Britain’s Army of Amateurs

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 951, 19 April 1930, Page 23

Britain’s Army of Amateurs

T least 100,000 people in Great Britain, it is estimated, are proW ducing tlieir own mov- ■ ing pictures—as ambitions in character, many of them, as anything turned out from a professional studio. Those smitten with an ambition to go on the films need no longer endure the heartbreaks of Hollywood; the new hobby give 3 everybody the chance to do his or her “stuff” and to show whether he or she has the making of another Ronald Colman or Greta Garbo. Popular film producing has only been possible during the last three or four years, during which suitable apparatus for the amateur has been manufactured at a modest price. A large number of clubs devoted to film making have, in consequence, sprung up all over the country. One organisation alone —the Amateur Cinematographers’ Association, with branches in Leeds, Sheffield and other places—has close upon 1,000 members. Others with memberships of anything from a dozen to 200 are flourishing. ATTIC STUDIOS Nearly all use special film, smaller than that used for professional purposes.

Many of the clubs have fully equipped studios —shop basements, attics or even a convenient garage—where they can arrange their scenes, or “sets,” and install the special electrical appliances necessary for taking pictures at any time of the day or night. Limited means, of course, call for an added ingenuity. In a recent amateur production, it was necessary to shoot a scene of a policeman moving on a crowd in the East End. The constable on the beat, naturally did not feel called upon to act, and he said so. The actors concealed their camera man at a strategic point, and then proceeded to get in the way of pedestrians and form an obstruction. PERFECT PICTURE The policeman thereupon ‘‘moved on” the crowd in his best professional style, while the concealed camera man got a perfect picture. Several notable productions have been made by amateurs. “The Gaiety of Nations,” a war film acclaimed as the finest amateur effort yet, was made by Mr. G. H. Sewell and Mr. J. Ahern, of the London A.C.A., in a kitchen. Most of the actors were models and all the realistic effects—dugouts, trenches and gun emplacements—were obtained by trick photography. Mr. Sewell has also made another film. “Smoke.” Another unusual production, made by Mr. W. V. Brice, tells a story entirely by the»actors’ hands, their faces never being shown: