To follow the subject either in a horizontal or vertical plane it is necessary to turn the handle controlling the panoramic movements of the tripod head. This mechanism should be turned slowly and steadily with one hand, while the other is turning the camera handle. It is by no means an easy, simple matter to follow a subject in this way without any disconcerting jerky movement, since it involves doing two things at once. For a beginner it is particularly exacting, as an eye must be kept fixed upon the view finder to follow the moving object. But after a little experience the whole of these movements are carried out in a semi-mechanical manner. In cinematography, it is the diligent, careful, and persevering worker who scores successes. In the beginning failures may be galling and frequent, but practice and experience are the best teachers. One can soon become adept in a fascinating art.
CHAPTER V
HAND CAMERA CINEMATOGRAPHY
During the past few years competition among professional moving-picture photographers has become exceedingly keen, especially in connection with the filming of topical events. The operator often is faced with prodigious obstacles, the subjugation of which is not always easy, or even possible. For instance, in a dense crowd the conventional apparatus, from its bulkiness, weight, and proportions, cannot be handled, and, even if set upon its tripod with the lens elevated above the heads of the people, there is the serious danger of the whole being upset by the swaying motion of the mass of spectators. Yet at the same time a place in the crowd constitutes an ideal point of view.
Again, there are many situations where the use of a tripod is impracticable, if not dangerous. Take the aeroplane. An operator seated in a flying machine and desirous of recording the moving scenes beneath, cannot support his machine upon the conventional device for this purpose. He has to hold it as best he can, and so secure his pictures under extremely trying conditions. Although films innumerable are taken by persons seated in aeroplanes, only a very small proportion ever come before the public eye, for the majority are failures. Nowadays, also, the filming of aeroplane flights from a fixed point on the ground is by no means easy. In order to follow the evolutions of flying machines, more particularly at comparatively close ranges and when travelling at high speeds, two operators are required, one to turn the camera handle, and the other to sight and follow the object both through its horizontal and vertical planes in such a way as to keep it in the centre of the picture. To do this he has simultaneously to turn the two handles operating the panoramic and elevating gear of the tripod head, and often in opposite directions. The task must be done without the slightest jerk, or the success of the film is marred. One of the most disconcerting effects upon the screen is a jumpy panoramic movement either horizontally or up and down. It worries the eye, and more often than not reduces the picture to an almost unintelligible blur.
The "Aeroscope" Moving-picture Hand Camera.