CineMagic #07 (1980)

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)

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7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


Tbe wo .ld II .. . e o f ct .y .tw m Vl n ·ton P ..oductlonllo Por t l .nd , 0 ...Here h i nd i .._ c h Into th . "mege

IquI .e le t on Rip VIR Wlnld. to

mo"e the Chl"ICte .1 I tiny hlct lonIn h l m e · by·f"lme .n l .. .Uoo .

Thl. month ' . Re"lewe ••m l n e _ .n effectt h . t c .n ' t be

. Imuleted. Breek·e.e) , bot t lel Indg le l l e l I re e"l lI .blerell t l"el) ' lnexpen .

II"ely from ROlco .

The)' don ' t Ju l t

b ..e .k , the) ' Ihette .with In Impect t h . tlook . ._ l i n dlound .-e.l . ROlco

1'),1 the f .. .gmenUI ..e .blolutel) , ' I fe

.nd will not herm IC '

to .1 0" technlcl lnl .See pege 31.

The dlooleu . le t : flote the b ..eg·ullrly Iheped cut 'out to the r lghtof the c.me"I, which I , c . n e d .

"cookie" or "kukl lor l . " .0.1 II u.ed

to ce . t .hedow. , Common UI_ u e

to lugges t shsdows of t ..ee branda ·

es Ind I _ " . s .

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


CONTENTS

Editor's 4 Bench __

Basic

Cartoon 6Animation _

Simple techniques in eel animation. By Richard Allison.

ProfUe _ 14

FUmmakers'17 ForumA regular department devoted to

readers' comments and correspon-dence about fantasy filmmaking .

Ciaymatlon18 Making movie history with mud

& magic-the story of the world'sfirst daymation feature film.Sy Rick Cooper.

Producers'

Bulletin 24 Board _

Latest news of our readers'productions.

Number 7

Review

_30

James F. Caldwell examines tools

and equipment for the filmmaker.

Books _ 32 Books for fllmml!lkers-valuable

sources of Information and tech·niques for the filmmaker.

Clnemaglc

Market- 33piace,

__Classified advertising andannouncements.

FUmContestRules

26 Close-up_ 33 ~

Damon Santostephano-A film· maker on the rise. By John

Clayton.

The official ru les of the 1980CINEMAGIOSVA Short Film

Search illustrated with stills from

last year 's entries and winners. Acolumn of guidelines and helpful hints is included.

Easy kaleidoscopic effects for

special effects. By Jack Imes Jr .

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


~ Editor's

@.7iJf4!#B_E_N--=C_H__......... .,.1

O'QUINN STUDIOS, INC .475 Park Avenue SouthNew York, N,Y. 10016

_....Norman Jacobs/Kerry D'Quinn

Aaodate PlaIt.....Rita E i ~ n s t e i

UitoI' ·.. c ... :David Hutchison

.......Director:Cheh N. Low

..........Robert Sefcik

A..aocIat. Edlto .rJohn Clayton

, ........ E41to . ;Bob Woods

.........Coatl 'lltlltonrRichtlrd Allison

James CaldwellRkkCooperJack ImesJr.

AnS .",Laura O 'Brien

Leigh Grau

. . . . . . .ctIo. AuIataa. . .Cindy Levine

Therese RussoBryna Seligson

AngeJtque Trauvere

. . . . . . . . . of CINEJlAGIC . . . . .EtIItodaI C. . . .altaal:

Don Dohler

For ....... tl$;ng Iniorm.Ul)n; 11.11. EloeMleln {2J2)...,,"About th e ea .... A behind ·the·~ IDOIlat th e memben o f theWU Ybdoll ProchactJo_ te . . . wol'll:·bIa _. eceae r .... their ,. . uMrn-. ,... Llttt.1'rlIace and ,,.,....The 10_1. the n_ r_ture·1entJtb~ .,.-oductiOJl. the alory'. . . .__ . . e 1 8 .

4 CINEMAQIC*7

Happy Birthday,

CINEMAGIC!

Those of you who are into reading absolutely everything in the magazine,cover to cover, including the indicia (that's what all that fine print at thebottom of this page is called), will have discovered th1lt this issue (#7) isVolume 2, No.1. Which means we are beginning our second year

of publication.CINEMAGIC started out as a quarterly, but by the third issue we had grown suf·

ficiently to increase the frequency of publication to bimonthly status. I hope thatover the coming year more filmmakers and filmmaking schools and lib raries willbecome aware of our publication and ask to join the active ranks of ClNEMAGIC

readership. As the scope of our readership grows. so can the scope of ourmagazine-which means more issues, more pages and more color. But we needto move a step at a time.

Though there are a number of magazines that deal with professional film pro·duction on a "hands-on"level, none of them covers all phases of film production(from film technique to model construction to fantasy makeup and beyond) asthoroughly as CINEMAGIC does, No other magazine see ks to create so strong asense of community among fantasy filmmakers that encourages the rapid flow of

ideas and in formation.In this issue we introduce a new departm ent, "Profile," which focuses on the

filmmaker as an artist. It will explore the triumphs and trials of young filmmakers

like yourselves who are either trying to create a career for themselves or just exer·cise their imaginations by creating their own special brand of fantasy-adventure in

film, I hope that over the course of several installments you wil l be abl e to gainsome perspective concerning the problems and possibilities of professional film

making as well as beng able to pick up a few inside tips that you can use for yourown projects,

Speaking of those projects, CINEMAGIC would very much like to look at someof the projects that you have brought to our attention in "Producer's Bulletin

Board," As you finish a project, send it in to CINEMAGIC. You may find yourselfand your film featured in these pages one day, so that other filmmakers can learnfrom and appreciate your work. That's the sort of communication between filmmakers that makes CINEMAGIC special. It's what we're all about. As you grow inyour craft, so do we all.

Later this year we are planning a comprehensive feature on titling for fantasy

films. We wou ld like to be able to show of f as many examples of our readers'work as possible_ $0 if you have a great idea for a snappy title, by all means shootit and send it in! We'll print frame blow-ups (the best ones in co lor) with your

description of the means used to achieve the title shot. W ~ want to see your work.$0 don't just send us your ideas; let's see what you've done with that idea. So if

you've been thinking about an interesting title effect using flames, melting letters.zooming names, spacey artwork or whatever . . . now's the time to show it off.

David Hutchison

CINEMAGIC II P<Jb lilhed bl-monthly by O'QUINN STUDIOS, INC .. Park Aoenue South. Ne .. Yorlc, NY

10016. ISSN '"0090-3000. Thi. i. i...,., Number 7 (Volume 2. No.1). Content i. Q Copyright 19110 byO'QUINNSTUOIOS. INC . All 'ighUr ",.eNe<!. Re print 0 ' ,..."oductlot1 In part 0 ' In who le ...ithout wriuen perml . on fromtM P<Jbli.befill $\ridly forbidden. CINEMAGIC c ~ P " "" re'"P<"'"ibility for unoolkited rnonu oc ,lpt., ,.t.otos..r t or other moter",I•. but il Ir .. . arK<! .... bmltt.l. a' oacoO<npan;.d by a ~ I f · a d d " ' . " " d , .:.ornpe<l envelope, they... 11 J:>o ""rloY lly con.klered Ind. il r>O« .. y, returned. Prod""t . advenised are not r>O«ssoorily endoned byCINEMAOIC, an d any v ..... npr,. . . . ,d in editor",1 oopy a 'e not . . . ily tho... of"CiNEMAGIC. Sul>Krlpliof1rate" '9.99 (>t ie yur (.i . I ..ue.) delive",d In U.S . C .. ."" and Mulco; foreign .... bocrlpUon. $11 .99 In (l ,S.funds only. New lubscrlptiof1.: semi dire<:lly to CINEMAGIC, <:10 O'QYinn StudiO', 1"0<:.. 475 Pork AvenueSouth, New York, N.Y. ]0016. NOl if"'ation of mlnge of add,, . . . or ",,,,, ... s, ",nd to CINEMAGIC.

Sul>K'iptiot1 o..parttneflt, P.O. So>. 142, MI. Morrl., IL61054. Poatmastu, s"r>d form 3579 to C INEMAGIC.P.O. 142, MI. MOffi., IL61054. Printed in U.S.A .

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


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"The Handbook's 312 pages contain just about everything there Is t

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among the most knowledgeable of Super 8 filmmakers, describe thequipment that is available, tell howto select what's best for an indlvlduaI's needs, and describe how to make inexpensive substitutes. MorImportantly, they detail howto use the equipment to Itsbest advantage,Is an amazing compendium of Information, much of it unavailablelsewhere, making this a book that Is a must for any serious Super fllmmaker". -El inor Stecker, Camera column , The New York Times.

The second edition of Handbook of Super 8 Production is ready foyou. Use the coupon below to order yours today!

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7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


CARTOON

ANIMATION:

toon animators hi!lve been intimidated bythe thought of tremendous amounts of

work necessary to achieve even modest

results. While this is largely determinedby th e complexity of the artistic style youchoose(not to mention thesmoothnessof

the movement), twcrdimensional anlmation need not beany more difficult than its

three-dimensional counterpart. To put it

simply, it need only be as complicated asyou make it.he Basics

By RICHARD ALLISON

This article concerns itself only with the

process of getting an animated image on

the screen. For this reason, the use ofsound will not be covered. Li kewise, sev·eral books cover the fundamentals of ac·tual charncter animation and how to drawcartoon characters in much greater detailthan could be realized in this short article.

reative amateur filmmakers

with small budgets and bigambitions can create their

own two·dimensional animatedfilms for a surprisingly smllil outlay of

money. A camera, a pair of photofloods

and a roll of film are the biggest invest-

6 ClNEMAG/C-7

ments. Although you won't be able to

compete with Disney, you can bring good,entertaining films to the screen. No doubt

you' ll be concerned with the costs in·volved. The techniques el(plored here arerelatively inexpensive.

Countless numbers of po tential car·Anlm.UOD a•• e .

The different methods of animation

IAIft: An anlmaUon . tand does not Mye to be a . ta te·of ·the· . r t O.berry. This Yery . lmple copy . tand pro·duces good results fo r the animator wbo has enoughtalent to compen.. e fo r th e lack of prGf_.lonai

equipment. The large bl.c:kboard u. . t I . mounted tothe camera' . lea . ellmlftllte. camera reflec:t1on frGm thehighly reflecUye eel. or gl a •• Note the tw o '4 " dowelalhIIt _rYe aa regl. tnUon peg• . I t take. mo .. lngenultyto produce acceptable anlmadon on thb type of H t ·UplhIIn I t would on •• ate ·of ·th e ar t anlnutlon aland .Thb kind of equipment forees the animator to 11_ aUof hili c.- t lyl ty . Th e re.ul ts can be very rewudlng.Above: Thb home ·buDt camera mOllnt work. well bllt

reqlll . . . e. tra work fo r the anlmHor. Thb . tand doesnot f_ ture fleld ·. I_ lndlcat ion or foUow ·foc\U, but adiligent .nlmator ca n achieve good . . . .ulta.

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discussed her@ use drawings. Se:v@ral

oth@r tKhnlques, most notably thoseinvolving cutouts, ar@ better d@scribl!delsewhere. Although It Is no t @ssentialthat you beable to draww@II ,I t'sobvious·Iy to your advantage jf you can. The bestway to achlev@this kind of artwork Is to

work on the fllm one shot at a time andmake two "extr@me" drawings for eachshoe These two drowings show the @lC ·treme or important parts of the action.

Th@trlck is to use these two drllwings asthe baslsofthatshot. By pl&eing your twoextrem@s on a l ight bolC (animationboard) and lighting this drawing frombehind, a third drawing can be made in aposition in-between th@firstand$@COncldrawings (Figur@ 1). This proc@$S is,needless to say, known as " in -betweening." In mor@complicatedshotsitisl ike-ly that you will need more than two@xtr@mes.

figure r,z

RJgbt: Another_ample of In -be tw_nlng . Draw ·lag B t . th e In be tw_n c I n . ·

lag fo r dr.wlag.A & C. Note aiM»

UultthebaUf l a tu_ wbenth e klc.ll.er

. . . .k _ c o . . . :twi th i t an d g_ _

bac.ll. to I tanatur . l .b .pe a.I tn l_ • • •y .

A

c

Simp ly put, the In-between drawingssmooth out th@ action between the extremes. In Figure 2, drawing A and E arethe extremes in II simple five·drawingshot. From these two extremes comesthe in·b@tweenC. At this point, drawingC becomes an@xtremewlthdrawlngAto

produc@ the in-between B. This Is continued until enough drawings are ac·cumulated to re$ult in a smooth action_

One point to keep in mind is that the

extremes do no t necessarily hllve to bethe first and last drawings in II shot. Inother words, several drawings can comebefore and after the initial extremes. Theaction dictat@s where the important

drawings will be ioc.!!lted. Also, in-betweens do not necessarily h.!!lve to coverthe action half-wllY. Here again , it is theaction,thi!!lt you want to see on the screenthat has the fln.!!ll decision. Of course allof this Is a simpllficlltion, but it is baslcal-

B

o

A B

Iy the same way In which professionalanimated cartoons are made. By usingthe in-between method, you know whereyou are and where you .!!Ire going In relation to the number ofdri!lwlngs you haveto [email protected],ifyoustartat

th@ beginning of a shot, make the drawIngs in numerical o rde r (straight

through). you don't hi!lve th@ degree ofcontrol that you needov@rtheal'Jlount ofartwork produced. By not In·betweening,

you also run the risk of "character dis:-tortion," a process by which the featuresof the char.!!lcter or object that you're animllting progressively distort during theshot. In·betweening, acting as a point ofreference, helps prevent this.

For the di fferent methods discussedh@re, the use of an animation board is es-

sential. This device simp ly holds the artwork in proper register while it is beingphotographed. It can also serve as the

l a .betw_alng t . a v. . . , ef f .n ·Ive _Utod of dnwlag •• otIa

. . . . . . Io .. Dra..... A . . . . E ...th e e z t r e _ of tbb ...... 1 .

Dra.I"g C t . th e f tn t In ·be ·

t"el la dn . . . . . Draw"" C u..abeco_an . . v . - fo r 4nowiDgB (Ia betWell_ dnwlag . A & C)aad fo r dnwlng D (I.. betw . . .drawing. C & E.)

E

cONEMAG/c-7 7

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


drawing board when the drawingsfirst m 8 d ~ . You can also buy a ~ t a l ani·mlItlon "disk" which does s e m ~thing. While the degree of precisionfound on a professional d e v i c ~ such asthis is quite high, so is the price-uslRllly

more than $150. An animation board,which you can build yourself, consists of

a base (plywood isa good material) with ar ~ c t a n g u l a r opening approximately 8 H x12 H . This opening is c o v ~ r e d by a s h ~ e tof glass, mounted flush with the top of

the board (Figure 3). Registration pegscan be made from simple quarter-inchdowels that are placed just above theglass . (You can also place a second pairof legs direc:tly under the glass for added

v ~ r s a t i l i t y Two pegs are satisfactorybut

three may be better. The distance be·tween the pegs is determined by thepunched hates in the paper.

Animated "pans" are possible with the

addition of movable pegs. Make a groovein the baseboard just above andlor belowthe glass-covered opening. The registration pegs are mounted on a strip of woodfitting into the groove (Figure 4). Asimpler method is to glue two parallelslats on top of the basebotJrd itself. Thepegs, again mounted on a wooden strip,slip between the slats. If you choose thismethod of mounting a sliding pegbar,the glass must be mounted above thebaseboard so that the top of the glass islevel with the top of the strip for the registration pegs (Figure 5).

Most professional animators use oneof two major systems of registration:Acme or Oxberry (Disney Studios have

own). The difference is the size of

the pegs and the distance between them.Because professional animation disks.cels and even paper are so expensive, it

may be necessary for you to make your

= S S L F ' _ ! : ~ = ~ ~ I - - . . . . s l

Rlghtl Figure "3 . how.the. mo. t b• • e eo_b 'uc '~ o n f o l ' a n a n b n . ~ o aboaI'd . The. peg . . . . no t

mov_ble.. The. a . .. . .

nu . h wlth the . IIIfH e. o fthe. boud . Rec:taagular

alas. ope.nIna . hould beabou t ." .la" ,

own equipment and supplies. Using apaper punch. you can save lots of money

by utilizing regular typewriter paper anddear sheets of acetate. In any case, bybui lding your own equipment and mak·ing your own materials, you won't bespending good money for a name, suchas Acme or Oxberry. This is not to saythat the professional equipment is not

worth Its cost. Rather, it's that most of uscan't afford wha t they offer.

The three techniques that follow arepossible for the amateur on a limited

budget. By no means is any of thiseasy-animation is a discipline that reo

quires total commitment. N o n e ~ l e s s ,hard work and a reasonable amount oftalent can work wonders.

Papel' Anima tionOne of the most inexpensive ways to

make two-dimensional an imated f ilms

Left : Flgul'e. "4 .how••

• Imple. w.,J of co_ tn . « ·In a an anlmIiuoa boIar.dIwith moveable peg• . The.

peg . . . . mounted on a. trlp of woo4 u..t sUd_In a groove.. The . t r l p "le ve.l with the ala..• urf.ee. .

Left: Fig ..... ~ show. analte.rDllte. method of eo a '. tn.ctlna moveable. peg •Th e . trlp tha t the. peg. . . . mounte.d oa .Ude. be ·tw_ a tWD othe.1' stripe

wblch ar e mounted above.

the board . 0 .... 1. l 'aIA" .

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( ~ s i d e from cut-outs) is with the use of

drawings on ordinary paper. While thismethod cen never compete with thequali ty of acetate eels, interesting thingscen be done with peper and li t only a frac·tion of the cost. However, there is one obvious disadvantage. i f you desire

backgrounds, they must be drewn on the

same sheet as your enimated charactersClnd just 0$ often. This neceuitates a

simplicity in the style of the artwor1< , at

least for the backgrounds.If you use ordln.!!lry typewriter paper,you will have to punch the registrationholes yourself. If you can find it, sdIool

notebook peper (without th e r u l ~ lines)Is even better since it's already punched.By lighting the animation board frombehind, you can see through severalsheets of paper to check the differentpositions of your characters in relation to

each other.

The actual rendering of the drawingsshould be done in ink-pencil lines aregenerally too faint. Felt·tip pens are es·

pedally good for this. Coloring thecharacters can be achieved with coloredpend s, felt·tips or even crayons, Acrylic

pilint works extremely well. producingbold. bright colors. You can use water·colors. but they have the tendency to

slightly wrinkle the [ll'IPf"r. Pladng asheet of glass on top of the drawings duro

ing shooting helps to eliminate Ihissomewhat, but it still can be noticeable insomece5es.Thiswrinklingfrom drawingto drawing cllln b4! quite distracting. Of

course, in some CIllse5, this may be just

what you wlllnt. As far as the use of thecolors themselves, most animators wantto maintain a consistency from drawingto drawing in tone and intensity. Whenusing colored pend s or cr!llyons. this isnot too difficult. Getting !II smooth, even

Right : One wa y to c r_ t e ce.I·llke

effects with typewrl ter . , .per hi tocut out around the characters sotha t the Hckgrounds show through.A strip of JNoper muat connect thecharacter with the pegs. Below: Asimilar method. Is to use a paper

overla,. with an animated drawing

prolnlding through. Both overlayan d drawing must be registered.

o

o o

o

tone over a large area with felt·tips, onthe other hand, Is not as easy.

ee l AnimationThe use of acetate cels is the most s0-

phisticated form of two·dimensional ani·mation.lt is also the mostexpensive. Thecost of acetate. like everything else, hasrisen sharply in the last few years. Oneway for the amateur 10 cu i down on thecost, bu t still enjoy the advantages of

acetate. Is to make his own cels. Reportcovers or document protectors, evailableat most office·supply stores, can be usedto make your own ecetate cells. Thesetransparent sheets can be found in thesame thickness as professional cels.They come folded, usually with a paperinsert. By cutting this sheet in half andpunching registration holes to conform

to the pegs on your animation board, youhave a reasonable fecsimile of a profes·

figure -6

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sional cel.In using this technique, the drawings

are first made on paper, and then shot bythemselves to determ ine the smooth-ness and plIce of the &ctlon. If the "penciltest" ls satlsfltctory, the drawings can bet raced on the acetate wi th India ink or artmarkers. Not all art markers or felt· t lpswork well on lIeetate. "Design" and"Sharpie" afe two of th l!! better ones, andboth come In 8 wide selection of colors.

Ca re should be used in handling the eels.Keep them clean of fingerprints andscratches. Edit ing gloves are anothergood Idea.

The next step is to co lor the individualdrawings, a step known as opaquing.Here, co lor is added to the backs of theeels. Perhaps the bestpaintsforthe llrTlll 'teur to use are acrylics, which come in avariety of hues, 8re w.!lter·repellent,won'tcrack and dry quickly.

/

flgu .. #8

One point to consider when usingseveral layers of cels is their combineddensity. While three, four or even fivecellevels won't significantly change the lookof the baCkgrounds, changing thenumber of levels during the shot will benoticed. Thereforl!!, it is advisable to usethe same number of cels for each ex·posure throughout the en t ire shot, evenif t means using blank cels.!lt one time oranother.

Tr.clng-P.per Anlm.tlonOne disadvantage to cl!!l animation,

aside from the cost, Is the extra steps in·volved in tracing the drawings onto eels.This one aspect can be extremely time·consuming. While certainly not up toacetate standards. the use of translucent,artist's tracing po!Iper can also prove use -ful in many situations. As it is withtypewriter paper, you don't have the ex·

tra step of tracing your origi nal drawings.On the other hand, unlike t)'pl!!writerpaper, tr&eing paper Is so th in that if thebackgrounds are li t from behind, theybecome almost as visible as If .seen

through a clear eel. This means, of

course, that the backgrounds must bepainted or drawn on paper instead of

something thick and tota l ly opaque such.!IS illustration boord. Unfortunately, inmost cases you won't wa nt to use more

than one sheet of tracing paper at a timebecause the bKkgrounds will becomehazy and difficult to.see.

Just as with acetate cels, tracing paperwill have to be opaqued on the back withpaint. White acrylic paint isappl ied tothe

characters on the back of the tracingpaper so that the background 110111 not

show through the drawing. Be sure thePlIlnt doesn't wrinkle the paper, whIchmay be hard to avoid, especially If the

IIi

Clockwl_ from top left : This home ·bullt, muiUp l.necl _lnw ·tlon stanclls fol' c. . . . ln g Ute Wuslon of depth . T he d .. .w ....g vfUte multl.pl.ned sancl sbows tbe Ugbt N t-up fo r _ eb p18ne.b eb pl.ne muat be Ut _pante l18Dd tbellgbts must be flagled.

to prevent b.ekllgbtlng and p r e . nota the reglstntlon pegson each plane . Bottom leftl The c .men. l a pt.c:e.l behbwI. b18d1:m.sk to pnllV_t It frollll being . . .nected In the highly reflectiveeels _ d g l _ . u.sed In ualnwatlon. Csme . . . . . lec:tlvD CUI ru in .fUm ,

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


are:a to be: opaque:<:! is large:. Whe:n the:drawings are: photographed a she:e:t of

glass will help keep the:m nat.Different varia t ions of these tech·

nlq ues are only limited by your imagination. Often the: best results are achievedwhen two or more methodsare combined.

One way to achieve: cel·like: effectswith typewriter paper is to cut oul thearea around the characters. In this man·ner, the backgrounds will be plalnlyv lsi.bie. Of course, this technique, ltkeell the

others. has its limitations. A strip ofpaper must connect the character withthe: pegs (Figure 6). A similar methodwould be to use a paper ove:r lay with theanimated drawing protruding through it

(Figure: 7).It Is possible to carefully cut out your

characters and mount them onto celswith rubber cement. With this procedure

you sti ll have the expense of acetate, but

figure " 10

A

Once you 've anlmllt.ed yourchlincter Into a atat lonuypoSWOD. you don' t hlive tod o . HlDderiDg of th e en t ln

character for eacb frame .You can _p. ra t e the rDOYiDg

frorD th e nOD' moving pan.and pu t them OIl dJrrerent

eels. Since only the a nn s _d

th e mouth of th e s iDger and

tb e Dote move , you u n keepthe Ame eel for the HI. t ofthe ~ c t e r Animaote on lymovlDg )NUts .

you eliminate the laborious tracingprocess.

TheeameraA word should be said at this point

about mounting the camera. You cansimply put it on e tripod positioned overyour animation board. Thi s is only satisfactory until the first time you accidental·ly bump it and ruin the shot. A much better solution Is to use e copy stand or aheavy·duty photo enlllrge:r equipped

with a ve rt ical column . You can build IIstand out of wood or pipe,but be sure it sperfectly rigid.

With the camera securely mounted'and iights placed on either side: of the art·work, you are re:ady to shoot. However. afew minor de tails remain: Because youuse a sheet of glass to hold the drawingsnat during exposure, you will need ashadow board between the camera and

the: art toelimJnate unwanted refiections.This is e:speda lly true if you use ace:tateeels. illustration board painted fiat blackshould do the trick (Figure 8).

A cable: re:lease is another good invest·ment. This helps preve:nt accidentll lbumping of the camera during shooting.

One final Idea to consider Is a multi·plane rig. Developed by Walt Disney Stu·dlos in the 19305, the mul ti-plane: ca ryl 'era Is simply 1m cl1ima tion stand withseve ralleveJs of glass between the cam,

era and the: base (Figure 9), Each levelshould have Its own set of registrationpegs, but If only a static piece of art Isused on these levels, theywon I be neces·sary. The efFectiveness of th is device isrealized whe:n the camera tr&Cks up or

down (zooming doe:s not have the: same:

effect ). Since each leve l should be indl·vidually li t and the /lmoun! of artwork ismultip lied by the number of levels, use of

B

cON£M.A.OIC"7 J J

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


the multi.plane is both time·consumingand expensive. Also, to be really effective, it must be quite large: the two rigsthat Disney Studios have today are bothmore thah 14 feet tall. Only the most ambitious lImateur should undertake something llke this.

Whether you keep your /lnimalionsimple or go /Ill out, some written notation should be used. Again, this can be as

simple or as elaborate as your needs dic·tate. Even with the least compliclltedfilm you will have to number your draw·ings in the order you want them shot. Incel animation, with different cel levelsand backgrounds, this can get quite in·volved-especially with "holds" and cy.

cles." Use of an exposure sheet helps theanimator keep track of all these differentelements. An exposure sheet is simply awritten breakdown of the film, shot by

shot, frame by frame, guIding the ani-

mator in preparing the drawings andshooting them in proper order.

You don't need to make one drawingper frame of film. By "shooting in twos,"you can cut the work in half. Some ani ·mators use three frllmes per drawing,with good results. Any more than three,however, the movement begins to look

too jumpy.

Another shortcut is to use cycles andhold drawings. Simply put, cycles are aseries of drawings that repeat an actionover and over. A running cycle is a good

example. If you are animating a character in an eight-cycle run, you need only

eight drawings. By making the last draw·ing "flow into" the first, the run cancontinue indefinitely.

A "hold drawing" (or hold cel)issimply

a single drawing filmed for more than theusual number of frames. By animating acharacter into a "pose" and then holding

Right: After the c ......cter. . . . been traced on.to theeel, you ca n color In theoutlined fonn wltb .cryllc. , . lnt. The eel. ar e I:oloredfrom. behlnd .o that theblack l ine. of thec . . . acter ' . fonn are notcovered by the paint.Acrylic. work be. t beeau_of their .hor t drying time,th e w.y they apply to theeel. and their deIUllty.

Other type. of paint don' t

work • • well.

12 ONEMAG/C"7

that drawing for several frames beforebeginning movement again, you cansave a lo t of time and work. If you're

working in lIcetate, this technique canhave even wider use. If, for instance, you

draw a character singing and moving hisarms about, there is noneed to render thefull figure for each frame of film. Figure10 shows the hold cel lind the cel thatcontains the parts that actual ly have to beanimated.

When animating with typewriter pa.per, make two hold drawings for eachpose. While the ink outlines of your characters will be consistent in width and intensity from drawing to drawing, this isnot likely the case with the color. If

you've used pencils, felt·tips or crayons,there is bound to be subtle inconsisten·cies from one drawing to the next. This initself is no t objectionable. However,when you hold one drawing for any

Left: The ouUlae o f .character b tn.c:ed. onto aeel from a pencH drawing.

Regular nolaboolr. peperw o m . well becauae of auprepunched hole•• Th eeel .. beld In place during

lI"IIcing b,. th e 'I.. .. dowel.that also secure thenotebook paper. The

dowels later _ rve ..regl.tn.tloD pegs. Thla eelIs made from a repor tcover and Is cb_pe.r than

Mylar cels made for ani·

matora.

