After about a decade of enthusiastic involvement with small-format film, something has happened that some people miss every now and then when watching what they have filmed themselves: The creation of movie titles!
In the beginning, I didn’t really care bout titles, as I wanted to gain experience with filming itself, and it was enough for me to just run the “naked” films through the projector. My first format was Regular 8, later 16 mm and a little Super 8 were added. To do this, I bought projectors, splicers, film viewers and other useful things. However, the subject of film titles kept coming back to my mind and I made my first own title with the “B&H Block Letter Titler Outfit” for a 16 mm film. Today though, I would like to tell you about another wonderful discovery!
From 1930, seven years after Bell & Howell’s “Filmo Automatic Cine Camera” came onto the market, the same company also published the monthly magazine “Filmo Topics” with a wide range of articles on film in general and the camera in particular.
As I regularly use some of these beautiful 16 mm cameras, the contents of the old magazines are very interesting and enjoyable reading material from a technical and historical point of view, and some of it is still relevant and can be used successfully today. While reading, I came across articles on the subject of title filming with a reference to a device for the Filmo 70, which seems to have been the first title device for 16 mm amateur film. I went looking and finally found one that I could buy:
To my great delight, there were several indications that the device had only been used very rarely, if ever at all. The device comes in a beautiful green velvet-lined case with various compartments for accessories. The base plate is made of beautiful magnolia wood, which I have treated with a care product that was highly recommended to me by a furniture restorer and which now gives this old wood a new shine. It is called “Ruja-Möbelpfleger”. The other parts are made of steel, brass, porcelain and bakelite. There are hardly any scratches on the appliance and almost all the accessories are in immaculate condition.
The accessories include: A focus adapter with prism for parallax compensation, an alignment card for the image field, 2 x twelve black title cards, a template to align the writing area, two nibs, a nib holder, an unopened (!) barrel of white ink (Johnston’s “Snow White” WHITE INK) with instructions and cleaning cloth, two “GE Mazda” projection lamps (110V/165W), the mains connection cable with switch and an adapter, presumably for drawing power from a lamp socket of the time. I copied an instruction manual from another offer on Ebay. A copy of the patent specification was included with my purchase.
Since the bulbs are 110V, I had a friendly electrician connect them in series and check the cables and connections. Now everything is safe! I also had to buy an American/European power plug adapter and after switching it on for the first time, I was delighted to discover that the old bulbs still work!
I now have two options for illuminating the picture:
- Use of the original lamps in combination with a modern dimmer (designed for up to 300W)
- Modern LED Video Light
The short shooting distance required for sharp images (approx. 33 cm) was originally achieved with the focus adapter screwed between the fixed focus lens of the time and the camera, which also had a built-in prism that compensated for the parallax of the side viewfinder. This is no longer necessary for me, as two of my Filmo 70s have a focusing aid (“Critical Focuser”), which was not yet available on the cameras when the Titler appeared. This allows me to focus directly on the title card even with other lenses. My TTH Cooke Ivotal Anastigmat 25/1.4 with its close focusing distance is perfect for the short distance. The alignment of the optical axis to the center of the image is ensured by a metal bracket on which the camera is screwed.
With the Filmo 70-DL and -DR, which have a parallax compensation on the viewfinder, I can examine the designed title at least horizontally in the correct image section in advance.
I opened the white ink to see what condition it was still in after 95 years. It had a powder-like consistency and a few drops of water actually made it writeable again. The original nibs are no longer usable due to slight bending, so new ones are used instead. Of course, I can also work with a modern white fineliner. Let’s see what works best and looks good. I’ll keep the original black title cards as a collector’s item and use new black cardboard.
The device I purchased is the second version to come onto the market. There were probably three versions in total. The first and second versions are very similar with their 110V/165W bulbs and rigid brackets for them. The reflectors differ only in that those of the first version are coated silver on the inside and painted green on the outside, while those of the second version have the same coating on the inside and outside. The second version also has two vertical, approx. 3 cm high crossbars on the base. I can’t say whether this is for functional or cosmetic reasons. The third version lacks these again, but has movable brackets for 110V/100W light bulbs.
