Cinemagic #02 (1979)

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Left: ....odel ....ker . ... ualclan .nd co... poaer. KeDnelb W.Lker d e ten. ••tep-by-.tep ca.e biatory o f • ...odel .p.ce. hJp in the mU1og . W.lker·. lIlode.1 HlcenUy _ O D flrat prize. In the ··~tcII -,b .nt .. category.t the. Interaatioaal PI_tic ....odel.,..· S ociety COD beld. in Rlchlllond. V• • The eo-__Uon regutsrly dr. .. ... odeJen from the ...tern United Sta tea~

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• AbovlII: From Tall" Drl"er. with ....U.tlc

blood and. 80re by the le8end.ry Dick Smith. Smith·. own formul. for blood. ....keup and. Ib .MI. de.crlbed. In lbl. I•• ue on page 28. Right: SF FU ... Production.· new logo ts cr_ted by Era••t F.rino • ..en h .... workJog wlth.n O.bel'TJ .rum.tlon .tand.

Number2

Editorial

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Don Dahler and Dave Ellis comment about the SF Short Film Search entries

Building Your Spaceship

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Step-by-step construction history by model maker Kenneth Walker

The Crimson Effect __

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Dick Smith's formula for realistic blood

Producers' Bulletin Board __ Latest news of our readers productio ns

Filmmakers' Forum _ __

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. A regular department devoted to readers' comments about filmmaking , their problems and

solutions

A Flash in Space _

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The creation of a new logo for SF Film Productions

BuDding Your Own Smoke Generator

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A si mple method of generating sm oke for miniature set and title effects

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Contest Winners The results of the SF Short Film Search

Close.up_ 3 3 Put your smoke generator to work

making light beam effects and dazzling titles

@vzid'. Publlahed by: O'QUINN STUDIOS, INC. 475 Park Avenue South New York, N.Y. 10016

PubU.be ... : Norman Jacobs/Kerry O'Quinn

Founder of CINEMAGIC and

Editorial Con.ulunt: Don Dohler

Edltol'·In·Chlef: David Hutchison

DealgD Director:

Robert P. Eric ksen

Dealgner: E laine Ashburn-Silver

fiIlaoaglD9 Editor: Bob Woods

Editorial Contributor.: Kenneth Walker Dan Taylor Dick Smith

ArtSbff: Laura O'Brien Robert Sefcik

A ••oclate Publisher: Ira Friedman

A••I....nt Publi.her: Rita Eisenstein F.". Ad>'enloing inlor""""",,, 114 Friedman, lIila E($ ,~..,,,,ed_ Rep.lnl .... repI1_

UIM'Ig ,,.,.er ~ &tOOMl I PI"H und me 1 ....... (8 l..uU)

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III' ...... OAAKROOIoi PHOTOGRAPHY ...ago l ln, lot '11.'1 .

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A Flash In Space Creation of the SF Film Productions Logo

Filmmaker Ernes t Farino prepares the -various matte. and .rtwon. created for the rumlng of the SF FUm Production. logo. Farino baa. good d_1 of _perlence producing animated spots.

By ERNEST D. FARINO

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part of STARLOO's new

plans for theatrical film production, SF Film Productions was created. Kerry Q'Quinn approached me about pro-

ducing a logo sequence that would in· troduce their fi lms (in much the same manner as the MGM lion and others).

He roughly storyboarded an idea that began with a bright, intense, nebulous energy field in space, dotted with bursting stars and crackles of lightning. A prominent bolt of lightning in t he foreground would form an "S;' which would drift back, slowly ratatlng, followed by a second lightning

bolt forming the companion ''P' shape, also drifting back. These letters were to appear whi te hot-almost to the point 24

of being illegible. They would meet and join in the middle background, and as the "SF"' slowly zoomed forward, small pinpoint lights would pop on, vaguely spelling out the words "Film Productions" beneath the "SF" Then, in a burst of light and lens flare, this chaotic galactic atmosphere would time-warp to a normal space setting 'with the "chrome-finish" SF Film Productions logo in its final color form. About a week's time was spent preparing all the title graphics and mattes. The actual SF Film Productions logo was supplied by the STARLOG offices to insure fidelity to their logo and consistency with their other uses of it (letterheads, advertisements, etc). From this, I made the required mattes and Koda lith sheet negatives_

The background nebula effects were the most problematic, and I was initially unsure exactly how to proceed in creating an interesting visual appearance on a relatively low budget. I originally considered aiming a 35mm high-speed camera (for a slow-motion effect) down at a clear plastic dome about two feet in diameter; water would shoot up inside the dome, and by triggering flash bulbs during photography and manipulati ng color and clarity during subsequent optical printing, we might have generated a fairly abstract, continuously swirling environment. But the whole arrangement was too expensive a proposition and somewhat impractical. I fina lly settled on building a double color wheel consist ing of two 9 ~ dia-