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


length of time, it becomes <!Ipparent. Thecolor change from one drawing to anoth·er " freezes" for the duration of the hold.This can be quite noticeable. You can

prevent this by making two hold draw·ings, alternating back and forth, shoot·ing each two frames at a time.

Al l of the methods described in this ar·t icle can be used singly or In combina·tion. All have thei r advantages and disad·vo ntoges. Becouse of the costs involved,all are compromises in one way or anoth·

er. However, all three are successful ingetting <!In cmimated image on thescreen. But these techniques alone can'ttell the filmmaker when or why to usethem in the first place. The ideas behindthe film will always be more important

than the method of filming. And thoseideas will invariably be the least expen·sive element of production. An imagina.tive story with interesting characters will

always Involve the audience more thantechnical virtuosity.

Two·dimensional animation can ac·complish many things for the amateur.

Everything from simple titles to com ·plete animated "productions" is possi·ble. Al l too often animation finds itselfbeing used asa "gimmick" instead of thecinematic storytelling art that it is.Animated films are capable of express·ing complex ideos, emotions ond stote·ments. As it is, fully 90 percent of the pro·

fessional animated films made todaynever rise above the level of simple car·toons. "Cute" cha racters chasing eachother is about all that most of these films

offer. It is hoped that the amateur film maker, even though he has a smallerbudget and generally works alone, canuse animation on a higher level thanmany of today's simple·minded "profes·sional" films. (J I

"

Coloring In . b.ckground cel. a .ckground. c;an be done onw.tercolor p,8per and colored In with w.tercolor. or .cryUc __h.

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7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


I2ROFILE

Damon

Santostephano:

A FUmmaker on the Rise

Damon Santostefano. a 2Q-year·old filmmakerftom New YorkCity. is currently directing an

industriaVdocumentaryfortheNew York Harbor Development Corporation. He is making the film while attendingc l l l ~ ~ ot New York Univel"$ity's Dep!lrt·

ment of Film. The N.Y. Harbor Development Corp. approached one of Damon'sprofessors. George Stoney, in sea rch of

someone to make II film about theirgroup. Stoney suggested that students be

given a chemce to prove themselves on aprofessional project.

Perhaps it is unusual for a 20·year·oldstudent to be directing a professionalfilm-certainly none of the other studentswanted the responsibility. There is a prov

erb that is appropriate for this lucky break- "Who dares, wins." Though success isguaranteed to noone, Santostefano daredto take the directorial challenge , Besides

looking impressive on his resume, theexperience has more to do with Santostefano's courage and ambition than with alucky break,

By JOHN CLAYTON

Damon Santostefaoo made his firstfilm when he was 13 and has been going

strong since, Nowa uniorat N,Y,U, hecreated RoulJkx. 0.M,F. when he was II sophomore. The film cost $) ,000 to make andwas financed by Santostefllno's fllther,&!bc$tiono, 0 psy<::hologist in the Boston

area, and who also etcted 115 Roublex 's

voice.Santostefaoo 's early films were clay

animation stories shot in Super-S without

sound. This genre attracted him becllUse

of its low production costs and because itcan be ao:omplished by a one-man pro

duction company. He feels that clllYanimation is an expreSlOive medium thatallows an artis t the freedom to create true

art without going broke in the process,The next step in Santostefaoo 'sgrowth

as a filmmaker was to add sound to hisproductions and write scripts for his ac·tors-who by this time were humans in·stead of day characters. Stop-moUon ani ·mation of models Illso figured Into hisSuper-S sound productions, which wereinterspJiced with live·action scenesllsspe-

\;Damon Santoa-teranoc.. . . . . . . lh e

• boot lngorBrooklyn st reet.c.enes ""Ith CarlBellavla, Uaednematog -npbe r fo r Uaeln d .. . rLal / doc.-umenta" . rUmthat Damon I .

directing ,

Damon I .

boldlng tbe

camera, an A.nl·Flex 16SR,

d ll l·e ffects sequences in order to add agreater cinematic scope to his films.

It became apparent to Santostefaoothat he was destined to become a filmmaker, a goal he actively pursuedthroughout high school by mak ing filmswith his friends,

NYU was Santostefaoo's natural choicefor a film school ; if s the largest and

one of the most reputable in the world,While a freshman, Santostefano beganprooucing 16mm films. A course entitled

"Sight and Sound" provided him withboth the proper atmosphere and the facilities to make nine short films in one yearschool-the required curriculum fo r thecourse,

"The films are all three minutes l ong -

six are si lent and th ree are sound," Damon

explains, "I've already made 10 16mm

films of my own, worked on four short

films done by other NYU students and twofeature· ength films,

"I got the idea for Roublex o.M,F. onenight while sitting around with somefriends and thinking that it would bea perfect film for my junior project. I immedi

ately sttlrted storyboarding it and writingthe dialogue-getting the whole project

together

R o u b I . e x h a s a running timeof ust over

14 minutes and is filmed in black andwhite. My father put up th e money to produce the film and acted as the voice of

Roublex.lwanted the robot to sound likea

machine and not have any human inflec·tions In Its voice, so I had my father sayRoub's (Roublex's nickname) lines sepa·rately from the live action, which comprisesall of the scenes in the film, J ecord

ed my father saying Raub's lines in reverseword order. For example, 'Alex morning

good: as I had my father say the line, was

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


reassembled through tedious tape editingto become 'Good morning. Ale:< in thefinished film. This made Roub's speechsound like It was made up of prerecordedwords drawn in proper sequence-but

with random order of nflect i on- from thememory bank of an unfeeling, prepro.grammed computer electronicall y capa·ble of conversational speech by drawingwords from its memory bank in whateversequence they might be needed to com ·pose a sentence. This technique effective

ly removed any qualit y of human intelli·gence-lIS would be evidenced by logicalinflection plIUems-from Roub's voice ."Roub's voice is actually quite soothingand the robot ]sconstantly repeating com·forting sta tements like: "Calm down,everything is under control."The film is a morality statement, set in

the noHoo-distant future, about ho ... thehuman character may become weakenedand overly dependent by al lowing robotsto do all of our mental work. Roublex'svoice is a strikingly credible effect thatenhances the film with an aura of realityworth every bit of Santostef,mo's effort to

achieve the film 's professional results.There lire three charllcters in the film:

Alex, Roublex'sowner and master; Lenny,Alex's friend; and, of course, Roublex.Alex hlls grown d ~ e n t on Roub to

wait on him hand and foot. One of mil·lions who own a Roublex, Alex representsa vast cross·section of society that findsitself addicted to robot servants.

Lenny i5 Alex's best friend. Lenny I I

concerned that Alex is lOSing his strengthof character by leaning so heavily on Rou ·blex to dOlll1 of his housework. LennybetsAlex $25 that Alex can't fend for himselffor one full day without Roub's help. The

bet is on-l ind we can see thllt Alex is hav·ing trouble with such simple daily banal·ities as dressing himself In the morningwithout Roub's help.

Lenny, one of the few people who doesnot own 1I RoubIexO.M.F. , is Ideologicallyopposed to having robot servllnts. He hasa very strong character. He is llS rare in hisfuture society as the person today whodoes not own a television set. In fact, thereis a TV commercial for Roublex in thefilm-which is the device that San ·tostefano uses to make his audienceaware that Roublex Is a common

household item.The commercial appears

at the beginning lind end of the film .Sen·tostefano filmed the commercial, editedit, transferred It tovideotepe and re·filmedit of f 1I dosed·circuit pillyback monitor inorder to incorporate i t into his f i lm-l Inother exomple of the effort put in to the

film to DChieve credibility, The slogan inthe ad for Roublex is: "Sure, you can Jive

without 1I Roublex O.M.F.-but whyshould you?"

During the course of the story, Lennysteals Roublex from Alex to prove thatAlex Cen't function without it. Ironically,Lenny too becomes addicted to the comforts thllt Roub provides. A practical joke

thus converts Lenny into another

lethargic robot junkie. This entire com·

plex story is developed and told in thecourse of the film's l4 -minute runningtime.

It took one year of planning, story ·boarding lind scriptwriting to make

RoubIex.o.M.F. This is not to say that San·tostefano put In 40·hour weeks workingon the production for a whole year, bu t thestory was on his mind a grellt deal of thetime. He would, for instanc:e, jo t down anynew ideas he had for the film during thecourse of a given day.

'The film took six days to shoot," Santostefano remembers. '"The lIctors in thefilm , Richllrd Stack as Alex, lind Steve

Dolan liS Lenny. are professional actorslind belong to the Screen Actors Guild(SAG). NYU has an agreement with SAGto let SAG actors work on NYU studentfilm projects without pay in exchange forthe exposure and 1I copy of the finishedfilm.

Roublex cost $J,()(X) to produce. Mostof the money Wllsspenton film lind devel·oping (the talent was free.) This fig!-lre maysound a tittle high to some young film·makers. but actually this budget is not ex·travagant for 1I 16mm sound film of al·most 15 minutes running time. Sentoste·fano had to make concessions to his bud·

get in order to maintain the J·to-l shoqt··ing ratio needed to properly edit the fin·ished film.

"Among the concessions i had to makewas to shoot the film in black lind white.This saved a c:onsiderable amount nf

money. Most labs don't develop black·and·white film anymore, but I had the

' good fortune of making my film at thesame time that Woody Allen was makingManhaUan-so I broughtmy exposed film

over toGuffanti Labsand had it developedwith Allen's negative."

Santostefano designed lind built Rou blex himself-and the robot is more inno·

vlltive and looks more lIuthentic than

Roubln hovenover LenDJ ..Lenny becom___ l&edity

hI. TV Mit . Len ·ny' . characterg__ hrough a

do. t l c change

durlag th e abor tfilm. Roublex'.IlOOthlng .tllte ·ment, "Relax.L e D n y . e v e ~ g 't . under con·....01." cau...Lenny toloMlal l motlv.tlonto do thing. fo rh im_ i t an d bebecome. Ilk., aUof h i. contem-pora r l e . -weak

and In) '.

most of the robots that have come out of

Hollywood. Roub Is no t an android robot:there's no reason for arobot to resemble ahuman in order to function properly.Roubiex controls objects by exerting amagnetic field on them-so it doesn'tneed arms to lift things. Roublex floats byexerting a reverse magnetic field under

. neath i tself-it has no use for legs. Thisdesign is a departure from the standardconcept of what a mbot should look like

(according to Hollywood depictions of

robots in science·flCtion movies). Ifs

Roub's novel design that captivates theImagination of the viewer and makes him

feel that Roublex is perhaps a relll robot

devoid of extraneous embellishmentsthat Hollywood prop masters love to tackon for "added effect. There are no visiblewires to remind the viewer that the robot isbeing controled by human hands lind thatRoublex is really just a prop In the film.

Roublex cost "between $ I50 lind $200to build, including 1I11 of the support sys-tems we needed to make him lIppear to

float in the film :' according to Santoste·fano. This price Is far below the cost in·volved in creating robots for Hollywoodproductions-somewhich use robots thatlire far less convincing than Roublex.

Roublex's floating system was also de-

signed by Santostefano. The device re-sembles a modified microphone boom,allowing Santostefano to control all of

Roublex's movements from an of f cameraposition. Roublex can move ina largearchhy swinging the boom·scounter·weightedarm .The arches appear as straight lines inthe film. Roublex can also rotate in place.There were some shots where the boomwould have been visible, SO Santostefano1Iiso constructed a support that pluggedinto the bottom of Roublex and kept thecamera angle high enough to crop out thesupport as he crawled around and maneuvered the robot from below the came ra

vision.

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


He went to a great deal of trouble toachieve the sound effects of Roublex mov·ing about. The robot emits a low fre·quency hum called "system noise." Thereare several different frequencies of thissystem noise-one for each of Roublex'sdifferent movements.

"I used over a thousand feet of magnet·ic tape to record Roublex's system noise."the young filmmaker explains. ''There arefour basic system noises that [ had to cre·ate for the robot's movements: a steadyhum for hovering. a humming sound thatincreases in pitch for when Roub starts upfrom a hovering start, a higher·pitchedhum for when Raub is moving around the

apartment and, finally, a humming noisethat decreases in frequency to the steady·hover hum for when the robot slows downto a hovering stop. I created these soundson an electronic synthesizer by using atechnique called frequency modulation. Ihad to make 30 start noises and 30 stopnoises on the effects tape. I used the sametape for the hovering noises-repeating

the cycle as necessary. The sound mix forRoublex cost $500."

Roublex appears to defy gravity in thefilm, much the sameas the robot, Vincent,did in Disney's The Black Hole-onlyRou·blex was made before The Black Hole andyou can't see the wires that supportRoublex as you could in the Disney film.Again. a great deal of planning and workwas necessary to conceal the wires thatsupported Roublex and give the illusionthat the robot could float through the air.

"We had to paint the wires to match thebackgrounds so that you wouldn't be ableto see them in the film. Since we wereworking in black and white. we only had tomatch the gray tones of the backgrounds

and not the colors themselves. We alsoused flags-also known as barn doors

on our lights so that we could control thelight to hit the robot but not the wiresabove it. We tried to use a lo t of whitebackgrounds and black backgrounds sothat we could simply paint the wires eitherwhite or black, depending on the back·ground."

Santostefano controled Roublex's

movements during the shooting of thefilm and said Roublex's lines off·cameraso that the actorscould carry on their con·versations with the robot with properlytimed cues. The film's cinematographer,

Richard Friedlander, did all of the actualcamera work. Santostefano later dubbed·

in the tediously edited tape of his fatherplaying the voice of Roublex. In the end,the film earned Santostefano an "A" for

his junior project.The industriaVdocumentary that San·

tostefano is presently working on has to

do with plans to rehabilitate the Brooklynwaterfront. The film is in color and is to

have a running time of 15 minutes and iscur rently budgeted at $16,500. The pro·duction company is made up of studentsand graduates from NYU's film schooLMuch of the footage is to be aerial shots of

16 C/NEMAG1C"7

Brooklyn's waterfront, so Santostefanohas recently been flying around New YorkCity in ahelicopter provided by the HarborDevelopment Corporation and filmingtest shots of the waterfront from the air.This certainly sounds exciting-but it isalso hard work for this ambitious youngfilmmaker because his reputation is onthe line. He's determined to prove that he

is a professional equal to the task he hasundertaken, The first footage that wascompleted on the new project consists of

on-location shots of community life inGreenpoint, Brooklyn-the area that theHarbor Development Corporation is con·cerned with. Footage of the community

life includes interviews with area res-

idents, shots of a church service lettingout, street scenes and footage inside theoffice of an architectural concern thatplays a role in the film.

