is dimme r than we'd like it to be. But we may have to sacrifice brightn ess in o rder to have an angle of view that wi ll include the poo r guy crouched off on the side ofa very wide room. In selecting a screen , it's impor tant to know how people will be sitting in relation to the projector to-the-sc reen axis (see F igure 2) , If the vie wers are right in line wi th the projector beam. bending to keep thei r shadowed silhouettes from being cast on the screen, there is no problem-almost any thing can be used as a screen , from the side of a refrigerator to the bac k o f an old pos ter. These are okay for an eme rgency situat ions, but you' ll need something bet ter for regular sc ree nings where more than one or two people wi ll be viewing the film . The following screen types vary in their ability to reflect light at angles s uitable fo r viewi ng.

Matt e screells wil l give an almost SUPER·S FILMAXER

Kodak Ek ta lite sc ree n

Kn o)( manual wa ll sneen

to be seated at extreme angles to unlimited angle of view. The brightness of the im age w ill play no the screen . These screens have a favo ritism be tween the person in pattern or rectangles. s tripes , the center of the room and some diamonds or ri bs embossed on them. whic h act li ke little mirrors one who is farotTto the s ide. Howeve r, the image becomes dis or lenses to reflect the light. When you look at the scree n close up, it torted w hen you're seated at an has a co rduroy-like appearance extreme a ngle. so try not to have viewers more t han 30 degrees from which is not visible when watching a fi lm from normal viewing dis the lens axis (Figure 2). Matte scree ns have a su rface si milar to a tances. (Viewers s hould always be a minimum dis tance equal to two s mooth plaster wall. I n fact , the times the height of the image.) w hite plaster wall you may have Some lenticular screens are bee n us ing is really not a bad metallic-t ha t is. the embossing is s ubs titute fo r an actual screen. done on an aluminum coat ing . Although matte screens are the These have a narrower angle of least bright of aII the su rfaces , the view than the non-metall ic lenti cu brightness is adequate, a nd the lar ty pe, and so are a litt le more color fidelity and image resolution brilliant. Although the actual angle are superior to any other type or of view varies from manufacturer su rface. to man ufac turer. generally metal Lenticular screens have more di lic lenticular screens wi ll have the rect ional light patterns and are the brightest viewing a rea within 25 best choice if viewers do not have degrees from the projection axis, while no n-metallic screens should Screen Size Chart give good visibility w ithin 35 Distance degrees. from Screen Scree<1 Size 15 lee! 20 lee! 25 lee! 301_ 35 feel

30 )( 30 inches 40 )( 40 inches

50 )( 50 inches 60 )( 60 inches 70 )( 70 inches

Figu r e 1: The minimum s ize sc reen you' ll need for your viewing room is determined by the fa rth est d istance peop le will sit from the sc: ree n. SUPER·8 FlLMAKER

Beaded screens used to be the most popular type. especially for home projection. an d they s till are a good choice for long, narrow rooms or for use with a projector having a n especiall y poor ligh t outpu t. These screens have thousands of little clear glass

beads which a re bonded to a white material and concentrate light in a na rrow path. At five degrees from the projection axis, the image is ex tremely bright , but brightness fall s off quite quic kly a t wider a ngles. As with lenticu lar screens, there is variation in viewing a ngle and brightness from one screen manufacturer to anoth e r. Brightness and Reflection of Stray Light How dark you can make the view ing room and how bright an image your projector throws are factors that shou ld atTect your decision in selecting a screen. A maTTe screen presents the least bright picture of all , but the brightness is cons tant

",,'"

Figure 2: The angle at which ~Iewel"!; sit in relatio n to the proj«tlon II.xis is important ror bright, undistortrd images. Abo ul 30 degl'ffS rrom the axis is generally best.

Screen Shopping Guide Screen Surface Screen Characteristics

MaUe

Beaded

Metallic lenticu lar

Non-metallic lenticular

Best viewing

area

Unlimited

1if

25"

35"

30"

Quite dark

Completely dark

Partially

dark

Light

Up to 4 times

2 times

12 times

Ye,

With added tens ion

With added tension

On rigid support

Ye,

Room illumination Brilliance in

main viewing area, compared to matte screen Can be wall or ceiling hung Can be ro lled for storage

Partially dark

2 to 4

times

High gain

Figure 3; Th,sc harl Will help you sel~t the best suet'n (or your HewlOg room .

over the entire area. No other screen can make that statement. The room, however, must be fairly dark since any stray light creeping in will degrade the image. The screen does not discriminate-it will reflect s tray light as well as the film image , equally and in all directions.

1 Kodak' s "Ektalite" and " High Gain Projection" sc reen s are made of thin sheets of specially processed aluminum foil. perma nently laminated to a lightweight frame. The screen reflects an image that is about [we/l'e rimes as bright as a matte screen in a 30 degree viewing angle. Outside of The brightness in the viewi ng area the view ing area no image can be of a fen/iclliar screen is about dou seen . The principal advantage of ble that ofa matte screen, and these screens is the vis ibi lity they some metallic lenticu lar sc reens give to an image in a we ll-li t room. may go as high as four limes the Any light not originating near the matte screen in brightness. Re projector will be reflected away member. though, the greater the from the viewers. The cost of brightness, the narrower the view these screens is more than for ing angle. The room doesn't have other types, and the largest size to be pitch black, since some of the available is on ly 48 x 48 inc hes. s tray light coming from outside the view ing area will be reflected back Mounting, Carrying, and Storing outside that area. Your Screen How you are going to mount. Beaded screens are brighter yet. transport and store your screen is a Within their narrow viewi ng area. practical problem. All except the they can produce an image up to high gai n screens can be had with four times the brightness ofa matte tripod mounts that allow them to screen. This image brightness fa ll s be rolled up neatly for storage o r off rapidly outs ide the view ing transporting. There are scree n area, and for anyone seated be cases available, too. Hanging the yond 25 degrees from the projec screen from the wall or ceiling is a tion axis, it is unsatisfactorily dim. great conve nience , and is fairly Beaded screens must be used in a unobtrusive, even in a living room. completely darkened room , since Many matte and beaded screens st ray light originating both ins ide are available for mount ing this and outside the audience area can way. Lenticular screens must be dim the image. stretched to eliminate all wrink les High gain aluminllm screens are and waves before use. This is done

automatical ly with a tripod mount , but you'll need to devise addit ional tensioning for len ticular wall scree ns. Another interesting scree n is the Eberhard" Faber-Board Visual Aid Panel." Th is sel f-adhe sive panel , with a non- metallic lenticu lar surface, can be pressed onto any smooth surface. Additionally, you can write on it with special felt markers (takes the place ofa chalk board). and some models will ac cept magnetic characters. Everything we've been talking about is listed in chart form on the "Screen Shoppi ng G uide" (Fig ure 3). Take the chart along when you go s hopping for a screen. It should help you find the best sc ree n for your particular viewing situation. You canalsouse itto se t up your viewing room to get the most out of your prese nt sc reen. 0 For more information on projection screens, write to: Oa-Lile Screen Compar.y . Inc .. Warsaw. Ind. 46580 Eberhard Faber. Inc.. Crestwood. Wilkes-Ba rre. Pa. 18703 Knox Manufacturing Co. , 111 Sp ruce 51.. Wood Dale. III. 60191 Eastman Kodak Co .. Cons umer Prod ucts

Ow., 343 State S1.. Rochester. N.Y. 14650

Puma Educat ior. Products. Hudson Photo graphic Ind .. 2 South Buckoot St.. Irvir.QtOfl·Or. ·Hudson, N.Y. 10533

SUPER·8 FlLMAKER

hy bu ild a film /sound mi xing studio? After all , you can just plug a mic into yo ur projec to r , turn it on and record . A little music at the begin ning , some talking-what could be eas ier ? You might enjoy spending an entire weekend getting every thing set up on the kitchen table. Sure , it' s a little inconvenient a t mealtimes , but that's what TV trays are for. And maybe you don ' t care th at your sound track picked up a hum from the re frigerator and the clicking of the projec tor.

A film /sound mi xing studio isn ' t for every filmmaker. But if you ' re beginning to add music , narration , dialogue and sound effects to your film s, you ' ll want the same crea tive and techn ical control over sound that you exercise over im ages . If you want to mix many diverse sounds onto your film track and have them sound s harp and clear, not muddy, you should seriously consider bu ilding your own film/sound studio. It's sur prisingly easy to set up. and may not cost as much as you think. Time, Space and You r Pocket book Beforegoingany further. let's allay any misconception s you may be forming about building your own studio. First. the cost . Yes, a sound studio, like many other as pects offilmmaking, can be expen sive . But if you own a component stereo system, you already have the basic monitoring equip ment-amplifierand speakers , plus perhaps a turntable and tape deck . Depending on your present involvement in sound filmmaking , you have a sound projector , a microphone or two , and maybe a sound mixer. In short , you already have a good start on the equipment you need . How about space? A really top notch studio requires plenty of it. But as we'll see in the section on studio layout which follows , there are many a-Iternatives. You may think it requires knowl edge of sophisticated electronics to build a studio. If you start with a bag of transistors and a soldering iron . yes . However, using stereo components makes the job one of assembly rather than build ing. Only basic wiring skills are needed. Perhaps the most crucial question 34

HOWTOBUI~

YOUROWNS

ROD EATON

is. is it wort h my time. effort and lu nch money to build a studio ? Let's come back to that one later. Home St udio Layouts First.let" s define some terms. In a reco rd ing facility . t hesrudio is a room, usually rather large, where musicians, voice talent , act ors and ound effec ts people perform, often while watching the film as it' s projected. T he room is acou sti call y treated to elim inate so und e lements which could adversely affect the fi delity of t he recording. Microphones placed near each sound source trans mit the signal s to a control room.

UNDSTUDIO

Thecon trol room i a separate

soundproofuni t adjoining the stud io . It c onta in s the mixer , which blends (" mixes ' ') various original sound onto one recording trac k. an d other sound processing equipment stic h as lim iters. co m pressors or e qualizers (m ore on these later). The e are us uall y combi ned in a mixing console o r cont rol panel. Th e recording en gineer operates this equipmen t an d the recordi ng machi ne s from in s ide the cont ro l roo m. Betwee n 1he control room a nd the studio is a soundproof wi ndow . Sometimes , a small ound-iso lated l'oice hoofh is used to facilitate recording of narration or special sound e ffec ts. The voice booth may be located in the studio itse lf or e lsewh e re in the s tu dio complex. There are a number of way s to bu ild your ow n hom e recordi ng stud io . lf you have the sp ace (basement, garage or spare room). you c an build so methi ng along the lines of the profe ssiona l studio diagram med in Figure I-A. T he si ze and e xact configuration would be dictated by the amoun t o f pace avail able . T his design is costl y to const ruct. and I woul d sugges t it only if you' re doing some profes sional work , or if your Au nt Ti llie jus t left you a bundle. It would prov ide the ultimate in a home S uper-8 so und studio.

)

.., o~ ~ E

A fa r more practic al design for the average ho me, film schoo l oro r ganization is shown in Figure I-B . In this desig n, the control room has been el iminated and the mi xing con so le and re co rd ing mac hin es are located in th e st udio it elf. The proj ector ("F") is pl aced in a 3S

Figure I-A

KEY: A: Stud io 8 : Conlrol room C; Voice booth

A N

0 : Windows

[]

(

[Q~ rJ

J K

(Shelf over)

E: Screen F: Pro lecto r G: Con sole H: Mixer I: Equalizer J : Recorders K: Turntable L: Patch bay M : MOnilor arrw N: Speakers

Figure t-C

I B

Figures I-A, I-B, I-e: You can design a home sound studio 9S elaborate as the professional set-up In I-A, or as simple as the low-budget corner studio in I-C (see texl).

soundproof booth or sound iso lating box as in Figure I-A. This allows you to record and mix sound unhampered by projector running noise . When recording live sounds in this set-up, the monitor speakers ("N") must be turned off to prevent feedback. You'll need to use headphones to monitor your recording. This layout lends itself nicely to a family room or similar multipur pose rOOm. With a screen. projec tion booth and sound system pe~ manently in place, the room is always ready for screenings. For those with more serious space limitations, the design in Figure l-e may be ideal. As in I-B, one room serves as both studio and control room. The equipment is confined to a comer, leaving the rest ofthe rOom for other film activities-editing, an imation-or more mundane pastimes like rais ing chinchillas or soap carving. The projector, placed in a sound proof enclosure (for a simple way to soundproof a projector, see " Tools and Tricks ," Jan .!Feb. 1976), may project across the room or into a rear-projection unit placed on a shelf above the mixer. If you can spare another comer, a voice booth would make a wise addition to this layout. Regardless of the studio layout, the room you use should be treated acoustically to eliminate unwanted sound reverberation while you ' re recording and listening to sound . 36

Hard surfaces such as wood panel ing, sheetrock, brick and tile floors reflect sound waves, caus.ing them to bounce around the room. This bouncing makes it difficult to iso late an individual sound source one instrument in a band. for example-with a mic . It may also produce undesirable interference in the sound waves and , at its worst, can cause distortions in fidelity . Even without distortion, a ·· .I ive" room (without sound ab

,'A sound studio can be expensive, but if you own a component stereo system, you al ready have the basic monitoring equip ment." sorbent surfaces) may have too much reverberation-a sound will linger after the signal has ceased . To deaden a live room, you should cover the wa\1s, floor and ceiling with sound absorbing materials carpeting. drapes. acoustical tile. An inexpensive wall treatment is a layer of fiberglas building insula tion covered with colored burlap_ You can add painted wood strips to cover the seams of the burlap. The result is a fairly attractive, sound absorbent wall. Another trick used in the past by radio and recording

studios, is to fasten old-fashioned cardboard egg cartons to the walls and ceiling. The cartons provide good sound absorption , but are becoming difficult to find (plastic cartons do not work as weI\). lfyou plan to build walls to sepa rate studio. control room and voice boothas in Figure I-A, it's a good idea to eli m i na te parallel walls wherever possible. Parallel walls can produce standing waves-a sound wave that reflects back and forth between two sur faces , causing wave interference and distortion . The additional walls in studio I-A are built at an angle to eliminate this problem. The Equipment You'D Need In addition to a good Super-B sound projector. sooner orlater you'll need a mixer, equalizer, monitor amplifier. speakers. tape decks (of various types) and a turntable. To this list can be added more specialized pieces ofgear like a compressor, limiter, echo or reverb unit. Many manufacturers market fine sound equipment , so it's often difficult to decide which make and model to choose. Rela tive cost, features, service availability and personal prefer ence all playa part . Rather than discuss specific brands and mod els, let's look at equipment generi cally .

The mixer is the center of a record ing facility. A mixer allows you to adjust the individual levels of the SUPER-8 FILMAKER

since they wiU be used to feed the sound projector's fille inpliT. You' II want to be able to change the monitor volume level without disturhing the projector·s record ing level. The number and type of record ing machines in your studio w ill be dictated by your needs and budget. Tapedccks (a deck contains [he tape transport mechanism and preampl ifiers; no power amp or speakers) are more economical and integrate into a system more readily. I prefer reel-to-reel machines over cassette or car tridge types, because you can eas :_~ ily edit reel-to-reel tapes. How ever. if you al ready have cassette :g or carl ridge machines the y will ~, work fine. --, Figurr 2: £\'erything's within e3SY reach in this audio la~'out for a small CllrnH ~Iudio: 2-1 rack and 4-track recorders in shelf unit, eq ua linr (lefl) tl nd mixer on t al)lrlO p, monitor amp and speaker al right.

sounds thai make up you r track (one for each input), high and low

before sending the combined sig filtering. attenuation --pads" on

nal to a recording machine. Mixers each input and {\ master gain (vol

can be broadly divided into two Lime) control. The mixer's user..

classes-passin' and aCI il'/,. A manual will describe and exp lain

passive mixer has no ampl iflers. these functions.

All it Can do is attenuale (decrease)

An equ(//izer is anot he r meful de an incoming sound signal in rela v ice in a fil m mix ing situation. and tion to t he other inputs. The con I consider il a high priority item for trol that adjusts the sound signal is any studio. Depending on the size called a variable potentiometer of the unit, an equa lizer gives you (pot for short). A signal cannOI control of several specific fre leave a passive mixer stronger q uencies in t he ~ound you're re than it went in. cording or playing back. By mov An act.ive mixer contains some ing the sl ide con trol for a given form of amplification, usually a frequency up or down from its preamp on each input. This allows center(zero) position, you can much greater flexibility in mi xing emphasize or de-emphasize 111<It (high and low frequencies can be frequency (and to a les~erextenL filtered on each input. forexample) the frequencie s immediately nexl ancl provides an out put signal thai to it). is stronger and quieter than a pas An equalizer can be helpful in sive mixer. Low cost active mixers reducing tape hiss. noise on rec can be had for about $12 to $50. ords and unwanted background For a film mixing studio, higher sounds (hum. rumble) Ihat fall priced units will be more versatile within a narrow frequency range, ($150-$300and up). although it can rare Iy el iminate these noise s completely. You can Mixers are designated by the use an equalizer to reshape a voice numberofinput s and outputs. A allowing it to stand out from a mixer with s ix input s (for micro phone, tape deck, turntable, radio. background or add character and fullness to a thin voice. elc.) and l wo outputs is called a "0 x 2. ,. A fl x 2 should be more than adequate for film sound work. Any reasonably decenl stereo amplifier and speakers will serve Ifat all possible. the mixer you as a monitoring system. The major choose should have al least one features to look for are tape illPuts V U meter to indicate the souncl and tape (or preomp) OlllpUIS. output level. Other useful features These outputs should nOI be af include mic or line i.nput selector fected by the tone and volume switc hes on the face of the un it controls on the front of the amp SUPER·8 F1LMAKER

Probably the best-of-all p05sible-worlds system (wit hin reason) includes a lA-inch. 4-track (can record four channels on one side of the tape) machine with di sc rete record/playback. The dis crete feature allows simultaneous recording of a track in sync with the playback of another. I n other words. each Irack can be recorded and played independently. A 4-1r<lck machine is like having two 2-track machines with the added flexibility of being able to have four tracks play back in sync with each other. Pair this 4-lrack with a 4-track slereo deck (can record two channels on both sid es of the tape) or a 2-track deck, and you·re ready fortapc-to-tape work and six channel mixes. One olher type of tape machine that would be included in an ad vanced film sound studio is a sync recorder like the Super8 Sound Recorder (Super8 Sound. 95 Har vey SL Cambridge. Mass. 02140) or the Optasound Recorder (Op tasound, 432 W. 21 st St.. New York, N.Y.IOOI!). Async machine give s you complete lip sync mixi.ng capability-the lllti mate in film sound work (for more on the Super8 Sound Recorder. see" Product Probe." May. 1977). To all of this hardware. you add a Super-8 sound projector. The projector should have aline inplil (most projectors have one in addi tion to a mic input), manual vol ume control and a V U meier. Without a VU meter to indicate recording levels, a series oflrial and error lests may be needed to 37

locat.e the proper recording level. If the projector has no manual volume control. only AGC (au lomatic gain control ), additional problems arise. When you try to fade sound out. forexample, the AGC circuit tries to bring the volume back up . However. you could probably learn to live with thes e problems . bUI it may require some interesting modifications of normal mixing techniques (see "Creative Sound Mixing Techniques . " JUly/Aug. 1975).