The patent application for the device was filed on 10.09.1926 and the patent was granted on 03.07.1928.
B&H Character Title Writer with Bolex H8
I now had a beautiful and stylish option for my 16mm films – and suddenly I had a seemingly crazy idea: would it perhaps be possible to use my Bolex H8 on this device?
With a threaded adapter in the tripod mount of the Bolex (Bolex 3/8 inch congress thread on Filmo 70 1/4 inch) I could have screwed the camera tight, but unfortunately the original metal bracket was a little too tight on the side. So what to do?
I fished another title writer (this time the first version) out of the bay for very little money, unscrewed the bracket, bent it and the Bolex now sits horizontally in the right place, just like the Filmo. Unlike the other Writer, this metal bracket had a black felt piece attached to it to protect it from scratches. I replaced this with a new one and also attached it to the other writer.
Last but not least, the optical axis was still about 4 mm too high vertically, partly due to the thread adapter. So I placed washers under the title card holder to raise the card by this amount. Now the complete alignment was also correct with the Bolex. As it is a non-reflex, I simply use its eye-level focus to focus on the card. I can use the Switar 12.5/1.5 or the Yvar 13/1.8 as a lens, which are very suitable for the short distance due to their close focusing limits.
I had the appliance checked again by a qualified electrician. The bulbs were wired in series, but this time the old cables had to be replaced with new ones. Surprisingly, the three original bulbs (again GE Mazda projection lamps 110V/165W) from this purchase still worked. In addition to the case, the accessories included the focus adapter with prism for parallax compensation, ten black title cards and the mains connection cable with switch.
As you can also see in some of the advertising photos, the person filming can also film themselves by tilting the construction when writing titles! As my wife also wants to make subtitles for our son’s film diary, she is already starting to practice, as you can see in this photo:
Now I can also use the H8 on this device, which was actually made for the Filmo 70, and, if it fits, I can create individually designed intertitles especially for the 30.5 m reels before planned events without having to cut them in afterwards. In any case, it will now be used regularly and I will be able to really let off steam when creating titles.
I recently sacrificed two films (Fomapan R 100) in both formats and took test shots to check the framing and made exposure series with white lettering on dark cardboard and black lettering on light cardboard, fades with the dimmer and small trick titles with my two available lighting options.
I’m very curious to see where I might need to make adjustments and I think this preliminary work will give me insights into the sensible use of the two devices within the scope of my requirements and possibilities. I’m particularly looking forward to implementing some of the title ideas from the “Filmo Topics” mentioned at the beginning, which make use of various techniques from the pioneering days of amateur cinematography.
All in all, these old title writers are very compact, easy to handle and also look very nice. And this completely analog manual process is of course exciting, highly interesting and a lot of fun!
Here are two more posts copied from the “Filmo Topics” I mentioned. They describe beautiful title ideas with the “Title Writer” and the “Block Letters”.
B&H Character Title Writer:
B&H Block Letter Outfit:
In the meantime, my two test films have also come back from Andec and I have been able to gain the following insights after viewing them in the film viewer and projection:
After the exposure series, I now know, depending on whether I use black or light cardboard, which aperture value has to be set at ISO 100 (and derived from this also at other film speeds) with a certain illuminance of the dimmer and a certain number of fps.
Whether I use the original bulbs or the LED Video Light makes no visible difference when using this B/W material. When using the Ektachrome 100D, I will write with colored pencils on light cardboard in the future and, since it is a daylight film, set the LED Video Light to the color temperature of 5300K.
The fades with the dimmer on the original bulbs turned out great and now I’m looking forward to doing some titles with fades.
The new black cardboard also looks very good. I sacrificed an original black title card for the comparison. I haven’t picked up a pen and white ink yet (still to come 😀) and wrote with a fineliner instead.
With both cameras, I have to make a little adjustment when setting the optical axis to the center of the image.