Santostefano shot the Brooklyn streetscenes with the help of an Arri Stabilization Unit -a new device designed by Arri·flex that steadies camera movement. "Weneeded some sort of device tliat would

steady the camera as we dollied down thepothole-ridden streets of Brooklyn. Wemounted the Arri Stabilizat ion Unit on topof a station wagon and got great results.The Arri unit is a new prototype and thereare on ly five of them in the world at this

point. We were lucky enough to obtain theuse of one through a Manhattan·basedequipment rental company. The Arri unit

has a small gyroscope that helps steadythe camera image through a sophisticat·ed arrangement of mirrors that compen·sate for any camera tracking errors on thecinematographer's part.

"We're going to shoot one fuJI day of

aerials of the New York Harbor. We're go·ing to use the Continenta l HelicopterStabilization System to keep the camerasteady during this shoot. Thisstabilizationsystem is the only mount of its kind on theeast coast-it is available exclUSively

Steve Dolan , whopl .y . Lenny In

Roubk.¥ O.ltf.F.is Menhel'\lllwith Roublex. f te rhe . . . .stolen the robotfrom A.le • • Roub -le . Is holdingLenny's antique

music bo . th . tpl .y. a piece byChopin , the ra m-ou . compo_r of

the nineteenthcentury. Lenny

dla.covera thatRoublex hils bet-ter taate Inmus ic th.n Alex.Lennyeventu.lIy. uccumbs to thetemptation toown hl s ownRoublex unit .

through Island Helicopter in Garden City,Long Island. The mount costs $300 a dayto rent. We were fortunate enough to be

able to reserve the use of it for one day of

shooting. Because of the high demand forit, we had to schedule it far in advance to

be able to get the use of It."We're shooting the film for the Harbor

Development Corporation on about a 10

to I shooting ratio. We're going to need10,000 feet of film to complete it. At pre·sent prices we're going to spend aboutS16,sao to make thefilm, which will havea running time of 15 minutes after wefinish cutting it."

Santostefano has been so busyshooting the film for the New York Harbor

Development Corp, that he hasn't beenable to attend his classes at NYU recently."My professors understand that I'm busymaking the film, bul l'm stil l responsiblefor my regular load of school work. Theytell metodothe bestlcan.l'mgettingfour

academic credits for making the film andI'm going to have to do some catching upon my school work when we're finishedshooting the film:'

Among Santostefano's courses thissemester is "Documentary Workshop."

When he's finished shooting the industri·aVdocumentary film he'll go back to

studying the very thing he's been doing in

a professional sphere, He's also taking II

cour5e entitled "Developing the

Screenplay." His professor for the lattercourse is Venerable Herndon, who wrote

the screenplay for A/k:e's Res/aurant. Santostefano also has two non· film courses:Renaissance Art and PoJiticO!lI Theory.

Becoming a success in the competitivefield of filmmaking requires talent, ambition and lots of hard work. Damon Santostefano has all of the qualities. With apinch of luck he'll be one of the upcominggeneration of filmmakers that we' ll al l be

reading about in the not·too·distantfuture. (1 /

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


Filmmakers'

EORUMA I"lIgular depar tment d e voted to reade r s ' comm en ' " a bout filmm . ld n g , thei r proble m s a nd s olutions .

Hyperspace Titles

. . . While goofing around withJohn Cosentino's backw inding

technique, I found a way to addsome professional class to yourtilles. This Ie<:hnique is sim ilar to

Ihe ending ti t les in Buck Rogers inlhe 25th CenIIUY. It's a reilltivelysimple tech nique compare<! to

othe rs in th is magazine. First, get

a poster board and poke somesma ll holes in it with a pin or n(liland then backlight ii-that 's the

easy part. Now for the hard part.Film the poster board for about

30 seconds and go into yourdarkroom Hnd backwind (forthose of you who are more

privileged, take ou t your Cravenand backwind). Next, film your

SUlfS from another angle, but this

time zoom in. This will add amoving effect to the stars. Repeatthe last two steps, speeding up

the loom as you go along. When

you've done about e v ~ n ex·posures (the number I use). film

your production company's name(13 you :r.lowly l oom in. Til., fill",1

effect will be stars zooming past(like in a hyperspace shot) withyour production company's namemoving forward from thebackground.

Ben Jones

56 17 Trooj>erLas Vegas, NV 89120

Zooming through star fields seems

10 be becoming a standard effecl. It

might be interesting fo r someone 10

calculate what speed would really

be necessary fo r a crd/llrlUJeling

through a star cluster to actuallywilness the effect. Incidentally.many ofou r reader's have fOUfld

th e Oaven backwinder to be a

much higher quality product than

the EWA backwinder. &xii ilemsare available from HaJmar Enter·

prises; se £ their ad in CINEMAG/CM a r l r e l p l a ~ .

Warp Drive. . . The electronics system youdescribe in CINEMAGIC '"4 is alsovery useful for warp-drive enAinesfor the AMT (old version) Enter·pri5e model. This identical systemis available from Paul M. Newitt"scompany at 5035 Swingle Dr.,Davis, CA 95616. The ki t form isno longer available and theprebu ilts sell for approxima tely$225.

John Potter

Rt. 2, Box 479-A

Honea Path , SC 29654

~ l n l a t u r e s t v . n t e d ~ e ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ F ~ ~ ~ e : ! ~ g ! ~ ~ ____ T ~ = = ~ : :We need miniatures for our film, rS/aTRaiders. We are holding acontest for people who want to

make miniatures for our movie,We need four ships: the 5.5.Omega: the Dark Raider; theGargoyle Base Ship and the Ark

7. Anyone who is interested inbuilding a miniature for our film

can submit one or as many as

you like. We will use the four bestentries in our film. Your work willbe c;edited and all models not us·ed .... ill be returned, We ap-

preciate all entries.

Ga rden State Productions1032 Prospect St.

Westfield, NJ 07090

Newsstand Sales?. . . n your ads for ClNEMAGIC,you advertised (when I ordered asubscription) and still do adver·tise, "Not on newsstands!" ' Butthat must not include bookstoreswith magazine racks- becauseIhat"3 where I found it. I 3incerelyhope that they are there without

your permission. or I shall feelIlke I have been "ha d" by an adcampaign designed to sellsubscriptions before the

magazine goes public. As I men·

tioned before. I do enjoy yourmagazine and I will con tinue to

buy it even if you are sellingCINEMAGIC in bookstores.

Roger W. Perkovich1423 Sooth 81st St., Apt. '"30

West Allis, WI 53214

Your are correct. Newsstand

distribution is no l the same as

books tore sa.les. ClNEMAG/C is

IIvallabie through 11 few speciallyshop dealers in the United States

an d the United Kingdom. II is a/sa

sold through the larger Walden'sBooks slores. II is nol, however,distributed nationally through

newssland dealers as are

STARLOO. FUrURE UFE an d

FANa:JRJ..O..

•• • J thought you might like tosee the end result of CINEMAGIC'"4 's article on building a wireanimation model. It began as

something resembling a spiderand ended up as something anyALIEN fan should be able to

recognize. It WllS built by follow·ing the article, except for a fewsmall changes . For instance,

Anyone who wants a copy of the

details for this technique cansend II. S.A.S.E. to my addressand I'll send you one-free of

charge. Also. I own one of thenow discontinued Elmo C·200cameras. with interchangeableSingle or Super·8 backs. ! wouldlike to hear from anyone who cantell me where I can purchase aSingle·8 back so that rcan pu t

this marvelous method to use.

Dale Schoeck2210 E. Hwy. 190

Copperas Cove, TX 76522

Painting Spaceships••• 1recently constructed amodel spaceship for a SFX shot.The following is a description of

BackwlndlngTechnique

1- --- - - - - - - -- -1ts construction. First, decide howyou want to suspend your modelin s ~ c e during filming. In this

.. In tn earlier issue you placed l!I

spot III Filmmakers' Forum con·cerning Gerald Genco's method

of reloading Single·8 cartridgeswith Super·8 film. I have been intouch with Mr. Genco and he hasshown me II. truly ingeniousmethod for doing this-al lowingfor unlimited backwinding of he

film for multiple exposures.

case rused a horizontal rodstretching from the center of themodel into the black back·ground. The ship itself maskedthe rod. The model was piecedtogether on II plastic hot·rodframe. Additional detailing wasadded from other model kits.When you lire satisfied with theresults, prime the model with acoat of white paint. When dry

thanks to my huge budget, it wa scolored by mixing food colori nginto the latex-although I haven'tmatched the color all the wayaround yet. " I I I know is it cansure liven up a dull party.

rony Gardner3415 W. Oxford OvalNorth Olmsted, OH 4407 0

(working one section at a time),

apply dots of color to the detai l.Before the paint dries, wash it

over with a clean brush dipped inthinner. The resu lt ing faded col·ors can make the ship look

damaged or weather beaten.Carl Paolino53-12 1 63 St.Maspeth, N.Y 1 137 8

Moon M ix. . . Being a Space: 1999 fan , J

found it ne<:essary to make II

rea listic Moon surface suitable forclose·ups for one of my produc·tions. I feel the most economical

and realistic is a mixture ofcrushed charcoal bri quettes andwhite flour. First, crush the charcoal into a fine powder with ahammer. This can be done undera piece of burillp to minimize themess. Si lt the powder through ascreen to remove the largechunks. The chunks can be add·ed later to simulate Moon rocks.Now mix the charcoal with theflour until yO ll get the desiredshade. Be wary- th is mixture is

very messy!Tom LautenP.O. Box 87 8

New Paltz, NY 12561

ClNEMAGIC '"7 / 7

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]. "Yeah, /'ue seen some of that . . . like Mr. BiI/,right?"

2. "Oh ... you do cartoons like 'Gumby ', huh?"

3. "You mean you animate poltery?"

These are the three most commo n responses we get when wetry to explain what kind of

movies we make. "We" are Will

Vinton Productions, end we make clay.animated movies. 04ymatlon mov ies , to

be more prec ise.I'm the production manager for WII Vin

ton Productions, and I'm here to tell youhow we make Claymation movies-

specifically, how we made The lJJtJePrinceandF_

But first , II little history. You allr e ~ m b e r Oosa:t ~ right? ThethelItricel short which won an Academy

Award back In 75 ? Well. that was Will Vin·ton 's first bonafide clay-animated film.which was c o < ~ t e d by Bob Gardiner.Bob went on to create I n d ~ n d ~ t l y andWill proceeded to form Wil Vinton Pro-

ductions.WVP's first project was ell tM!etriCllI

short clIlled MounJ.ain Music. Then , btl

ween 1976 and 1979, they made threehalf-hour films: MMin the Cobbler. RipVan W!nkIeand The UtUe Prlnce Theylliiso

did e short documentary In '78 called

18 C!NEMAO/C" 7

Oayl1UJlion, plus two commercials(Rollinier Beer and Levi's) lind anothershortin '79 called Legacy.

At present we are completing two moreshorts, Dinosaur and pllJ(fon's Pyramid(cel·'!mimated) end we've begun yetenother: A Christmas Gilt

So where does The LIWe Prince IJfIdFriends fit In , you wonder? SImpIement:We took Rip Van WInkle , Oaymatk)n and

The UttJe Prince, bridged them togetherwith a moderation (by the esteemed

Alistair Cookie) and prestol Feature fUm !And it doesn't come of f lookingcontrived.

Audiences at the test opening in Seattle

found it qu ite cohesive end enjoyable.

Until the release of 1l.P6F in Decemberof ·79, each of the Hlms in the progfllmhad ba!n limited elmost entirely to non·theatrlcel exposure-schools , Ilbfllrles,festivels end some television-throughour distributor, Billy Budd Films of NewYork. But Rip had received an AcademyAw.mi nominat ion in '79 ,OaynuJ1lon hadbeen e consistent festivel winner lindcrowd pleaser I!lnd The Uttle Prince hadwon a grand prize in e&eh of Its first three

festival compet ition s (Plus a Silver Hugolit ChlclIgo), 50 it appeared that the threeshould really be given more exposurethen they were gettlng .. thus, the

feature-end the big leap into the

theatrical mllrket.While you can ge t some idea of how we

makeourfUms by watchingOaymalion, itdoesn't offer quite the whole picture. I'lltry to provide you with the whole pIcture,HIm by film, In order of their IIppellranceIn TI..P6F.

Rip Van "lalde

To begin with, we had e story writtenback in prehistory by this fellow named

Washington Irving. Naturally, we couldn'tI«ve the story the wily it was and expect aOreat Film to emerge, sowe had to tailor ita bit to suit our contempofllry storytellingsense. Susan Shadbume did these l'eenpley odopt.et1on end come up wlth

the perfect mix of humor,excitement and

suspense. (Susan also wrote the hulk of

the musk and all the song lyrics.)After the story adaptation came the

storyboard, a scene-by·scene blueprint of

the film. Our productions arealweys plen.ned almost to the ffllme, allow-ing very lit·tie mergin for error; the storyboard is vir·tually the Bible for production. Thisdoesn't m «n there·s no room for 1m·provlsatlon: creativity Is encoultlged lindwelcomed, if it will serve to enhance thefinished product.

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


Opposite page : Barry does root canal

on the cavem.-ala lAglK:JI. Abovela.J'I'}' aalmaUag. scene from n.. Ut·

,La PI'fne.. ft ote the froaW g bt 'hc:kl ight set ·up, white cyclorama

hel lgrouad.From the storyboard we go to set·

building and character construction,while simultaneously shooting andeditlng the live-action "reference film,"enessential guide to lip-sync enimation .Themanner In which we shoot the referencefilm is to position our cemera behind therecording booth window and film the actors es we tape them performing ~ i rvoices. We then transfer the L/. tape to16mm full<oet and edit the fllm andsound together, in effect creating e com·plete live-action fllm(minus music and ef·fects) before animation begins.

