Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/941

 Popular Science Monthly

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��A screen of graduated transparency slides in front of the lens, running from trans- parency to opaque.

For dissolving views, as in cases where one scene appears to blend into another in a gradual and pleasing manner, the "fade- out" and the "fade-in" effects are em- ployed. The first scene is faded out by the camera man, who carefully counts his turns or notes the posi- tion of his film-indicator hand. He then winds back the film the same number of turns, or until the hand on the indicator has re- turned to the position where the "fade-out" began, keep- ing the lens covered all the while. Then, with the diaphragm entirely closed,

���camera lens, and equipped with an iris diaphragm which is manipulated by a long lever. Since the sharpness or softness of the vignette edge depends entirely on the distance between the diaphragm and the lens, the tube is of telescopic construction to permit of sharp or soft outlines. When the diaphragm is placed as far away from the lens as the tube will permit, the circle vignette is sharp, but if the diaphragm is brought near to the lens, the outline is barely discernible, al- though of course the device accomplishes its mission just as effectively, and far more artistically. Whether the vignette edge should be soft or hard depends en- tirely on the subject which

�� ��A circle vignetter in an ex- tension tube on lens barrel

��Side view of the circle vignetter showing iris which operates lever

����he begins taking pictures in the usual way for a "fade-in" effect, which is timed the same as the previous operation for the fade-out.

A new-comer in the film field is the effect known by several different names, such as "circle vignette," "circle-in," and "round dissolve," which has met with great favor imong film producers. In the films it < auses a scene to shrink gradually, changing from a square or oblong image to a round image, which becomes smaller and smaller until it disappears in the center of a black mass. The effect is also used in isolating a character or an object, so that it will stand alone in a round, vignetted picture. At other times, it is used to soften the corners of an oblong picture.

The "circle vignette," or whatever one may choose to call it, is produced by an extension tube placed in front of the usual

��A curtain dissolver for use in matching what

A square dosing dis- ^^ called a "split stage"

solver that moves all

four sides gradually

is to be photographed and the effect that is sought.

Another recently introduced effect is the "square closing dissolve," which at- tains the same ends as the circle vig- nette, but with the difference that- the effect is a square one instead of circular. In a "square closing dissolve" the four sides of a picture move toward the center and the rectangular shape is preserved until the scene disappears entirely in a field of black. The device employed to secure this result consists of two shutter leaves with their facing edges cut out to form a right angle notch, which through the agency of parallel levers oper- ated by a handle, overlap each other, more or less, as desired. Thus the size of the square opening formed by the overlapping

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