Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

TITLES AND SPECIAL EFFECTS 213
glass. The sheet is set up a few feet from the lens in front of the
scene to be used for the background. Provided plenty of light is
used either a good sunny day or in the studio with all the lights
on a small lens-opening can be used with consequent good field
depth of focus so that both the lettering
and the scene will be in
focus. Care must be exercised to ensure that no reflections appear
on the glass to ruin the shot.
This is only a makeshift method for it is "messy;" in fact, it is
only included for the benefit of readers who do not have access to
a camera fitted with a rewind handle. Some of the better cameras
which are for somewhat specialized purposes do not have this
feature, although in all other respects they
reason, it is well to determine just what is expected
are excellent. For this
of a camera
before buying it.
The professional way to do it, is to use a camera with a rewind.
Before shooting the background scene, the footage indicator read-
ing is noted. The scene is shot ; then,
the film is wound back to the
same indicator reading. Incidentally, this will not result in fogging
or exposing the film if there is a shutter which automatically
closes the lens when the motor is not running. If not the lens must
be capped during rewinding. Now the title is set up at the proper
distance, focussed, and the film re-exposed. On development, it
will be found that the title now appears over the moving back-
ground in a very impressive manner. This method is fine when it
is known in advance that this type of title will be required, but if,
as often happens, it is only decided during editing, then the fol-
lowing method must be used unless it is possible to go
shoot at the same place again.
out and
If the camera used does not have a rewind feature the film
can still be rewound by noting the film counter reading before
and after shooting. Then take the camera into a perfectly dark
room, open the camera, and wind the film back onto the full
magazine for what is judged to be a sufficient length. The camera
can then be closed and the counter examined under the light. If
more film than is needed for the sequence has been rewound the
camera can be run with the lens capped until the counter shows