Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

MOVIE MAKERS 121 rected and edited the footage, after which a young writer with a local TV station prepared a narrative. Victor Mature then became interested in the project and agreed to contribute his services as narrator; and, finally RKO Studios on the West Coast volunteered to supply the sound recording, with Jack Shaindlin writing a special score. A shining example, this, of bread upon the waters, for the end result was an offer to Mr. Shafitz to produce a 35mm. Cinecolor feature picture. William G. McKelvy, ACL, who must be one of our oldest League members (he first joined ACL in May, 1928) and yet one of our youngest (he was a teenaged schoolboy at that time), stopped by headquarters last month. His visit reminded us of an earlier letter from him which, when he'd gone, we dug out of the files and from which we now quote: "It was my pleasure last summer to be a member of what was known as Fielding's Caravan to Europe and Africa, an almost incredible 27.000 mile air voyage in 37 days, from far north of the Arctic Circle in Norway to south of the equator in British East Africa. "It was indeed a fabulous trip: the Land of the Midnight Sun, luncheon with the President of Switzerland, a bullfight in Spain, Shepheard's Hotel and the Pyramids at Cairo, an audience with His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, and lions in Nairobi — all sandwiched in between 3000 mile air hops, little or no sleep, all kinds of weather and every photographic calamity known to science. "Some day," he concluded, "you might like to chin about it." And so we did. Six men on a raft [Continued from page 116] cerity by one foreign envoy that his parents would be very sad to learn of their loss at sea. Not to be discouraged, the six landlubbers completed the building of their raft and prepared to set sail for the open sea. Newsreel photographers recorded the departure, while curious onlookers mingled with the autograph hunters, all confident that this would be their last chance to see the foolhardy ones. As a Peruvian tugboat pulled the newsmen out to sea. they continued their filming until they were nearly drowned in their eagerness to get pictures. The first great test of the balsa raft and its crew was a terrific storm that lasted several days. None of them expected to come out of this alive; but somehow the craft, held together by strong ropes, stayed in one piece. When the seas calmed down they were able to make pictures. At first, scenes of the raft were made from a rubber dinghy that was allowed to drift some distance astern. However, as the mother ship could not be turned or stopped, the dinghy was in danger of being lost. So, for safety reasons, picture making from it soon came to an end. There were strange adventures with sea giants too, such as the whales which brushed the raft and could easily have overturned it with a simple turn of their giant bodies. There was the encounter with a whale-shark — the largest of fish and longer than the raft — that came close to lifting the small vessel clear out of the water. No weapon they had on board would have availed had any of these giants decided to attack them. The movie record they made includes these thrilling encounters with sea monsters, and it shows also how they made a game of catching sharks. Included are their unbelievable catches of flying fish that landed on deck every night, and the domestic bliss of the one Swede who had brought along a guitar and seventy four books to while away the time. Perhaps the climax of their film is the point where they finally sighted a reef upon which they were soon helplessly wrecked. In this misadventure they lost one precious 16mm. camera and much film, but the bulk of their equipment was saved from the roaring seas. Miraculously, not one of the six was badly injured in the rough landing on the beach, although the raft was ruined. Heyerdahl and his party discovered that they had made a landfall on one of the small islands near Tahiti. The friendly natives treated them royally and they were taken to Tahiti where Heyerdahl met friends that he had known years before. Enough film was left to record the native dances and celebrations that were staged in their honor, and these sequences were included later in the feature-length motion picture. The fabulous journey of the KonTiki did not prove scientifically that the South Sea Islands were peopled from South America; but it did prove that native rafts of the type used 1500 years ago could have made the drifting trip across the Pacific. Even if many rafts were lost in the heavy storms, some of them might have made land, as did the Kon-Tiki. From the photographic standpoint, the trip was memorable because it shows that amateur photographers can make films of professional quality even under the most adverse conditions. For it must be remembered that the scores of excellent still photographs used in Heyerdahl's best seller — as well as the feature film — were made by amateurs whoT tried to record their personal adventures. Precision Engineered Movie Camera by Europe's Finest Camera Craftsmen I EUMIG 88 The Only 8mm Movie Camera with Automatic Built-in Exposure Regulator ! The Camera That Thinks for You ! G 88, With Corrected, An at fl.9 Coated SI 39.50 ELECTRIC BRAIN ELECTRIC Popular in Europe for Years ! Now Available in the U.S.A.! Tile outstanding Eumig SS actually prevents incorrect exposure whether you use color or black-and-white film ! 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