Putting it All Together The reason for building your own sound studio is to be able to record and mix film tracks with more creative freedom, greater flexibil ity and control . To this end it makes sense to assemble all your audio components in a convenient arrangement. Diagrams I-A, 1-B and I-C indicate some possible equipment layouts. and anything else that suits you is fine. Things should be arranged 10 keep impor tant controls-mixer. tape trans port. VU mete rs-within easy reach while you're wat<:hing the screen during a mix (see Figures 2 and 3). Also, keep in mind that cables connecting the various component~ should be as short as possible. Long runs tend to de crease signal s trengths and pick up noise. Many manufacturers rec ommend runs of no more than 6 feet. While we're on the subject, watch out for the AC power cords. AC lines should never be bundled in wit h audio cables .,ince the alter nating current can introduce a 60 cycle hum into your signal. When AC lines must be near audio cables (as they will be in your system). arrange them so that they cross aud io line s at right angles . You can set your audio gearon a table or counter top or build it into special cabinets and control panels. However it is placed. everything should be connected to a patch bay. A patch hay resembles a telephone switchboard (see Figures 3 and 4). Ideally. every input and output of your entire system is present as a jack in tbe bay. At first glance . a patch bay seems overwhelming and an unnecessary complexity. But the bay is simply the system' s ins and outs , all collected in one 38

convenient place. You no longer have to lean over a tape deck to plug a cord into an output. With a patch bay. all connections are made in one place by plugging a pafch cord into the appropriate jacks . A patch cord consists ofa cable with a plug on either end . Basically. one end will plug into an output jack and the other end into an input jack. thus connecting two pieces of audio equipment with one si mple operation. To route a signal from track I of the 4-track recorderto input 2 of the mixer, for example. you plug one end of a patch cord inlo "4-Track Out 1" and the other end into" Mixer In 2." The bay is not only convenient and simple, it will also eliminate the rat's nest of cords that can otherwise easily engulf each piece of equipment.

Making Your Own Patcb Bay Wiring a patch bay is simple, even though (he final result looks com

"If you're beginning to add music, narra tion, dialogue and sound effects to your films, you'll want the same creative and technical control over sound that you exer cise over images." plex . Before wiring begins, you must decide how your bay will be designed. First, make a list of your audio gear, and under each piece li s t its inputs and outputs. After you have a list. decide how you want the inputs and outputs ar ranged on the panel. You can group thejacks for each piece of gear together. For example, "Tape One In I & 2" would be next to "Tape One OUII & 2." Another approach is to locate all outputs on one side ofthe panel and all inputs on the other. To make this met hod easy to deal with. each side should be more or-less symmetrical (Figure 4). You can buy a pre-assembled (but not wired) patch bay-a 40-jack unit can cost between $40 and $100, depending on make and de sign. I f there' s a used electronics

company nearby, they may have a good buy. The other possibility is to build your own . Plugs andjacks are available at hi-fi or electronics stores . The best size to use is standard Y4-inch "phone"jacks and plugs . Although these connec tors are rather large and take up more space, their size makes them easy to handle. and they tend to be more durable. The easiest way to build a patch bay is to mount the pbonejack s in a sheet of Masonite. Layout a grid to locate eachjack. and drill holes at least I inch apart (see Figure 4). Allow space for several morejacks than you think you need. Wben the holes are drilled, give the panel a coat of paint and label eachjack. Install thejacks and tighten them securely. You're ready for the wifing. lfyou haveo't soldered before. now's the time to learn. For wiring work, resin-core solder(comes on a spool) is the easiest to use. A small electric soldering iron is the best tool for t hejob, but an electric soldering gun will also do nicely. There are three important points to foUow when soldering wires to a connector. First, make a good physical connection between wjre and connector. Solder isn' tan especially good conductor of electricity-its job is to hold the wire in place . Second. get the area to be soldered hor. Hold the tip of the iron to one side oflhe area and touch the solder to the opposite side. If the area is hot. the solder will melt and flow around the con nection. Keep the iron in place until the solder has flowed. and hold t he work still un til the solder cools (it will become duller look ing). Third, when solder.ing a plug. dOD't forgel to place the protective insulator and the plug's outer sleeve onto the wire before you make the connection. Wiring thejacks in Ihe ,p<ttch bay is a simple process of doing one at a time. Shielded audio cable (which is amUSf for audio wiring) is a little tough tb work with . The shield ("ground" wire) is made offine wire mesh and lies just under the cable's outer insulation. The mesh must be un ra veled and twisted together in orderto use it. The other wire is inside the next layer of insulation. The inside wire a/ IIIll.VS gets Gonnected to the tip of SUPER-8 F1LMAlCER

the plug; the shield wire to th e plug 's shaft (or the out s ide of a jack). Conn ect one end of a length of cable to ajack in the patc h ba y. run it to the appropriate audio unit and cut the cable to the sbortes t possi ble length. Solder a plug that will fit that unit' sjack (in mo s t cases it will be an" RCA" plug) to the cable and plug it in. You c a n save a little wiring time by buying patch cords to ill thejacks in your audio components. c utting the Olhe r end offand soldering thaI end to the jack in your patch bay. Cords for patching connections a t the bay (phone plug on eac h end) can be purchased or made . Either way , get the heavieq wire and plugs you can find-patch cord's take a lot of beating. Also. have several more than you think you' JI need. When everything is wired, check each connection by sending a sig nal through it. If nothing passes through . ex amine the connection s for poor solder connections or wires touching . A com mon prob lem is hum in the syste m . In many cases this can be eliminated by grounding a1\ audio units together. Just run a wire to each unit and connect it to a marked "ground" poi nt or a chassis screw . If h urn persists, try to loc ate the source by removing one piece of the system at a time .

Calibrating and Using Your System Before you use your s ystem. i( should be cal ibrated. To do this you'll nee d a tone generator or a tape with continuous tones ofvar

ious frequencies recorded on it. Audio te st tapes are available through most hi-fi dealers , but they ' re expensive ($40-$50). Put the te st ta pe on a tape mach ine , play it and adjust the mach ine ··s V U meter to 0 decibels (db). Next. send that signal to all other unit s . one at a time. and adjust controls so me ters all read 0 db. If the system is calibrated in thi s way. you'lI be able to mix a track watching the VU meter on the mixer and know that the pro jector is recording at Ihe same level. Becau se electronic s tend to drift. you should check the s ys tem foralignment periodicall y. Operation of the system is fairly ~elf-explanatory. Foreach opera tion. decide where s ignals are to be sent and patch the signal from output to input accordingly. Let" s take a rather complex mixing situ ation and see how it could be patched.

This output is sent to the patch bay and plugged into a multiple (see Figure 4). A multiple is simply three or four jacks wired in paral lel. It acts as a "Y" connector-if you plug a signal into one jack you can take it out oftwo others. One side of the "Y " is sent to ao auxiliary tape recorder and is re corded on tape . The machine is set to "tape monitor" and the signal taken from the machine' s output. Since there is a small space be tween the machine 's record and playback heads. the output signal is delayed . The amount oftbe delay can.be adjusted by changing the taping s peed . This signal is then sent to an echo unit and finally to mixer input 4. The other side of the " Y" is sent directly to mixer 5. Now. on mixer4and 5. you have control over the direci s ignal and the echo . The background track on the second tape machine is sent to mixer6 . The mixer is set 10 .. mono" and the output is sent to the other channel of the equalizer for fi ne tuning of the composite track. From the equalizer, the signal is sent to the" tape input" of the monitor amp, and the amp's " Iine out put " is sent to the projector to be recorded on the film's stripe .

On the 4-track tape machine you ha ve recorded four separate track s- na rration on I. music on 2 a nd 3 (to be cross-faded at various times in the film) and spot sound e ffe cts on 4. On another tape machine VOll have a background sound tm'ck (city sounds. sound of the coun tryside. eTc . ). Track 1 from the 4-track tape recorder il) sent to one channel of a stereo equali zerto .. roll-off ' (red uce) unwanted bas s, then senl to mixer input 1. Musi c tracks 2 and 3 are sent d irectly to mi xer2 and 3.

This example demonstrates some oft he possibil it ies for creative film sound mi xing. As you work with the system, you'll discover other t ricks and techniques tha t wiil he Ip you in the creation ofprofessional sounding tracks.

Trac k 4 from the 4-lrack tape has a sou nd effect that req uire s echo .

Now . is it worth your time to build YO!.1rown sound studio? D _ __ .•_. _ ~I:.:.r-".UTS,N ,"" __ __ __

OUTPUTS

- ----- 4- Trock Ta pe ----

2-T r ac k

•2

•

2 -T ~ a c k

~( I I

• R

•R

•L X

•R

Figure 3: Another home studio set-up shows completed patch bay (center) and above it a re"erb unit.equatizer and monitor amp .

SUPER·S FILMAKER

, u ,

Ta p~

•

l C

i 1

, I I I

, ,I I

• ...!....I

•

Et hO

Proj .

Amp I.

)

I I I

2-Tr ',,' k B

•L

•

P X

I I I .E-I

•R

•

2-1ra ck A

Amp

•

Echo

~ H )t cr

-- - - -- 4 -Track

I II

1 ,

U ,

•

• •

•

Figure 4: T h is sample Ia.~·out for making your own patch bay divides inputs and outputs symmetricall~' for ease in sendin g sound from one place to another.• , Xs" indicate spare jacks. 39

r;;: /

With the hiQh cost of film_ can VOIl afford to ~h'Oot from the hip') Pianning ahead will save you time and Ifouble. "5 \\'cll a ~ money. STORYBOARD PA[)S hc:lp you viwalize your shots and work out c,lmeTa angles. composi tion and continuity, The pad~ include

You don 'I have to set lip a screen just to preview yOllr ne w footage, ~ h o w" point-of-sale film or !"kill through an educational movie. The handy EDI-SCOPE provide s a hright image under <lny lighting conu itions. The IGOmm by 75mm lenticular screen is easy to walch from <lny angie. Adjus t able legs allow you to raise or tilt the chunky_ all-metal Edi-Scope to the most convenien t viewing position. A va ilnble from H ervic Corp., 14225 Ventura Blvd. , Sherman Oaks, C a lif. 91423 . List prie£' : $53.70.

50sheets of white paper . which is Ihin enough to trace through . hut ,irong enough to mOllnt on hoards with rub hereemenl. Bel ow the JIh- by 41;M-inch pIcture are,l i, space to note dialogue or narration find details about the shot . N umber each storyboard in the ~pace provided to keep tr(tck of the sequence ()r~hot~. Available from He<.lth Pro duction~. Inc._ 1027 SCOI! Ave .. Wes t Islip. N. Y. 11795. Lis/ pri('£': $1.50. CIRCLE INFOCARD 27

CIRCLE INFOCARD 26

Are you fllmbling with your focus ring while the parClde passes you by? Thc QlJICK FOCUS ADAPTOR is made for you. The adjustable adaptor will fit mo st lense, from 55mm 10 72mm in diameter. Just plflce it over your cam era' s focus ring and tighten the ad justment screw . Available from Kalimar, 5 Goddard Ave .. SI. Louis Air ?<Irk, P.O. Box 3 \0. Chesterfield. Mo. 63017. Lis! price: $8.95.

Slill b"nging that old-fashioned clap board') A REEPLIGHT will keep you in step with the electronic age. The BeepLight simultaneously emits a very bright flash of light and a 1000 Hz burst of sound, both about one frame in duration. When YOll get to the editing stage. simply line up the light with the beep and you-re in s ync. The BeepLight works with any cassette or reel-to-reel s ync recorder with a standard low imped,mce mie input. The microphone connecg directly to the Beep Light. which plugs into the mic input. No connection with the camera is necessa ry . Available from Super8 Sound . Inc. . 95 Harvey St.. Cambridge Mass. 02140. List prier>: $75. CIRCLE INFOCARD 28

CIRCLE INFOCARD 29

SUPER-8 F!LMAKER

Where there's smoke, there's fire. , , or a 9031 REMOTE CONTROL FOG MACIDNE, If your movie calls for a lonely moor, a London pea-souper. a shell-shot battlefield or a towering in ferno, the 9031 will do the trick. shoot ing out astream of mist that spreads rapidly, Set it off manually or use the 25-foot remote control cord . Don't worry about inhaling the mist; the 9031 is designed for theatrical use and it's kind to actors . The machine comes with a pressure pack of " fog juice"

good for 30 minutes ofmis!. Extra packs may be ordered if you're shoot ing a real bam burner. A v a ilabl e from Mutual Hardware Corp., 5-45 49th Ave.. Long Island City, N .Y. 11101. List price: 9031: $260; extra pressure packs: $4.50. Rental: $50 for fiJ'$t week. $25 for additional week. CIRCLE INFOCARO 30

Controlling light is a snap with the versatile MVLTICLlP, a handy little device that will hold an improvised bam door or a light ditTuser to any standard size reflector. You can also use Multiciips for hanging film. hold ing fil ters or a dozen 01 he ruses. Let your imagination run wild. A stiffrod joins the two clips. which rotate to the most convenient position . The Multi clip will even stand on a flat sUiface when properly adjusted. Available from Bogen Photo Corp . . 100 S. Van Brunt St., P.O. Box 448. Englewood. N .J. 07631. Lis' price: $3.98. CIRC LE INFOCARO 31

When Baby says his first word , sound th Ing folds like a briefcase: pick it up should come from his I ips, not from Ihe by the handle and you'reon your way . projector. Chinon' s ATT ACHE Any projector with a speaker output SCREEN AND SPEAKER includes a fora s tandard RCAjack will work built-in speaker with 55-15.500 Hz with the Attache Screen and Speaker. fidelity. A special silver coating on Ihe A vailable from Ch inon Corporation of semi-malle screen makes daylight America. 43 Fadem Road. Spring viewing possible. The tabletop unit field. N.J. 07081. List price: $99. weighs only 12.6 ounces, while otTer CIRCLE INFOCARD 32 ing a screen approximately the size of a 19-inch television set. The whole

Is your projector really running at 24

will appear motionless. If the projector is (00 fast or too slow. the holes STROBE will give you an answer in will appear to be moving in one direc less than half a minute. The compact tion or the other. Correcting the speed electronic device is connected through is easy if your projector has a meehan a lightweight coiled cable to a small ical speed adjustment dial. Available light-emitting diode which blinks on from The Film Group, Box 9. and off at exactly 24 fps. Hold the Wethersfield. Conn. 06109. List price: blinking lamp behind the film's moving $34.95. sprocket holes. If the projector is running at 24 fps. the sprocket holes

Cps (frames per second)? The DIGI-

SUPE.R·8 FILMAKER

time is required for filling and emp tying.)

TBEJOY OF 'HOME PROCESSING

The actual processing steps are very easy. Add the correct solu tion at the correct time, and pour it back in its container giving your self enough time before the next step hegjn~. Very simple. The hard part comes in loading your tank.

ROBERT PRICE

So you want to process your own! There is certainly no rea~on why youshouldn·\. It'seasy. it's cheap. it's fast. and a lot like magic when you see images appearing before you reyes,

wh ite chemical kit costs about $3 from the same company and will process six rolls ifeverything goe s according 10 instructions . Ko dak also makes a black-and-white re versal kit t hat works equally well.

F or fast processing of your Super-R film. black-and-white or color. doing YOllr own can't be heat. A roll of black-and-white takes less than an hour. The Ek tachromes are abollt the same time. Unfortunately. Koda chrome's chemical process is still guarded by Kodak, so you won't he able to do that yourself. But with all t he other emulsion stocks available there is hardly a need.

The Kodak kit E-4 will process the Ektachrome 160, 40 and 7242 .'tocks. sound or "ilent. A s yet. there are no emul s ions in Super-8 for the new E-6 kit. The brea k down cost per roll figures 50 cents for black·and-white-now

From Cartridge to Tank Make sure YOIl have a practice roll of the film size you'lI be processing handy, and use it many times to practice loading your tank . Prac tice until you think you can do it in the dark because that's exactly where you'll be doing it. In fact. you should do some practicing in the dark also. Many things you take for granted by actually being able to see the film loading with the lights on. will become troublesome when t he lights go off. I can't stress enough t he importance of gelling the loading down cold . This is 90 percent ofthe work, and if not done correct ly, you'll net about 10 percent salvageable film

Ever need a roll of film processed quick to check your camera opera tion before that last minute shoo!') Ifan important event is coming up before you can have a roll lab processed. home processi ng can be invaluable. Another fantastic plus for doing your own processing is in screen tests, In Super-R you say? Of course! Superior Bulk Film's " Daylight

There are so many companies now producing home processing kits that obtaining one is the easiest part of doing your own. Practically all better photo stores carry them in stock or can order them for you. Mail order firms also can provide everything necessary forhome processing. The kit I used cost $25 .75 which is neither the least expensive nor most expensive you can ohtain. and came from Superior Bulk Film (see address at end of article), The black-and-

B oh Price is (l professional photo grapher, audio-visual con.wltant alldjilmmaker lI'ith a SUP('l'-8 screeninR mom at his San Fran cisco sfudio . 42

Proces~ing

Tank" is simple to use find

inexpen.~ive,

that's cheap!

when you fin ish processing.

As I !iaid before . a s long as every thing goes according to instruc tions. the time and cost savings are fantast ie. But buyer beware if this is your first ven ture in home pro cessing. The instruction sheet with my kit seemed to assume that I already knew someth ing about processing. Since I'd been doing my own processing of still camem films for over 10 years. they were assuming correctly. For the novice. the instructions gave no hint as to correct pouring proce dures (tilt the tank) or timing of the solutions. (It takes a long time to pour them out again, so practice with water to get an idea how much

Next. mix your chemicals. The

black-and-white reversal chemi

cals Illsed were a delight to mix

since all six were in liquid form.

Just add water at 70 degrees, and

they're ready to use. The kits that

contain powders are slightly more

difficult. since you'll have to allow

more dissolving time whether you

stir. shake or mechanically agitate

the container. And do label your

containers after mixing each one.

not after all are mixed and you

forget which concentrate was

which .

Assuming all solutions are at (he

correct temperature and you've

practiced loading your tank.

