American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1952)

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Back in 1928 when I was working on a camera, rather than trying to worry performances out of players, my director and particular hero was Fred Jackman. In those days Fred was known as the best trick photographer in the business. Some of his greatest work was on the Mack Sennett comedies, which abound¬ ed with camera tricks, chases and illu¬ sions. His work in these paved the way for many things that are now common. Another of his notable contributions was the trick camera work in “The Lost World.” He was the star of that picture. Later, his artistry cropped up again in the beautiful imagery of “Noah’s Ark.” Much of the trick photography in those days was done right in the cameras, with cut-outs, special effects, etc. Today optical printing is a big and important part of any studio — its own department. After producing and directing for many years, Fred returned to his first love, which was trick photography, and I nearly became one of his disciples. My interest in optical printing stems from my own pet theory that in the motion picture there is nothing more important than the relationship of im¬ ages. Skillful optical work allows related images to be shown on the same picture frame. It permits a flow, a unity and furnishes a framework for the weaving of a story. Hollywood has a number of brilliant optical men. If they haven’t saved many a movie, they’ve at least helped save them. They are perhaps the industry’s least appreciated and most unsung heroes. Just as most players have their favor¬ ite cameramen, I have my favorite op¬ tical man. He is Paul Lerpae, of Para¬ mount. Paul was responsible for much of the visual imagery in “A Place in the Sun,” and he has done some extraordinary work for me in Technicolor on “Shane,” starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur and Van Heflin. Paul so far has been able to do anything for me that I have asked of him. He has met every challenge in the book. When working on a film, I like to think in lucid, free-wheeling terms. Paul makes that possible. When a scene “stops” on me, and I don’t want it to * Noted director and former cinematographer and ASC member. stop, I call in Paul. He puts into it just the movement necessary to keep things going. If we have only six feet of film where we need nine, Paul arrives with his magic. He prints three feet forward, then three feet backward; juggles, snips, works a bit of his art, and all of a sudden we have our nine feet. He puts people into scenes in which they were never originally shot, and re¬ moves others from scenes where we de¬ cided, belatedly, we didn’t want them after all. Paul Lerpae can do anything any Monday-morning-quarterback-direc¬ tor asks of him. I know. He’s done it for this one. During the shooting of “Shane,” we did a killing scene which called for half¬ dark, eerie lighting. We shot it on a stormy day, and were getting just the effect we wanted when, all of a sudden,, the sun came out. At first we stopped shooting, but knowing that Lerpae would save the day somehow, we rolled again, although the sun came out inter¬ mittently. I was right about Lerpae. Studying the footage, he ran it to the point where the sun came out. Then he back-printed it to where it was shadowy again. At this point we could cut to a close-up shot in shadows, so it would match up. Lerpae gave us a beautiful effect at the close of the picture — a visionary thing where Shane rides off into the mountains at the finish and appears, through optical printing, to be in the thoughts of the little boy, Brandon de Wilde. It’s all Lerpae, and a couple of yards wide. Trick photography and optical print¬ ing, and the good men who do it, repre¬ sent one of the most unsung and impor¬ tant aspects of the facilities that make our movies superior. And, in spite of the title play on the old baseball phrase, when these men take over a job there is nothing left to Chance. Registration of nearly 900 members and guests during the SMPTE’s 72nd Semi-Annual Convention in Washington in October, surpassed attendance records of all previous conventions. Seventeen sessions were held and a total of 94 technical papers and reports were pre¬ sented covering latest advances in vir¬ tually every field of motion picture and television engineering. 538 American Cinematographer December, 1952