American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

THROUGH the EDITOR S FINDER rHE full story can't be told until the war is over — if even then — but le way the motion picture industry and ie firms and individuals composing it re aiding the Defense Effort forms an jic we hope we may some day aid in lling. It deserves to be told, not only in istice to an industry which has had ore than its share of public ridicule, it as a story of what would be out i.anding achievement by any industry .• individuals. The activity of the producing end ' the industry in turning out training !ms for the military services has alady been told. What the manufactures of materials and equipment are dog turning their exquisitely-equipped ants and skilled staffs loose on exactg defense orders of all kinds is at least nted by the fact that certain of our ading camera-manufacturers admit ieir plants are so busy on Uncle Sam's •ders that they cannot guarantee cama deliveries for at least two years or ■ ore. But in many ways it is the achieveent of the individuals within the inlstry which forms the really signifant tale — the one we most want to 111, but which obviously can't be told II the emergency is over. But there e rumors — fascinating ones — of what dividual cine-technicians are doing as ?rsonal contributions to their country's curity. Here we leam of a cinemagrapher who, between studio calls, has •en perfecting a photographic method stripping the veil from the most illed camouflage. There, we hear hints a sound engineer's privately turning s skill to the development of a revolu)nary aircraft-detector and sound • nging system. Then there are others ho — but the list is long, distinguished, id — confidential. Suffice it to say that hen the full story of what the motion cture industry and its people are dog in this national emei'gency can be Id, it will be a tale which will do more an anything in the industry's long id varied history to bring Hollywood id its people the understanding ad i iration of their fellow men. • rHE achievement of Gregg Toland, A.S.C., in bringing to the screen -son Welles' sensational "Citizen Kane" reviewed elsewhere in this issue. But 3 cannot avoid making further coment on some of the more significant pects of that achievement here. "Citizen Kane" will be imitated. It is und to be. And because it may be oughtlessly imitated, it is going to ake trouble for some cinematographs, for their producers or directors are ing to ask them to imitate Toland's dically new technique without realiz% what went to build it. Unthinking Joducers and directors — the kind who see a thing tonight in somebody else's picture and want it imitated tomorrow in their own, whether it fits there or not — are going to insist that this or that technical or artistic feature of "Citizen Kane" be imitated in their own pictures. But nine out of ten of them won't be willing to pay the price of an achievement like Toland's in time, equipment, money or cooperation. They'll ask for imitations of Toland's so-called "pan-focus" — yet they'll be the first to object if the cinematographer asks for the arc-lamps, coated lenses and careful planning which made it possible. They'll ask for camera-angles and camera-movement as superbly integrated with the action as those they witnessed in "Citizen Kane." And they'll ask it of cinematographers who finished a picture tonight only to be handed a completed script of a film they'll start shooting tomorrow. These producers can't realize — even if perhaps in some instances their directors can — that "Citizen Kane" isn't a milepost in cine technique merely because of what happened on the set. Toland's contribution only came to fruition there: it began far earlier, for he was a dominant factor for a dozen or more weeks before shooting started, coordinating script, sets, costumes, etc., to say nothing of planned action, with the camera's vision. In a word, we feel that "Citizen Kane" is a startlingly great production largely because it is one of the first, if not literally the first in which a producer has made complete use of the skill and experience his Director of Photography had to offer. That Gregg Toland is today one of the foremost members of the camera profession is beside the point: his achievements may be great, but he has had the opportunity to show just how much beyond mere photographic recording he can give a production. In every studio today there are men who can give to any production proportionately as much as Toland gave to "Citizen Kane" — if they are given the chance. Men with ideas — practical ones, hard-bought from experience — of what a camera can do in telling a story forcefully, of making small sets seem large, of making pictured action seem more than ordinarily real. Men who would be eager to contribute those ideas if they had a chance to do so before script and plans had jelled. Men who would jump at a chance to offer this fuller contribution to the productions they photograph, even if it meant making fewer pictures per year, working fewer pi-ofitable weeks. The industry needs better pictures — pictures that are more interestingly told, more efficiently made. In view of this need, with such a vast reservoir of new and practical artistic, dramatic, tech nical and production ideas to draw upon, WHY DOESN'T THE INDUSTRY UTILIZE THESE MEN, THEIR SKILL, AND THEIR BRAIN-POWER TO THE FULL—? A LOS ANGELES newspaperman was recently assigned to make a survey to determine what type of picturemaking the amateurs in this territory prefer. Included in his report was mention of an afternoon spent at the beach, during which he counted 37 cinecameras— and not a single stillearner a! Reports from such vacation centers as the National Parks, while not so overwhelmingly favorable to the movie-making percentage, also indicate that the hobby is numerically on the gain. And why not — ? The average amateur makes his pictures as a record of his trips and especially of his loved ones — and the moviemaker can paraphrase the remark of Anita Loos' celebrated blonde and say, "A still picture in an album may look nice, but a movie lives forever!" ALL of us who have dropped in to visit Ted Tetzlaff, A.S.C., directing his first picture, have been delighted at the effortless ease with which he's taken to a job which so often, in new and old hands alike, brings displays of nerves and temperament. We've frequently heard it remarked that Tetzlaff was directing as though he'd been doing it for years. Well — hasn't he? He's been a Director of Photography for many more years than his boyish smile would indicate — and as we've often pointed out, an important, if un publicized part of the average Director of Photography's job is all too often "carrying" a director — keeping him straight on the finer points of picture-making, unofficially co-directing the picture. Tetzlaff, as a full-fledged Director, is simply doing what he has done so often before, but without the need for dividing his attention between direction and photography. There are men like Ted Tetzlaff in every studio — men who, placed at the helm of their own productions would answer the industry's need for better and more efficient production. Why not give them a chance? ON the official credits of Paramount's "Reaching for the Sun" it's nice to see Dewey Wrigley, A.S.C., given official credit as Second Unit Cinematographer. All too often we've seen pictures win important photographic honors on the strength of some unsung secondunit cinematographer's achievements. If we must have second units, let's give credit where credit's due. American Cinematographer May, 1941 221