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Home Movies

Text and Photos by Ken Rudine
In 1945 after World War Two, my dad bought an 8mm-movie outfit. We loaded the first roll of film in the camera and he began filming immediately. I noticed how he handled the camera moving it quickly across a scene and using only seconds of film. Apparently he felt a movie camera meant it could be moved while using. By the end of the day he had exposed one half of the film. Dad suggested that I expose the other half on subjects of my choosing so we could promptly mail the film in for processing.

We mailed the exposed film to Chicago, IL for processing. About a week later our processed film was returned by the postman. After dark we set up the screen and projector to watch the 3 minute film. The part my dad had shot was a blur of color caused by camera movement. The half I shot was clearer because I held the camera still. After this film was shown, my dad solemnly said, “From now on you should make most of our movies”.  I was happy to accept that job.

Kids then needed imaginations more than now. I filmed my group of friends playing touch football at the esplanade near my house. Other movies were of family gatherings and places we visited. A lot of film was taken of us learning to water ski when Lake Houston opened in the 1950’s.

The kid next door was five years younger and would come over to watch my friends and I play basketball. He would usually climb up on the garage roof and sit next to the goal. Afterward he would jump off the roof. An idea came to me of how to make a trick movie. I offered to film him jumping off the roof if he would face backwards while doing so. He agreed and I filmed the action. When the processed film returned I spliced the film to reverse the action but the picture was upside down. I realized if I held the camera upside-down during the filming the film would be correct. The result looked good enough that I didn’t even get into trouble. Later people called trick films like this special effects.

That experience helped me decide to concentrate on making my films more entertaining. Occasionally we went to the Saturday morning movies. There we saw serials, short film segments from a continuing story. One of these serials was called “The Perils of Pauline”. This is a simple story of a villain causing Pauline to be in distress and needing a rescuing hero. I visualized how we could film our version using just four people. Since it was a spoof of “the serial” I named it “Pearls for Pearl”.

A problem arose when we couldn't get a girl to play Pearl. To salvage the film I volunteered to wear a dress with stuffing strategically placed underneath. During the filming the hero dislodged part of the stuffing causing one side of it to fall to my waist. This lack of chest symmetry was not noticed until the film returned from processing. When viewed by the cast it was hilarious.

During the summer the City of Houston would show a free movie one night a week in nearby Stude Park. This gave us the idea to set up our screen in the backyard and invite the neighbors to watch our home movies. They came with their porch chairs and were entertained. Relations with neighbors were much closer before television and air conditioning. Home movies were never very “professional” compared to what is available today but the images were interesting because they were of people you knew.
Houston TX - Necklace In Hand
Necklace In Hand

Showing movies outdoors meant we had to contend with some insects. Our projector had a 500-watt bulb cooled by a blower and occasionally it sucked in a bug sometimes blocking the light beam. When that happened I had to stop the movie for a few minutes and disassemble the projector to correct the problem.

Dad's Camera Projector
Dad's Camera Projector

All this equipment is sixty years old now. The films, projector bulbs, editing equipment and reels are no longer commonly available. If they still exist at all they are stored and forgotten.

Recently I found a company on the web that transfers home movies to DVD. I gave copies of that DVD to all the people I could locate who might be interested. I have jokingly thought the only difference between old home movie makers and Spielberg is that he did what we did – but he continued to do it - over and over.

© Ken Rudine

September 22 , 2010

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