• meter 1/8" thick dellr plexiglass discs mounted on parallel axles so they could rotate and overlap each othe r. My assistant, Curt Hardaway, then attached color gels, bits 01 colored glass from broken soft drink and beer bot· ties, end pieces of translucent plastic, A studio quartz light with a snoot was set up behind the color wheel so that a directional beam of light would shine between the axles and through the area where the two discs overlapped_A slide projector lens was strepped between the snoot and the color wheel to fur·

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ther collimate the beam of light. and the complete unit was aimed at a rear projection screen. The 35mm Mitchell Reflex camera was locked down on the other side of the screen, and in en otherwise totaJly darkened studio, the two color wheels were animttted, rotating in opposite d irections. Earlier, 118· increments had been marked around the outer circumference of each wheel liS a guide ror consistent animation. (The whole lIpparatus could have been motorized with II chll!n drive but that would have required more time and money and wasn't really necessary.) After consulting some previously processed tests to insure proper exposure for such an unusual 1. Nebula background] 1 of fou .. top.llt 8Il0 colo ... una filmed OD animation .tand with aUght rotaUoD movement and con · nect.ed with 48 · f ..ame matched dJ_olv_. 2 . StaUc perlpberalatarrleld. Starlleld made b,. peclllng out plnhol_ In emu .. lon aide of bWnk (opaque) abeetnegaUve film, aad sbot Nclllit on anboatiOD stand. 3 . Srn.alI atmospbe..-e IJgbtnJng flImed at random In 6 · 8 f .... me cycle, 4 . Main Ugbtning. 5 . "S" abape fllmed with fog flltftr and ovenur~d , ~oom ' Ing back and ..otaUng. 6 . Second .-In lightning, 7 . " F" ahape alao filmed aoomlng baclr. and rotaUng. 8. Random aurburst plnpolnt.a. bole In hlack paper ahot with .ur filter. 9. "SF Connect Burat"-ama1l6v bulb filmed with atar filter at point where "S" and "F" ap· pear to connect In middle background, 10. Complete "Film Productlona" .pelled out In .....U dota, filmed coming on two at a time wltb ata .. and fog rUter com · binatlon. 11. Sur·ahaped "lena na ..e graphic." 12, RIng·abaped " len. flare graphic." 13. Normal SF Film P ..oductlona logo. 14. Surfleld behind SF logo. Cluse acruUn,. will rev_I mat· ted ar_ In cente.. that conform. to SF logo to prevent hleed.througb of aura. lS. Matte of rlm · ablne. Thla doe.n·t appear thl. wa, In final erred, but photog ..aphed he ..e to IIlu ......te overall .r_ of .-Im·ahlne. 16. Repreaentatlve frame of .-1m · .hlne. Slit animated behind .-Im-.hlne matte _en above (-15) . 17. Sparklea on SF logo, ahown altogetber here but animated Individually.

Image, we shot about 400 frames of color wheel effects. The resulting film was not exactly the""casc:ading flow of erupting color" that I had hoped for, so I continued to modify and add to this segment.

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Ove rlapping color wh _ l c ons truction ,

Although swirl1ng color effects melted in and out of ellCh other throughout the scene, the supplemen. tary lens used with the color wheel caused a predominant repeating pat· tern to appear slightly off and below center. By mellns of the Oxberry ani· mlltion stand, I had planned all along to bi·pack print the color wheel ef· fects onto the composite negative that would have all the title graphics, but now, !lither than rely on this single col· or wheel film. which was intentionally (and luckily) much longer than needed, I broke it up into two sections lasting the length of the intended scene. The first segment was synced up normally, but the second strip was nipped over and then tails·to·head, to take advan· tage of the off·center color wheel ef· fects and double the lIpparent color wheelllctlvity. (See Appendix A.) But even so, these color wheel ef· fects wouldn't have sufficed by themselves for the desired nebula en· vironment. so I retrieved some material originally m&de last year for a lV com· mercial. For that project I h&d needed a very surreal "sunset" to appear behind a miniature mountain/castle. A slide made up of red and yellow color gels h&d been projected onto wrinkled silvered Mylar at a 45 0 angle to a rea r screen, and the resulting abstract shapes h&d been photographed onto 35mm slides to later rear project behind my castle miniature. I only used one slide for the job, but for the SF logo. I selected four different slides from the leftover takes and ordered 8x 10 color reversal prints. These, then, would supplement the color wheel effects. With graphic material assembled and colorl density corrected positive 35mm prints of the color wheel effects ready and prepared with leader and sync marks (and after having run a bi· pack wedge test for exposure and filtra· 26

tioo and wedge tests on all color gels and graphics), work on composiling the sequence on the Oxberry was ready to begin. Two passes were first made, bi· packing the separate color wheel strips, prin~ing them directly onto the dupe negative in a straightforward manner. They were printed intentional· Iy dim, and are somewhat subtle In the final sequence. The third pass can· sisted of the color 8x 10 photos of the surreal sunset" shapes, animated in e slow (3 increment) rotation and blend· ed with 48-frame matched di$SOlves. This completed the basic nebula ef· fects and the ~enhan