American cinematographer (Jan-Oct 1925)

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AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER January, 1925 PHOTOGRAPHING "NORTH OF 36" (Continued from page 6) As everyone knows, cowboys on guard spend the night in the saddle. During the drive for the motion picture, this also was done, not in an attempt to imitate the old cattle drives to that extent, but rather because of necessity. With the four thousand long-horns used in the film there was just as much chance, just as much danger, of an uncalled for stampede as there was fifty or sixty years ago. According to several of the two hundred and fifty cattle men who attended the start of the journey in the filming of the motion picture, the four thousand long-horns were about the wildest animals any of them had ever seen. In this night watch everybody in the company took part — Jack Holt, Ernest Torrence and Noah Beery, as well as the minor players. Each was given a shift of a certain number of hours. Three of the many interesting scenes which occurred during this drive were a river fording scene and two stampedes. The fording scene is one of the most vivid shots of the entire production. Flanked on each side by sixteen cow boys and led by Alamo, the oldest long-horn in existence, the four thousand cattle swam across a river almost half a mile wide. Closely following them were the three covered wagons, containing the women, being towed across by six span of oxen. The entire scene was taken without a loss of life or an injury either to the men, the horses or the cattle. Even Producter Irvin Willat, a former cameraman, who from the success of his productions for Paramount including "Heritage of the Desert" and "Wanderer of the Wasteland", has a reputation of making thrilling as well as beautiful scenes, said it was one of the most vivid sequences he has ever produced. Technical directors and chief carpenters left in advance of the company to start construction on the buildings. On nearly all location trips most of the carpenters are hired locally. The carpenters on "North of 36" had two jobs. One was to arrange for the accomodation of the huge company of players and staff. The other was to build sets for the picture. For the housing of the people two twenty-five room Nineteen ranchhouses were selected. Added to these two dozen army tents were erected for sleeping quarters and additional buildings were thrown up for the saddle house, the horse-stable, the mess-halls, the laboratory, the power house and the property rooms. The production sets required even more work. Aside from the minor buildings an entire town, an exact replica of the old cattle village of Abilene, Kansas, had to be erected This town, copied from engravings and sketches in books and newspapers and from information obtained from early Kansas settlers, included a hotel, hardware store, livery stable, cattle pens, railroad depot, saloon, dancehall, general store, black-smith shop and a dozen residence houses. Each house and store in the picture is an exact duplicate of the original building in old Abilene. In addition to the featured players we carried forty real cow-men of proven ability as actors. Fortunately we arrived in Houston at the time a gigantic rodeo was taking place and from this rodeo we obtained some of the best riding and steer-roping talent on the entire North American continent. AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, Guaranty Building, Hollywood, Calif. Enclosed find $3.00 for one year's subscription to the American Cinematographer to begin with issue of 1925. Name , Address