Evening star., 1948-10-31

be 10 placed as to eliminate any
reflections and the exposure made
according to light-meter reading
not according to guesswork. Great
care should be exercised by the
photographer TO avoid the errors Of
parallax. Both tripod and title
board must be perfectly square in
relation to the other to insure free
dom from linear distortion.
More interesting titles can be
made with hand lettered or printed
cards. Hand lettering calls for q
certain amount of skill in penman-
ship and drawing, but is well worth
the additional trouble. Hand let
tered titles can be made on either
a plain background or over o still
photograph of the right size. Or
cartoon characters or various pat
terms and designs can be worked
into the background II desired.
Printed titles will serve the pho
tographer who Is not skillful at the
drawing board. There are many
kinds Of type in the printers font.
front the old English style to the
most modern, and . selection will
be governed by the subject matter
of the film to be titled. However,
once a certain kind of type is Sc
lected for titling a picture it should
be used throughout, both for main
titles and for subtitles. Title cards
can be printed at very reasonable
cost.
Use of Signs and Labels.
Since titling does take up time
and adds somewhat to the cost OF
q film, signs and labels should be
used whenever possible. AS an ex-
ample, a film on ZOO activities could
easily be made without the use of
subtitles. At each cage or animal
house there are signs and labels
giving all pertinent information
about the animals that are to be
pictured. Even O main title could
be shot at the scene by photograph
ing the geological park sign at the
entrance.
Dissolves, wipes and fades are also
useful means for making your titles
interesting. Or, as an alternative,
the main title and credits could be
placed on q rack, one before the
other, and moved across the view
ing field after proper intervals for
reading.
Moving scroll titles can be made
by placing all Of the information on
a long card which Is wrapped
around drum. The drum is turned
slowly so that there will be ample
reading time as the title and credits
move upward across the screen
Double-exposed titles are for those
who can wind film backward ir
their camera. A scene, related t<
the hlm, Is first exposed for q suf-
ficient number of feet to allow 70,
ample reading time Of the title
Then the Aim Is wound backward
through the camera to the starting
point of that scene and the same
footage re-exposed for the title. In
this case the title should be printed
or written in white letters on black
background. The white letters burn
into the background scene which
should be slightly underexposed, the
title portion being slightly overex-
posed.
Animated titles are made by re-
versing just about everything but
the lighting. However, they are
easier to accomplish than most peo-
pie realize. Take, for instance, the
case where a tumble of lettered
blocks unscramble themselves and
form a title. This is done in the
following manner: First, the title
is formed with the blocks and
enough footage run of to make a
satisfactory title-this with the cam.
era mounted upside down on the
tripod. With the camera still up
side down, block at time Is disar-
ranged and each change photo
graphed q single frame at time
until all of the blocks are in a mud
die and have no resemblance to the
title. After the film has beer
processed, the upside down strip Is
cut out and spliced at the head Of
the film right side up. Then, when
1t is run off through the protector
the illusion Of the blocks unscram-
bling and jumping into place Il
roo lizod