All of the actors, Incidentally, ere locelPortltmd, Oregon, people, with the exception of narrator Will Geer (GrendpeWalton). We've never had togo out of thearea to find "professionol" talent It'samezlng how much of it am be foundright In your own neighborhoodl

The sets In Rip are based on actualDutch erchltecture of the early 1800s

complete with stucco wells, stairstepplngfacades end multi·colored tile roofs.Anlmetor Don Merkt designed. and builtmost of the sets, using wood, cerdboardand cege wire predominately (coveredwith clay, of course)and little green lichen

bushes for the trees on the CatskilJ Moun·tain beckdrop. We rarely use mete rialsother then cley on our sets; the only timewe ellow it is when the mete riel won't callettention to itself. Plexiglass pelnted blue

on the underside makes e wonderfulpond, for example.

The characters were built by animatorBarry Bruce, lind If you see Rip you'llnotice whet e great veriety of charactersthere are in the cast. There are about 30,end each hes his own unique personellty. . . ettesting toen incredible Imaginationand skill. Barry builds his charectersusueJly over ball·end-socket steel er·matures, but In Rip, the large number ofcharacters made this Impractlcel, as eacheTlT\llture Is meticulously crefted andcosts lIbout $150. So completearmatureswere used only on the main characters.

Lesser characters were built on wire lindwood skeletons. Of course these poor"extrlls" weren't allowed much freedom ofmovement because their wire bones had atendency to poke throught the cley, when=V<d.

The specllli effects pl!mned for Ripnecessitated the constructing of somespeclaleppere.tus. Here's where we get in·to improvlsetion.

The key scene-the "Dream Se·q u e ~ " (Rip's famous 20-yeer snooze)-called for the matting of clay enimationwith reel time-Iepse clouds, Inltlelly, Itwllsdeduced thlIt the logical wey to ac·

complish this WliS with blue screen, thewey they did the matting In SIN WMSandClose EncounJ.ers. But upon closer ex·emination it appeared thllt blue screenwouldn't work wellet all; some of the cley

colof'S we used would diseppear in theprinting, and we 'd have to go ~ kthrough and paint In eech of those spotson eech freme of fllm where it occurred.That would be elmost like Te-anlmatingthe entire Ove-mlnute s e q u e ~ ! Not toolIppeliling.

The solution: a "Dreem Machine ." TheDream Machine Is essentielly just e glesseasel on e wooden fre.me, equipped wIthfrontlighting end backlighting, a solidwhite beckdrop underneeth and a 35mmcemera mounted seven feet above on

custom-extended tripod legs. Since weanimated primerily two-frame, Will

reasoned thet one fTllme of each twofreme se t could serve IlS the matte lmegefor the composltlng of the ~ k g r o u n dimage (time-ilipse clouds). Thus, ell wehed to do on eech two-freme movementwos shoot the Image on the glo53(frontllghted), then shoot II silhouette ofthe image ( ~ k l l g h t e d ) for the matte. Inall, there were epproxirnatedly 3,600 suchmllneuvers In the sequence, representingsome eight weeks of eight·hour·a-dayenimating. Zzzzzz.

Another s p e c [ e l a p p l l l r a t u s ~ used InRipwas 'Th e Horse," e gangly, long, wooden,vllrillble·height cemera mount equipped

ClNEMAG/C"7 19

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


with the world's longest worm ear for in,cremented truck· ns and outs. We use theHorse in place of zoom lenses to give thefeeling of actually moving through space,toward oraway from an object, ratherthanjust artificially making the object e.ppearcloser or more disient

There is e. kite scene in Rip that was in·credibly difficult to animate, mainlybecause of the number of different thingshappening in the scene and th e precariousbalance between them. A child In the

foreground lets go of the kite, the kitegoes up, three characters in thebackground wave and jump and cheer,the camera goes up with the kite (keepingthe background che.racters constantly in·"iew) and the kite moves left and right, upand down in sync with the music. The rigfor this scene was a pulley/counterweightsystem with the camera and kite suspen·sion frame mounted on one end e.nd fourcinder blocks hanging on the other. Thekite was hung from the frame by two verythin monofilament lines, which almost

disappeared against the dark maunieinbackdrop (don't look too closely):

whenever possible, we paint our lines thecolor of the backdrop to cancel themcompletely. We did have one reshoot onthis scene because of problems with themount, but other than that, luck was on

our side and it ci!lme out nicely.

The scenes with Rip running throughthe forest were animated by moving Rip Inplace and slid ing the trees In front of andbehind him, on slotted tracks. fore

ground trees were plywood forms bui lt upwith clay; distant ba<:kground trees wereplywood forms simply painted. The fore·ground trees were Incremented such thatthey would move slightly faster than the

background trees, complementing thefeeling of depth.

A scene In which Rip views his reflec·tion in a pond was aided by the use of"rip

pie glass," animated and optically printedwith a " reflected" image of Rip's face, glv·Ing the illusion of rippling water. Seattle'sAlpha Cine Lab, incidentally, created thiseffect fo r us, In e.ddition to performing our

35mm optical work and release printing.If you remember the story of Rip Van

WInkle, you'll recall his meeting withHenry Hudson's mischievous little men.Rip 15 commanded by one of the men to

help push a keg of mysterious brew up

a wooded slope to the dearing where thelittle men dwell. We wanted to film thissection "point·of·view," from Rip 's

perspective as he approaches the clear·ing. Problem: The35mm Mitchell camerawas too big to be guided up the n;:IffOW,

tree· ined slope. Solution: Cut the entireset in half right up the middle of the path,and section it crosswise in chunks thatcould be removed as the camera progressed up through it. It workedl

In that same scene, there Is thunderondlightning occuring each time one of thelittle men makes a strike at nine-pins.Thelightning was creoted simply by opening

20 ONEMAG/C lt 7

The Little Prince hold. the hand of en errDllture of one of the other c1ulnc:te .. .

Don Merkt .mmatlng Rip V.a Winkle n ~ . : ' : ~ : : ; ' : ; ; : ~ i : : : " : : ~ , ~ y ! : :t lon rUm .. . MId on the c. . . . . .c:ter cr_ t ed by W• •blngtoa irving.

the camera aperture wide for two frames,dosing it back down for four frelmes andopening it up again for two.

We had a problem Which , fortunately,few people noticed. At the point where Riprides over the h ili on his horse·drawn cart,

the lights were positioned such that hisshadow appellrs on the sky backdrop.And near the end of the film , where Rip issinging to the once·miserly landlord,

Vanderdonk, the semi·trained eye mayspot II quick cover·up for 8 mistoke thotcould have been tragic: As the cameraslowly approaches the pair, it becomesever mo re apparent that someone forgotto paint the insidesof their mouths-Ieav·ing them white-then suddenly the over·sight is corrected. The viewer wonders if

he was just imagining things . .and this isfine with us .

So after all this and much, much more,

too detailed or too painful to recall, thepost·production phase began . . . which,of course, Involved the editing of theworkprint, thei!ldding of sound effects andmusic, the shooting oftitles, the conform·ing of the negative, the first I!Inswer print,

the timing corrections, thesecond answerprint, more timing corrections, th e third

answer print. , , e.nd, at long last, nearly ayear end a half after production began, areleaseprint. The first release print arrived(when else?) about 15 minutes before

showtlme at the official public premier.

Claym..t1oDWhat started out simply as an InfonTlll

tlonal documentary film, designed to an·swer some of the most common questions about ciaymotion, grew into some.thing quitea bi t more exciting-as we discovered what great fun It was to animate

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


without having to follow a rigid storyline.Dh ,we h8d a script togo by, of o u ~ butthere was plenty of room left within thescript for outrageous Improvisation. Butimprovisation,l n this Instance,should notbeconfusedwith "free fonn j" even our ad

libs were carefully planned to come outJust so . There's not much margin for erroron a tight budget.

The opening ofOaymatlonshows threemen (Will , Don and Barry) standingaround a street comer and "telekinetically" manipulating various objects (and

each other) in various incredible weys.This, naturally, demons trates the powerof

the animator over his subjects. The pointmakes Itself fairly clear until , suddenly,the three men are corraled by a fire hydrant and forced Into a phone booth,which In turn proceeds to eat them. Themen dissolve from view.

Now since et.Jef!iOOe has done(or knowshow to do)some kind of pixlllatlon, Iwon'twaste space explaining how the openingscene was done. But It is interesting to

note the effectiveness of this old tech·nique in getting leughs. ln limited doses It

can still creek the toughest crowd,From here the film progresses into a

short recounting of "how It all began," ini·tiated by a claybust of Will Vinton wearinga cley Mickey Mouse T-shirt. The detailhere in Will 's facial expressions is taken to

extremes---one can actually see his eyesmove behind closed eyelids duringmoments of thought.

Short film clips, live·action "in-production" shots, staged vignettes and SusanShadburne 's witty end wonderful narration tell the rest of the story, aided by an

occasional da y metamorphosis bit and

other special effects (an exploding da y

cigar, e time-lapse character constructionscene, an animal film crew directing ascene . . . ). N'one of this requires any special explanation as to how It was done

(other then to say "very carefully"), bu t it isworth confiding thai, right up until the

final edit, It just didn't eppeerthat the filmwould come together. All the pieces bythemselves were perfect, but they dldn'tseem to went to become plIrt of the same

picture.Df course, we could have released the

first "f inished" version of the film with Itsself-conscious, strained feeling of havingbeen assembled egainst its will, and pe0-

ple may have enjoyed it and learned a lotabout daymation. But the film had to

meet Will's uncompromising standerds,so It was recelled, re·edited, then released..Relief! The pie<:esweremadeto fit . . . i!lnd

boy, whet e fit. The response to Clayma·lion has been plIrticuierly gratifying, perhaps because we know whet It cooJd havebeen. The moral; Don't give up the ship.

The UtUe Prince

Are you ready for some technical jar

gon not yet defined in your Webster's?Well , this should meke Interesting read·lng, beceuse The LIUlePrinceWIlSOUT mosttechnlcelly advanced production to date,end It Is a real treat to wetch. You 've el·ready had the grand tour of our generalproduction procedures,so I'Uconcentrate

mainly on the special effects used in thisone and hope It suffices.

Starfields-both moving and stationery-were used extensively In the film and

were created In several different weys.Most prevelent was the "plnholes-In-cerdboard" method, shot on an animationstand with lights underneath. On the

scenes requiring the "movlng-throughspace" perspective, we simply did incremented zooms on each of about five different "starflelds," then dissolved them

together, end to end , to give us the re-quired length. Stationery starfields wereessentially the same, except for the 8ddltio n of moving ripple glass between the

starflelds end the lights, to give the s tars atwinkling effect.

For the scenes requiring surreellstic,multl-colored, evolving stars we used atechnique we cell "clay painting." AnimatorJoan Gratz performed all of hecleypainting on The LIUle Prince; her work Is

astounding. Clay painting, by descript ion,seems a rather elementary technique, bu t

to do It right requires lin excessiveamount

of artistic skill end spetialeptitude . Joan

mixes oil pigments with the cley and

smears it , frame by frame, on glass. She

follows the log sheets closely so she'lIknow et all times exactly where the scene

Is and where it's going. Obviously, therewas no way we could shoot reference filmfor this sort of animation; everything yousee Is totally a product of lmegination.

We used da y plIlntlng for much more

than Just starflelds. In fect, nearly 11.11 of the

other sky beckgrounds In the film are clay

ClNEMAGIC # 7 2 1

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painted, and matted with the three-dimen·slonal foregrounds via the front·IIghtlbackllght process. This very effec·tively aided in imparting the dream likequality we wanted to achieve.

Because the clay painting animationhad a tendency to appear a bit rough, wesmoothed It out with an optical processknown as ··stagger·prlntlng ." LookoutMounta[n Films of Los Angeles per·formed this fellt, 1I standard trick which rd

rather let them explain. Lookout 1Iiso cre

ated neon, aura, "step-printing" lind othereffects for us, lind these are all standardoptlclli tricks using different color filteT3 ,lights lind camera maneuvers.

Since the bulk of The UUle Prince con·slsts of optically matted foregrounds andbackgrounds(planetsagllinst StaT3,desertlIgall15t fluid sky, characteT3 In movingfields of grass), we really became intimatewith the frontllghtlbacklight process. Infact, we discovered that we could do theillrger scenes without the Dream MIKh lne ,obtaining the I"IeC6SlIry silhouette imagefrom the reflection off an eight-foot·hlgh,wall-to-wall cyclorama behind the set.

This worked just fine, and it elimlnmedthe need for a ridiculously huge DreamMachine.

Another Interesting and effective (alsoexpel15lve) optical effect used was "slitscann[ng"-an animation stand camerashoots the subject at predetermined, programmed intervals in II zoom from thetop

all the way to the table. Colored filteT3l1reodded 0 ' delJired, to give the fiflilJhed image a defined concentric circles effect.The subject In this case was a cardboardstencil (the "slit") of a rose, and the fin·ished result Is somewhat reminiscent ofan impressionistic time tunnel, like the

one made popular In the 1V series a fewyeaT3 back. Slit·scannlng Is expensive be-cause, at least In this Instance, [t required acomputer-controlled Oxberry. AlphaCine again performed the work, and theirprocedure was to set it up lind switch it onFridllY evenlng,let it run up lind down, upand down . . . a frame at a time, all weekend, then switch it off (lind hope It turnedout) MondllY morning. At $100 lin hour,this kind of operation is 1I budget leech,But the result Is priceless.

The reference filming for this one wasrather extraordinary, as we used m[meIKtors as motion studies for several parts.

There [s very little lip sync In the film (Inkeeping with the impressionistic, dream·I1ke qUlltity of the story), so rather thanfilming the voice lIctors as they recorded.their Pdrts we simply pillyed back thetlIpes for the mimists, and directed themIndividually through the movements. Thisproved quite an Interesting experimentand resulted In some beautiful animation.

Also In the experimental spirit WllS the

introduction of a technique for which we

haven't yet come upwltha name,and 11'5011.

little difficult to describe. It's a techniquere5erTIbling metamorphosis, except thatInstead of evolving from one object to

lInother, it evolves from one posltlon to22 ONEMAGIC" 7

WlU Vlaton paUenUy .nhn .... eequeDce fo r the C . . . . .Uo. production,D,...... iliac""". Vinton" _ Aead.emy A•• d.-wlnnlng rullUDaker fo r . . . .

Clo. '" lIIonda" •

lInother. Let me restlIte that. Say we wllnt

to move the Little Prince'sllrm up over hishead. Okay, Instead of doing it the usualway by incrementing the arm two framesat II time until it's up, we layer varying col·ors of clay on top of the an n (two frames at

a time) until th e an n resembles a wingcllught in mid·fllIp, spIlInning all the wllyfrom the s!.llrting point to the top of themotion, Then we cut away the bottom ofthis wing shot by shot untllllllt that' s left Isthe arm at top position. We used 1I lot ofthis in the film, lind the effect is nicelySUJTTelllI.

