American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1963)

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Newport Blvd. Newport Beach, Calif. V. J power provided by the sails. It had been planned to use these two motors also to drive power generators to feed the booster lights, but in actual prac¬ tice it developed that one motor was needed constantly to aid in steering the ship, and Surtees was thus restricted to using three Brute sun-arcs at most. The climactic sequence of the pic¬ ture, in which the crew sets fire to the ship, was filmed on the sound stage with a crew of fire fighters standing by ready to spray foam and water should the flame get out of control. The heat was so intense that the technicians had to wear insulated suits and asbestos was placed around the camera. The sequence was tricky to photo¬ graph because the color film used is balanced for incandescent light, and since firelight is similar in color tem¬ perature (approximately 3200° Kel¬ vin) there was the probability that the fire would appear white if normally exposed. In order to retain the red tones of the flames, Surtees purposely underexposed the fire scenes, lighting for a key of f/2.8 and stopping down to f/4.5. Also he lit the scenes very contrasty, using no fill light at all on the faces, since light from the flames tended to fill in the shadowy areas. After making photographic tests in Tahiti Surtees noted that for some un¬ explainable reason, scenes photo¬ graphed according to exposure meter readings invariably turned out to be underexposed one stop. Compensating accordingly he exposed scenes one stop over the meter reading, in effect using the ASA 32 color film as if it were rated at ASA 16. With this adjustment in exposure, he said, the exterior scenes printed consistently in the middle of the scale. Further photographic complications were presented by the fact that fully forty per cent of the exterior scenes had to he filmed at sunset. Under such conditions there is a span of only a few minutes in which the light is right for shooting, and when it is also im¬ possible to get an accurate meter read¬ ing. Moreover, since there was again the danger of washing out the red tones, such scenes had to he slightly underexposed. Surtees added to the ef¬ fect of the natural light by having red gel filters placed before the booster lights used in filming the sunset scenes. Even so. still more red tones had to be added to these scenes by the laboratory in printing. In shooting day-for-night exteriors, a Pola-screen w'as effectively used to darken sky and water without NATIONAL CINE LABORATORIES WASHINGTON 17, D. C. ■ ■■Ill 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 m 1 1 1 m 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 m 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ii ii 1 1 1 ii 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 m 1 1 mm 1 1 1! 1 1 1 ii n mil imm iniimi n mu Cinematographer Harold E. W ellman is credited with additional photography for “Mutiny on the Bounty,” and A. Arnold Gillespie, Lee Blanc and Robert R. Hoag for its superb special effects. As George J. Mitchell remarked, in reviewing the picture for Films In Review for December, 1962, “This film proves that the problem in photographing miniatures for wide-screen projec¬ tion have been mastered. The scenes of the Bounty attempting to round Cape Horn in a gale are among the best of the kind I have ever seen. ’ —Ed. mill I lllllllllllll 1 1 II 1 1 IIIMIII II Mill llllllll I nil Mil . INI I lilllllll llllllllllll Mllilllll lllllll affecting flesh tones. Several scenes in the sequence show¬ ing the “Bounty" arriving at Tahiti, as well as in the stone-fishing sequence, were filmed with hand-held Panavision cameras operated by cameramen rid¬ ing in outrigger canoes. These cameras were particularly valuable in getting mobile coverage of the unique fishing ceremony, during which 4,000 natives form a human chain in the surf while others in canoes beat the water with stones to drive the fish up onto the beach for the kill. Panavision’s under¬ water camera was put to effective use in this sequence as well as in the keel¬ hauling sequence — the latter actually filmed beneath the ship while at sea. Despite the almost incredible photo¬ graphic problems encountered, “Mu¬ tiny on the Bounty" sweeps across the screen as a spectacularly pictorial ad¬ venture — a credit to Cinematographer Robert Surtees, ASC, the Panavision cameras, and the operators who worked behind those cameras. H ‘WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF’ Continued from Page 98 it. Chief purpose of the No. 4 camera was to pick up the hall in flight from the tee and follow it clown to its ulti¬ mate lie on the fairway or green. Here, weather conditions played an impor¬ tant part in the success of these shots, for if l he sky was a milky or hazy one, the hall was lost against it. But w'here the hall was backdropped in its flight by clear blue sky or green trees, it was easy for the camera operator to fol¬ low it. To mobilize the No. 4 camera, wTe used one of two types of carriers — 116 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, FEBRUARY, 1963