International photographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

''art" on MOUNTAIN TOp (Continued from page 5) skiiers. Everywhere was virgin snow. Here was a chance to sketch patterns, completing the composition with effective designs written by the skiis of our experts. To get exactly the effect I wanted a sketch was made of each composition as seen in the finder. Then I'd sketch in the lines I wanted the skiiers to make on the slopes of virgin snow. They would pick out landmarks and soon the scene was completed. Almost every one was identical with the original sketch, plus the ACTION. We were struggling to obtain pictures in motion and the stuff I saw on the screen here was most gratifying considering the difficulties we had to get exactly what we wanted. Often the ideal set-up was just a few feet out over a cliff, or half down an alp, but the boys there were just as anxious as we were to get the best, so no job was too tough. Great areas of white snow, splashed with brilliant sunshine, gave us color photographers an interesting problem. To aid in obtaining the utmost color without flaring the snow, I went so far as to use combinations of neutral density filters together with the polaroid which in addition to its other powers of cutting haze, darkening skies and cutting glare is a perfect neutral filter. The skiiers wore colorful suits and we wanted those colors, but we had to hold down the snow in order to expose for the suits. The combinations did well. Fortunately I carry a wide variety of graduated neutral densities from clear to black and by jamming a collection of them from all sides and leaving the costumed areas clear, we captured all the color there was in the skii suits. Wish I had two of those gadgets Joe Walker invented that slide graduated neutral filters from both sides. I would have used one top and bottom and the other from the sides. Fortunately I had Harrison glass filters, which are flats, and no distortion appears even when four of them are shot through at one time. Shooting the picture was absolutely nothing; my worries began when I thought of getting down that mountain on skiis. The boys packed the stuff on their backpacks and took off at breakneck speed into the snow depths below. I had visions of film, camera, lenses splattered against trees to the right and left! I stood at the summit watching them disappear down the mountain and no one fell. I felt better, but very lonely. Finally it dawned on me that I was alone up there and five miles of skiing down . . . for me to DO . . . before I could even find out if all was well. Worry about the stuff soon made me desperate, so I shoved off, grasping fran tically at all the bits of advice about skiis that I had picked up. Keep your knees together . . . lean forward . . . stem to slowup .. . but I couldn't make a snow plow out of those skiis . . . at all . . . faster . . . faster . . . then . . . POW ... I submerged. He's down; he's up; down . . .up; finally I didn't know whether I was climbing up or sliding down. Four hours later I reached bottom. A hot bath, food, aboard the train we climbed, safe and partly sound; but the stuff was okay. Nothing wrecked but the cameraman, and the woods are full of them; you can even find pieces of one on the trees that marked my descent, not artistically, down that mountain. If the picture is not ART, no one can say I didn't try. WHAT I THINK OF "CITIZEN KANE" "Citizen Kane" as a whole is a noteworthy achievement in the cinema world and is recommended as a "must" picture on your list. Welles and his cast are more than competent; they are great performers and they should give us a continuance of pleasurable moments in future production. The photography is strikingly real; it differs from everything that speaks of modern tradition and daringly resorts to something which seldom ever has been tried. It seems that the angle employed has a tendency of bringing the characters closer to the audience and makes the observer feel that he is participating in conversation and action taking place on the screen. Whether this is accomplished by devising low ceilings and shooting upwards or at times angling the camera so it photographs part of a man whose back is turned to the screen and full view of another who is speaking is a matter which the reviewer will not try to discuss. He merely cites the reaction, fiery and stimulating, which must be acknowledged as caused by something different than that which the average picture is approached from. Let it be said that the reviewer has not noticed this before, although it has happened in many other cases. Let it be said this is nothing new and has been done before. No matter what is said, the fact remains that there is something terribly exciting about the way the camera approached the subject in this picture and that is the story you will read when you comply with this "must" instruction. Gregg Toland received photographic credit and Vern Walker is credited for special effects in photography. — H. A. A STUDY IN PUBLICITY OFF-STAGE A previous article in International Photographer discussed candid photography in its various phases. The pictures which appear on pages 14 and 15 have a specific meaning to the average layman as well as to the magazine patron. They are not pictures; they are photographic stories so constructed as to satisfy a public curiosity and at the same time prove to the person so interested in motion picture performance that the players respond to the normal, natural reactions as do the men and women in average life. At the same time it permits one to explore a careful study of life on location, the hardships and trials of trying to work under strained conditions when the players must accustom themselves to outdoor life whether or not it be pleasant. In spite of it all, these pictures bring before us the characters in their most natural poses. At no time is Loretta Young strained or camera shy. In fact, she responds in a most unreserved manner, throwing her emotions aside, expressing her instantaneous reaction to the immediate situation. Under normal worldly conditions the photographer can get along from day to day without fear of criticism or worry that he is not creating enough interest in pictures he is shooting, but with the war removing everything from the front page and war pictures holding the interest of all readers, the photographer today is faced with the formidable problem of preserving the interest of readers with type of pictures, not so much as to the type of photography, which will cause one to peruse the pictures a second time. Thus photographs must speak for themselves and the accompanying words and stories be of such secondary importance that they are relatively unimportant. It is the writer's conviction that the photographer on "The Lady from Cheyenne" has given us the very thing we have discussed here. Had there been gun play, tank movement or cavalry charging we could then say it was comparable to any war picture: but the conditions being entirely different we say that it has action, movement, realism and all other attributes to hold the interest of the reader as compared to other pictures of everyday events which are able to create interest merely because they are dealing with the subject continually on everyone's mind today. — H. A. Naval Commander to Supervise Movie Commander Clyde Lovelace, U.S.N., has arrived from the San Diego Naval base to serve as technical assistant to Director Arthur Lubin during the filming of Universal's "Abbott and Costello in the Navy." Commander Lovelace is said to have supervised the reconditioning at San Diego of many of the destroyers turned over to Great Britain bv Uncle Sam. 12