American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1940)

Polislim< Up ''ARCTIC HOLIDAY^^ Ormal I, Sprangman All photos includitig 16mm. Kodachrome frame enlargements by the writer. ALTHOUGH successful moviemakers will tell you that careful planning ' usually results in better filming, not all travel stuff lends itself to advance treatment, and particularly is this true where initial jaunts are made into new and perhaps strange lands. When my partner and I shipped north out of Seattle for Eskimo country, we had no idea whether we would be gone two weeks or two years. We wanted to see as much of the northland as we possibly could, yet our plans were quite vague. This complicated our filming, since making a representative film of the country meant holding some footage in reserve to prevent overemphasizing any one locality. Fortunately, a careful check revealed that the 1200-footer would break nicely into three separate 400-foot reels. The first would cover the boat trip up the Inside Passage. The second reel would feature interior Alaska — the beautiful flower gardens, the huskies and malamutes, large-scale mining, our camping and fishing trips. The third reel, which we believed would give audiences the biggest thrill, would show our .flights over Alaska and our river packet trip up the Yukon. 180 Inches of Rain Since travelogs seem to furnish their own continuity, editing came easy, although some scenes had to be switched and reswitched to fit the story thread. After the film was in its proper order, titles were worked out, and this took far more time. A non-believer in label titling, I tried to make every title into a complete sentence expressing a complete thought. This meant consulting travel literature Editor's Note: Last month the actual filmin;; of the Alaska-Yukon 16mm. color feature, ARCTIC HOLIDAY, was described. This month the writer covers camera tricks, titling and the addition of sound, voice and music in the final editingr. and the pretty folders and books on Alaska to dig out pertinent and interesting facts about the places visited. For instance, some people might be inclined to describe the little coastal town of Ketchikan something lika this: Ketchikan in the rain (or) Scenes at Ketchikan These are label titles. They don't explain anything. They add nothing to your storehouse of knowledge. Go a little deeper and find out the average amount of yearly rainfall (the figure will stagger you!), then swing the wording around until it reads: KETCHIKAN, FIRST PORT OF CALL, HAS 15 FEET OF RAINFALL YEARLY This was followed by a few angle shots of the port taken in the rain, including The husky and malamute of the north country provide interesting footage for travel movies. occasional glimpses of natives and totem poles. Shore shots taken from shipboard offered excellent opportunities for artistic "framing." Instead of standing right at railing edge and shooting out over a wide expanse of water, the camera was brought back farther on deck to include a portion of the rigging or one of the ventilators along one side of the picture to give the illusion of depth. Similarly, shots were framed throughout the film by utilizing portholes, cabin doors, tree branches, and the wings of planes. The back-lighted "morning dew" on flowers in an old-timer's garden at Fairbanks was created artificially by first watering them with a sprinkling can, and then shooting in good sunlight. In the dog scenes, filmed on the outskirts of Fairbanks, we coaxed the huskies and malamutes to cock their heads by merely whistling or uttering an odd sound to attract their attention while we filmed. Camera Saws Wood! Camped in a log cabin 200 miles in from the coast and with time on our hands, we tried a bit of animation to add a humorous touch. Sawing wood to provide stove fuel for our excursions into the realm of baking became quite a chore. American Cinematographer March, 1940 121