Perhllps the most difficult shot In The:

UUlePrince was the scene in which he dies.

BecllUse cllIY is he/llvy and can't support

itself at extreme angles, we had to string

the chllracter up with monofilament. Asanyone knows who's worked with flying or

flllling cllIY characters, this clln be III

challenge. [t rTllIy seem easy, but [f yourline slips or if you forget whether you Justlowered it that last shot . . ,well, time toreshoot. We made it on the first !.like, butupon viewing the workprlnt It lIppearedthat we had slipped a couple frllmes. TheLittle Prince jerks back up slightly, liS ifnot quite yet readytodie . Fortunately, thiswas correctible, by removing the frameswhere the slip occurred. Whew!

Im sure there's much, much more that Icould relate lIbout The UttJe Prince and I'm

sure everyone will have questionsllbout it

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


,Anlmaton someUm.. 11- tbell' OW D fo r ; ~ ~ : ' ' ; : ' ~ : i : : ~ : : : ~examln.. h i. )wnd movement and. co ..pareslt to

hand .

when you see it, bu t right now it's time to

move on . . . .

AII.talr Cookie

There's 1I cute story behind how Will

clime up with this idea for oil. modellltor,which I'm oIlfll!lld you won't esctIpe hearing.

It seems that Will lind Susan were dis.cussing what kind of host they'd IIketosee

moderating The UUle Prfn.ce and. Friends,end severel names of possible personalIties hod been suggested. Will, dlSSllt-

[sfled, 'NolIS shllklng his head: "No,no . . . we need someone a little more . . .Alistair Cooke-y." Ho hum.

gether into a fellture. He a<:<:omplishesthis lIgainst long odds, as cast and crew do

their damdest to disrupt the program endshatter Mr. Cookie's composure. Cookie,however, remains cool as clay, smooth lyguiding the film to its dose-at which

point thestarstru<:k script girl Beverly Hip·po comes flying In fo r a no-point landingat Cookie's feet, waving and blowingkisses like a cheeSecake Claymate. Thefloor beneath Beverty groans and c r ~ k s ,dropping the obese obstruction out of

sight onto stage "6 " (for Basement), leav·ing old Alistair with about 30 other char·acters taking bows.

The camera pulls back and ~ fade to

Quest ions and

Answers about

Claymationw

Here are some of the most frequently·asked questions and their answers.

What kind 01 clay do you use?

We use regular old plasticene day,which is, [ believe, paraffin and oil·

based. We order it by the truckload in the13 or so standard colors, from Avalon In·dustries of Monrovia, CA. We've triedsome of the other brands of plasticene,but they haven·t worked quite as well.(Please let us know if you find somethingbetter!)

Ho w do yOU get.so many different col·

ors on your characters and sets?

We melt and mix the limited number of

stock colors in a double·boiler set·up, to

create our own unlimited variety of col·ors. Clay has a fairly low melting point

and you can mix it just about like paint.For pure white or black we must add oilor acrylic pigment to ivory day and thisis a little messy to animate. Avoid it if

possible.

Ho w long does It take yo u to make a

film?

On the average, with five full ·time artists(working 40·hour weeks), it takes usabout a year to do 30 minutes. This In·

dudes pre· and post·production, mindyou.

How much does it cost?

More and more. Actually, we get by

relatively cheaply, but I won't say just

how cheaply. The thing is, you can do

animation as inexpensively as you like,depending on how many comers you'rewilling to cut and how much improv:is.ing you're able to do. Many people findthey can do animation for little morethan the cost of film and processing.

Doestt'l animation require a lol Ofpatience?

No more than any other job-or lifeitself, fo r that matter. What it requiresperhaps more of is plain old en·durance-without it, you'd never finish afilm . You have to recognize the prob·lems, confront them, solve them andmove on without looking back. And

keep on moving till your film is finished.Animation itself can be the most reward·ing, enjoyable part of production, if youlet it be that way. .

AlistairCookiewas created for the sole

purpose of bridging the three films to- hl..:k. at L ______ _ __ _ -lC/NEMAQIC"7 23

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


Producers '

BULLETIN BOARDPlease forward announcementsof rlim projects In CWTent

production or near completion to: ClN£MAG/C, cloO'Quinn Studios, Inc. 475 Park Avenue South, New York,

NY 10016. Please include a photograph of some phase ofthe production, if possible.

The Transg ression .The storyof an automated light cruiserand its crew of one. His baseis the inter-system space·portin New South Wales, Aus·trailia. His mission is to patrolthe border of our star systemand the Arcturus Star Empire.He finds that the Arcturuns aremassing weapons and supplies

for a sneak attack. Producers: Philli p Landes and David

Bailey. Director/FX: David Bailey. Key Grip: Mike DeGetto.Cast: Phillip Landes and Steven T. Arnot. Super·a, color,separate sound on tape. Running time: 20 minutes. (David W.

Bailey, 14516 Haywood St., Whittier, CA 90603.)

Star Bore.1 A comedy/drama about the adventures of aretired starpllot and 1I young scientist as they attempt to

transport the ultimate weapon to a besieged outpost in deeps ~ . Producer: Moonglow Films. Director: David Evans.FX: David Evo.ns o.nd Kirk Gro.thwol. Co.st: Jim Hecton,David Evans, Patty Conder, Kirk Grathwol, Kenny King,Ronnie Lane, Anne Newman cmd Mike Span. Super·8, color,sound. Running time: 15 minutes. (David Evans, 8617 Ter·vada Dr., Knoxville, TN 37921.)

Inc.... t . The ultimate trip in dfda VU . A stoned hippie on

a trip through the hills meets himself. Producers/Directors:Garry Ellis and Laurie White. Cast: Collin Albertson as thehippie. Super-B, color, sound. Running time: five minutes.(Comatose Films, 2161 0 Edward Way, Cupertino, CA 9SO 14.)

On H t . Pre. ldent' . Secret Serv ice. James Bond·typeadventure Agent 625's efforts to stop madman from

destroying Earth with a deadly laser cannon. Producer/DirectorlFX: Jim Van Bebber. Cast: Stewart Browne and

Dan Frittschuh. FX include: laser beams. split screen andburning explosions. Regular·B, color, sound. Running time:25 minutes. (Jim Van Bebber, 416 Vine St., Greenville, OH45331.)

Fo rever and Beyond. Threeastronauts, trapped 'on a hostile planet,must survive in a century that is not

their own. Producer: LASH Produc·tions. Director: Doug Lamoreu)(. FX:E.D. Graff. Cast: Doug Lamoreux.Doug Munda, Becky Hewitt and others.Super·B. color, sound. (DougLamoreux, Rte. "1, Dakota, IL 61018.)

Nargo's Conquest_ An alien from /I distant planet comes

to destroy Earth. The Andromeda goes after him. bu t only

the Solaria can stop him. Producer! Director/FX: GeorgeTraikovich. FX include: laser battles and models. (GeorgeTraikovich, 454B Beechworth Ct.. Columbus. OH 43227.)

24 ONEMAG/C#7

Gre mli ns. A fantasy comedy. A man comes home from

work one day and finds his apartment infested with

gremlins. Producer!Director/FX: Mathew W. Subsinsky. FX

include: clay animation and live action, musical soundtrack,copper-toned black·and·white film that I will develop myself.

(Amons Productions. 86 31 st St. Apt "A·3. Newport News,VA 23607.)

Star Tr ek Log: The La st Voyage. Farce based on thepopular TV series. The EnleJprise is overcome by a suddenlack of power. Can the crew survive? Producer: MicroBudgetProductions. Director: Mark Barner. Co-Director: HowardBriggs. Cast: Howard Briggs, Jean·Pierre Lundy, RusselDauberman, Heather Dorey, Todd Baney and DaveDeGarbo. Super·B, color, sound. Running time: 20·25

minutes. (MicroBudget Productions, Inc • Box 515 RD 1. Mill

Hall, PA 177SO.)

War III. Space version of World War n. Major conflict be·

tween Germany and the United States takes place in space.Producer/Director: David Tunison and Pat Story. Animated.FX include: front projections, lasers, detailed models andanimated explosions. Regular·B, color, recorded sound. Running time: 25·30 minutes. (David Tunison. do TS Film Productions, 9910 McCauly Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45241.)

I ~ ~ . ·· ..

..4!'

- ~ . - ''- ,

The Derellct_ Crew members of TheEricson, a starship of the future, ex·plore a dead ship and find a deformedcreature. Producer: BRU Films. Direc·tor: Bruce Pitot. Cast Joe Kopec, Mike

Lackey, Jay Lynch, Kirk Baur andDoug Dejean. Super·8, color, sound.Running time: 15 minutes. (BRU Films,

SO Robin Rds,. Mahwah, NJ 07430.)

The Hun ted . The year is 1984 and America is atpeace-but the illegal smoking of marijuana has reacheddisastrous proportions. The President sends a group of four

soldiers to destroy the pot crop in Colomb ia:. Al l is wel l until the Colombian farmers unite and turn the soldiers'paradise into an inescapable nightmare. Producer: SureShot Films. Director/Script: Brian Tudor. Cast: ScottChevront and Emrich Kollar. Super-8, color. Running time:SO·60 minutes. (Brian Tudor, P.O. Bo)( 47, Point Clear, AL

36564.)

Bli nd Revenge: A Space Adventure. Gaffe had been sub·jected to many tortures and now he wants revenge-no matter what the cost! What dark secret does he keep insidehimself? Producer: Classic Productions. WriterlDirector:David Kuhn!. Cast: Bill Binford, Don Hudgins, Mark

Jamreson, David Osbim and John Powell. FX include:miniatures, e)(plosions, rear project ion and mattes. Super-B,color, sound. Running time: 20 minutes. (Classic Production, 3920 Patsy, Memphis, TN 38118.)

The Chase. A semi-satirical allegory involving a foot pur·suit of a robber by a police officer throughout San Fran·cisco. Pilot fo r the proposed local syndicated TV series,"Une)(pected Happenings." Producer/Director/Script: LutherVee, Peter Menchini, Laura Barrett. Sound Super-B to betransferred to 16mm and videotape. Running time: 25

minutes. (Infinitum Pictures Corp., Daly City. CA 94105.)

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


Inv.slon . An epic battle between two alien races in outer

space and on Earth. Producer: Low Budget Films . Direc·tor/Writer/FX: Willi<lm J. Lloyd. FX include: stop·motion

animat ion, mattes. mini<ltures. Super·B, color. sound. Runn·ing time: 15 minutes. (William J. Lloyd, 1854 East ShillerSt., Philadelphia, PA 19134.)

Hot Stuff. Cat prostitution at its

greatestl Effects indude: front·screenprojection, mirror shots and stopmotion animation. Producer/Director:Randy Schmidt Cast: Kitty Schmidty

as Pussy Larue. Super-8, color. Soundtrack music: "Hot Stuff." (RandySchmidt. 15217 Alondra Lane,Saratoga, CA 95070.)

Starflre . The story of a "hot-shot" pilot and his troubleswith the Amazian Empi re. Producer: Dieter Geithner. Direc·tor: Kevin Lynch. FX: Dieter Geithner and Kevin Lynch.Cast: Kevin Lynch, Dieter Geithner. Gary Pink, Jody Fabik,Robert Whiseman, Josh Whiseman, Oeron Macenerny, SaunSmith and Emil Geithner. FX indude: rear·screen projec·tion, superimposition, beam-down effects <lnd stop-motionanimation. Super-8. Running time: 40 minutes. (SFX Productions do Kevin Lynch, 4 FOlt Hill Rd., Acton, MA 01720.)

Alpha 7 . A science-fiction thriller. Havoc is wreaked uponAlpha 7 when a robot named Cygnar gets out of control andkills at the command of <I group of evil aliens. Producer!Writer/Director: Rodney Belle. FX indude: mattes,miniatures . full·scale sets, optical effects and models. Inearliest production. Projected runn ing time: approltimately2 hours. (Belle Produc tions, 1032 Prospect St., Westfield.NJ 07090.)

*1 -BackwindingSuper-8 Film;Foreground Min iatu reTechnique: Aerial

: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : ~ Brace Cons truction.

I12 -SpaceshipModelmaking: Blood

Makeup: Smoke Gen-erator; Light Beamfects; Making an SFLogo .

1t3- Robot Construction: Developing anAnimation Style: FluidArt Animation; Electronic Spec iat Hects:Making Min iatureTrees.

StarRaiders . The United Federation is in danger of being

destroyed by the Gargoyles. Suspecting the Gargoyles to be

hiding on the planet T<lrr, the Feder<ltion sets up <I daringraid to destroy the Gargoyles once and for all. Producer:Garden State Productions. DirectorlWriter: Rodney Belle.Uncast. FX include: lasers. eltplosions, mattes, miniaturesand stop-motion animation. In preproduction. Filming will

begin in Florida in 1980. Release date: F<lll, 1981. We aregiving CINEMAGIC readers a chance to contribute to our

film by making the miniatures of the spaceships. See Film·

makers' Forum for details. (Garden State Productions. 1032

Prospect St., Westfield, NJ 07090.)

The EvU . A one ·night stand turns into a nightmare whentwo innocent victims spend the night in a horror housepossessed by "the evil." Producer/Director: Ricky Rojas.Cast: Jean Scarabin, and Tammara Ciegler. FX include:mattes, makeup. min ia tu re sets. eltplosions cmd fires.Super-8, color, sound on cassette. Running time: 15·25minutes. (R. Rojas, 1404 Lekewood, Slidell, LA 70458.)

Deception on Terra. The year is 2095,Earth has exploded and the survivorsare searching for a new home. Theyfind an Earth·like planet in the Procyonsystem-but there's one drawback.

Producer: Celestial Effects. Direc·torslFX: Maurice Tremblay and

.. ~ Richard Cote. Script: David Burton,• Tom Kearns and Rick Caikauskas.

' 4-Aerial Image 0p

tical Printer : Construction; Wire Armatures: A-B Rolling:More ElectronicSpecial Effects: Fog

and Mis t Effects.

'S -Aer ia l Image 0p-tical Printer : Usage:

Widescreen Super-8;Slit Scan Effects:Gleaming Eyes forStop-Motion Mode ls.

H6-Amazing EIec-

trooic GadgetsCheap: Bring YourAlien to Life-LatexMasks : Basic EditingTechniques : InvisibleMan Effects

Props: Ralph Holland. Super-8, color,Running time: 15 minutes.

