American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1963)

Record Details:

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ELGEET ZOOM NAVITAR Elgeet offers Vidicon television cameras and 16mm cameras the first Zoom Navitar, a manually-controlled 4:1 zoom with a 20mm to 80mm range— f: 1 .8! This new lens achievement is optically compen¬ sated to hold focus through the entire zoom action. Fourteen elements— covers Vidicon format— resolves 600 lines— linear zoom action by ring— list price: $400. For information, write for Catalog 2080-CZ18. OPTICAL COMPANY, INC. 303 Child St., Rochester 11, N. Y. scenes of two POW’s escaping by row boat on tbe Rhine river — shot entirely in light rain, with the lens set at f/2.8 most of the time; and the sus¬ pensive sequence of scenes in which a number of recaptured prisoners are taken by truck to a lonely spot in the country, turned out and coldly ma¬ chine-gunned. The dour, cloudy day exactly matched the mood of these ter¬ rible scenes and Fapp’s photography and skillful lighting give the sequence powerful pictorial impact. Much of the picture’s exciting action takes place in the underground escape route laboriously dug beneath barracks and compound by the pris¬ oners while German guards vigilantly policed the camp grounds. The set rep¬ resenting a cross-section of the tunnel was extensive — about 200 feet in length — and was constructed on a sound stage of the Bavaria Studios. In its design and construction, Director Sturges insisted that it be kept as nar¬ row in depth as practical so that both the ceiling and the base of the tunnel would appear in the picture frame. It was important, he said, to maintain the visual effect of extremely cramped quarters the prisoners had to work in as they inched along toward freedom with their laborious digging. As the tunnel length grew, the prisoners ex¬ tended the crude wooden tracks over which they moved low-slung carts to carry the excavated soil — and later the prisoners themselves as they were trans¬ ported one by one from the secret exit in the barracks floor to the end of the tunnel and freedom. Here the photography was extensive and required several days to complete. Most of it was mobile camera shots, with the Mitchell camera dolly-mounted and moving on tracks parallel to the tunnel set. “The wide scope of our Panavision lenses,” said Fapp, “pre¬ cluded panning the camera. Lighting of this set was predomin¬ antly low-key and it was an important factor in the build-up of suspense which the feverish action in the tunnel generated. Compatible with the grim mood of the scene, the lighting was deliberately underplayed, yet was ade¬ quate at all times to afford easy dis¬ cernment of action and players on the screen. As the prisoners began digging their escape tunnel, they used candles for illumination. Later, they fashioned “oil lamps” from discarded tin cans and wicks made from strips of cloth, which burned fat obtained from the com¬ pound kitchen. Fapp played irregular spots of yellow light on the tunnel wall back of these lamps to simulate the glow of the tiny flames. In shooting scenes of the men moving through the tunnel one at a time on the rickety, low carts, a Baby Junior mounted on a second cart moving along in front of the players properly illuminated them for photography. There is another sequence in this pic¬ ture that particularly stands out, both for the photography and the execution of it. It is the crashing of a light, single-motored plane in which two of the escapees are attempting flight to freedom. “Logically, we did all of the close shots before the plane was actu¬ ally crashed,” Fapp explained. The spectacular crash was no special effects job ; it was a deliberate crackup by an expert flyer, without injury to himself. “To film the pre-crash close shots depicting the ‘crashed’ plane nosed over and burning at the edge of a forest,” Fapp explains, “the plane was angled over as required and a number of broken tree limbs and some up¬ rooted brush arranged on and around it. Some combustible material was then ignited within the setup to give the illusion that the plane with its occu¬ pants inside was afire. “After all the close shots were com¬ pleted,” Fapp continued, “the big, spectacular crash scene was staged and photographed. This was a one-time, one-shot, no-retakes operation and every precaution was taken to insure getting the action just right on film. With everything in readiness, we started the cameras rolling as the pilot headed our way, as instructed. He brought the plane in low among the trees. The right wing caught a branch, veered into a clump of trees and crashed. It was a perfect take. “The only process shots involved in this whole sequence,” Fapp continued, “were closeups of actors James Garner and Donald Pleasance seated in the plane as it ostensibly moved in flight. The shots were done in the Bavaria studio using a single-head process pro¬ jector, which just barely gave us the volume of light required for the pro¬ cess shots.” These are but a few of the photo¬ graphic highlights of this dramatic and suspensive motion picture — the third, which Daniel Fapp has photographed for The Mirisch Company. For the photography of “One, Two, Three,” 356 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, JUNE, 1963