SUPER,8 flLMAXER

you' re ready to go. But first . there's one more Iiltle proble m hardly anyone knows abo lIt opening the cartridge. U nde rna circumstances should you take a hammer into the darkroom with you and whack away. Thi s will only result in flying plastic splin ters that are difficult to remove from your person in the dark and a lot of bent fiJrn. Other household utensils and tools I tried were equaUy useless andlor dangerous. I found two very easy ways 10 open the cartridge. One. you can buy a cartridge opener from Kodak which is very expensive or from Superior Bulk Film which is quite a bit less. Two, use my quick and cheap method. I pulled the film straight from the cartridge and attached it to the 50-foot spool inc luded with the processing tank, using my editor rewind to wind it up. The second method was under suspicion of scratching film. but every roll I processed was scratch-free. You can grab the end marked "exposed" and pull-the actual end of the film will come free of the cartridge-. Now pull on this end, and you 'U feel a slight resistance. Keep pulling until you hear a distinct snap and the film wilJ then pull freely from the car tridge (see photo I), During the winding process onto the 50-foot SUPSR·B FlLMAKER

spooL protect again st be ndi ng the film along its travel from th e: C(1I' tridge to the spool: thaI ' s, how scratche s occ ur . When tini shed, you'll have a c onveni e nt -poo l u f exposed fi lm on your edi tor re wind . in the dark. of ~our ~e. T he F ujio! film cartridges (Ire the easiest to ope n. Pe e l off t wo piece s of tape and the cartridg es separate. However. their !lIm stock s cannot be proce ssed at home. F uj i Single-8 Llsers can reload car tridges with Kodak black-and

"It's easy, it's cheap, it's fast, and a lot like magic when you see images appearing be fore your eyes." white or color fiJms to develo p at home, but you may have to read just the F ujica c amera' s pressure plate to accommodate the thicker film base.

Adding the Solutions Load the film into your tank, at tach the cover and turn t he lights on. If you have the spiral reel type tank (such as Superior's" DayIigbt Tank' ') which separates each strand offilm so chemical action is complete and even over the entire film, filling can be a problem. Try

tilting the entire unit so that solu ti ons fill fa ster (see photo 3). The open jn g provided for filling is quite small. and you ha ve about 20 oz. of solution 10 fill. Th is amounts 10 a lot of time involved injust filii ng. That's a lot of time before the film is entirely covered and the solution is working evenly on all the emul sion. Another problem [encoun tered was that the covertended to lift under the pressure offilling solutions. Spillage and light leaks occu r here. It was much easierto leave the cover off, in the dark of course, and fill first. attach cover. agitate to thoroughly wet the fil m. then turn the Ligbts on. lfyou master this approach for the first th ree steps, you can thea leave the cover offfor the remaining steps. since they can be done in room ligh!. During the processing steps make !)ome attempt at keeping solut ion temperatures constant with wash temperatures. It's the ditTerence s between the two that make for image problems. I n the fourth step oft he black and-white process, you'll need to remove the tank cover, if you haven't already, and re-expose the film to light. A 100-watt bulb is fine. This re-exposes the silver remaining in the film that was not developed in tbe first developer 43

Make your own movie titles with

BDB:

CINEGRAPHiICA Allows you to superimpose your own moving titles onto your own film background with a wide range of other special effects. The Clnegraph ica comes complete with eve~hlng you need to start titling-detalled In structions, titling drum and flap-over board, special effects masks ~nd supply of "Letraset" instantlettenng.

How it works

,:::\

(' ~~ ~;\;'~ (

(:::/

J- W

/" ~

·"'B '

~ ..

''\

The film Image Is reflected via Ihe Cinegraphlca'S beam splitl:io~ semi·si~V9recf muro( fnto ,your camera , which also plOO up the image of Ihe hiles ..trom the back of Ihe una. Using a "lh1ough Ihe lens VIewing came,a you can see jus. what you are IiImlng. With 'he two ima.ges superimposed, Atter pr~e~Sln~, the new lengths a/e spliced back onlo your Original 11m.

Distributed by: Testr~e

Instrument Co .. Inc.

135 Monroe SUNewark, N J. 07105 Kslt Corporation

2036 Broadway/Santa Monica. Ca. 90404

a.tHee Mot1<ellng Corp.

l Easl 261h SUNew York, NY t 0016

CIRCLE INFOCARD 48

A multiple tank system is used in Micro Record's "Automatic Daylight Processor."

solution. Since there is only a certain amount of silver left, you need not worry about too much re-exposure-the bulb will re expose only what is remaining. The second developer completes the cycle, and the steps remaining serve only to protect and preserve the image, Briefly, I was able to work with another processing unit made by Micro Record for$198. Unlike the Superior Daylight Tank. the film is in constanl motion within each solution bath in the Micro Record unit. An electric motor winds the film from the supply reel onto the take-up reel and back again while immersed in a covered tank of the properchemicaJ. At the endof each step , you lift the top motor unit with film attached and seal it into the next chemical tank. All very clean, no muss, no fuss. The drawback is that each step takes longer since the film is completeiy covered with chemical solution only during the time it is traveling from one reel to the next. Unless the full amount of time is given to each step, the possibility of un even results and poor density characteristics is great. Drying the Film Drying the processed film is an equally painless operation. String a clothesline at least 6 feet long across your darkroom, and loop your film over it, making sure the emulsion side (dull side) faces up where the film crosses the line. Or loop your film over push pins stuck in a wall or bulletin board (see photo 6). Kodak suggests using a large garbage can , clean on the outside. You wrap the film around the outside with the emulsion side

out and tape the two-ends to prevent unraveling. Most of the kit companies aJso make inexpensive drying racks . Processing ColO!: Film Up to now, I've covered princ~ pally black-and-white processmg, but color is also as easy. The total time in processing is practically the same. One limiting factor is cost. The Kodak E-4 for Ekta chrome films (2 pint) will process four 50-foot cartridges . The kit costs about $20. Simple deduction brings us to about $5 per roll for home processing. Unless you need instant lab work or specialized effecls, send it out. Anotherf~ctor thaI is limiting other than cost IS obtaining good color results . This involves strict adherence to proc essing time and temperature figures given in the kit instruc tions. Color processing effects are largely a matter of experi~en~a tion with developercombmatlons or changes. This should only be attempted after fully understand: ing the normal process and what It does to film. Solarization is af fected by exposing t'he film while in the 11rst developer. What is of primary importance is wbat home processing can do for you. Without a doubt, it is the best processing you can obtain since you know the lab technician and the (la b's quality standards. 0

For more information on home pro cessing equipment, write 10:

Micro Reco(d Corp. 487·38 Soulh Ave.,

Beacon, N .Y. 12508

Superior Bulk Film Co, 446 North Wells $1 ..

Chicago, III. 606W

SUPER·a rn.MAKER

Columbia Pictures

presents anacademyaward

winningcatalogue.

Now, see major Academy Award winning motio n pictures comfortably at your leisure in your own home. Super 8 Sound Films designed exclusively for Super 8 sound projectors, are artfully edited to highlight the best Columbia Pictures Classics for enjoyable relaxation anytime. 85 5348. HI\L\NUELLE (1975) ., X" was never like thIS . Beauti· lu I and sensItive . A diplomat's wife In Bangko k, explores new areas of sexuality. For adults only . For U.S. cu Slomers only. Color - Only $49.95

855488. O N THE WATER . FRONT (1954) Marlon Branda. Eva-Marie Saini. Karl Malden. Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger. Oscar-winning blockbuster. Brando. a member of New York 's corrupllongshoreman 's union. defies its leaders by tes· tifying against them after h,s brother is killed . Black & White - Only $39.95

85 5.>5 6. F .·\ ~ TA STI C r· OOT · BALL F L' '-.; NIES. The most re markable collection 01 goofs. fumbles , and m i ssed tackles eller assembled . Even the pros can look silly. Color - Only $49.95

~ 5 5 20 7 .

BOR " F REE (1966) VirgInia McKenna. Bill Trailers. From the popular book : with the hit theme song . Siory 01 an Alriean game warden and his wife who raises Elsa. a lioness. as a pe t. Co lor - Only $49.95

1975 WORLD SERIE S Unbe lievable ! The best yetI Tiant. Rose . Lynn. Fisk. Morgan. etc.. and thai "interference " play that is still argued about. The Cincinnati Reds nose out the Boston Red So x. (SP· '210)400' REEL Color - Only $49.95

855 283. IIlHD G E O ~ THE RIVE R "WAI (1957) Willi am

Holden . Alec Guinness . T H E T HR EE STOO G ES :\:" Oscar,wlnning action film .\C H E IN E\ 'ERY S T.~KE aboul confli c( 01 willS between (1941). T hey pose as ice men P.O.w. olticers Gu inness and and w ind up coo~ l ng a birth HOlden. ordered by Ihe day surpr i se for a slartled Japanese to bui ld a bridge that fam i ly. Don'( m i ss them i n ~55 J05. CAT MLLOr (1965) Hold eo Is sec ret Iy obliged to their hi larious, s ide-spli tting Jane Fonda . Lee Marvi n. destroy. escapades, 855208. Michael Callan , Nat King Cole, Color - Only $49.95 Black & While Only $.39.95 Stubby Kaye . Delightful Os car·winning Western spoof. Fonda is a notorious oullaw ~ S52 q L CAL' E ~l UTI"'Y. 'r H E and Marvi n is the hilariously (1954) Humphrey 80gart. Fred inept gunfighter. MacMurray. Jose Ferrer, Van Color - Only $49.95 Johnson. Bogey is the com mander of a Navy sh,p. When a muliny follows hi s nervous breakd own. he is COurl marlialed'Color _ Only $49.95

---------------.--~---. COLUMBIA PICT URES SivIM FIUvlS

85531>-1. G U:-:S OF N AVARONE. THE (196 1) Gregory Peck . David Niven. Irene Pappas. An thony Quinn . The classic action 711 FifrhA\~nue~ewYork. :"\. y.I002Z film : Allied commandos' " im· possible" mission is to destroy Plcase send Ill e V()lIr c (lrre nt C ~[ ~I \ og;.

the German gun emplacements ~IM5049 " \-lORE FRO',", EM at Naverone. A thriller from .'-'IANL;E LLE" The further ad· 1' 1 <::I, e , e nd Ill.: [he fil l11 ' liqed . Fil II p:r\ In ':ll( <: (l cl",e d .

start to finish! ventures of Emmanuelle in PlcI>c ad d loca l t :lx e ~ pi llS S (.O() hJn d I in~ l·O ,t.

Color- Only $49.95 Bangkok. a second d i gest based on the original movie. 855437. l AWRE C E OF :'\amc Color - $49.95 ARABIA (1962) Peter 0 ' Toole . Alac Guinness. Anthony Quinn . 855410. JOLSON STORY. T HE Addre5 ~ Winner of seven Academy (1946) Larry Parks. Evelyn Awards. True. thrilling story of Keyes . William Demerest. Tune Ci~' _ _ _ _ _ _____ SC;Jtc _ _ Zip _ __ T.E. Lawrence. WW1 British of ful delight. with the famed Jol licer who united the Arabs son on the sound track of th is against the Tu rks. Oscar,winning story of the Cotor - Only $49.95 brash perlormer's rise to fame. PRI CE FI L'\1 :\0. P~( CE • FlL\1 :'<0. Color - Only $49.95

•

--..II

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I 85531J. CHASE , T HE (1966) Marlon Branda, Robert Red 1 ford, Jane Fonda, Angie Dick· inson, Robert Duvall. E. G. Mar I shall . Explosive drama of es ---I caped convict who retu rns I -. home to find his wife has been I unfailhful.Color - Only $49.95 • - - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ • _ _ _TOT.\!. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ II

••

CIRCLE INFOCARD 48

•

CONGRATULATIONS,

YOU'RE ABOUT TO BECOME

A DIRECTOR.

5X Zoom.The 8-40 mm lens has Sep al Z118 'Wide and "Tele 'power zoom sWitc hes plus a manual conlrol ri ng tor com ple e tlexlbili l\, In framing the image . changing image size

SliW shoo' lng vou avoid wa st ing film (an(j n:oney) Not all super 8 i OU ·3 ul . the 50SXL does

Fade-in/Fade-out. PushbU llori conlrolled lades. preclsel Indicated In the viewfinder, lei you add a proiessionall ouch of soprll!:i Icaleei scene tranSitions

Backlight Exposure Compensation. Whe n the backligh t' s strong, he 505XL ca g iv e you + i SLOP exposure at the press o f a bullon And Ihat means VOIJ II gel pr op er l" exposed subject s. not sii houelles

Action Creating it. Controlling il. If that"s your goal in super 8 filmmaking. the GAF ~ SS-505XL is your camera . Automatic exposure control, a fast i/ 1.2 lens and a 2200 shutter give you the freedom to explore the possibilities in almost any '"available light"'situation, whether indoors or out. An exposure compensation feature lets you vary automatic expo sures :!:: 1 stop whenever shooting COll diiiollS -or your own creative instincts-call for it Tileres also an earplug to moni tor sound before and during recordIng A remote control SWitch on l1"1e l'I.I CI"o phone so you can star In your own movies . And a brighr , through-the-Iens viewfinder that not only shows you exactly what you're shooting before you shoot it, Dut also (/stop, over- 'under exposure wa rning, a recor d ing signal. fil m adva nce and encl of flirTI Signals . What's more. the SS- 505XL has a price tag il,al's re markably low for such a great camera, Lower, In fact, tila n many other sound super 8'5 ® witl, comparable features , Ask your photo dealer ior a demonstration soon It'll conVllice • you that the SS-505XL gives you everything you need to stop just . . . . filming and siart directing.

CIRCLE INFOCARD65

Sound Monitoring. Wheli vou c a n check the sou nd level b efore you

s lei

If you like chase scenes. you'lI love The General (1927). Con federate railroad man Buster Keaton chugs off to recapture a locomotive stolen by the Yankees. He catches up with his choo-choo. but the Yan kees grab another engine and chase him back toward Rebel lines. Keaton based his comedy/adventure on a real Civil War raid. B/W & Silent-$52. 1600 fLn5 millS.

Niles Film ProduCTs 114/ Mish{{\\'akaAvl'. South Bend. Ind. 466J4

Folks will be standing in line to see your very own excerpt

fromStlir Wars (1977). Begin ning in Obi-Wan Kenobi's cave, the film also shows the escape from the De<.)th Star and the fight with pursuing fighters before Our Heroes make thejump into hyperspace.

Color& Sound-$29.95 B/ W & Silent-$8. 95 )50 fl./7l,,2 mins .

Ken Films 560 J'vJlI ill Sr . Forr L ee, N.J. 07024

Selecr Films 115 Wes131J1 Sf.

Nell' Yvrk. N . Y . /0001

The first American film to tell

a complete story. The C rellr

Train Robben' . was the hit of

1903. Made in New Jersey,

this eastern We stern sparkeJ a

stampede of cowboy and oul

la,v sagas .

B/ W & Silent-$9 .98

Color & Sound (mu s ic)

$39.98

225 fLlIO mins .

B 10 ckllllwk Film ,I • /IIC, 12J5 W. Fijrh Sr . Davenp.ort, 1011 '(/52808

First your clothes get baggy . then you stari dating midgets. and before you know it. Tabby mistake s you fora mouse. For

Th e Incredible 5 hrinkillg M (In (1957) , the worst is yet to come-a duel to the death with a vicious spider. Thi s popular science fiction story was shrunk by ~ for release . B/W & Sound-$39. 95 353 ft./171;2 mins.

Uni"ersal EighT 404 ParkAl'e. Soulh Nell' York. IV. Y.IOO!6

SUPER·B FILMAKER

Orson Welles flees (hrough the sewers in The Third M(l1I (950), a suspense classic set in the ruins of postwar Vien na. Joseph Cotten co-stars as an ionocent American search ing forthe truth about an old friend.

B/W & Sound-$179 Rental-$20 2,080 ft.!104 mins .

Penk Film s P.O.80x266 Port Hop e. Onr. Cilnada LlA 3W4

W ....

Rembrandt did it in oils, but you can film an jntimate portrait of yourself .

S :I w

!II

I think one of the unique and imp0rlant thing s Super-8 filmmak ers do is to use the filmmedi umfor highly personal. int imate portraits of them selves. T he films are pro duced with a very close . personal audie nce in mind . There is no commercial intent behind the se films and no urgency to show them on w ide screen s in big theaters. 1 have made many such film s . and I keep funning in tO oth e r Super-R filmmakers w ho re port s imilar production:". T his i ~ the first of several"Home Movi es" column s that will describe some of these film s. reported in the hope that many of you will be encouraged to LIse your camera as a n instrument for personal jourmll ing . After 8 years of taki ng thousands offeet of pictures of other people. I found myself. not long ago. feel ing compelled to create a selfport rait. I realized I had asked ma ny student s in my film work shop s to bring in 50 feet offilm that would tell something abollt who t hey are. bu t I had never accepted s uch an assignmen t for myself. One night I looked at myselfin the bathroom mirror and said , " The time has come ." I knew that any self-portrait of me

would have to include my camera . This posed a problem, until I realized that the very bathroom mirror I wa s looking into would solve it. I happen to have an un usual t~1 ce mirror in my bathroom that ha s two mirrors at right a ngles to each other (in a corner), with a third mirror hinged to one side of the corner mirror s . Wh e n the hinged mirror is moved. the image in th a t mirror is reflected on the ot her mirrors (thus allowing you to see the back of your head when you ' re combing your hair). A II kinds of st range and wonderful double and infinite im age s began to occllrwith the movement of that hinged mirror . I got my ca mera, put on a clo se-up lens that would allow me to stand within 2 feet of the mirrors and put four 100-watt bulbs in tbe lighting fixt ures overthe mirror. I loaded my camera wit h Ektachrome 160 48

film , removed the built-in filter. zoomed in on my reflection 10 set the focus and began shooting . ( became quite giddy with the ef fect s 1 was able to produce by holding t he camera in one hand and manipulating the hinged mir ror with my otherhand. It took some time and practice. but even t ually I was able to create slich effect s as two cameras coming out of my eyes a nd multiple images of me and the camera that moved back and forth across the mirror

Portrail Ofaulhor Btlll' McAfee as fil m· maker . 000 ' 1 miss the iicr nse l>Iale!

and diminished into the infinit e rece sses created when one mirror is reflected in another. J simply kept my finger pressed on the trig ger and leI the movement of the mirror shift and change the im age . 1 had gone through IOOfeet offilm before [ tired of the experience . When the film came back from processing, r was pleased. for I had caught [he weird and unusual effect s, and most of it W(lS in focus. But it was a strange bit offoolage. priva(e, intimate and egocentric.

1 wanted to put ~ome sOLlnd with it but wa s puzzled over what to use. I tried several pieces of music. but they didn't quite work . Suddenly it came to me. that the occasional poems I had written over the years a bout my filmmaking would be an appropriate soundtrack . I sea rched through my diary-

journ als and pulled out the bits and pieces ofpoetry J had written. [ read them into my Sony cassette tape recorder, then played them back and timed each one. Al together they tot aled 2Y2 minutes (I haven't been a prolific poet). Since 1 had filmed at 18 frames per second (I always shoot my per sonaltilms at IUps). 1 had about 70- minutes offootage . I edited that down (04 minutes (slightly more than 50 feel offilm),leavi ng room in the fil m for quiet space between poems. Since this was a highly personal film not destined to be seen by the multitudes. I used my original film, edited it and striped it on my Bolex stripi ng machine. I let the st ripe "cure" overnight and the next day tran s ferred the poems from the casselle tape onto the stripe. I could have simply read (he poems wit h t he projector microphone . but by ll sing the other procedure 1 was able to eliminate the problem of projector noi se . The effecI orthe combination of strange im agery of myself and my camera with my filmmaking poems was very ~atisfying to me and worked weJl as a ~elf-port rail piece . The film is not one I show to many people . I am not going 1O blow il up to 16mm and try to get it inlO distribution. nor enter it in a film festival. It· s not that sort of film . II is rather like the pages or a diary or journ al. a private rende r ing of a statement about myself ina part icular moment of lime. Self-Portrait Poems by Betty McAfee I am a camera t hat records endless images upon the film that is my life.

Occasionally. I project and you see fragments of that film. There will never be enough lime (or inclinationl fo r me to show (or you to see) the whole fe stival,

***

When J see myself on film, I knOll ' there is more to me than meets the ey e. 0 SUPER·S F'lLMAKER

CIRCLE IN"FOCARD 21

-01

Position Kodak Moviedeck projector. Lift rineed dL!stcover. • _ (The amacrivc low-profIle design makes many o wners want to leave their Moviedeck projectLlr o n display, ready t~)r use at a 1110menr's notice.) Select screen. Most Kodak Muvideck projectors offer a .' unique pull -out viewing screen . • . On uur top three m0dels, the pull-,)ut screen is now 3Vt bv 5 inches-more than twice as large as befo re. A nd it lets you show movies in normal roum ligh(. Of course, you ( all als0 projecr o n a conven tk)nal screen. Choose film format. All Kodak Moviedeck projectors ~ show e.ither super 8 or 8 n1m hlm-ar the Hip of a switch . Thread the film. Actually, the projecror does rhe dueading • <luwmatica!ly and safely (with Spi'( )cketless film drive), You just feed the leaLler into the slor. Rewind is automatic, Wl) , on all bur rhe lowest·priced model. Select projection speed. On • some models. one sim Ie control handles both forward and reverse at variuus speeds.

.20

-30

-35

·45

Sixty seconds from shelf to showtime.

:58

Enjoy.

There are six Kodak Moviedeck projectors ro choose from, including four new models , All except the n1,lO lowest priced models now feature a pull-oue screen. All models are available with a normal o r a zoorn lens. And all have the distinctive styling chat makes the projecror as beautiful as your movies. See your photo dealer ~ for a demonsrration,

~'-l Kodak Moviedeck® .- ;,~ projectors SUllu \aleJ prujwed Inug<.

CIRCLE INFOCARD 40

I I I I I

Synching fast with your electronic clapboard; make a no-cost matte box

I I I

Sync for Yourself

The ab ility to be a one -man film crt \v is one of the th ings I' ve alw,\ y~ liked about S uper-S, Now th ell j ' v e devel oped an e<l ~ y way toes tabli sh syn c.. lone wolffilm ing is ev en more pract ical.

I I

O f cotl rse. e veryo ne knows you can sync a film by hav ing yom subject clap hi ha nd, to '>tart the sce~e . T his works fa irl y well in cont roll ed s itu atio n ' if y our su b ject clap s loud e nough , keeps hi s hands wi thin the are a bei ng fi lm ed and re turns hi s ha nd s to a nOl' mal pos ition be fore beginning to talk , In man y sce ne" howeve r. thisjlIs t is n't pos s ible . I used to set th e came ra o n a tripod , start it rolling, dash in front o n the ca mera with a c lapst ick . gi ve the clle a nd dash bac k lO the camera. wasti ng fi lm all thewhi le. So I set oul to bu il d m y ~elfa sy nc unit tha t could be acti vated from be hin d the camera . (envisio ne d a hand hel d device th a t would e mit " beam o flight and a so und . imul taneousl y~ sort or a n elect ronic cJapi1oard. After some scrounging and search in Q, I waS a bl e to as se mble all t he part 5 I needed at a loca l radioie lec!ronic s slore. Th e key to my ~ y nc system i::. th e Mallory " Sonalert." <1 de vice which produce s (l shrill noise when acti vate d by c urre nt. Since the Sonalerl ru ns o n 9 vo lts , [ bo ugh t a 9- vol l ba ttery and battery cap . but I could n' t find a ny 9-voll 1ighlS in

Fi gu re I: Com ponents arranged in chassis. SUPER·8 FILMAKER

'w o

t he store. In stead , I settled on a 6-volt pi lot light v.'hic h work edju st nne as it tu rn ed Olil. I al so bought a mini- pus hb ut ton ~wit c h wire . and a pl ain black 2- by 3-i nch c h n ~ s i s bo x wit h it ~ crew off bac k . T he Sonale rt ( ost $ i I a nd t he tota l cos t of<dlt he other compone nts ran to under$3 .

r ask ed ,\ friend to wire the com· ponent s so that pu shing the bu tt on completed the circ uit of bot h the Sooalert a nd the I ight. Th e fir s l step is to arrange the co mponen ts in t he c h(lssi s to find t he bes t fit (see F lgllre 1). When you mo unt the button, decide what fi nge r you w ill be usin g to pre ss it an d in which h:md you pl a n to ho ld the

~--~=---~----------~~~ Figure J: Row to wir., u p components of sync de vic e.

from the battery cap to (I pole of the mini- switch (see Figure 3). The seco nd battery cap wire all aches to the pilot light and a wire from the light rLins to the remaining pole oflhe mini-s witch . Now connect o ne pole of the Son<llert to the wire run ning betwee n th e pilo t light and the mini-switch, T he ot her pole of the Sonalert connects to the 'Alire jo ining the pilot light and the l;Iat tery . Don't worry about which pol e I~ which; the syslem is so sim ple that it does n'l make any differe nce. F''ls ten th e battery to the back of t he ch a s ~ i s , and you're read y . j o el KOllffm(/lJlJ. ElkhOrT , lnd. Margari ne Matte Box

Fi\: ure 2: Com pleted s)'nc d~\' in~ with sound

lind light l'mitting from sam e direclion,

devi ce. Sin ce I am righ t-h a nded , 1 prefer to us e that han d for my came ra a nd my left hand for th e sy nc device. In our model. lA e mount ed the light a nd the Sonale rt un the same si de (se e Fi gure ~) , wh ic h m ea n~ that when the light is a imed di rectly at the camera . the so und is usuall y aim ed aw ay from th e nUc. Thi' can cause ,! weaker signal, altho ugh the high pilCh of the SonnIer! is sti ll ea sy to id e ntify o n the edit ing table. Yo u cou ld improve on our de sig n by putt i ng a semi-globe I ight at t he lOp of the uni t. Since a top-mount ed ligh t wo uld be visibl e from an y angle, yo u could co ncentrat e on aiming the sound a t the mie. Whe n ~i O lI know where _ou want the compo nent s 10 go. drill hol es for mounting a Sonalert . th e lig ht a ncl the pus h button . G et OUI your ~oldering iron and att ac h one wi re

Yo u don ' t need an expensi ve, bulky spec ial effects bo x to do grea t looking pli t -~creen or matte ~ ho t s, Ify Oll alre<ld y have a lh re aded adapter ri ng to fit YOllr len :-. (so me fi lt er~ also work) Or a screw-in lens hood . you probably won' , ha ve to spend a pe nny to builcl your own 'peci al effect s box. All VO ll need are an g-o lI nce m,lI' gar(ne tu b with li d , two thi n strips of wood or card board, st aple s , flat bb ck pain t and a sharp knife (an X-acto is best) . Begin by cLlttinga hole in the bottom of the marga rin e tllbjll st big eno ugh for the threaded pa rt o rt he adapter ring to lit through. Pai nt th e inside of lhe tub tlat black and a llow it to dry , Next, c ut a hole in t he lid la rge enough to give your Ie ns a clear view in all direct ions . You can check thi s ea sily if your Cll me ra has a refl ex view finde r. Now, cu t two thi n strips of wood s lightl y longer than the lid ope ni ng is wide. Notch eac h st rip so t hat your matte cards can slide in , and fa ste n th e trips to the top an d bottom oft he ope ning in the lid (Figu re 4) . Ify o ll prefe r, yo u can staple a coup le o f pieces of stiff t.: ardboard to the lid instead o f wood, but the wood is Illore dura ble. Att ach your effect~ box to 1he came ra by fi tting the ada pter ring o r lens hood through the opening 51

Enable the Amateu r Movie Maker 10 pro· du ce rea lly First Class Till es. The System consists of acc urately moulded plastic le ite rs in sizes from %"10 :y,,". These are set up for filming by pressing on 10 the clear Transparent Presg rip sel f adhesive SCreen. A varielY of effec t s can be obtained by using the colored backgrou nd s supplied,or you can shoal Ihrough Ihe screen wilh a live background. Useable over and over again.

Figure 4: Mllrga rine malle bOl< filled Ol'er lens with keyhole matte card in place.

There is a range of ni ne set s to choose from, each set contains il mould ed plastic tray for sort ing t he letters, together w ith Ihe Presgrip Screen, col ored back gro und s e lC. Write for details and samples, we w ill send by return, together with ordltr form for se ts quoting inclusive dollar p rices for despatch bv Air Mail.

o cE~

in the bottom of the tub and screw ing it o n yo u r cam era lens . Snap the lid on the margarine lub, mak ing sure that the open ing in the lid is in a level pos ition . De pend ing on your camera , this may hav e 10 be done after you focus th e lens .

19 lJ Ed," .. n or GUINN L S

RO O ~ .-. f \,·ORl.[) RF:COR OS

Wit h ;1 u rLi I.: ..(" Hi ~ llf l l11 H o..' \o IU11Ie'\, fS.~ 15- \.JhlC'J

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O Rl) 1 R ' 0\\ I~\ S} ' D1' l ,1 1I 1-L f... I'J "10\! ( ~ t) lH H K t ol

RING CL AS SICS, INC. 350

VANO ER B~L T

PKwY .

~AUPPAUGE. N,Y , 1l787

PRE SG RI P SIGN CO. Winnall Valley Road, Winchester, Ha mpshire, England.

You can use y our effects bo x for a variety of ho ts. To produce the illu sion that a chara cter is peering Ihrough a keyhole, for instance, c ut a keyhole shape in black cardboard and slide the matte card in the notched wooden st rips (Figure 4) ,

W'lITE -OR F REE CATA LOGUE I

CIRCLE INFOCARD 54

CIRCLE INFOCARD 55

LET MR. P-A-P ICI~

If your camera can be backwound . you can experiment wit h a split scree n look. Film through a matte c ard that covers half t he im age a rea . The n turn rhe card around so the o pposite half of th e image area is ma sked. bac kwind and film anolher scene. This is particularly effective for" meanw hile back at the ranch" shots when you want to show two event s t hat a re supposed to be happening at the sa me lime . F or more matte ideas see" Optical Effects" (J an ./Feb. 1976) .

He cleans your prOjector, removing dirt and particles which scratch your films , And he does it automaticalty every time you show your films . Strong, Durable ... . he ·1I still be working even when your ftlms wear out. PROTECT-A-PRINT LEADER' is Mr. P-A-P's full name . Just splice a PROTECT-A-PRINT LEADER to the leading end of your film-and thread on il . T hai " brand new Image" look wi ll lasl longer with Mr. P-A- P on the job . The new 30-ft . package of 8 mm makes 10 leaders . 16 m m makes 5 lead ers. Find PROTECT-A-PRI NT LE ADE R on your dealer's cou nter -or send us the coupon below, alon g with your check or money order. Please allow 10 days for delive ry .

-------------------------------------~

PHOTOGRAPHIC SPECIALTIES

I ~ 11450 Ventura Blvd., Box 1218 . Studio City, Cali f. 91604

Please send me PROTECT-A-PRINT LEADER , 30 feet per roll , as requested: _ _

Rolls B mm Super B @ $3.75 ea

_ _Rolls 16 mm Sgl Perl @ $4 .95 ea

_ _

Rolls 8 rnm Reg 8 @$3 .75 ea

_ _ Rolls 16 mm Obi Perf @ $4.95 ea

C ahl o tnt it reS ldenlS pl eas e aod I un d«HSland

my ord er

6e ~

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Wi ll be shipp ed immedl ateiy IU$I c las s OO Slp;'lId

Enclosed is my 0 check 0 money order for total of $ _ _ _ __ Name _________ _ _ ________________ _ __ AddresS _ ________________________ ___ __ _ _ ___ ~_~_ __ __ __ ___ _ _·_ _ ___ ___ _ _Zlp ~_______ J Cily _____ ____ __ _ ___ _Slate_ __ _ __ _ __

CIRCL E INF QCAR D 57

lfyour camera is capable of macro focusing. you can use the effects box to film a slide . To make sure t he slide fits properly in your wooden guides . use a s lide as a meas uring de vice whe n you faslen the wooden strips on the lid. Ifstray light reaching the lens is a problem, snap off the lid a nd you have an extra large lens hood, II may not be elegant. but this effects box will give surprisingly good results. -G orv 5 eats, Gorland, Tex. 0 SUPER·S FILMAKER

THE SUPER·8 BOOK by Lenny Lipton

A brood opprooch to the leost expensive yet technicolly sophiSticated

syStem of fjlmmol~ing, by the outhor of Independent Filmmaking. This vol·

ume g ives you in-depth informotion about lip sync sound, film, editing,

prints, lenses, cameros, projectors and other components and tech· niques. [lesides sUM~ying the Super·S film format itself, this ::120 page ref· erence bool~ analyzes comerm (describing in detail how 0 prototYpe Super·a mochinE' worl~s before evaluating the whole range of ovoiloble cameros from Agfo to Yoshico); introduces both single ond double sys tem sound: eluCidates processing and striping: exploins the process of editing: darifies all the choices in printmoking (optiCol ond blow-ups) ond explares the current projection allematives (from the fomil,ar opticol to the increasingly displayed electronic methods). An incredibly useful bool~ for onyone involved with Super-a, it fearures a unique, handy thumb index and an exhaustive text index which gets you to your information fast. A book which clearly shows Lipton's love for Super-B, thiS is 0 {rue compendium of informotion··including()ver 200 photos and charts plus a comprehensive listing of Super·8 products and seNices . You I~now how excellent the bool~ IS whei"\ i[ calls Super·8 Flimoker magazine "your best single source of current information." It is 0 valuoble tool for any student. e-ducotor, hobbyist or pro. Not only is all the information he-re, but the bool~ is a graphiC feast of photos and illustrotlons which help simplify

even (he most rechnical ideas. Mokes a proctlcol. ine-xpe-nsive- 9ift for a

filmmaking friend, Sohcover (1Q75), 6 x 9 . .120 page-s, )6.Q5.

Other Classic film reference books;

lerent film s[ocl<s and gives a rundown on Ihe pros and cons of various camero feotures and components. It's 0150 a how·lo·do·it bool(, with instrUCtions on shooting doy·for·night. spliCing film, A ond 13 roiling. recordll"\g sound, filming dose·ups and models. de· termining exposures and even how to clean your lens and store f,lm This booll IS a (lch source of Informorion··o verltoble encyclo pedia of the hows and whys of shOOting films. lipton has man aged to tol,e this highly technical subject mOlter. and communi· cote It In a way that is both understandable and readable. Soft· ' ..JL " • cover (revised 197::1). 6 x 9 , dJ2 pages. b7 .95

MA5CELLI'S CINE WORKBOOK by Joseph V. MOlcelll. AS C This baal, is wrl tten by the some author of The Five C s of Cinema· tography. It is 1"\0t a "how·to·make·movles" booI,: It assumes (hat you I,now how 0 comero works. how to compose shots and use tronsitlonol devices Instead. it Is a 'worl,booll" actually com· posed of rwo baolls under one cover. One booll is called " Text" and the other "Tools " " Tex( outlines such subjects as exposure fOCtors. subject reflectance. lighting COr'l(rost ratios. scene lumin, THE FIVE Cs OF CINEMATOGRAPHY by Jose-ph V. Mmcelll, ASC. ance. him rypes. camero and projector apertures. image cut·off Ol"\ce you have passed the stage of figuril"\g OUt how a camera problems, color temperatures. various fiiters and rypes of lighting, works and you wal"\t to make a "real film," you 'll fil"\d thiS book 0(1 film processing prrnClples, priming procedures ol"\d Olher factors of invaluable rool. The Flve Cs nos provel"\ Its usefulness os one of whICh many tilmmal,ers ore uninformed All of these conceptS are the most widely used cinema textbooks in schools. colleges and explained cleorly and easily through words, graphs and chOrt5. universities, It does not go imo the usual film bool< discussion " Tools"IS a POtPOUrri of actual filmmaking gadgets. including ex about cameros, projectors, film stocks or exposure melhods. Mos· posure calculators. on 1 8 per·cent gray cord. a color chart, lens celli intended it 10 be "Ihe first proCtical book showing how to focus targets, Viewfinder accuracy [eSt charts. registration lest adopt Hollywood production methods to limited budget film grids ond all I<inds of stuff. You even get a pad of lens tissues, ing." The fivE' c's the bool< discusses are: Comero ongles (objec· mognifier. ruler. fil ler gel samples, orangewood stick and grease tlve, subjective, point of view. "dutch lilt." etc.): Continuity pencil (0 write 01"\ the Vinyl bock cover which seNes as 0 scene (cinemOlic lime and space, directional continuiry, sound {(ansi· slale. Writer Don Su(herlond sold. "If you get this bool~. I would liom); Cutting (SIalic and moving shots, protection shots, sync suggest you do not lend it toyour bUddy; he won'l Wont 10 give it sound, cross cunll"\g, match cu[[ing): Close·ups (over Ihe shoulder, bock"Hordcover (1 Q74l . 6'1/2 x Q, iQ2 pages plus tools, b20.00, (vt'i('\, cUt· away, moving. tempo. backgrounds); Composition (use of lines. form, masses and movements. formal and informal balance. center positioning, dynamic and suspenseful composi· Super·8 Fllmaker, 3161 Fillmore St., San Francisco, Ca. 94123 tions). "Keep it simple" is Moscelli's motto. This philosophy is echoed throughout his bool~ in Ihe clear definitions, the many Please rush me Ihe fOllowing books:

C The Super-8 Book . .. $6.95

well·chosen photographs and illustrations and his easy wriling n Masce/(j's Cine Workbook . .. $20,00 sryle. Modern Photogrophy said, " If you toke your movie mal<il"\g

o The Five C's 01 Cinemalography . .. $15.00 seriously. or simply wont 10 I<now a little more co dress up your o Independent Filmmaking .,. $7.96 films, Ihis is Ihe book " Hardcover (1 Q65, fifth prinling 1Q7::1). 8·::1{4

Enclosed Is S_ _ check or money order,

x 11 .1/2,251 pages. 515.00. I am Including 75 cenlS per bOOk for postage and handling .

INDEPENDENT FIlMMAKING by Lenny lipton

Name _______________________________________. Bestseller mogozine says, "This claSSiC lext in [he field of filmmok

ing Is rapidly becoming the bool< odopted in college courses on

Address ___________________________________.... the basis of irs unsurpassed excellence as a guide that is under·

Cily. ___________ 5IaI8'_______ Zlp_________ stondable and up-to·dote for the beginning filmmaker." The

book is portly a handbook; i[ contains tables for depth of field ,

California residents. please add applicable sales

color lemperowre-voltage change, angle of view and focal tSJ(. Add 15% forCanadian or foreign orders (except length. film running times for specific film lengths. 1(5 portly 0 buy· APOIFPOl . Please allow 3·4 weeks for delivery, ing guide: it explains how cameras and film wOril. compares dif·

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Become a mad inventor! Supernatural Super-8 can bring a dum,my to life Although this column generally de<lls with special effects you can use in your films. this issue I'm going to tell you about a way to use film to create a special effect that c<ln stand on its own. Ifyol)'ve ever been to Disneyland or Dis neyworld (or some museums and trade shows), you may have seen dummies that can speak, move their eyes and change expre~~ions in an incredibly lifelike fashion. This startling illusion is created by filming a person's face and project ing the image onto a dummy head .

Tlearned how it works last year when 1 was working at Valleyfair, an amusement pink near Minne apolis , J was hired to design the mad inventor's set for a whimsical chClracter named Trving. We de cided tCll1Se a projected head illu sion in Irving's lab . The head of Irving's assistant. [he subject of some weird experiment, would float in [he lab while his body roamed elsewhere . My job W<lS [oproduce "Ed's Head," named for t he actor who port rayed the hapless assistant.

an interesting shot. By carefully metering the light on Ed's face and exposing for this value, the hood and background remained totally black on film . Keeping Ed's head immobile was the second problem. We wanted as much eye, mOllt h <lnd nose move ment <IS possible, but our test fi1m showed that any movement of the actor's head-even a slight turning-causes the projected face to slide unnatur<llly around on the dummy head. completely destroy ing the illusion . It's <llmost impos sible for an (lctor to ho Id his he<ld completely still for several min utes, especially while speaking line~ and moving his eyes back and forth. So we borrowed a Victorian photographer'.:; [Clol-the head brace-to keep Ed's head rigid. Head br<lces are hard to find these days, so we threw [oget her an adjustable wooden contrapt ion,

We divided the effect into three st<lges: filming the <lctor, creating the dummy head onto which the film would be projected and in stalling and aligning the projector and head in Irving's lab . Filming the actor, Ed, posed two problems. First. since only Ed's f<lce is projected onto the dummy head, the rest of the frame had to be ab~olutely black. We seated Ed in front ofa bl<lck background <lnd used the barndoor and flag acces sories on our movie lights to adjust the lighting so that no light fell on the background , Next, we placed a black velvet hood over Ed's head' and shoulders, leaving only his face visible, Since it's important to film as much of the face as possi ble, a make-up artist waxed Ed's hair away from his face and glued narrow strips of black velvet along Ed's hairline and under his chin. The hood was adjusted to overlap these strips. Looking through the camera's viewfinder at this point. Ed's face seemed to float in a surrounding black void, already 54

padded it with a bit offoam and locked Ed in . After the film was processed, con .:;truction of the dummy head was begun. We started hy simply pro jecting the film onto a featureless styrofoam wig head. Although the result w<lsn't bad. we realized that <I more contured head would pro duce a more convincing effect. My company's art director, David Friedman, hegan the task of sculpting the styrofoam tCl match the shape of the projected face. A frame of the film was placed in a s lide mount and projected onto the dummy head to assist in the SCUlp ting process . The eye area was carved out, leaving a brow ridge and nose. The mouth area was left flat since sculpted lip~ would con flict with the movement of the projected mouth. The temple and cheek areas were sloped back to allow the projected face to spill back on the dummy to an imagi nary hair line. From time to time during the SCUlpting, the film was projected onto the head <lnd David made slight adjustments. When he finished the sculpting, David sanded the head. filled some of the worst irregularities with white acrylic paint (directly from the tube) <lnd <lpplied several coats of white latex paint. Finally, the head W<lS given <I coat of" gesso" to produce a matte white finish. The next major cre<ltive decision was the type of wig to give our creation. We took the dummy head to a theatrical costume house and tried on a variety of wigs for size. Because the ch<lracter of 1rving' s assistant is humorous, we settled on a frizzy blond wig. but a swept back pompadour was a close runner-up.

K('ep light on your aclor'~ race and ofTlht' backj!.rnund to ue~lE' Q /loatine hE'od effe.!.

We att<lched a mounting bracket [a the back ofthe head, incorpo rating a swivel to allow small adjustments of the head's angle and a threaded rod to allow in-out adjustment. Everything was then moved to the amusement park. In Irving's lab. the dummy head was fastened to the back wall ofa shallow alcove. The mounting bracket held the head several inches away from the wall, making the head appear to float. Three small red lights in "force field gener<ltors" (painted frisbees) were fastened above and on each side of the head . The light illumiSUPERB nLMAKER

CIROSuper8 film splicer and tape:

nated the wig. giving the head a more three-d imeosional appeara nce. Having loaded the film into a con tinuous loop projection system, we placed the film projector di rectly in front orthe head on a shelf suspended rrom the ceiling. Since the fi Im is projected at a downward angle. the head was tilted up to race the projector. After some len s cha ngi ng and minor adjustments to the head and projector placement. we managed 10 align the projected face on the dummy head. We then pulled the wig around the sides of (he head to the point where the projected face stopped and pinned the wig in pl ace. A speaker \vas placed behind the head and con nected (0 the projectOr. The completed illu!\ion is very convincing . The head. seemingly s uspended in the " force field." suddenly opens its eyes. look s around and begin s speaking. "Oh. hello. I hate to bother you. bl1t I wonder if you cou ld find I rvi ng. the Mad Inventor, for me. Tell him I'm sti II here. will YOll? He' s prob ably forgott e n a ll about me," YOll could lise the illu~ion in a science fiction or horror film, but remem ber t hat the effect uses projected film, so you ' l! encounter the usual problems ofrephotog raphy. (See "How to Make Your Own Optical Effects." Jan.lFeb_ J 976.) By carefully cant roll ing the lighting around 1he dummy head and filming one frame a t a I ime ad vancing the projector one frame between each exposure-you shou Id be able to fil m t he effect. H oweve r. don't expect to film 1he head in the same shot with live actors . because the single-frame process \\/ill be impractical and set light s may wash OLlI the projected Image. On the other hand, the projected head illus ion is striking all by itself. You may want to create one for the pure enjoyment and amazement of your family and friends. Or you could use the illusion in a magic act , a play or a haunted house. The talking head also makes a terrific crowd-stopping attraction at trade shows and conventions. Just film your sales pilch. have it loaded into a continuous loop projection system and let the dummy do the talking. 0 SUPER-e FILMAKER

FOA so UNO-O N· FIL M ANO SI LENT MOVlE,$

to positIon enc-h

th,'\{ ,i(tu.:ti\' milt ch

p(.. rf()mt iol1~,

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......[ t h Ct! m C:' :H_ Y on l o ~ c on e frtl.mc of the mo \' il.;' wi[h i,'\',~ry :,o IJlic-c yo u

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cover the track. l,"\lI :,:; LnQ" a ~o ur\ rl dropouc An(l with C'e m,? !\ ~ ~ pti{' ? ~ , .vou get" d Lt'king no t!o'.(~ .

f! lnl'"s own

Tape 5 IImas cheaper!

Po.:-:i rion I)trl !=-: hold (h I..! film ~ t raigi H anJ HaL I t' ~ io st, ea sy twd, ,1.ho\'~ ~J1. lirn'l~e_ T~e slrongest You g t":t Cl. much l O J~g e r-la~ t in g join.

y OIll' projcC" t ol' (h ;m prf:~':; tap ed OT C"(;'mcntctl fiim. Invtsible tape edges Wh en \, Ou ~I loch Ihe CIRQ tnpe. i t'_<; ,1 u-romilt iC.111y pORit LOn(!d ,'::0 that h ath i l .~ I: cig es a r (~ h["l~ ; 'd'n ftQme~ 01 ynllT film, Since the tnpc it self i..; t r;l tU;r,1 re nt, t hi ~ ad d ~ up r(I l'plicc:-:. {hat ,1.~ pnu,"t ind!y in\"if'iblC! ')n th e sCreen . With 1,01 h (emont and pre::;." t:) pt.e:, you can ~ec th e ed g ~ s go by i n mid -scre:en, No loslliIm frames If VOU c h ::1 n ~ i2 \"our minrl ahout .l· j·ut. jU l'= f p(~ ('llh t, s pli(' t!

apD:rt and l ;1 }J l' {Ill' film f lJ ~, cf her (iI ('" way it ~qlS he/on: . Th:l t'.s not f..\O~-

A TOil of (' I no S lLP" ' S !a pe

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wrap:uounn t.:q)t! !-UJp __, ~tripe 0:1 (hilt

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Perlect registration fast. The CIRO makes its own perforations in the splicing tape, and trims the edges automatically. The ('rno j oi,, " the fiJm wLth ::: pecia l t.ruJl-'=parl,;nt fap t:-. It rmnch t,s; hotes Ln the 1,~Jie

pre s~

ri gh t. by hand. With th~ C lPO ..... rapa round met hod. i t'~ :\, t~ one s tep - find preci se. po." it ilJ fll :1 Z i.~

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,C:;/)I)~N ~r l,clu"' r, you r fllP P ~ ,~":ing := wi ll. [[1 'ffl! C" t nHs/d t}w ('(i st of (h l· spli('c r Uf1eH_ It'..;: \\,() rth ro n ..:t (! tr r t t l~'

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elRO

CIRCLE INFOCARD 39 ~-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Revolution~ry ~ Smrn Non-IR ewlnd Reel Systel11 No need to ever rewind a film again! • Film gUide picks up film lead and gUides It out from core of reel onto the adapter • Special adapter holds reel anel gUides jj Im smoothly I lito f----+-- - - - - . projector • Snap-on cover keeps film ~ hom "spilling' off reel during projection_ Now YOU can v ie w all Super 8 or Singl e 8 films Wltil0llt ted ious fi lm rew , IKl ing be twee n e acl) sho vv lng . Simply SI1ap a 400 It Non-ReWind Ree l o nto the take- u p ree l arm of 'lour projector After eacl1 prOjection f ilm Will be re ady for th e next showin g Saves rime . and film IS ne ve r subjected to the stre ss. strain. and POSSI b Ie damage that mav be caused by fast rewi ncli ng I nltli1llv all adapt e r and two Non-Rew l nd Ree ls (0 118 serving as take-up the o th er as feee! ree l] are need ecl Then ad cl Non-Rewlnci Re e ls to your film library as rGCiLJl reci Ge l)8 Non-Rewlncl Reels work "'!Ith most prOj ector s havin g sprocket film cJ nve an cJreel arms. Write for more In fo.

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CIRCLE INFOCARD 37

they're stacked together.

A poor man's guide to cel animation:

it's a whole lot cheaper than you think

Nothing in this world is sadder than the face of a would-be cel animator in a fil m supply store. That 3-minute cartoon he so lov ingly storyboarded will require roughly 2.000 eels. At $30 to $50 for a box of200, he is faced with a bill as high as $500 for cels alone. Frequently. he gives up in despair and goes back to cut-outs. puppets. pix illation or other an imation techniques . Don't despair. You don'l have to knock off your rich uncle to afford cel animation. With a Iitt Ie ingenuity, you can create professionHI quality cel animation at a fraction of the cost profession als pay . Start saving money by cutting that mammoth eel bill by over 80 per cent. The eel. a clear sheet of acetate plastic. is the heart of the drawn film. Since the oil embargo of 1973. the price of these pre punched animation eels-a by product of the petrochemical industry-has skyrocketed. But you can beat the system by going straight to a stationery store for a box of" Sheet Protectors." clear folders designed to cover student reports. Made of acetate plastic. Sheet Protectors come in the same gauge as animation cels .. 005, are punched with three holes and mea sure twice the standard size of 8'12 by 11 inches. And the cost? De pending on where you live. you will pay $7 to $8 for a box of LOO covers. which can be Cllt in balfto make 200 8'12- by ll-inch cels. Now the cels for that 3-minute film will cost Jess than $80. an appreciable savmgs. Of course. professional eels do provide betterquality than the ones you improvise. If you hold a Sheet Protector at an angle to a bright light, you will notice thin lines running across the shee.t. These linear imperfections will not affect the image you paint on the acetate, but they will necessitate careful positioning of lights to

Carl Lamrrl is afilmmaking and animation inslru(/or at Lawrence Junior High School ill Lawrence, New York. 56

avoid picking up the pattern in filming. Another drawback to Sheet Pro tectors is the loss of an inch or more around each side of the ace tate. which cuts down the size of your camera field. This will be no problem if you purchase an animator'S field guide (see Figure I). wh ich lets you calibrate the exact field your camera will be able to film. You can copy a guide from an animation book or go to a film supply house such as Heath Pro ductions(1627 Scott Ave .. West I slip, N. Y. 11795). which sells un punched guides for $6.' A guide is absolutely necessary if you plan close-ups and pan shots. But if you don't want to bother. you could avoid the whole problem by buy ing Sheet Protectors in the 9- by ~.--------.

.~ ~

Now you'1) have to make your own peg bars to fit the holes in your improvised cels. Using one of your eels. mark the holes on an 8-inch length of balsa wood (see Figure 2) and cut shallow holes in the balsa with a knife . Sand wooden dowels to fit the registration holes in your

;(i

3 L -______________________

;;;;

Figure 2: How (0 fit dowels in balsa to make custom peg bar.

cels, making sure they don't end up too small (eels willjiggle) or too large (cels will tear). Wedge the finished dowels in the holes you made in the balsa wood. fix with heavy duty wood glue and shellac the entire peg bar. The thickness of your peg bar will depend on your animat ion board. but I find tbat YS.-illCh balsa wood works we!] and will not warp. Since most homemade animation boards are made from ~-inch plywood. you can probably cut Yl-inch grooves in the plywood to make the peg bar flush with the board. I f necessary, use a thinner bar and shallower grooves. but beware of warping.

I ~

~~~------------------~

Figur'e 1: An animator's field guide is R very handy (001 ror measuring your camera's field of view.

12-inch or the 11- by 14-inch size. The larger sizes are a bit more expensive. however. Even cheaper than Sheet Protec tors are unpunched "Report Cov ers," which come in the same sizes but in a thinner gauge. These are a bit more difficult to work with, because of the thinness, and re quire you to buy a three-hole punch for roughly $8.50 at any office supply or stationery store. Once you have bought the acetate covers of your choice. you will have to cut them in halfalong the fold. Scissors or an X-acto knife will do thejob easily, ifnot quickly. Be careful to protect the sheets once you have cut them, since acetate scratches and picks up dirt easily. It's a good idea to slip a piece of paper between each cel to prevent scratching when

Your animation set-up can be as simple or as sophisticated! as you care to make it. See "Tools and Tricks" (July/Aug. 1976) and "Build Your Own Animation Ta ble" (N ov .IDec. 1975) for two very different designs of animation stands. Neither one costs more than $25. Now that you have cels. a peg bar and some sort of board. the next menace to your budget is anima tion paint. Most pre-mixed profes sional animation paints cost over $1 an ounce and come in 2-ounce squeeze bottles. A wide selection of colors is available for those who can afford it. If your cartoon requires a lot of colors. as most do. you can sa ve a bundle by purchasing your paint in the hardware department of a large discount store. Look for acrylic latex paint. which adheres to ace tate plasticjust like the real thing. The smallest amount available is usually 1h pint. which holds 4 fluid SUPER·8 FILMAKER

HERE THEY ARE!

ounce s and costs $J .50 to $2 . When the thick acrylic latex is diluted, you end up with about 6 ounces of paint , costing less than Y3 the price of professional an imation paint.

THE FILMS YOU HAVE

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I I However, you have to do a little I I work to earn your savings. Dilut I I ing paint requires ca r e. If you I I overdo iI, the paint will become transparent when dry. Leave it too IS UPER 8 SOUND SUPER 8 SILENJ thic k and the image wi)) be di s ICOLOR $28 45 8/W $8 45 I torted . I 0 0 I

Sound ellects are important. They can make or break your movie. From gruntl ng gorillas Hardware store paint come s in a (with or without chimpanzees in the background) to an A-Bomb ... limited number o f shades, so you'll you name it. .. we 've got it. Over also need to mi x your own c olors. 600 uniQue, authentic hi-fideli ty E xperiment w ith different mixing sound effects available on a set ralios and wrile down the formula of 18 LP albums. Only $6 per al· SUPER 8 SOUND when you find a good mi x . so you bum (each contains about 30 DUO -COLOR sound effects). Sound effects re can use that color again . Your 95 corded the professional way PAIRS OF drugstore or dimeslore will stock allowing you 10 be your own pro· 3D GLASSES ON 400' REELS cheap, pla stic squeeze bottles for ducer. Send for our free brochure note. ABOvE pRiCES INCLUOE POSTAG!E AND HANDLING storing mi xed paints . Label th e and pick out the "sounds" you A.OO SA.l.ES TA)( WHERE A PPLICABLE: bottles with the mix ratio . Over need to add a professional touch to your films. time you will build y our own IJElleT ~Ilm LIBRARY OEI'T . S 8' . , 15 West 31 Street, NY , NY 10001 palette of eolors.

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CIRCLE INFOCARD 22

IF YOU 11AVE A

PI10TO

!P ROBLEM •.• ,LET US 11EtP! DUll MFM8t AS THROUGHOUl h iF UNft F,b STATn. r,A NAOA A.NO 16 Ol l-fE R COUNT RIE S W:"Nl VOu TO ~ NJOY J:"MOlO· GRAPHV, IF 'IOU ~ Rt N ' T S4.1Is n[,o WIHI A.N'I PRODu e T. $(~ . vlcr 011 r,.p( OF PROCE SSIN(;. CONrACT YOUR LOC AL OIAUR,

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", n p. Miff TO:

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Another problem with a cheap solution is .. flicker ," the bane o f most amateur animation . A Hi cker effect is cau sed by electrical appliances c hanging po wer needs. which in turn cali se small change s in the amount of voltage gelling to your movie light s. The camera ean pick up changes in light too sm all forth e ey e to see. Professional animators spend over

$1 ,000 for motors which . among

I I I

NAMl

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STATE

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CIRCLE INFOCARD 18

for ANIMATION -and Titling and Stripfilms

GO " PRO" with

1\~

~"\

other things. keep the amount of voltage coming through the line at FAX precisely the same level. You can "JR" , buy a similar device for under $10 . Animation f The " Electric Outlet Control Stand Panel" manufactured by Rogers Co . of New York, can be found in mo st hardware and di scount stores . The rectangular device contains a fuse box and four to six electrical outlets . Plug your photo Professionally-accurate. versatile. lights into the panel and warn your economical-priced within reach of many individuals. as well as com family not to turn appliances on or mercial producers. (Base. about offwhile you're filming. Voltage $1500) control is not perfect, but the de FAX has a new Slop-Motion v ice will minimize flicker, making Unit. too-single-frame drive for it v irtually unnoticeable . You 8/16mm cameras . Solid state digi could also build your own voltage tal counter. stepping motor with cont rol device. if you have a knack remo te push-button control for for th at sor t of th i ng. single revolution.

.'. -.Ir

'ei: ~

You don'tneed professional equipment to produce professional quality animation . A little thing like poverty shouldn't stop you . eel animation is cheaper than you think. 0

Animation equipmenVsupply cata log and price sheet available to serious inquirers .

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CIRCLE INFOCARD 47

CIRCLE INFOCARO 36

Filmmaking on hang gliders and skis and a house to house film troubadour Super-8 on Skis Anyone who knows a snowplow tllrn from a stem christie has likely heard of Steamboat Springs. Col orado. And a nyone who's tasted that town' ,~pres-ski lifestyle has likely savored Dave Shoffner's Sllper-8 films. Long a professional musician in t he valley. Shoffner picked up a Regular-8 camera four years ago to film hi s friend~' sporting life. He has s ince taken to producing a popular multimedia show every winteraftern(lon in Cassidy's Bar, a hub of apres-ski activity. As vide c merClman and entert ain ment programmerfN the Advent Viecte'Jbeam television in Cas sidy' s, Shoffner weaves music. Super-8 films and video replays of the day's skii ng events into a four- hour vis'.JaJ buffet.

Skiing is Shoffner's specialty. Shooting ab011t 60 percent of his s ki foot<lge in slow motion "allows the viewer to see the incredible beauty of the body in motion in greater detaiL" Shoffne I' feels . Also . slow motion flows with the patte.ros of his musical sty Ie. Anothertechnique gives the im pression of having three cameras trailing a single skier. Fi Imi ng the same skier on three separate runs at three different angles, Shoffner t hen returns to I he cut ling room It' merge the besl of the runs. As a bass player. he ha!' also devel oped a method of cutting Super-8 single -syste m ,ound film to the beat of the music. Shoffner is

especially fond offilming on pow der days, when the fluffy stuff biJlows around the skier creating soft white explosions. Always t he sportsman, Shoffner is now working on a film document ing the Special Olympics held in S!eamboat Springs this winter. lohn Day. Srcamboo/ Springs . CoIn .

From Nigeria to NBC When General Olusegun Obasanjo. head of stale of Nigeria. stepped onlO the red car pet that led into a ml'lssive ~tadillm, thousands cheered, and Regge Life caught the whole scene wilh his Nizo Super-8. Lillie did he know then that his film ofFES TA C. the second world BI ack and African festival of arts and culture held in Lagos. Nigeria(Jan. 15 Feb. IS. 1977). would be aired on N BCs Positivel\' Black TV pro gram .

Shoffner started in Super-8 ., to take movies of the thinus we were aJl doing so 1could show them 20 years later. ,. So he shot sports in Colorado and Hawaii, sh0wjng the films at parties. But the bass plaver's musical instincts welled up. and he began writing. record ing and laying down original sound tracks on his SOllnd striped fil ms. Trading in his Rl"gu l"r-8 camera fora BauerC R'lyaIIOE, Shoffner filmed his first major feat lire on the wings ofa hang glider. ellllride 75 records a ten-day adyssey of seven top hang gliders in Telluride. Vail and Stea mboat Springs . Shoffner filmed on the ground and in fhe air. With the ca mera strapped to his own kile , he offers viewers lofty flights 0fimagination. "The viewerc"n a lm0~t believe he's the pilot." Shoffner says.

Shoffn·'.r is a seasonal filmmaker. In the Sl!mmer, he lakes his cam era out to s hont scenes of kayaks, skyrliving. font rac ing, hiking and ca mping. hicycJing. volleyball. baseball ~'. nd rodeo. In the off seascn months, he distills these films into (l major half-hour feature acc()mpanied lw a sound track and narration. When the new season rolls ar0'.1nd. Shoffner is ready with his films 10 vhe! the sporting appet iles of the 10cal folk. SB

o c

Oa\'l' Schoffner films the sporting lif~ and composes his own mU5ic tracks.

R~gge Lift' filming rhe seclJnd world Black and African cultura l festival in Lagos, Nigeri3 .

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Regge was one of 17 ,000 par ticipants at FEST AC where his Super-8 fil m West African PaIlD rama. a travelogue of Nigeria. Togo, Benin and Ghana. was screened along with other films. He took along his N izo S~OO and Optasound 116R recorder in the hopes of filming the festival. It was no easy matter. Wit hout a press pass that gave others favored loca tions from which to shoot. Regge had to improvise. '. [maneuvered through whip-swinging policemen to find a place to set lip for the in itial shot. From t hat vantage point. I was able to capture the entrance of all the m;uor heads of state and members of the steering committee of FEST A C ." Once inside the festival grounds , Regge wanted to film each contin gent as it entered. The procession was staged in alphabetical order which presented a problem. Ifhe'd waited to get in with the American contingent. most of the procession would ha ve passed. H is solution: " ] dashed around to the front of the line. and along with the Cana dian contingent. entered without problem." He was able to film each nation as it entered the sta dium and passed the reviewing stand, and also caught the cheering response of60,000 spectators. .. Shooting at sound speed (24 fps), I went through cartridges so fast I needed a third hand. Real izing that 55 nations would pass through, I planned my shots carefully mixing wide-angle establishing'shots with tight close-ups of drummers and dancers. " Once back in the States, Regge s creened his footage and con tacted a friend who was ac quainted with Ron Johnson. the producer ofN Bes Positively Black. When weeks passed and Regge hadn' t heard from Johnson. he decided to give t he producer a call. "I have to admit. it's a pretty bold step to call a TV producer at home. On his day off'" Johnson. however. was very enthusiastic and invited Regge to the studio to screen the FESTAC footag e. NBC was impressed and decided to run a JO-minute segment on its Positively Black show, 5 minutes offilm and 5 minutes of interview with Regge relating his experi ences at FEST AC. The FESTAC footage was blown SUPER-8 FILMAKER

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(41 The

epartment

_. ~ ..~~Ik from the Kodak Motion Picture and Audiovisual Division,

. 'BOB BEELER "'%l ' GETS

. TECHNICAL

Shoot over 13 minutes Of uninterrupted color/sound movies. Every once in a while all of us have needed the abililyto shoot long, uninterrupted scenes to achieve some special effect. And most of us have needed a second camera when cove ri ng some sped al event, 0 r when placing a camera in the hands of an inexperienced operator.

Both requi remenis are met

adm i rabl y by the KODAK

SUPERMATIC 200 Sound Camera.

Its 200-11 cartridge capacity offers

t 13 h minutes of uninterrupted

shooting without reloading, And its

super-simplified controls make it

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___________

With either the auxiliary battery pack (included) or the optional , rechargeable power Unit the SUPERMAT.IC 200 Sound Camera. IS a very practical addition to any super B filmmaker's equipment lineup. We'll send you literature on it, as well as Kodak's gllide to films: Movies With A Purpose.

Mail this coupon to Dept. A5023, Eastman Kodak Company. Rochester, NY 14650, Please send information on the KODAK SUPER MA TIC 200 Sound Camera,

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up to 16mm and then tran~ferred to videotape fort he program. The result s were so good that Richie Pearson, editor for the show, re marked, . 'You sure yOIl didn' t shoot th is in lnmm?" As a filmmaker, Regge is . of course, excited to have his footage shown on network TV, hut he also has a deeper sense of st\tisfact ion, "The experience has developed for me a good contact for future projects. hut more import<tn tly. , contributed to educ<tting many A mericans to the sign ificance of FEST AC. ,. Regge Life has good reason to feel satisfied. -Bma A nril'rso/1

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Film tro\lbadour John Marsh (helldphones) with Ed Sandtner on IOf9tion for the filming of Two l)og<.

"Film troubadour" is thenew role John Marsh h<ls cast for hi mself. now that he' s got his first Super-8 feature film under his belt. Marsh found Super-8 to he the true "people's medium," Clnd he's set out on a house to house tour showing his film as an example of what can be done hy a group offilm ent husiasts short on experience and cash, "J ust about anyone can produce sophisticated films for modest means," says Marsh. Marsh's background is in theatre. A part-time instructor in film and theatre at Napa Community Col lege in northern California, he is also a member of that city's $un seed Repertory Collective. "I have always heen deeply commit ted to promoting mass access to the media waves and have been frustrated by the fact that my live theatre simply does not reach many people." Marsh had heen dabbling in Super-8, in conjunction with his classes . But he recalls, "It took

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filming with a Beaulieu. Lenny Lipton ' s writings. SUPER-8 FTLMAKER and the invention of the Kodak Videoplayer VP-X to re ally turn my head. I began to believd ona s Mekas' (Villlige Voice writer and underground film pioneer) prediction of 15 years ago about a . new people's art' arising from the 8mm format. That there would be a new generation offilm poets rising up ."

Twu Dogs. or Welcome tv rh e Evenin g News was originally filmed as a 3-minute project to challenge Marsh' s Beaulieu 4008ZM II and Super8 Sound Re~order . But he and his actor were knocked out by the results. and material was added until the film grew to its present I-hour length. Marsh gathered members of the Sun seed Repertory Collec tive and gave them free rein to develo p their surreal characters in t he pur posely plotles s script. The re sult ing penormances are strik ing , ranging from grotesque to inten tionallyamateur.

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The bulk of the actio!) centers around a trio of feckle ss news c asters delivering senseless editorials , fabric ating the news from gum wrappers and advising viewers on the relative merit s of Taiwanese , Russian and Kinney shoes . Marsh used four film stoc ks (sepia, black-and-white, Kodachrome 40 and Ektachrome 160) to enhance the tones of each scene, manipulat ing the hue s through various filters a nd light sources . He a lso ex perimented with sound changes. such as putting the mic rophone in a box to produce an echo . Marsh had a few problems during s hooting. For one thing his cent ral actor moved away before retakes could be done. Unda unted by such minor catastrophes, Marsh is en thu siasti ca lly spreading the word about Supe r-8 . "I now envisiun disparate individuals coming to gether to make their uwn s pecial interest features. In the process. I see them becoming non-disparate film groups whose members can sit in on othei-groups' projects the way j a zz artists guest on albums . " -Sheila Highier. L os A Iros. Calif 0 SUPER·8 FlLMAKER

CIRCLE INFOC ARD 42

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Zip CIRCLE INFOCARD 35

Lenny reels off the answers to your ,most frequently asked questions Letters , letters, I get letters. Most of/hem pose questions and f'd like to answer a few of them publicly " here and now.

I s my SlIper-8 projector brighter when ir rtlns at IB/ps thanar 24 jps? I'm also thinking about buy ing a lieit' sOl/lid projecTor. I'm looking at one with a 12-voltIl00 Wlllf lamp , and another with (/ 15-\1011/150-1110(( lamp. Which will be brighter? Your Super-B projector will bejust as bright at 18 frames per second (fps) as it will be at24 fps. The shutter in the projector cuts off the same portion of available illumina tion at any fps rate. You can test this yourselfby holding a light meter up to the lens while running your projector (without film). The meter will give the same reading with the projector running at either speed. Super-8 projectors have three bladed shutters, that spin rapidly. interrupting the light flow through the lens 54 times per second at 18 fps, or 72 interruptions at 24 fps . Generally speaking, 50 inter ruptions per second are enough to stop flicker on your viewing screen. Super-8 projectors use the three-bladed system in order to satisfy good projection at 18 fps. If they were set up with two-bladed shutters, as are all machines in commercial theaters which run at 24 fps only, the effective flicker rate would be an adequate 48 at 24 fps, but would produce an unac ceptably low 36 interruptions per second at 18 fps. You would prob ably notice Hicker at this rate . Kodak offers an interesting shutter for its AV line of 16mm Pageant projectors, a shutter that's two bladed for 24 fps operation and three-bladed for 18 fps operation. The increase in illumination at 24 fps compared to 18 fps (two blides obstructing the light path instead of three) is a significant 40 percent! Here's a good idea for Super-8 designers to copy. People working at 24 fps could enjoy a 40 percent increase in projected illumination. and that's nothing to sneeze at. 62

Now the second part of the question : Will a ISO-watt lamp be brighter than a 100-walt lamp? It all depends on the entire optical system of the projector , and that means the lamp and lens combina tion . In some cases , a more power fullamp will not put more light on the screen because the projection lens isn't matched to the lamp' s capabilities . It's been my observa tion that increased wattage in Super-8 machines goes almost en tirely into heat and not illumina tion. Given two projectors with equal features. I would not au tomatically opt for the ISO-watt over the 100-watt lamp. If you're shopping around for a projector,