I i Effects, 13 Lance Ave., R.F.D.Manchester , NH 03103.)

CINEMAGIC OEf'T.c7

cJo O'Qulnn Studios, Inc.475 Park Avenue SouthNew York, N.Y. 10016

Check issues desired.

o 1t1-$3.5O o 1t2- $3.00o *3-$3.00 o 114- $3.00o ' 5 -$3 .00 o 116-$3.00

Add postage and handling to yoor order : $.60 for

one issue: $1.00 lor tWO: $1.40 lor thr" issues:$1 .80 for four: $2.25 for five-issue s: $2.50 for six.

Quantities limited

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY

STATE ZIPL _______________ _______________'" ............................._ .. __ .... _ .. ......... 01

ClNEMAGIC"7 25

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


•• •• •• • • • • • • • • • ••CINEMAGIC/SVA SHORT

FILM SEARCH

CONTESTRULESThis year's short film search is ointly sponsored by

ClNEMAG/Cand the School of Visual Arts, Readthese rules carefully , , , andgood luck,

EUGIBIUTY - Anyone am submit anoriginal film, no mattf!T what their degreeof experience or professioNlility. Independent groups, school cJlIsses and semi·prosareenoouraged to enter, but only onefllm

ciln be: entered from any group or individual-so pick your best. The film musthlIve been completedwithin the past threeyears ('78, '79, '80).

TECHNICALREQUIREMENTS-Super-8or 16mm film formats onl!I-wlth II totelrunning time not exceeding 15 minutes-

using live-action, lInimlltion or Jl11} combination of spe<:ial.effects techniques

silentor sound (obviously, sound Is desir;!Ible, via optical ormagnetictnKk on film,or sepllrllte cassette with clear sync ITIlIrksend lnstructions)--projection speeds of18 or 24 frames per second--color orB&W. Producers using speciel lenses(such as anamorphic) mustbe prepared tosupply I!I screening lens for the judges, ifrequested. Any other technical questionsthat arise should be submitted to

CINEMAGIC.

SUBJECTREQ(jIREMENTS - All entriesmust deal with science fi ction, fantasy or

horror subjects, or any combiT'llltlon of

these c8tegorles.

RlGHTSAND CLEARANCES - For udg

ing purposes, the more original theelements of your film, the better. We .!Ire

searching to discover new talent on thew.!ly up-not just those who can snip andlift elements from TV and other sources.Which Is no t to say th.!lt you c.!lnnot use,for instance, library music, film dips,

etc.-you can. However, a good professional approach requires that you obtainall the necessary rights .!Ind deanmces(for

prerecorded music, brand name uses,etc_) or that you customize such things as

store-bought model kits. The use of

unoriginal m.!lterial will not affect prizeeligibility at all, but it could affect follow·up uses of your film in commercialoutlets.

PROTEcnNG YOURSELF - All entries

shou ld display a copyright notice (i.e., ©

1980 Wonderful Productions) in the title

frame, and if you wish, at the end of thefilm too. Soundtrack music, i f it is

original, should be copyrighted .by sending a tape copy of the soundtrack to

yourself-by registered mail and keptsealed.

PRIZESANDAWARDS-Cas.hprizeswill

beaw.!lrded in two c8tegories, Super·Band16mm, .!IS follows:

Super-B

Grand Prize ...... . .......... $250hit Prize .................... $2002nd Prize ........ . .......... $1503rdPrize ......... . .......... $100

16mm

Gr8nd Prize ................. $500

I st Prize .................... $4002nd Prize........ . .......... $3003rd Prize .................... $200

In .!Iddition, there will be special awardtrophies for the winners, merchandise

BI.de Galentine dlsp .ys h i . models for the model .n lmated GodzUla'.,nJ.tI,."ltlw. ArnLatu , . . t right.

26 ONEMAG/C"7

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


• •• • ••• • • •• ••• •••

~ ~ ~Qat

' ' ' ' : ~ : : : . : ~ : : . r = , : : ; :arroll of Sliver Spring. I IU) . The fUm .. ;

Grog, by John Do d_, 3rd -prlUl winner

In . . . y_ , ' s contest Jumps, fo r Joy.

Dsvld Renwick scrst chlng film ' nme by Ireme fo r"electric bolt" effect. In Figlal Ga m •

,

Clyne' . AU.IUI, 2nd pr l_ ln Bmm SF.

prizes supplied by ustmen Kodak endother notelble film comp(lnles, winningfilms will be featured in a special article In

ClNEMAGIC magazine, end the judges willaWlird Honorable Mention prizes foroutstanding crelltivlty to other fUms ~ yfind noteworthy.

JUDGING - All entries will be screened

end prejudged by II pone! from theSchooIof Visual Arts. A selection of finansts will

be screened before e theatrical a u d l ~( ~ n to the publk) on the ewards even·ing, lind the final judging will take placethen by a select blue-ribbon ponet, con ·slstlng of Charles Hirsch,SVA Film Chair-man; David Hutchison, Editor of

CINEMAGJC; Kerry O'Qulnn. Publisher of

ST ...RLOG PRESS; and professionals from

the science fiction, horror and fantasy, filmmaking field. Ratingswlll be based on

six criteria: 1) script; 2) direction and

technique; 3)vlsuals; 4)sound end music;5) Imaginatlon and orIginality; and 6)

overall imP"Cl.

AWARDSPRESENTA71ON- To be heldat Manhattan·s spectacular BeeconTheatre, specially outfitted for thIs presentation, complete with theatre organ,premiere spotlights, press coverage,celebrities and all the other festiveelements that Imke ~ a traditional mo-Uon picture awards celebnation, for elavish, gala ~ n l n g . Filmmakers do notneed to be present In order to win, bu t allfinalists will be notified a week or two inadvance if heir films will be screened that

night.

E/'fTERlf'IG YOURFlU1 - A $ I0 entry feeIs req uired for e.'k:h film, and should be

sent vie check or money order (drawn to

SVNSearch) along wIJh your film, s(M md ·track' cassette (if septlrBte) end offtcial entry form-all In one package. Everythingshould be securely packed In a Jiffy & gor fibre film case and lnsW"edforyqur ownprotection. MlJI'k each reel, can or boxwith the official name and eddress of the

entering producer, plus the name of thea N ~ G / C · 7 27

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


SUBSCRIBE TO

If you are a youngfilmmake:r with II

s ~ c i a l i n t e r ~ t In science: flctlol\spe<:ial effects and the limitlessmagic of the cine:ma . . .

THIS IS YOUR MAGAZINECINI . . .e" WILL flATUII :

I-IcM- to r o d u c ~ professional titles 1M!

rT"IQ','e, change coiof, melt, spar1r;le:, burs::

into l I ~ m e s . zoom into s.J:OCC /III fa- a

ftw "" ' .Tired 01 square screens? lelIm alXlut 10-~ lenses lind <kvices to ITIlJI:eyour picture:W+D-E·S.O·H-N.

B r ~ k a w a y props to( realistIC fight scenes.

i\nirMtion on your horrIerrade stand.

Build )OJr C1Nfl robots WIth eleCtronic:

hgh t effects.

Make your QWf1 foam latex IInlrTlo1tlOO

mocie15, molds and arm.'ltwres andrr'l&ke them corne: elrve-! ~ po.nllngs,matte box dtects, spbt screens.

RevIew.; d n tw eqUipment, lenses and

optal for r e ~ t 5peC illl d·

teetsl R.eaders' forum-letters 1Ir.dquestions ~ i n s technques andproduction secrets! SteJ>b1-step ll

lustrated amc\es detdlJing methcX:ts you

can use to crwe VISUal effects, IT\lIkeup/lnd sound FX,

...------------"""'GO<O'Q..1nStudoos,lno; . O£PT.C1475 Pftrk AYI':OUI!: So.,(h, New Yon:. NY 10016

SUISCRII"'nON

C ' " (6 issuEs) 58.99( l J S . a o d ~ )

(J Clno!: ~ Nn'!Jl' Su!f.u: 511 .39

O < ~ S C C C - - - - - - - c c c c c c c c - Scrod caot1, ctIeCII, Of mono: ') ' OfOcr do ........ to

O'Ourm t ~ In!;.

0lY

\ STATE ZIt' J......

---------".",

• • • • • • • • • • •

Steve Segsl 's

Futuropo'"took n,.t p"ceIn the 16nun SF

c:ategory. An

unusual . topmotion anlmat·

ed _t with po 'W.ted . c to" ,

s .ve the r l lm.humorouslystylized look.

f i lm-to IIvoid our mlsplllCing II piece of

your peckllge IImid whllt will no doubt bepiles of entries. Your entry fee will coverreturn p&eklng, postage lind insuTllncefrom SVA. Please IIl10w severlll weeksfollowing the AWllrds Presenllltion for

films to be returned.

NOTE We suggest that films be sent viIIUPS, Ai r Freight or some other speedymethod of trilnsporllltion. The "Spec II!4th Class Rate " li t the Post Office,IIlthough the cheapest method for mailingfilms, tllkes up to four weeks for deliveryand could cause you to miss the e l l d l i ~All foreign entries must be marked "MO·TION PICTURE MATERIAL-NO COM·MERCIAL VALUE."

Send (din enlries to:

5VAlSellrch209 Ellst 23rd 51.

New York, N.Y. 10010

Send correspondmce to :ClNEMAG1CJSearch475 Park Ave. So.New York, N.Y. 10016

Sorcerer'. Due'by MIIrk H.nn.hor D.lton, GA .

Combinedhumor, .dven·ture .nd . p ed . 'e.ffe.d.a in hi s en ·try whlc.h reocelved HODor·.bleMenUonin the 8mm

ategol") ' .

DEADUNE FOR F1LM ENTRJES: FridllY,September 26, 1980

(The ellrller you get your film in, themore time the pre-judging pzmelwill have to consider It ClIrefully.)

Screening of Analists, and AWllrds Pre·

sentation:MondllY, November] , 1980Beacon Thelltre,BrOi!ldway li t 74th St.• N.Y C.Doors Open: 6:30 PMPresenllltion: 7:00 - 11 :00 PM (J (

For Entry Forms

For a copy of the official ru les and the

offi cial entry form which must 3ccom·Vi'luy your fUm entry. send II selfad·dressed. stamped envelope (bUSness-10 size) to:

CINEMAQIC/SVA Short Film

Search-1980

415 Park Avenue South

New York, N.Y, 10016

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


Helpful Hints

We are reprinti ng a portion of "Editor's Bench" from C1NEMAGIC "2. Lastyear's contest judges, af ter watching many hours of fllm from contest hope

fuls, compiled a list of helpful h ints and tips for this year's contest. C1NEMAGrchopes you will keep them in mind as you work on not only your contest film, bu t

all films you make.

Shots Held Too Long-Sure, your miniature looks neat and your animatedcreature has charm, but don 't dwell on it and ruin the pace of the overall scene.Learn to cuI to different angles, actions and reactions. Audiences don't care how

much work went into a complicated set-up if a particular shot is too long.

Film Too Long Overall-Stay away from overly long "explanatory" dia logue("You see, this is how th e thing.a.ma.bob overreacted and caused radiation whichmade the grasshoppers grow so big . . . ") Use short, snappy dia logue and imagery

to "explain" complicated things; even if they are complicated explanations, theywon 't seem that way. Learn to edit scenes down only to what is absolutelynecessary.

Learn To Light-The biggest drawback to most of last year's films was flat,

uninspired lighting. Part of this problem may be due to the fast, Ektachromefilms and fast camera lenses, bu t those sorts of modern·day advantages shouldmake it easier to get the lighting effect you want. rather than being an excuse to"get by" with the least amount of light. It takes some time and experimentation to

achieve intriguing lighting effects, bu t it's worth. he extra effort.

Use a Trlpod-A hand· held camera constantly shaking and jiggling would giveThe Crawling Eye a headache! Hand-held shots have their place, but mostly theyare oul o{place in a polished production.

Acting - There's little credibility to a 13· year·old "professor," or an 18-year-oldstarship captain! Let kids play kids, and get adults to play adults.

Sound-A good soundtrack can enhance a mediocre visual; a poor track can ruina perfect visual! Get used to the basics of recording and try for a uniform leveland "feel" to the sound for each film. Try to recognize distortion and do your bestto eliminate dicks, pops, wind-noise and other pitfalls inherent in to Single-system

sound movies. If you choose to put your soundtrack on cassettetape, stick to a simple narration or musical background. Without -some sort 01syncing mechanism, dialogue will never work on a separate, taped track (andsome of our entries proved that).

Be Or iginal-Sure. the term "b e original"' is a cliche, bu t so were half of the films

entered. If you're stuck for a good idea, find someone else who has one.Filmmaking is usually a collaborative art, and if you're going to work hard for amonth, or a year, on a film project, spend a week or two in advance on anoriginal, imaginative script. A good film begins with a good story, and if irs nota good idea or story, it's probably not worth filming.

Remember, we are not here to discourage creative filmmaking. We only wantto see each and every filmmaker improve his craft, to be proud of his finishedproduct, and to know that he has done everything possible to create a goodamateur movie. The winners of last year's Short Film Search didn't have extrafancy equipment, just extra fancy ldeas and imagination.

_-SUBSCRIBE T O - ....

EACH ISSUE INCLUDES,

INTERVIEWSThought·provoklng encounters w;th

such futu re th inkers as Arthur C.

Clarke, Rdy Bradbury, Timothy leary,Alvm Toffier and many others.

SPACE ARTFull<:OIor portfolios by SlJCh vislOrKIT)'

artists as Chris FOS!:, Bob McCall,cresley Bonestell .

SF TV AND CINEMAThe most compreheTlSIYe reporting in

print d upcormng sc: :ence fictIOn and

science fact mobon oictures and TV~ . Exclusive photos and~ r v ~ on such productions as

Ahen, Moonraker, Star Trek-The

~ i o n Picture, Nova, The /v\artlanChronicles and .-....etear.

TOMORROWA continu ing column featuring visKlns

d tomorrow by sl.ICh authors asIsaac Asimov, HarryHamson, BnanA1diss, larry Nrven and Fred POOL

FUTURE FEATURESA panoramic view d trends,

tectmologl€s and lifestyles to COI"l"le.

The work) of genetIC engineering.ArcosantJ-city of the future.

Holography. Videodiscs. Jacques

Cousteau on spoce and sea sCieoces.O'Neill's sp.'Ke colonies. Alternate

energy . Future rock. Hardware. Boc:t

reviews. Databank fleWS.

