Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

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THE PROGRAM ANGLE
of scene. Or perhaps it is necessary to show a player's dreams along
the lines of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In that case, only film
could fill those famous flights of fancy.
In the production of titles, film is probably the most versatile
of all mediums. Many titles are drawn on cards and photographed
by one of the studio television cameras. There are many different
ways of presenting titles; the most popular may be the cards which
are flipped over like a desk calendar. If the play is of an historical
or period nature, atmosphere would be added if the title were superimposed
over an old castle or historic action scene. To do this, a
piece of film of the required subject is made into a loop of film per-
haps four or five feet long, maybe longer. This is run continuously
through the film projector during the time that the title cards are
being flipped. The technician at the fader controls fades the film
picture over the output from the camera with the titles so that a
superimposition results in which the titles appear clearly over an
appropriate background setting. The degree of intensity of either
can be controlled, and it is quite effective to fade out the last title
and commence the action with the film as the opening set. This
makes for a very smooth transition into the story. On film, the same
effect can be produced by the use of the optical printer. Another use
for film in titles is to photograph the titles on film and project it for
the opening. Unless the title is one which will be used more than
once, this method is not very
economical since in addition to draw-
ing the title cards they have to be photographed at additional cost.
Commercial treatment is dealt with elsewhere. However, since
the subject of film integration cannot be left without mention of this
very important aspect, it will be considered briefly.
In the case con-
sidered, the commercial is fitted into the story and a smooth transi-
tion is made. A suitable subject would be the Suprabat Battery ad-
vertisements which show an incident occurring after dark in which
a flashlight powered with a Suprabat Battery saves the "day." The
narrator could appear on the screen with a reminiscence and as he
talks he is faded out and the film faded in. He continues his narra-
tion during the action of the film following standard sound-over
technique. In front of him is a monitoring screen with the film action