American cinematographer (Aug 1936)

326 American Cinematographer • August, 1936 ed the color of the convention cities and the arrival of notable figures. Mainly, standard camera equipment was used; Mitchells for sound and Akeleys for silent shots. One of the Para- mount men used a motor-driven DeVry to very good ef- fect, working on the floors on equal terms with the still and news men. At Philadelphia he obtained some beauti- ful candid-camera type of material of the President and his family. He used hyper-sensitized stock as he was working without any special lights. A supply of this nega- tive was held in reserve by most of the reels, but most- ly it was their usual Super X that went through the cameras. Hearst Metrotone News had two 17-inch lenses on the scene and picked off screen-filling close-ups on the rost- rum from both the distant camera set-ups. Generally speaking, light was ample to make ultrafast lenses unnec- essary. Both conventions provided completely furnished private offices in the halls to enable each newsreel to handle the mass of detail incidental to the job, also adequate dark- rooms. To the sound engineers went the task of laying seven and a half miles of cable in an intricate network serving the broadcasters as well as the cameras. For the first time in political history, a microphone was placed on the floor for each of the fifty-two delegations. These were under control of the permanent chairman through a spec- ially designed panel board on the speakers' rostrum. Cables led off to the radio channels and to the cameras from this one central source. This system enabled the newsreels to pick up the delegrates no matter where they were speak- ing, which added much to the personalized interest of the stories and their sectional distribution. An elaborate installation of individual telephone inter- communication kept camera crews, sound men and elec- tricians in constant touch with the key contact officials who signalled when to hit the lights and shoot. A good example of the high degree of co-ordination maintained between all the units is the Al Smith demon- stration that broke out in one of the upper balconies at Philadelphia. Lights were so under control that it was possible to pour them into the disturbance immediately. In fact, so fast did the newsreel men work it was intimated afterward they had an advance tip the demonstration was to take place. As a matter of fact, it was simply the per- fect functioning of the well-planned arrangements which we hoped would cover any and all emergencies. Copies of speeches were furnished each newsreel in ad- vance of their delivery. Not as early as we would liked to have had them, in some cases, but we were able to scan the copy for possible highlights and plan our work accord- ingly. This led to a considerable saving in negative. Unlike other conventions, few special planes were needed. The air express people were well prepared and even had messengers on the camera platforms. A cameraman could hand an exposed magazine right from his camera to the messenger without leaving his post and know it was on its rapid way to New York, Chicago or the West Coast. From Cleveland, film was dropped into New York within four hours; from Philadelphia, less than two hours. Jack Flanagan, president of the Tri-State Film Labor- atory, leading Cleveland film plant, opened his facilities to the newsreels. Several used them for exposure tests with material shot on Monday prior to the convention open- ing. Paramount used the laboratory to get out local prints and to dupe the negative for practically simultaneous handling in Hollywood, Chicago and New York. Most of the men handling the convention were veterans of three or four previous affairs. Included were "Red" Felbinger, of Chicago; Jack Whipple, Lou Hutt, Al Ming- alone, Douglas Dupont, Gene Boyd and Urban Santone, of New York; John Herrmann, of Byrd Expedition fame; Arthur DeTitta and Robert Denton, Washington contact men; and nearly a score of other very able camera and sound men. The climax of the Democratic meeting was, of course, the Franklin Field ceremonies incidental to notification ot President Roosevelt of his nomination before upwards of 115,000 people. Here was an entirely different lighting and coverage probelem. Our good ally, Charles Ross, brought down from New York two generator trucks as there was not sufficient pow- er in the stadium to handle lights covering the tremendous outdoor arena. From these, he operated two 36-inch GE high intensity arcs, each drawing 1 50 amperes, mounted on a side plat- form and used to flood the field or to sweep the balconies. On the main camera platform, 85 feet distant from the President, were six 10,000 watt 24-inch sun spots strung Continued on page 337