Amateur Awards

In Hollywood last week, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded to two amateur cameramen the prizes which, for owners of miniature movie outfits, correspond to the awards which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences give to cinema professionals. To R. B. Clardy, a Los Angeles commercial artist, went $250 for his 200-ft. film, New Horizon. A 20-year-old Japanese, Tatuschi Okamoto, who won the photography award two years ago, last week took $100 second prize with a picture called Tender Friendship.

Organized 17 years ago to provide a medium for distributing and testing new technical ideas, the A. S. C. has become the No. 1 technical club of Hollywood's cameramen. Its 400 members, including almost every important cameraman in the industry, rarely meet but contribute enthusiastically to the society's annual contests. The contests are governed by only two rules: 1) contestants must not have professional assistance; 2) they must not use 35 millimetre film and reduce it to the 8 or 16 millimetre sizes to which the contest is limited. Since it is impossible to detect reduced film, each entry is accompanied by a sworn statement that no such process has been used.

In New Horizon, Cinematographer Clardy presented the life of a farm girl at a moment of crisis. One reel, almost without titles, tells the story of her efforts to marry the man she loves in spite of her father's opposition which keeps her chained to the farm. Okamoto's heroine was a Japanese girl making a doll as a birthday present for a friend. Pictorial values, backgrounds of the Japanese countryside in spring, and the delicate grain which Cinematographer Okamoto had achieved gave his film distinction. Both winners last week used 8 mm. film. Clardy's camera was an Eastman No. 60 with an 1-1.9 lens. Okamoto used the cheapest Cine Kodak Eight made, model No. 20, which cost $34.50.

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