cassette recorders with their digi tal output Super-8 cameras (those with a common PC or electronic flash socket that produces a single pulse for each frame offilm c;!x posed). At one time SuperB Sound (95 Harvey St., Cambridge, Mass . 02140) was going to offer such a unit. but (hey changed their plans . The answer may be to buy the Carol Cinesound R-I pulse generator and Carol Cinepulse cassette recorder from Cinema Sync Systems (14261 Ave. Men docino, Irvine, Calif. 927J4) . According to Bill Allen, head of Cinema Sync, the British device with its built-in sync pulse head will work in any cassette recorder . I have no experience with the device, but I understand the same cassette can be used over and over again to obtain sync recordings. After it's used in the field, you can transfer sound to Super-8 ., fulleoat" tape for double-system editing. I' d like to hear from read ers who have used this system. I'm st ill getting letters Ijke this one: I' In ill possession oj 0 S Gnkyo XL 405 bllt can't see any way fv load a200-fo01 cartridge .

That letter was received four years ago, and I'm happy to tell you that the wait has been worth it. Two new wide-angle lenses are avail able from Century Precision Cine/Optics (10661 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, Calif. 91601). You can write t hem for informa tion. I'll also be reporting OD these lenses in a month or two .

1n this column and in The S uper-8 Book. I ran the misleading infor mation that the Sankyo camera could be modified to use the 200 foot cartridge. I was gi ven that information by a Sankyo repre sentative, and it looked to me from studying the loading door design that the man was right. He wasn't, and that's that. We've still yet to see a camera that will accept the 200-foot cartridge, outside of the Kodak Ektasound 200. I've been told that manufacturers are reluc tant to offer hardware for this cartridge until Kodak puts some Kodachrome film stock in it. Right now, all we've got packaged in the cartridge is fast Ektachrome 7244 and 7242. The word is that 200-fool cartridge accepting cameras will be shown by some manufacturers in the next year. I , for one, won't hold my breath. but I'd sure love to get my hands on one.

C aliI sync the SUllY TC55 cassette

What camera should 1 buy?

see if you can get the photo supply store to test a few projectors for you in a darkened room so you can make a visual comparison. Or again, you might use a lightmeter. I'ln interested inlVide-angle

lenses, but there doesn't seem to be milch around. Do )'011 klloll' ojnny?

recorder to my Super-B Climei'll Iv record double-system sync sound?

l' ve had several letters from read ers who would like to use the compact Sony TCSS or similar

Nowthere ' sonequestion that I flat out refuse to respond to, and that's "what camera should I buy?" The answer to that is some thing only you can dig out of the 'SUPER·S FILMAKER

ozone for yourself. I realize if " hard to know which equipment will do thejob for you . but I have the very same problem . l' ve got equipment troubles too and a lim ited budget , and you know who helps me? Nobody, and nobody can .

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You see. I take the question of which tools to use very seriou sly, and no glib an swer is going to be of any help. Go to the store or visit a friend with the camera you've got your eye s on. Pick it up. Hold it. Hang out wit h it fo r an hour . 1f you are able, shoot some film with it and then project. You might try ~ome of the tests mentioned in Denn is Duggan ' 5 article on " How to Buy a Camera" (July/Aug. 1977).

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There is no perfect camera. No two people are shaped the same way. andjus t as each human body is different, so is (be psyche. }<'ooCnote on FilmLife

I reported on the FilmLife (141 Moonachie Rd ., Moonachie, N.J. 07074) re storation treatment of dam aged Super-8 camera original and print film in (his space in the March/April , 1977 issue . At that time. I called upon rea de rs to share their experience s with me vis-a-vis this serv ice . So far one ha s, a reader in Honolulu who has a tale of woe that sounds like it ought to be broadcast on the con sumer ho(line ofa local TV or radio s tation . To make a long story short . hi s Kodak sound striped original film was treated by FilmLife . and the oxide of the trac k smeared into the picture area . A s ubsequent allempt by FilmLife to remove the o xide stain failed , and the customer a fter a great to-do finally got restitution for . tock and processing.

As far as I know, FilmLife does warn customers that its process can damage magnetic stripe. They est imate a 20 percent chance th at stripe will be removed without damage to the picture ; smearing is relatively rare . FilmLife doe s not accept liability for magneti c striped film, so don't ex pect a refund if anything happens. In all fairnes s I should say that FilmLife treated 1200 feet of my striped camera original and I found the service first -rate. 0 SUPER··8 E'ILMAKER

CIRCLE INFOC.ARO 44

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in particular, bears a more than coincidental resemblance to this Bolex. The sound functions on the 5122 are all simple and direct , with the now standard automatic level controls at both high and low set tings. plus manual control for qui eterrecordings and sound fades. Sound level can be monitored by a VU meter on the s~de of the cam era, by a blinking diode in the viewfinder. another bl.i nker under the lens or, finally, aurally through the earplug (or headphones). The number of these options may seem The Features Story like overkill , but I found myse If The lens on the Bolex 5122 zooms using all of the monitors during the from 6mm to 72mm with very good course of as hoot. The Bolex's VU resolution for a 12 to I macro len s . meter can be used to set the proper Color fideWy in the tested lens was level for manual recording during excellent , and even at the 6mm rehearsal. The viewfinder blinker wide-angle setting caused no no is generaiJy ignored, but becomes ticeable distol1ion. The variable nOl!ceable when it stays on or off speed power zoom with its manual all of the time, which spells trou override is ingenious and well ble. Actors hip to Super-8 tech thought out. Most important, with nology can monitor themselves the zoom bar in an upright pos i with an almost subconscious tion, the zoom glides smoothly, awareness of the LED (light emit withjust enough resistance, over ting diode) under the lens. and can the entire range in manual. Folding change their voice levels to match the bar down locks the focalleogth their own distances from the mi into place, avoiding accidental crophone. Of course , there is 00 movement during a shot. The substitute for a good set of headpower zoom can only be used with the bar down. and the zoom motor turns off automatically when you Macro ring reach either end of the zoom range. The zoom rocker switch is on top of the body. and 1/1 .8 lens-"'~ can be started or stopped easily without those small movements of the camera that ruin the effect of a Ac t:on light - - - - c t zoom shot. Both power and man ual zooming with the 5122 can best be described as .. mellow."

The Bolex 5122 Sound Macro zoom camera is an improved ver sioo of the former top of the line 5120. It seems that some camera manufact urers no sooner take their best shot than they think of ways co improve it. Well. good for them , becau~e it's good for us. The more features that are jammed into the little box, the better our chances of being able to express ourselves filmically. The 5122 has an abundance of these features. so let ' s take a look at some ofthem.

phones to make you aware of background noises that you wouldn't otherwise notice, until you project your film, and it 's too late. The dynamic range of the Bolex' s sound system is limited to voice and general sounds, which it han dies very well. But, like most single-system cameras. the Bolex is not capable of hi-fi recordings of piano and violin concertos. If Van Cliburn should ask you to film a concert, though, you'll be happy 10 know that the 5122 has a flash sync switch so you can shoot double-system sound by using the camera with a high quality sync recorder. During my tests. I found t hat most situations could be re corded with clean, rich sound when the Bolex was used with a good electret condenser mic with cardioid (unidirectional) or shot gun (super unidirectional) head. The 5122 is a find as far as camera noise is concerned. Of all the single-system cameras available at t.his stage of Super-S' s develop ment. it is one of the least offen sive. At IS fps with the volume control set for manual, the mic

BOLEX 5122

The camera' s variable speed motor moves the zoom over the entire 6mm to 72mm range in a quick 3 seconds at its fast setting. and 8Y2 seconds on the camera ] tested at the slowest selling. (This seemed much too fast for my taste-I'd prefer a 24 second zoom on a 12 to I lens.) Close-ups in the macro mode looked extremely crisp, and the macro mechanism' s design allowed stunning dissolves. The Sound System The sound system of the Bolex 5122 is not unlike those of other leading Super-8 sound cameras. Chinon's top-of-the-line camera. TIl lS p roduct evaluation IS O~St:lv upon oraCIlc.a! fl 5'l(1 liSe r ,,~' htH Ihal1 labOrAtory dat ... because IN b ell eve .;J p raclloal ap])fo.acrl IS the IIIOSI rele ~'CI'11 tn the w or ~,l n g Suoer -G fllmmake[

,..--

_ _ _ BUlII,ln timer

- - - - - Fa·je control

Film speed selector

Battery test button Omnld ireClional mic

The Facts in Brief Lens:ji'1.8. 6-7201m (I2X) macro zoom; power and man ual control.

Focusing: Microprism focus ing from 5 feet to infin ity; plus macro.

Shutter: 150 degrees (non-XL).

Sound: Auto and manual con trols: sound fade ; 4 ways to monitor level.

Speeds: 18 and 24 fps plus single frame and 36 fps (silent only); built-in interval timer for I fps to I fpm . Exposure: Auto or manual with± I stop adjustment; backlight and NO filter.

Suggested Retail Price: $690 Other: PC contact for flash or double -system sound: footage counter with adjustable scale; relatively quiet operation ; \4-inch thread for attaching boom mic. SUPER·8 FnMAKER

placed close to the actors and the camera removed as far as possible from the action, it is possible to record indoor sound without pick ing up camera noise. At 24 fps in a "Jive" room (one without carpets, drapes, couches, etc .), the noise Jevel is still atrocious without a barney (quieting camera cover). If the AGe (automatic gain control) is used, the camera will turn hlp ins recording volume during quiet moments and end up recording itself. Other Important Features The 51,22 includes total manual override of a very accurate au tomatic exposure system, a backlight control button, and a one stop + or - exposure correc tion in YJ stop increments. The camera also has a built-in switch able neutral density filter for ex tremely bright situations. The 5122 also offers single frame Shooting and an interval timer which can be adjusted from one to 60 seconds. It is also possible to film at the moderate slow motion speed of 36 fps, but this feature can be used only with silent film car tridges. Rechargeable batteries can be charged in camera, an im portant feature for a sound camera because the drain on batte·ries can run you broke. Accentuating the negati ve for

a moment-the 5122 has no backwind capability for dissolves or double exposures. The 150 de gree shutter is far from XL, and the camera's focusing is by micro prism grid (I'm hung up on split image rangefinders). All in all, the 5122 was trouble free, fun to work with and picture and sound results were very im pressive. I tried recording sound single and double system simul taneously for the best ofbotb worlds. The Bolex name bas been highly respected for many years, but their Super-8 efforts had fallen behind in the sudden technological leap of the early 70s. Witb the introduction of the 5122 sound camera , Bolex has reaffirmed its lofty status. Good forthem. And good for us. 0 For more information on the Bolex 5122 sound camera, write to: Bolex Products. Ehrenreich Photo Optical Ind .. 101 Crossways Park West. Woodbury, NY 11797.

SUPER·a rn.r.tAKER

SEPTEMBER

Renaissance Film Festival. Oct. 1-2 in Turners Fall, Mass achusetts. Entry deadline Sept. /5. Super-8, 16mm. $25 entry fee. Emphasis on lifestyles, religion, psychic phenomena. Contact: GalY Coben , 71 Avenue A, Turn ers Falls, Mass. 01376. Golden Knight International Amateur Film Festival. Nov. 9-12 in Valletta, Malta. Entry deadline Sept.I5. Super-B, 8mm, 9.5mm, J6mm. Amateurs only. Fiction, documentary, travel, expetimen tal, animation. $3 entry fee. Con tact: Hon. Secretary. Malta Amateur Cine Circle, P.O. Bo)( 450, Valletta, Malta. World Festival of Amateur and Independent Cinema. Oct. 27-30 in Huy. Belgium. Entry deadlille Sept, 20. AII8mm gauges. 16mm. $1.5 entry fee . 30-min.. time limit. Contact: G. Wilkin, 83, Chaussee de Liege, 8-5200 Huy, Belgium. Film Expo. Sept. 23-25 in Los Angeles, Calif. Equipment dis plays. workshops, seminars , used equipment swap meet, film com petition. Contact Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, 6353 Hol lywood Blvd. , Hollywood, Calif. 90028 Film Making 8mm Awards. Ent I:V deadlilll! Sept. 30. A1I8mm gauges. $2.50 entry fee. 20-min. time limit. Amateurs on Ly. An i mation documentary, travel. fic tion, experimental, silent. Con tact: Film Making 8mm Awards, Penblade Publishers Ltd .. 93 Sir dar Road, London WI14EQ. J

Christchurch International Amateur Film Festival in New Zealand. Entry deadline Sept. 30. $2 entry fee. Note that airmail to New Zealand takes about J0 days. Contact: Emma Basche, 248 Mt. Vernon St., West Newton, Mass. 02165.

OCTOBER VIII IntemationalFilm Festival of Amateurs of Guimaraes. Oct. 27-30 in Guimaraes, Portugal. Entry deadline OCI. 7. AIl8mm gauges, 16mm. $5 entry fee. 30 min. time limit. Amateurs only. Contact: Convivio, Guimaraes, Portugal. Yorkton International Film Festi val. Oct. II-IS in Yorkton, Sas katchewan, Canada. Super-8, 16mm. Amateurs, professionals. $500 award for best children's

film. Contact: Don Humphries, Box 477, Yorkton, Sask., Canada. Welsh International Amateur Film Festival. Nov. 14-19 in Cardiff, Wales. Entry deadline Oel. 15. A1I8mm gauges. 9.5mm. 16mm, 35mm. $3 entry fee. Amateurs only. Contact: Graham Ashford, Card iff Cine Society, Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Car diffCF5 tQE, Great Britain. 40th Annual Amateur Film Com petition. Nov. 24-26 in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia. Eml)' dead lille Oel. 15. AII8mm gauges. 9.5mm, 16mm. $5 entry fee. Con lact: Gloria Shanks, Victorian Amateur C inc Society, 2 Napier SI. , F iIUOY, Victoria 3065, A u stralia. 119th SMPTE Technical Confer ence aud Equipment Exhibit. Oct. 16-21 in Los Angeles, California. Fee for technical sessions. Exhibit ofprofessionaJ motion picture and television equipment. Comact: Jeffrey B. Friedman. SMPTE, 862 Scarsdale Ave., Scarsdale, N . Y. 10583. Scottish International Film Festi val. NO';ember, 1977 in Glasgow. Scotland. EllfI)' deadlille Ocr. L7. AJl8mm gauges, 16mm, 35mm. Amateur, studem. professional. $4 entry fee. Contact: Peter Broughan, Scottish Film Council. 16-17 Woodside TelTace , Glas gow, G3 7XN, Great Britain.

NOVEMBER Conference on Visual Anthropol. ogy. March 8-11 , 1978 in Philadel phia, Pa. EI1II)' deadliile N U l'. I. N77. A1I8mm gauges. 16mm. Contact: Jay Ruby, Director. COVA·78, Department of An thropology, Temple Univerity. Philadelphia. Pa. 19122. Movie Madness-1977. Nov. 19 in Seattle. Wash. Eillry del/Ii/iile ,Vo)'. 4. AIISmrn gauges. 16mm. 60-min. time limit. Ope.n to resi dents of Washington State be tween Clges of 13 and 20. $100 first prize. Contact: Jan Freeman Young, King County Library System, 300 Eighth Ave. North, Seattle, Wash. 98109. If your organization has news of an upcoming film fest ival, conference or lilm School evenl, please let us know at least three months In advance of the event. Write ; Calendar. SUPER-B FllMAKER, 3161 Fillmore St.. San Fran· CISCO, Calif. 94123.

Classified advertising is available fo r 60 c entS per word with a 59 minimum. Po s t Office: Box numbers count us two word s : ab breviat ion ' and zip code s one word. Display space is available for $55 per column inch, minimum one inch. All classified and display ads must be accompanied by a check or nH)ney order. Any display typesetting \\Iill be billed . There is a 10% discount on a ll classified an d display ads paid in advance for eight consecutive is ues . Classified and classified display ads are not agency commlssionable, All ads arc: accepted al the discretion of the Publisher. All ad s Illust be received by the 1st day of th e month, two month s preceding Ihe first month of the issue. Fnr i~ s ue month s. see bottom pa ragraph on the Table of C o nlents p<lge. Thus. to be in th e Jan .lFeb. issue. your ad must be received by November 1st. Advertising and inquiries s hould be sent to: SU PE R-8 FI LMAKER. Super Service~ , 3161 Fillmore St. . San Francisco. Ca lif. 94123. This advertising is not in any way endorsed by SUPER-,'! fLLM <\KER and we suggest you write the advertiser before sending money .

EDUCATION Hollywood 's Oldest film School. Two week evening courses in motion pi cture produl·tion. Cameras . lighling. editing. etc. ROUZER STUDIO. 7022 Melr05c Ave . . Hollywood . Calif. 90038. Filmmakers: One of the most uni que apprentice- study progr.. m s in the US 'pcci a lizing in direcling. cinen)<llog rnphy . prodUClion ,,<·sth elie:;. N EA gran led , 6th year. Sec .J uly 1976 SUPER-S. Opc:n 10 bc:ginning lI1en. women , ATELIER. Bo,\ 70. H oo,ick Falls. N . Y, 12090 .

Canon double Supcr~ camera, crystal control. b9roey. $875 . Sony TCI52 (XSD). crystal ~ync generator. dolby: $375. Bolex SM~ ,oc'l·i projector. sync output : S250. M KM editing table. line sync : $1.475. AFRO !\ UDIO,VIS UAL. 141 Spe nce:r St.. Dorche ster. Mass. 02124 . (617) 287-%03.

•

Movle-)( ~r.ly

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Microtilm

Micro Record Corp.

487-38 SouIh Ave .. Beacon,

N.Y.

SU,"' , 11/1"'", C ..'·UIOgotI SDOOI

8&W O,jo:W - f; K -rl1:C: H,&-W - E:. K ~ \ \01' - :( 8&-\Oo- - t-: K ""J..

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SUPERIOR BUll! FILM CO 406

Oepl >567

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Cn1cago illinOIS 606' 0

Discounl movi~ ~uppli es and equipment. Free catal ogue, C OA ST AL. 1421'\ San MiJrco Blvd .. Jack sonville. Fla, 32207 .

BAUER EJO'-EX

BRRuR

HOME MOVD:S (.~IY

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SOUND STAIPERS

BACKWIIIII IIIIIRllUI I~_

IClllfMAscoPE\ anamorphic lenses

TITLES self-conta ined package inCludes SImple instructions, Type. wrile, pront, pasle-up, draw on pre-eng inee red com, posIng fram e. No lim it on words or color. Ind icale 2x2 slloe, 8mm or Super-B . Mall 10 llTLES lor processing, Cuslom title in full color returned . See you r local phot o deale r or wrile 10 TITL ES, Box 1151, HollywOOd. CA 90028.

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SPUCEAS UWINM

'Y.NCHlloJrtrZEJU

Rim ~ucls

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aopllcable sales lil <)

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Super-S 2 y 2SIIde

