American cinematographer (Nov 1921-Jan 1922)

December 1, 1921 THE AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER 5 had to saw out the ice and break it up with dynamite to save time, otherwise we might have waited a month longer to get the results required. Our first action was to establish an outpost far above the falls to watch the ice for the break-up and here cameramen were stationed with instructions to keep their lenses trained on the river night and day. As there was nothing else to do one of these cameramen photographed the sunset every day and sent in to Mr. Griffith the finest set of winter sunsets in captivity. We were thirty-five days on this ice job and there were four to fourteen cameras always on the job, which accounts for the great variety of the ice scenes filmed and the perfection of the sequences. Not a possible aj gle of photography was overlooked and too much credit cannot be given the cameramen who worked under every difficulty imaginable. They conducted themselves like a lot of soldiers doing their duty calmly in the face of constant danger and the results as shown on the screen testify to their efficiency. Our first problem was to get the ice to moving and Mr. Griffith hit upon the idea of utilizing the mill race to the paper mill until the ice began to break up in the river. It was in the mill We had doubles for both Miss Gish and Mr. Barthlemess, but never used them. One day we had to shoot some stuff with Mr. Barthlemess, but when all was ready we found he was away with Mr. Griffith on another location. The scene had to be shot, for the ice was going out and when the substitute was called for he flunked. The stunt was to drift with the ice down toward the falls, jumping from cake to cake whenever possible. An old suspension bridge spanned the river just above the falls and we had a man stationed every ten feet with ropes hanging down into the water, so that the man on the ice could catch the ropes as the ice drifted under. There was some risk, of course, but not one in a hundred to miss. The brave substitute, however, departed for New York and in our extremity Elmer Glifton donned the big bearskin coat of Mr. Barthlemess and did the stunt. We caught him at the bridge with the ropes after an exciting trip with ten cameras on the firing line and the stuff was perfect. Shooting the close-ups in the mill race was dangerous work, as the water was swift and treacherous. It was an engineering feat of no mean cleverness to make the ice act right at the right time, while the problems of the cameramen were endless. It was FASTENING THE CAKES OF ICE TOGETHER WITH CABLES SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT FLOAT APART race, therefore, that we got most of the rescue scenes and the shots of Dick going to the rescue. The ice was sawed up into large squares by professional ice men and the thickest of it was dynamited to get open water to float the cakes carrying Miss Gish and Dick. When the cakes were free we tied them together with wire cables so that they would not float too far apart. The cameras were set up on the edge of the ice as near the floating ice as possible as it was impracticable to use a boat or raft and, after this ice began to soften, the cameras were protected by barrel floats thrust under the ice beneath where the cameras were set up. The cameras were also tied to the bank by wires, and ropes were run out every ten feet as life-savers for the working crews in case the ice should break up without warning. Here let me say that Mr. Griffith never asked any of us to take any risk he would not first take. He always tested out everything before he called upon others to do it and there was not a single serious accident during the entire job and with danger present every hour. Miss Gish was the gamest little woman in the world. It was really pathetic to see the forlorn little creature huddled on a block of ice and the men pushing it off into the stream, but she never complained nor seemed to fear But the cold was bitter and Miss Gish was bare-headed and bare-handed and without a heavy outer coat so that it was necessary at intervals to bring her in and get her warm. Sometimes when the ice wouldn't behave she was almost helpless from cold, but she immediately reacted and never seemed to suffer any great distress. like shooting at flying targets with a rifle while standing on one foot on a pinnacle or on a slippery log over quicksand. The light was horrible, the weather cold and the winds raw. but the most annoying thing was the constant and terrifying grinding and washing of the ice, which kept one's nerves on edge every minute. Also the falls were roaring in our ears and the ice was disintegrating, but by herculean labor we shot the stuff and the whole world knows that it was good. To my mind, not only the ice stuff, but the entire picture was a triumph of the cameraman, for, without his courage, resourcefulness, energy and loyalty " 'Way Down East" never could have been filmed as it was. ROYALTY RETURNS King Gray has returned from a lengthy sojourn to various locations and was among those present at the last regular talkfest of the A. S. C. All that remains now is to find Walter Griffin.