This “B&H Alignment Card”, which is part of the device, is very easy to adjust.
The Filmo image is positioned correctly vertically and shifted slightly to the right horizontally.
On the Bolex, it is shifted slightly upwards vertically and slightly to the left horizontally. Surprisingly, the horizontal shift is somewhat greater on the Filmo than on the Bolex. Let’s see what the reason is…
To compensate for the small shift in the vertical position of the Bolex, I will now place one washer on each side of the title card holder instead of 2 pairs of washers. That should be enough.
I think that since both universal cameras are primarily intended for amateur use, this small offset in the image section is to be expected and is of course more significant at this very short distance. Presumably the side viewfinders of the cameras do not match the lens one hundred percent and the writers are perhaps not quite perfect in their dimensions either. This really doesn’t matter much with either camera and is hardly noticeable in the projection, as the edges of the image are masked anyway, but the titles should be centered (if that’s what you want).
Nowadays it’s all quite easy to correct. That’s why I’ve had the films scanned in order to complete the preparatory work and to be able to upload a few examples here soon. I can then take my time to look at the results, make the adjustments and concentrate (almost) exclusively on the design for all future titles.
I had the films scanned as an “overscan” so that I could really judge the position of the image accurately.
Before we get to the moving images of the sample titles below, here are some stills. These are just simple screenshots from my computer, not digitized individual images.
An aperture value of 5.6 has proven to be ideal for my exposure series with white lettering on black card. With this aperture, I achieve a very high-contrast image in which the writing on the card shines beautifully. With light-colored cardboard, I started the exposure series at aperture 8, but 5.6 seems to be better. I think that in future I will use white card instead of beige for B&W film so that the black writing on it contrasts better.
I am also satisfied with the sharpness of both cameras. The method I described for focusing with my non-reflex cameras on these devices is successful, much to my delight.
Here is a section of an aperture row with the Bolex H8:
Here is a still image with the YVAR:
Here you can see the small shift in the center of the image, which is different for the two cameras. The image on the Bolex is also slightly tilted to the bottom right.
Bolex H8 (image slightly shifted to the left and tilted to the bottom right)
Filmo 70-DR (image shifted too far to the right, aperture 8 too dark)
Here you can also see the shift quite well:
Here with aperture 5.6.
…and here’s a still from a title filmed with my writing hand 😃
There are now also examples in moving pictures. Please bear in mind that these are my first attempts with the Writer, but all in all I am satisfied with the results and I can make good use of the experience I have gained for the next titles. I’m particularly looking forward to crossfades!
I masked the image section, similar to my projectors, and since the image position of the Fomapan was a little shaky in both cameras, I stabilized it a little. For the test films, this film was enough for me to assess the parameters I was interested in. I mainly use Ektachrome 100D for films that are important to me, and everything is known to be flawless.
Here is the first example (Filmo 70-DR) in which I have incorporated the Click&Surr logo. I found it on the net, took a large screenshot of it, printed it out in the right size, cut it out and glued it onto the title card. Many thanks to Jürgen Lossau, who gave me his permission to upload it!
Further examples follow (Filmo 70-DR).
First a little trick title, which I made with the old advertising slogan for the “Filmo Automatic Cine Camera”. I used a white fineliner and a writing template. This was included with one of the writers and it makes the writing nice and straight.
I pulled the film logo from the net again and stuck it on the title card. It was also important for me to test the effect of the dimmer for fade-in/fade-out with the original light bulbs.
In this example, I have used the dimmer for a kind of “flashing cycle”.
Since I didn’t film any direct title samples with the Bolex H8, but rather exposure series, image section samples, etc., here are two final examples in 8mm format.
That rounds off the topic for now and I hope you found my explanations enjoyable, entertaining and inspiring. By the way, I’m currently building an additional device for this title writer to expand the possibilities considerably, but more on that later.
First, an exposure sample with black lettering on light cardboard:
Secondly, an exposure sample with white lettering on black cardboard:
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