How was text overlayed on film from the era before computers?

Question

back in the 1920s they had pretty snazy text effects on films

How did they get text on film before computers? I can't imagine some poor guy drawing on each square of film to get the effect

Answer 1

The very basic titles were drawn black on a white background on a board, a negative with a light behind it was then shot with a rostrum camera. More involved titles (when they were used in conjunction with moving images in the background) were drawn on board and using a negative image composited on the moving image by re-shooting the moving section frame by frame and then going back and shooting the negative frame by frame which overexposed the film leaving no tone, in other words white type coming out of the moving image.

A rostrum camera shoots vertically down and is capable of precise movements, by moving it up and down one can replicate a zoom, the plate, where the cel or board sits can be panned from side to side, rotated and tilted it can be top lit or bottom lit in a variety of ways to produce many effects. This was the standard method for adding type to any form of film, including television, until the development of computer graphics made it easier, also reducing the mistakes that could be made. Before Powerpoint and similar software, presentations were made using 35mm slides combined with audio tape up to 40 slide projectors could be programmed to produce a presentation, the manpower and technology meant that a presentation was expensive and rare.

This link shows a rostrum camera

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Aerialimagecamera.jpg

Answer 2

I am afraid that is exactly the process involved- though I think they used printer machines for that.
If you think that was bad, just imagine all the old cartoon films- one picture had to be painted for every frame of the film

Answer 3

the photos have been all positioned on plastic sheets ( initially paper ) Then the digital camera filmed them one physique at a time. that they had hundreds of imagery to movie. you're able to try this with any video digital camera immediately, movie one physique at a time.

Answer 4

They photographed text on paper or glass.