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....._----------'"

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


REVIEWBy JAMES CALDWELL

The Chlnon 200-8 XL

Aew breed of Super·S Cllmera

has appeared on the IT\lIrket.They are the rapidly increas

ing full-featured camerlls that

lI<:Cept Kodek's new 200·ft. cartridge.Chlnon has thrown In with their newest in

the Pacific line: the 200-8 XL.For those familiar with the Pacifies, this

clImera retains till the features-lind addsXL capability. [t has built in dissolve, pic'

ture lind/or sound fade, Intervalometer.automatic camere run lind shutoff, powerzoom and single freme.It accepts both soundlind silent film as well os200-ft. cartridge.

The ClImera Is wellbalanced and thehandlf!:

folds upso that it mounts

betteron a tripod. I alsolike the fact that the topof the camera folds up

to admit the 200-ft.cart·

ridge instead of beingcompletely removable.Anything that comes of fof the carner!!! Is subject

to Joss. Chlnon should

also eliminll te that stupid plasUc key theyprovide to remove the built-in 85 filter_

This Chlnon also shares a problem thatmany of the 200-ft. cameras have. It reo

quires a higher torque motor to pull allthat film through the camera so that thebatteries ate drained much quicker thannormal. In fact, the camera we testedwouldn't even run a full 200·ft. cartridgebefore giving out on us. Ni·cad batteriesworked much better and a separate powerpack worked great.

The new Chlnon camera costs about$1,075 and more Information can be ob·talned by writing to Chinon, 43 FademRd. , Springfield, NJ 07081.

New Gitzo Head for 35mm and Super-8The new compact, yet solid, Total

photo·cine head offers 9O·degree front tilt

and 70-degree rear tilt with powerful handle and push·button for cable releasingthe camera, l50-degree side tilt with tight·ening lever plus 360·degre panning, for

very smooth adjustments without anyjerking, plus easy, positive locking in anyposition, to prevent vibration. The soft·cushioned, 3H ){2H platform has an openslit, for easy rapid inserting and position·ing of the Y:' (or \H ) solid·steel screw,which permits fast detaching and reat·

3D ClNEMAQIC"7

taching of the camera for transport,loading, etc.

The rugged Total head is ideally suitedfor 35mm, Super·8 as well as heaviercameras and fits any Gitzo as well as othertripods. Weight: one lb. Price: $55.95.Full five·year warranty. From Karl Heitz,Inc., 979 Third Avenue. New York, NY10022.

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


Bl'eakaway

Bottlesand Glasses

For dramatic or humorous effect,nothing the impact of I bottle brokenover an lK:tor's head or m a s ~ againsl awlIll. Until now, this effect wa s almost ex clusively limited to big-budget shows or

films .But now, Rasco's series of low-priced

breakawlIY bottles and glasses puts th is ef

feet within range of most productionbudgets.

By utilizing a new mol d technology,Rasco is able to produce breakaway bot·ties and glasses that look exactly liSthough they are made of glass. Since theywere developed for motion·picture andtelevision production. they had to lookreal , even In a tight camera dose·up.

The plastic material used in the bottlesend glllS5eS is specially formulated byRasco to sha tter realisti cally without anydanger to actors, technicians or equ ip-ment.

Bottles and glasses are available inseveral styles; scotch boule, wh iskey bot·tie, wine bottle (all in quart size), beer bot·t ie, colli bottle (l6-0z . size) end water o rbeer gloss in 10-0z. size.

For further information and the addressof your nearest Rosco deeler write: RoscoLaborotories Inc., 36 Bush Ave ., PortChester, NY 10573. (J /

--5UB-sCRliER-sERVICEs--l,,,,,Miss ing copies? Mov ing? Renewa ls? :

Rece iving duplicate Issues? Ques·:tions aoout your subscription? Write:

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ONEMAGfC*7 31

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


BOOKS

STAND

The Anlnultlon Sbnd. By ZoranPerslc. Communication Arts Books,Hastings House, Publishers, N.Y., NY.5 1{a" x 8 1/2", 168 pages.

loran Persic worked as an animationcameraman for Stanley Kubrick duringthe making of 2001: A Space Odyssey.Mr. Persk was also in charge of th e

front'projection sequences for Super-man. The knowledge that loran Persichas acquired on the subject of animationis vast, and he imparts this knowledge inclear, concise English in his book, The

Animation StandThe Animation Stand offers a greatdeal to the beginning and intermediateanimator. Basically, it is a detailed ex-planation of the mechanics andmethods for using animation's most fun

damental tool. Mr. Persic considers thecamera an integral part of the animationstand- not a separate entity, and ofcourse he is correct. it is the concept of

the animation stand being greater thimthe sum of its parts that makes it such aversatile instrument for artistic expression, according to the author.

Despite the fact that an animation

standis

greater than the sum of its parts,one must still be fully versed in the func·tion of each of these parts in order toreap the greatest artistic benefit possible

from the use of this magical machine.Ellery aspect of an animation stand is

discussed in this'informative manual.

Every function and part of an animation stand is illustrated as well asdescribed and explained in this wonderful publication from Focal Press. Each

two-page spread is divided down the

middle, with copy on the left and dearly

drawn illustrations on the right. It is theformat of the Media Manual series, aFocal Press offering, and it is to be com-

32 ClNEMAG/C 1t7

mended. The drawings do as much to

explain the subject matter as does thewritten copy.

There are table·top animators whowork with primitive set·ups or withdimensional artwork and producemarvelous work, The Animalion Sland isnot necessarily fo r these people-but it

certainly can't hurt them to read it. The

book contains suggestions to many

common animation problems that areworth knowing about. Even if you don't

have access to a sophisticated animation

stand like the one described in Mr. Per·sic's book, you can still learn some

valuable things from this treatment. The

Animation Stand is highly recommendedfor those who plan to work with

sophisticated animation equipment andis suggested reading for anyone in·terested in the mechanics of i!lnimation.

Cinematography

By J. Krls Malklewlcz. Van Nostrand

Reinhold Company, New York. 8 1/4" x9 1/4".198 pages. $6.95.

Cinematography is both an art and ascience. There are many technical skillsthat must be mastered in order for thecinematographer to become a proficientartist. Cinematography, a book by J. KrisMalkiewicz, helps the aspiring film.maker acquire the knowledge necessaryto become a competent cinematic artist.

I"'alkiewicz-with the assistance of

Robert E. Rogers- has written a com·prehensive guide to the techniques in·volved in bringing an image to thescreen. Production techniques andequipment are fully explained, but the

process of actually planning a produc·tion and storyboarding it are ignored,

This omission of the methods involvedin the preparation of a script andtranslating it in to visual terms is the only

weak point of the book-which was written for cinematographers, not directorsand screenwriters. The omission was intentional, as the author explains in hispreface.

Cinematographers who are their owndirectors will have to find other source

books for studying screenwriting andstoryboarding, but this volume shouldnot be ignored by anyone who desires to

learn about the photographic aspects ofmaking films.

Cinematography deals with 16mm

equipment, but this should not deteryoung Super-8 filmmakers who do not

yet have access to 16mm. Many Super-8cinematographers aspire to work with

16mm, and Cinematography is a perfectintroduct ion to 16mm equipment. It canput you ahead of your class w1-Ien you

get to film school to have a familiarity

with 16mm-even if you have never hadthe opportunity to work with it. Many of

the principles set forth in the book apply

to all formats of film and the technical

jargon remains the same no matterwhich format you are working in. Thereis a wealth of vital information in

Cinematography that must be learned in

order to master the art of motion-picture

photography_Cinematography goes into detail on

such essential aspects of filmmaking as

lighting, editing, equipment and many

other equally important subjects. Thebook can teach a great deal about thetechnical processes involved in and thetheories behind the making of films. It ishighly recommended to everyone who

wants to develop their skills as acameraperson_

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


,

The American FUm InstibJ.teGuide to College Courses In FUmlind Television . Edited by Dennis R.

Bohnenkamp and Sam L. Grogg Jr .

Peterson's Guides Publications. Prince·ton, NJ. alia" x 11 " .430 pages.$9 .75.

CINEMAGIC has rece ived many lettersfrom readers who are anxious to breakinto the film business and want to knowwhich colleges are the best equipped to

give them a good education in filmmak

ing and a headstart in this cornpeti\ivefield. It is a difficult task to write back toa reader and tell him that there are over1,000 schools in the U.S. that offe r somecurriculum in film and that the editors of

CINEMAGIC cannot decide which is bestsuited to a given individual's needs,

Fortunately, there is a comprehensiveguide to all of the colleges in Americathat offer courses in film. The book is

called The American Film 11151ituie Guide

CineMagic

10 College Cowses ill Film and Tele lJi·sion-<lnd it is the most valuablepublication available to you filmmake rswho are trying to decide which film

school to attend,The book contains all of the pertinent

information. Schools are listed alpha·betically under the state they are locatedin. The location of a school often plays avery imlX>rtant role in a student's choice,so this method of listing saves the pro·spective student's time. The name of the

person to contact is given for eachschool, as are the names of all of thefaculty members who teach courses infilm. It is helpful to know how large aschool's film department is-and thenumber of film faculty members and thenumber of courses offered (also listed)provides a pretty good indication of aschool's commitment to film education.

Most of the schools also offer a list of

the facilities that they provide to their

film students-the schools that don't listtheir facilities presumably have noth ingto brag about.

The admission requirements of eachof the colleges is also provided in thisvaluable publication-as well as thedegrees that are offered. Special ac·tivities and other film·oriented extra·curricular projects are listed by theschools that offer them.

Perhaps the most important information in the book is the list of the courses

that each school offers to the fi lm student. Anyone who is serious aboutbreaking into the filmmaking businessshould choose a school that has a longJist of film courses to keep him busy forhis four years in college.

The American Film Ir.slilule Guide toCollege COlffSes in Film an d Television iswhere every aspiring fi lmmaker shouldbegin h is search for the "'right'· collegeto attend. Of

MARKETPLACEFor as mile as $15.00, you can reach all Ytlur spocial ellecls fans.DEAD LINE: for CINEMAGIC 117 In our office Oy Jul y 2

CATEGORY: Please be sure to indicate the catego-y you want to belisted under.

BASIC RATE: $5.00 per line. Umll- 35 charaClers per line. MlnlmumIhree lines. Punclualion, s ~ m b o l s and spaces COUl'l ascharactAf" . Small d i ~ l ' l ~ y """, - $40.00 1"" ""'lImn inch(cam6(a·ready ONLY!!)

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S_F. FILM MEMORABILIAA limited number of catalogs are now available

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ONEMAGIC"7 33

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


CLOSE-UP

Kaleidoscopic EffectsYou can make an excellenl special·effects lens attachmenl fo r less

lhan a dollar. Made from a single fool·square decorative mirror lile, lhe

device can easily produce hundreds of original kaleidoscopic images.

MIRROR TI LEI

I I

r / ~ " r J){ * 1;

F/6.1

. : : . " , 9 E . : . ...

~ p - - C ~

34 ONEMAGIC *7

By JACK IMES JR.

I

'. "

o ~4 •• ' ••. . , . .

. ,

First, you must obtain a 12H squaremirror tile from a glass dealer, discount

s t o ~ or tile shop. I used 21 Hoyne Gas·Tile.A pack;,ge of six tiles costs about $4.20,but 21 dealer mlIy sell you single sheets. Be

sure to get the plain silver kind, not thebronze or filigree type. The mirror tile is

cut into strips (Figure I The three stripsmeasure 3 112" .II: 12 " each. I f@COmmend

that you have an expert do the cutting.

The glass dealer will cut it for you for littleor no charge when you buy the tile. Theglass edges are sharp-so handle the cutglass with extra care to avoid accidents.

The next step (Agure 2) is to tape thethree glass sections together. Any wide,flexible tape can be used. Iused 8 two·inchwide metal tape that worked well. With thereflective side down, al ign the long edges

of the sections together. Make sure thereis a 118" gap between each section to

allow for folding.Center a long strip of tape over each

gap and press It down smooth. This willform a long "piano hinge." Turn the"hinged" mirror over. fold the two sidesupto forma prism shape. Tape the edge to

form a three·sided tube. This is th e basic

SFX tube. If you look through one end,you will see kaleidoscopic patterns. Tapeover any slight tears along the seams if

visible through the length of the tube.

. , . ." '. .

. .. "

EN()VIEW, " '. .

F/G.2.

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


To film with the device. usea set-up similar

to Figure 3. Since mostcameras will not focussharply within 12". Isuggest using a close·up odopter over the

lens. Figure 3 shows the

xt up for back lightedimages. Front-lightedimagen require thai the

lamp be moved in frontof the lens tube to shineon the artwork.

rCLOSE-UP... LENS

, . . 1 " 1 A ( ~ E SHt:ET

CAMERA

The SFX tube is anchored to a wooden block (or two thick

books). A bright desklamp (60-\00 watts) provides a generallight source. Note: Use lungsten.rated (indoor) {ilm or a film con·uersiofl (ilter for accurate color rendition.

A sheet of glass or clear plastic holds the image to be filmed.

Almost anything can be used to make patterns-so use yourimagina tion. Since you can preview the pattern before filming.

you can select the best image for your film without running thecamera. The pattern sheet can also be moved to create fluid"pinwheels" of colors.

The SFX tube can be made even more versatile by taping "dis·tortion screens" over the image end. These screens can be madefrom scraps of junk plastic. I've used screens made of brokenbicycle reflectors. auto headlight protectors, molded acrylic,color acetate ribbons and even crushed cellophane.

TABLE

FIG. 3

To enhance the colors and to make brighter, crisper images. a"po int·source" type of light- s uch as a slide projector bulbcan be substituted in place of the desk amp. With the increasedlight output (500·1 000 watts), even slow Kodachrome film canbe used without exposure problems.

If your camera lens is too big to fit the end of the SFX tube,then I suggest making a paper mask to prevent light leaks.Three simple flaps of stiff black paper taped to the end of thetube near the lens will prevent "lens flare" by light spills.

You can use the SFX tube to generate backgrounds for titles.either by double·exposure methods or by using a 35mm stillcamera for making a projection plate.

Use your imagination to make unique effects with the SFXtube. Next time somebody asks how you did it, just say, "Youknow. with mirrors." (If

c/NEMAGIC"7 35

7/14/2019 CineMagic #07 (1980)


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CineMagic #07 (1980)

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