American Cinematographer - May 1933 - 35

36

American Cinematographer

May 1933

Some Don t, But I Like Light Sets
Continued from Page 15

thing which can
logically be used
to cast either shadow or light pat¬
terns on these walls.
Very frequently
you
will
find
a prop-a flower,
a chair, a statuette, or the like-which
can be utilized for this shadow-casting.
Similarly, you will usually find lamps,
windows, doors, etc., which can be
equally useful for casting or legitimizing
high-lights.
If you balance your light¬
ing properly, you can get beautiful, lumi¬
nous shadows and fine, soft high-lights,
with a delightful range of half-tones be¬
tween.
If you still find yourself with
embarrassing expanses of blank white¬
ness, you can then fill these in with a

range of half-tones, avoiding wherever
possible obvious "early Vitaphone" spots
of light.
Art Director Helps
The art-director can, of course, be of
tremendous assistance to you in this, not
alone in putting in these props, but in
giving you the windows and doors which
you can use as the ostensible sources of
your decorative lighting effects. He can
also give you pleasing contours to break
up the flatness of the walls, and give
you opportunities for more decorative
half-tones and shadows.
Light-toned sets, I have found, are
ideal for such treatment, for the lighter
backgrounds take the shadows far more
easily than do darker walls: you don't
have to use nearly so much light to pro¬
duce these effects, you don't get heavy,
sooty shadows, and you can easily get
a far wider range of half-tones than is
possible on dark, or even neutral-tinted
settings. After all, this is only natural,
for we are dealing with reflected light
-and light-colored surfaces are the best
reflectors. Just notice, for instance, the
difference in the shadow of your hand
when you hold it over some dark surface
such as a table-top, and when you hold
it over a light surface, like a sheet of
paper!
Contrasting Light

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Once your set is lit, you will find it
relatively easy to light your people. As
a rule, you will find very little change
from your normal technique is necessary;
and that little will probably be in the
direction of greater softness and delicacy.
In most shots (especially the closer
ones) , you will probably find it wise to
make a more specific contrast between
the shadow side of the face and the
light side-and at the same time to do
this subtly, with softer lights.
At the
same time, back and line lighting should
be softened considerably.
At this point, cooperation with the
director becomes especially important: for
you will get the best results if the ac¬
tion is played so that you can contrast
the darker side of the players' faces and
forms against lighter areas on the set,
and vice versa.
The same holds true,
of course,
in respect to costumes.
Granted, however, a well-designed set,
properly lit, and proper cooperation from
costumer and director, you will find al¬
most no change necessary in your usual
requirements as to makeup, or your nor¬
mal technique of diffusion, etc.
Effect

Lightings

These lighter sets are ideal for ef¬
fect-lightings of all kinds, regardless of
key.
Such lightings are, after all, pri¬

marily accentuations of your set-lighting
to the degree where it becomes more
immediately noticeable, and these lightcolored sets are a perfect canvas upon
which to paint light-effects.
In fact I
have found that such scenes are even
more effective when done on light sets
than if they were done on more conven¬
tional backgrounds.
Laboratory Side
Of course, the ultimate success of any
cinematography rests with the compe¬
tence of the laboratory; and nowhere is
this more true than in scenes made on
light sets. As I have tried to point out,
delicacy must be the keynote of a cine¬
matographer's work on such sets-soft,
luminous shadows; soft, clear high¬
lights; and an extremely wide range of
delicate, soft half-tones in between.
If
the laboratory will and can handle the
film properly, you will be able to get
beautiful results; if they botch the job,
they can easily block out your high¬
lights, turn your shadows into patches
of soot, and erase half of your inter¬
mediate tones.
If you can't have confi¬
dence in your laboratory, by all means
avoid light sets; if you can trust it, light
sets offer you new opportunities for
beautiful and distinctive camerawork.
As I remarked at the beginning, I like
light sets!

Mobile Camera-Carriages
and Cranes
Continued from Page 13

Aside from minor differences in the
undercarriage, the chief differences be¬
tween the M-G-M rotambulator and
the Bell and Howell version lie in the
provisions for panoramic and tilting mo¬
tion.
In the latter, the tilt is operated
by a hand-lever, and works against
hydraulic resistence, while the panoramic
movement is supplied by the feet of the
operator, pushing on a fixed, circular
track around the base of the device.
Reduced Model
The Paramount "Baby Boom" is prac¬
tically a reduced-scale model of their
larger crane.
While it is somewhat
larger than the rotambulator, its range
of adjustment is the same, except that
the crane construction naturally permits
the camera to be lowered to the actual
floor-level, or lower.
It uses relatively
large wheels in its undercarriage, also.
It is likewise interesting to note that
this device has been designed so that a
ten-foot extension can be fitted to the
crane-arm without requiring additional
counterbalancing.
Minimum Space
As is to be expected, the proponents
of the crane and rotambulator designs
differ somewhat in their concepts of the
ideal small camera-carriage.
The im¬
partial observer can, however, easily see
that they are agreed on the more essen-
American Cinematographer - May 1933

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