12508

New Super-8 Cincmascopr movies, thl\ll , and.' others, ,,\1,,, 16mm. TV ~hol.\". Beatk~: ac ce" ories. prnj(.'c·tion leme . po s lc:r,. -' til"- Supa-R A nanll' r phi c kn ,' for shlllliing ami pr(ljec ting , Spe c ify Sliper-S ,'r IAmm . GAIN ES FILMS (S F ). 15~07 St" gg . V an NII Y'. Calif,9140:i.

Unusual Movie Supplies. 8mrn. Supt:r-~ and 16mm , Free catalogue. ESO -K . .lith & !-lolly. Kansas Cily. 11110. M112.

$228 and up

Write far Ff'ee Uter.tur.

Animated Super~mm titles. ellston] done to orela. $1.25 each, Free circular and samp le title. 'MAM CO .. Box 134-A. BUriingl oll, Ma ss. OI80~.

CHU,IICAL IlITS

Pre-i<ng I n"ered Simple Instructions Sali SlaGI ion 0 r Money Back .

MOtor Oljyen-PortlDle • Sl.aCk" Wnite:--Colo, • Gu,a l.nteec:l

Chinon and Elmo soulld movie product, at low , lou' prices, Chinon Paci fic 125M R with la p-di ssolve: wireless mic rophone. EI rno ST 1200H D 2- track. AUDIO-tl. 246-17 Jamaica Ave .. Bel le rose , N . Y. 11426, (212) 347-8887.

(SpeCify S'lft) t i~ '" eaCh 101 DO~la~ Ii flII'lOIl"''iJ film 101 Home ProceSSIng

' -,ad J] OU

HOME MOVIE ITEMS Kodak Motion .P iclure Camera Film. Whole ~a l e pr ice' h) e v ~r yo ne . !1-uaran t,:c ci not to be matcheci anywhere . Write for prices, pic a, .: specify your neeck A, V,$ .. P,O. Box ~48:i . Meriden . C(l1ln.

•

Kodak-Ektachrome 160 sound movie film tELA 594) $4.59. with proces sing $5.99. Sept.iOel. special. FILMLAB. 521 North 7th Sl.. Allentown . POl. 18102.

I'.mm TANK-WIll proc... 30-h lenglhs 01 8 / 8mm

$1 .75 each

AUTOMATIC OA ¥lIGHT PROCESSOR

rOR SALE

SUP£A. TANK-Will p<oc..... Comple!.. 50-h ca""Oge

I Calif. residenl s, 80~

• Pr~enei up to 200 Ft. • Super' to JOmon

Improve your filmmoking skills~ Seven films originally s hot in Super-8 show you how! Free brochure. CINEMA AL BERTA, 4A-I022S 97th S t.. Ed monton . Alberta. C anada T5J ilLS.

AeQu 4l es no (101,It'Oom T a .... ~!. less Cr\an one rlOuf I nSltuc.t.ons :"eluded S.JfI~ldChOI') 9ua / df\teeo

Unusual Super-II movies. lapes. ~5mm s lid e~, CntnlOt!ue 50 cerll'. HSP . Bo x 2187. Bmma!.:::;. Ont'lI·io. C<ln<ld~ .

064~O.

Report: "Television PrOduclion and Super-B Film": also "Everything You Wanted to Know About In ex pen sive Color Video Cameras"-both report s 53. SWENSON PRODUCTlONS. 40 Win sor Place. Glen Ridge. N.J. 07028.

PROCESS YOUR OWN B & W OR COLOR HOME MOVIES!

Make creali~e sound tracks u,ing Ihe c~· elUSive Filmlyn Only $49,9~, wrile rOI brochure, AUTOMATED SOUND. I 119 17th A v~ .. Redwood C Ily, Calil. 94063

SUPER 8 E LA 160 FOACE 1 STOP DEVELOPING SS.OO /C ART - NO MINI MUM

0 0 LEO DINER 0 C FILMS, INC. 0

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)), 3S0 C; O I~ en Gat. Ave Son ~',"C05CO , CA 90102 14151 n s 3664 COMPLETE LABORATORY SERVICES & SUPPLIES

16MM I SUPER

ale

Super-ll Sound Transfers, fulkoat. s ync so nnd ·tcreo/ mo no ,W! ~ entsift, Wild 'Iound 3'/2 ce nt,l ft. Includes Pyral stock, Price li sl SO ceni , Cl N EM A S YN C SYSTEMS . IN C .. 14261 Ave Men doc·ino . Ir v in e, C a liI'. 927 14 , Kodak's New #72<W Ektachrome pi'OC(!!; se d in only one dHY, E ~clu , ivel\J in tht Enst al STADIUtvl MO TIO N PI C TURE LAB. 111 46 F rankst llwn Ru .. Pitt s burgh. Pa, 1: 1.'15, $2 ..'iOI C(1I 'tricige : SIO.OO!200 ft. In c lud e 35 ce nt s po . tage fi l\d l)<ln(]l i ng . r'enn sy lv, ni n r~~id e nt, includ e 6% t'l. (411 ) 371 -12 11. SUPER-8 FILMAKER

.----- -- -- - - -- - - -- - - - - _._--- ----_._------------- - -------,

Super 8 Services • • • •

tullcoat transfers sound mhtes videocassette transfers equipment rental

Send for free broc.hure

Super 8 Sound, Inc. 95 ~ Streel. Cambridge. Mass. 02140 Sup~r..s,

16mm , Slides to ¥. videocas sette. low cost quality results. Also! First time lIvailable. Regular-8 18 fp~ to .y, or Y.! videoca,setle. Catalogue $1, refundable wit.h order. FILM & TAPE SERVICE. 8139 Van Nooru. No. Holly wood. Calif. 91605. (213) 997-6339. Custom-processlng-50 fl. Super-8 color or black-und-white. $\.25 per can ridge. FILMLAB. 52J Nonh 7th St.. Allen town , Pa . 18102. - - : - - -..,--------:- No CC!ll;orshlp_ Confidential photo finish ing. Write to FOTO WEST . P.O. Hox 605X. Lemon Grove. Calif. 92045.

Professional magnetic. striping, t\ and Super-8 with balanc<! ~trip.:. CBS liquid oxide . will not pe<!1. 12 huur service. no mylar film. -' cenl~lft . postage paid . CINE -MA GNATONE. 283 Baymelld ow,; Dr.. Naple~. Fl a , 33942. Contact prints--Optical print s-Original film . Agfa F5 laminated stripe-balance stripe-stereo/mono sound transfer,. Lab s imluire on lellerhead. CINEMA SYNC SYSTEMS. INC .. 14261 Aw.. Mendocino. Irvine, Calif. 92714. Do you treasure your film? We perma nently laminate finest quality high fidel ity sound striping. Super-8, 8mm . 3"2 cents/fI , MAGNE-STRT PE. 333 Ay crigg Ave .. Passaic . N.J. 07055, (201) 773-4633.

Introducing "ZERO DEFECT" SOUNDSTRIPING

"Bantam" $350

For laminalion-ptocess striping 01 acelate base 8mrrvSupet-8ot \omm Ori ginal him and op~cal pronts. Only slrlpers guaranleed to produce excellenl striping lor the first year 01 on91nal ownership.

Luxurious red carpeted, air-conditioned editing faCilities for rent. 24 hour access. Your choice of 6 or 10 plate S.E . R .A. editing con~ok~. al so cOlllpktely equipped double and single ·s ys tem edit ing benches. Super-8 :;ound resolving. tran sfers and mixes . ClIlI or write for rate s and reservalions. AI Lindo (212) 858-8729. SUPER 8 WORKSHOP INC.. 84 Livingston St.. Brooklyn. N . Y . IJ201.

Four models and eight variations fill every commerclat. professional. institutional and amaleur need. From $175 lor NSlS8 Converter 10 $1,350. In cludes 22'page Instruction Manuatlslrlplng course, "Freebies." Write for tree IlIuSlrated brochure,

PROFESSIONAL SUPER-8 SERVICES

ProfessionH I 18 minatcd 5t ri ping-2 y, cents/ft. Free samples. 24 h,)ur serv ice . SUPER-~ STUDIOS. 220 Pierce . San Fran cisc o . Calif. 94117.

• EktachroM' developing 10 ASA 500 workp'l~ts wllh edge numbel1f19 • A&B printi ng 10' diuolves and lades $ound Siriping and l,ana'" • p,ofessional laminated VITATONE sl,iplng

* *

Pre-striped P,lnts

.. Low Contrail Mute'. • Reducllona ;:Slow-ups;:: Silent:;: Sound

SENO FOR NEW

PRiCe LIST

INL

(213) 462-6814

NEWSFILM LABORATORY, INC. I.,. No. Uon:hmonl Blvd.

LOl Aft"l,c, Call1ornl, 80004

-- --

MAGNETIC SOUND

STRIPING

A.I 1(: 1ft. nl'gntUC ,tfiplni lap. fORMULA 10)14 . O.B· Thl li nil'j:t low ·aai~.

Mth (llItpu\ (julol i.-, . .. lAMNAyftAtlt',. 'htrnigl i ntludtd PIu.igl"' ''PCl ol,. ,.fillabl!.IIlt/Io, Sl.H y , ,,

12000 It. 10·,..1 pock.yo S 120.00 6 000 It. 5·,••1p.<I.:ag.l S 72.00

Ttl. l~14J 611·1234

"" magneWi'nee ham:

•

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QuaJity sound striping I cent per foot. Sept.!Oct. s pecial. FILM LAB . 521 Nonh 7th St.. Allentown. Pa. 18102. Bolex Magnetic Stripe. 800 ft. $IO.SO ex change spool. Buy 5---<:ement free. Ce ment. 4 oz.: $9.95. CINEMA SYNC SYSTEMS . INC .. 14261 Ave. Men docino. Irvine. C a lif. 92714. SUPER·8 FILMAKER

WILMAR ENTERPRISES 56 Porterfield Place Freeport, N.V. 11520

------------~------

Precision MHgnetic Striping .i nce 19S11 . Super-!\/Smm. 3 ce nts/f\. Fast ~.:: r v i ce . AERCO . Box 415. Medfurd . N.J . 08055 . Genuine Magnetone!" Lamnatrack preci sion striping. finest quality . Highest sound fidelity . 4 cent s/ft , ROBERT SWANSON. P.O. Box 17221. Charlotte . N.C. 28211.

Super-8 Sound Films. Send for free list. NOHTHWEST CUSTOM MOVIES . Dept. SF, 4600 Union Bay Place. N.t" SeaHle. Was h. 98105. Super-8, 16mm and ~mm full-length rea lure~ and ~ horl ~. sOll nd ~nd silent. color and black/white fill11 c la"s ic.: s. Boga rt. Popey;:. Barrymore. Garbo. Chaplin. Bugs Bunny . Mansfield. Our (jang. etc. ~IC. Free c.atalogue. NILES FIl.M S. Bo~ 1576·Sl!. South Benu . Ind. 46634. Instruction F ilms.--lenn isis ki inglgolf top pro i.nstructors: Super-8mm with scripl: sound loop cartridges: 16mm reno tal. CLOUD 9. Box Q24181 , Min neapolis. Minn . 55424.

Free Blackhawk Films Catalog

Plus 1h price Intro ductory offers on Laurel & Hardy W. C. Fields,

and more.

Tr.e: greatesl listing 01 nome anler1alnmon1 films available Select hom thousands 01 Supel 8 and \6mm slle(\{ & sound films plu s prCj9ctors,

slides. accessories. and more . Jus. write or call fOf your free catalog today _ Call Toll Free: 800 ~ 5S3-1163 1"' 'Ja llcJ 10 'owa. Alaska 8. HawaiI

Please menl,on Orae,

,-3563

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Cinema Classics--Fine s t in 16mm and S8mm ft·a ture,. short,. docu mentarie s. 4l!-page ~alalogue $2 . 16mm deale r in· quirie s invited. STO RACE FI LM S. P.O. Box 4337_ Sc.:otlsdale. Ariz. l:\5258. Super-!! Or Standard 8 tilms exchanged for $1.50 per reel. Sound and L:olor al ,arne low fee. MI LLE R ' S MOVIE MART. Rt. I. Box 246. Bums. Tenn . 37019 . Super-8 sound home movies. F ull length fea tures . ca noon , and shon,. Fast serv ice-big selection-low. low prices, Hundreds of exciting titles featuring every big star from Bugs Bunny 10 John Wayne. Send 25 ce nts for our deluxe c',lalogue. BRENDA'S MOVIE HOUSE. 3609 Ger mant ow n AVe . . Dept. SFS. Philadelphia . Pa. 19140.

===== = === - MISCELLANEOUS

Free list! New and used Super-8 so und and si lent movies. RIDDLE ENTER PRISES. P.O . Box 186. Normal. III. 61761.

T-Shirts for filmms.kers_ Seventeen popu lar professional film equipme nt d.e signs. Send for free brochure. ALAN GOR DON ENTERPRISES INC.. 1430 Cahllenga Blvd ., Hollywood. Calif. 90028, Attn: Dept. TS .

Hundreds of Super-S, 16mm sound- silent lilm,. Discount house. Catalogue rr~e, Specify size . ENTERPRISE FILMS. 561 N.E . 79th S1.. #245. Millmi. Fla. 33138.

Any photl>-----Color. B& W---enlargcd on a T-shin: $7 .95 . Send snapshot, s hirt s ize (photo returned) . LARSON·S. 7403 N .W. 57th 51. , Tamarac. Fla. 33319,

Super-8 sound RIms, new and used . Send for free catalogu e. CONTINENTAl. FILM SA LES. Bird B~y Plaza . Route 41 Bypass . Venice. Fla. 33595.

Relit and save (Super·1! soun d I11ms). Ye a rl y membership only $1.00 . SUPER-l:\ MOVIE CLUB. 52 1 North 7th St .. A llentown. Pa. 1l!102 .

MOVIE FILMS

= ====== ===== New Walt Disney Supcr-8 movies- ·at dis collnt prices! FILMLAB , P,O. Box 2691. Le high Valley . Pa . 1800 I.

Film of the Month Club: no gim micks. no minimum purchase required . LaJ'ge~t selection anywhere. Membership enti ties you to unma"tched sav ings . also in cluding 25 percent olT on equipment. Swa pping privilegeS. cart ridging an d more. Yearly membership $10.00. A must for every collector . F ILM OF THE MONTH CLUB , P.O. Box 2485. Meriden. Conn . 06450. A Divis ion of Audio Vi sual Systcm~. Inc ,

S1JPER SERVICES

1 - - - - - - - - -- -- - - . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - ------ - - - - - - -- - - - - " 1 "Hey Look!" Lone Rang er, Sg!. Preston of the Yukon in Super-8 color. sound features. TV classics. cartoons. Over 1,000 films to select from. Get ac quainted offer Mr. Magoo in "Sloppy Jalopy," S uper-8 color sound. Reg. $29.95, Yl price special SJ5. Offer ends October 31. 1977. f ree catalogue. RED FOX FILMS. Mt. Rd .. Dept. B. Lyken s , fa. 17048 . FAMOUS! The first name in Super-8 sound home movie entertainment. We have largest selection of films originally made al W. B.. Universal. RKO. Fox, Colum bia, etc, H undi-eds of features. digest prints. comedies. cartoons. TV show s and countless reels of trailers. Send 25 cent' for catalogue. FA M 0 US F[LMS INC.. 103 N.E. 79th Sr., Miami. Fla. 33138. Winning Tennis! Teaching pro s say . .. Finest instruct ional film s made." Color. Forehand, Bae kh and. Volle y, Serve. Super-S silent (100 ft. I, $10.95 each. $39.95 complete (400 ftl, Super-S sound. $14,\). $54.95 set (400 ft.l, 16mm sound. $~9.9S each (200 tU. $1~9.95 "omplete (::;00 fl. I. Videopssctl e, $ D9.65. Shipping 85 cents. FORES T HI LL S PRODlJCTIONS. Box A 619. Madison Square Station. Ne w York. N.Y. 10010. Studio 8 Euterprises proudly presents a Iremendous selection of Super-8 sound <lnd silent films. Prompt service from a company who cares. Send for our fn:e catalogue, STUDIO 8 ENTERPRISES. P.O. Box 1327. Stone Mountain, Ga. 30086, 16mm Color/Sound TV commercials. Hamm's Beer. Wheatie,. Chic let,. etc. $2 postage paid. JACOBOYITZ, 1206 Belvidere Rd .. Phillipsburg, N.J. 08865. FANTASTIC Super-8, J6mm Films , Giant selection. Rare Beatles. Elvis, Star Trek, James Bond. Old TV shows, commercials-Amos & Andy. Bob Hope, color Superman. Flash Gordon. Sherlock Holmes. Behind the scenes production short~ and lots of trailers Godfather. Exorcist. Jaws, Logans Run. 2001; A Space Odyssey. King Kong. Rock concerts--Stones. Janis Joplin. Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Santana. Sonny and Cher, Musical 5-1 ud y Garland. Streisand. Canoons-Betty Boop, Popeye. Chap lin. Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello. 3 Stooges. Hollywood's best feature films, shons and war documen taries. Much more. Big catalogue: $],00 (refunded with first order). H ALCO FILMS, Room 752, 6311 Yucca Street. Los .Angeles, California 90028. Fast service. SPECIAL OFFER: Original Three Stooges 7 funniest films , "Ache in Every Stake." "Disorder in Court." "Dutiful But Dumb ," "Micro- Phonies," .. Par don My Scotch," "Sweet Pie & Pie." "Three Little Beers." now only $27.95 each. postpaid. N ,Y. residents add sales ta;c Offer good in U,S. only. Sale ends November 30, 1977, Best selection sound/silent features. shorts, Over 1.000 titles in Super-8. C atalogue 25 cents. CINEVIS10N. Box 366-S8, Larch mont, N. Y. 10538.

Home Movies: You don't have to be a

studio executive to enjoy major Holly

wood features in the privacy of your own

home. All you need is a Super-S sound

projector and our huge catalogue of liter

ally hundreds of films licensed for borne

use. We also have Elmo projector~ at

super savings. THUNDERBIRD. 3501

Eaglerock, Lo s Angele s. C alif. 90065,

Resolving Sync Cassette Recorder, CSS/ Superscope C-105S. Auto/Manual re cording. PC sync pulse cable. Prot'cs sional quality location sync sound, CINEMA SYNC SYSTEMS. [NC .. 14261 A.ve. Mendocino. Irvine. Calif. 92714,

PRODUCTION AIDS Auto-Cue Cassttte: $99,95. Automati cally ~IOP~ and readie s each sound placed ~equen t iall y on Sl<mdard ca~selle tapes! Be,t sound I rac k product ion aid yet, AUTOMATED SOUND, 5~4 Cortez Sr., Salt Lake City. Utah ~4103.

- - -- -- - - - - -----_.. _. Pyral Super-8 Fullcoat 500 ft. $12. Scotch "206" fullcoal. 500 n. on 5 inch reel $20. CINEMA. SYNC SYSTEMS, INC .. 14261 Ave. Mendocino, Irvine. Calif. 92714,

~---------.--- -

FREE CATALOG HARO -TO-fINO PRECISION TOOLS

L 1:::.1,:- rrw r (!- 1M il 3000 Item s- pliers,

d "u (, ro::; tweelers. optical eQul Dmen!, 1601 "II~ Als.o contains " 1 Qa ' f ros· ' to Jld I n tool sclecllon

[...3 ~

JENSEN

TOols &. Alloys

411 J N 44lh 51 PllOe"i, Al 85018

Super-8 editing tape is a special pre pulsed \4-inch magnetic tape with pulses thl! same width as Super-8 film petiora tions. After transfer of a striped film sound track, the tape is wrapped up in sync with the lilm for double-system bi directional editing using most \4 track stereo open reel recorders and an y Super-8 film viewer. An extra plus is double band sync projection! Complete kit consists of 600 feet of special tape, neon strobe and capstan speed changer. Complete detailed instructions. $30.00. Extra tape, 600 ft. $6.00. Write: SUPER-S TAPE PRODUCTS, 1168 So. Washington SI.. Denver, Colo. 80210.

Recorder Resolver: This small unit elec tronically synchronizes a tape recorder and a projector enllbl ing precise,. hand, off resolving/tran, ferring of your field sync tracks to fullcoilt using your sound projeCtor to do the record ing. U her, Sony, Superscope, etc. are carefully converted in our shop. Stereo and 4-channel recorders become compatible by using our Projector CVlltrvllu to lock the projector to the recorder. THE FILM GROUP, Box 9, Wethersfield, COn[l. 06109. (203) 563-2574/(203) 529 5531.

SERVICES Clish With Your Camera! Earn $5 .000 $15.000 yearly selling 10 4.000 clienb. Sell pholos 15 or more times, Guar~n teed. Details: 13 ce nt sta mp . PIC TUREPROFITS, Dept. 299-SFM. Holtsville. N,Y. 11742. Super-8 film to }.l " and Belam~x video c assette transfer service. Editing avail able: $5/50 feet plus tape cost. Also slide and still photo transfers to videocas settes. SWENSON PRODUCTIONS. 40 Win sor Plac e. Glen Ridge. N.J. 07028.

Sell photos-make money with your camera. Over one million pbotos and color slides are bought by newspa.pers. magazines and house organs every year! Learn what kind of photos they want.. how 10 submit them ... how much they pay ... laws and regulations. CREATIVE TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY Let your camera provide a second in Free informative "Tl ps for TI me come for you. Booklet includes directory Lapse," plus delalled brochure on of where to sell your pictures: $2. SUN mech. and electronic intervalometers. SET ENTERPRISES, 1256 Filbert SCIENCE DIMENSIONS SL/P.O. Box 1254. Richmond, Calif. Box 582SF

94802. Costa Mesa, CalIf. 92627

(714) 545-4498

WANTED

Sync and edit sound track!; on quarter inch Hatchmark Synctape. HATCH· MARK, INC., Box 91, Morrison. Colo. 80465. Automatic "Theater" Light Dimmer re captures the warm. magical nostalgia of the old time theater. Single switch stans vel vet smooth fade to full brill ianct. or to desired golden glow preset level. $49. 95. AUTOMATED SOUND, 584 Cone z ~" Salt Lake City, Utah 84103.

5 Ways to G o Fulleoat! From $995 to

$1.695. mono/stereo, location/studio.

Send $1 for complete information and

specifications. CINEMA SYNC SYS

TEMS, INC. Exclusive distributor~ for

Uher/D-SS Magnetfilmrecorder and The

Cresta Fullcoatcr. 14261 Ave , Men

docino, Irvine , Calif. 92714, (714) 551 0987.

My wife and I produce a nationally syndicated

television news program tor children, called.

"KIDSWORLD," The weekly ha~-hour program

Is hosted and narrated entirely by children. We

are interested in looking at Super-6 films pro duced by children for possible use in

"KIDSWORLD." Upon acceptar,ee. we will pay

$1 00 per n1m for non-exclusive won clwld e

rights. All films accepted by us will be trans I /erred to videotape and the film returned to the

owner. All films are subject to re-editlng by us

in ou r videotape version.

BOB BEHRENS President

THE BEHRENS COMPANY, INC.

2451 Brickell Avenue Miami, Florida 33129

.- - - 50 foot Super-8 plastic reel sets-5 ce n ts ellch in good condition, Payment credit memo or cash. FILM LAB. 521 Nonh 7th St., Allentown. Pa. 18[02. SUPER-8 flLMAKER

CIRCLE INFOCARO 38

Photos of this quality require the right _ .,...-------"" feye, camera, lens, composition, film, lighting. And the right processing. Kodak puts a lot into your pictures. We carefully control air, temperatures, chemicals, paper, color balance, expo足 sures. And we conduct more than 40 inspections during the process. We can also make a lot out of your pic-

tures. Duplicate slides, prints, or movies. Prints from slides or movie frames. Cropped enlargements up to 16x20 inches . And other special processing services. Ask your photo dealer. Or send for booklet No. A3-21 . Write Eastman Kodak Company, Dept. 412L, Rochester, NY 14650.

Kodak color processing. It completes the picture.

Photo by Michael Simpson.

Negative andenlargement by Kodalz.

CIRCLE INFQCARD 66