American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1959)

was not hampered by the restrictions that prevail in New York City proper with regard to cables and cable junc¬ tion boxes— the bane of every Holly¬ wood cameraman who has to work on location there. “In the subway location, we were able to work with our studio lighting cables and equipment just as we do in Hollywood,” Biroc said. The company brought along most of the necessary lighting equipment from Hollywood, except generators, which were rented in New York. This included, in addition to the cables, etc., eight Brutes, sixteen 10-Ks, twenty Seniors and a couple of Colortran and Masterlite outfits. In all, two baggage cars were required to transport this equipment along with that from the grip, sound and prop departments. Following the company’s return to Hollywood, 27 nights were spent shoot¬ ing exteriors on the Warner Brothers back lot. Here on the studio’s Western Street, which had been altered to re¬ semble the main street of an Oklahoma oiltown before the 20s, scenes were shot depicting Stewart and his fellowinvestigator’s efforts to track down a man who was fleecing the Indians of their oil lands — and murdering them when he could accomplish his ends in no other way. Because the script called for a great deal of activity in the street it was a problem to light it adequately, especial¬ ly as it was necessary to achieve maxi¬ mum depth so action could be extended far into the background and photo¬ graphed in single takes, rather than moving in with the camera, lights and other equipment in subsequent set-ups. To properly light one tree, which stood mid way up this street, four Brutes were required. Biroc employed zone lighting to illuminate this street from one end to the other, thus accenting the scene in a series of light and dark areas. Brutes and spots were placed to one side of buildings and in back of large objects in the scene, and their light directed on other buildings, or a portion of the street itself, so that the players in their action walked in and out of light and shadow for a most natural effect of night. In another night sequence which had to do with Stewart and his fellow investigators tracking down certain members of the Ku Klux Klan sus¬ pected of fomenting trouble, Biroc found inspiration for unusual camera treatment in a scene which found ready approval with director LeRoy. The latter wished to begin the shot with the camera, on the Chapman crane, focused close up on a newspaper with a bold headline about KKK ac¬ tivities pasted on the publisher’s win¬ dow, then pull back to show, through the window, the editor working at his desk. This was to be followed by a shot showing a group of white-hooded Klansmen descending upon the news¬ paper office intent on wrecking it. While director LeRoy was contem¬ plating the scene through his finder, Joe Biroc was off to one side apprais¬ ing it from a different angle and giving instructions to his gaffer about some lights. When LeRoy observed this, he called out to Biroc with his familiar query: “Got any ideas?” (INEPHONIC-NEW 16MM Exclusive marketing rights to a new 16mm motion picture camera, featur¬ ing a self-contained magnetic sound system, have been announced by the Industrial Products Division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corpora¬ tion. Known as the “Cinephonic”, the camera will be marketed by Fairchild under an agreement with the Magnetic Sound Camera Corporation, Chicago. The 16mm single-system magnetic sound unit is designed for maximum portability, ideally suited to TV news filming. With its 100-foot magazine the camera is easily hand held. Power is supplied by any llOV outlet, or through a portable power pack. By use of a special jack, the camera also may be operated from an automobile cig¬ arette lighter. Feature of the camera is its minia¬ ture. transistorized magnetic sound re¬ corder, which is built into the unit. It records on conventional magnetic striped films, and offers the advantage that processing has no effect whatever on magnetic sound. Sound inputs al¬ low the photographer to record the subject and background, while simul¬ taneously adding his own narration or additional sound through a mixer input. Sound monitoring is accomplished by observing a volume (VU) meter, which is built into the finder. This al¬ lows simultaneous observation of both scene and sound level. Optional fea¬ ture is off-the-head monitoring, in which the photographer hears his ac¬ tual recording from the stripe a split second after the recording. “Let's get up on the crane,” Biroc smiled. “I’ll show you what I’ve got in mind.” “So we got on,” Joe relates, “and lined up the camera on the insert of the newspaper — the start of the shot. As we pulled back, we panned slightly to take in the editor at his desk. At the same time, we saw reflected in the window the images of the irate Klans¬ men descending upon the newspaper office. Thus two separate scenes — that of the newspaper and the editor at work, and the menacing Klansmen — were combined in a single take. In addition, dramatic impact was given the scene by showing the threating Klansmen’s approach by reflection in the window before they actually MAGNETIC SOUND CAMERA THE CINEPHONIC features a miniature, tran¬ sistorized magnetic sound recorder. The camera is supplied with ear¬ phones, magazine, cables and micro¬ phone. Lenses are available from Fairchild. Magazines for 400-ft. and 1200-ft. capacity are also available. A number of markets are envisioned for the new product including use by television stations for news and public affairs coverage, filmed local commer¬ cials and for industrial, business, medical, professional and educational films. Fairchild points out that the new camera can be used in conjunction with the company’s “Mini-Rapid 16” auto¬ matic film processor, which will proc¬ ess 100 feet of black-and-white film in approximately 20 minutes. ■ 308 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER