The true art of Spartacus
QUESTION Before computer technology, how were titles added to films? Computer-generated imagery (CgI) has transformed film and television, not only in adding titles, but also in action sequences and cartoons. However, until CgI was used, feature films had to rely on more primitive technology.
title sequences and graphics were shot on film rostrum cameras, a frame at a time with 24 frames to a second, usually on 16mm or 35mm film.
a rostrum camera consists of a moving lower platform on which the article to be filmed is placed, while the camera is situated above on a column. this allows for tracking into the text by moving the camera down the column. the lower platform could be also moved to pan the text on the horizontal and vertical axis.
Simple credits to superimpose over live action film were shot white text on a black background, then processed in a film lab.
to add the text to the live action, the laboratory would create a print from the original film live action negative, then, before processing the print, would double -expose it using the negative from the rostrum camera containing the credits.
Because the text is white on black, the text ‘burns’ through the print emulsion while the black background doesn’t expose, leaving white text over the live action. In television, captions were shot by video cameras, but were also white on black. they were double-exposed by keying the text using a vision mixer in the tV studio control room.
In the Fifties and Sixties, u.S. graphic designer Saul Bass, regarded by many as the father of film and tV titles, started to produce more sophisticated title sequences for films such as psycho and north By north West, but these were also filmed on rostrum cameras. the work of Saul and elaine Bass is featured on the website artofthetitle.com.
Computer graphics didn’t really impact on film and tV until the mid-eighties. Geoff Pearson, former Head of Graphic Design ATV and Central TV, Bromsgrove, Worcs. QUESTION Further to the question about jokes in the Soviet Union, does anyone know of any jokes from the Roman Empire? roman humour set the framework for humour we use today, jokes based on ambiguity, the unexpected, wordplay, anecdote, farce, understatement, parody, ridicule and slapstick. the subject matter can also be strikingly similar to modern jokes, including farts, sex, ugly wives and dimwittedness.
the language of modern humour is rooted in Latin. Locus is Latin for ‘joke’; facetus, as in facetious, is Latin for ‘witty’;
ridiculus, as in ridiculous, meant ‘laughable’.
the emperor augustus was, by all accounts, quite a wit, though his quips today feel laboured: When a man was nervously giving him a petition and kept putting his hand out, then drawing it back, the emperor responded: ‘Hey, do you think you’re giving a penny to an elephant?’
Cicero, rome’s celebrity orator, was well known for his wit (once described as ‘far too funny for his own good’). one witticism was his swipe at his son-in-law, the diminutive Lentulus, who was sporting a long sword. He said, ‘Who tied my son-in-law to his sword?’
there was a roman joke book philogelos (the Laughter Lover), a collection of 265 jokes written in greek (most romans spoke Latin and greek) dating from the 4th century ad. possibly compiled by the otherwise-unknown Hierocles and philagrios, it contains strikingly familiar jokes: ‘a glutton betrothed his daughter to another glutton. asked what he was giving her as a dowry, he replied: “a house whose windows face the bakery.” ’
a man is attending to the burial of his wife, who has just died, when someone asks: ‘Who is it who rests in peace here?’ He answers: “me, now I’m rid of her!’
one joke has even been described as an ancestor of monty python’s dead parrot comedy sketch: a man complains to his friend that he was sold a slave who had died in his service. His companion replies: ‘When he was with me, he never did any such thing!’.
In 2008, comic and former Bullseye presenter Jim Bowen presented the material in a stand-up show.
Tim Francis, St Ives, Cornwall. QUESTION Some years ago, it was said that carbon fibre would revolutionise the repair or replacement of ligaments as it was eventually absorbed by the body and replaced by living tissue. Was this technique ever adopted ? FurtHer to the earlier answer, I was offered this experimental treatment in the early eighties. at the time it was thought the implant regenerated the ligament structure itself. this was based on surgery carried out on racehorses.
I exercised the knee with few problems until the early 2000s when I went to a local hospital with a cartilage problem in the same knee.
I explained the history, and the examining doctor left, returning with a colleague. they then had a whispered conversation before both then examined my knee scars and traced the raised subcutaneous tissue. I queried them on this performance before one explained.
this procedure was stopped when it was found that the regenerated ‘ligament’ was in fact, scar tissue which formed around the implant itself.
However, I am now in my 60s and have plenty of discomfort in the leg and knee area. But I have no complaints: I’ve had good use of this experiment for more than 30 years and, hopefully, it won’t get too bad in the next 30! Bob McCulloch, Shepperton, Surrey.