American cinematographer (Nov 1936)

458 American Cinematographer • November, 1936 A Director Looks r HE EXAGGERATED secrecy that traditionally en- shrouds the making of “process-shots" is to me not not only unnecessary, but definitely wasteful of much potential publicity for our pictures. The public as a whole knows we make some scenes by trick photography, for there are scenes which obviously cannot be done other- wise. It knows, too, that we make more scenes by “pro- cess-shots," since for one reason or another they can be made most convincingly that way. And yet the public —in greater numbers than ever before—is thronging to the theatres. In my travels around the country, lecturing before all sorts of civic organizations, I have noticed that at least as many people ask me about photography and process technique (pretty knowingly, too) as ask me about Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper. The amazing spread of 16mm. and 8mm. home-movie making has made the public technique-conscious. Among the better class of film-goers, Victor Milner's lighting is as much a draw- ing-card as many a star. With this new spirit in the air, I feel no hesitancy about paying tribute to the amazing work done by Farciot Edouart, A.S.C., and his associates in my latest produc- tion, “The Plainsman." They have made a notable contri- bution to both the artistic and the economic phases of the production. One of the crucial sequences of the production is the re-enactment of a battle between Custer's soldiers and thousands of Indians—the latter, thanks to political prof- iteers, much better armed than the Government's soldiers. This entire sequence, which requires over 70 pages in the script, was made on the process-shot stage. Moreover, it was made dramatically better, as well as more economic- ally, by this method than could have been possible other- wise. In filming scenes of this type, the Director has two dramatic elements to coordinate. In the foreground, there is the intimate action of the besieged principals. In the background, the equally important action of the besiegers. In the foreground, he has his principals and from twenty to fifty extras to consider. In the background, he may have five or six thousand Indians and a regiment of cav- alry, none of whom are at all picture-wise. Both elements must be perfectly coordinated, or the scene will fall flat. To cite an elementary example, imagine the audience's reaction at seeing a number of Indians “bite the dust" though nobody in the foreground was firing! To get a sequence like this photographed on an au- thentic location, one could confidently plan to have a big company on location for two or three months at the least. Days would be spent getting a single good "take" of each scene, for a usable "take" of such action filmed on such a scale, would be more the result of luck than of skill. The problems of transporting, feeding and housing such a company would be tremendous. The expense, pared to the bone, would undoubtedly exceed the total budget of the average Class "A" production. Before the sequence was "in the box," one could be quite sure that both schedule and budget would be scrapped. Instead, however, we made this sequence sensibly—on the process stage. While the principals worked in the studio, on other dramatic sequences, Arthur Rosson, my Chief Assistant, and George Robinson, A.S.C., went up to Montana to film the backgrounds for our big sequence. at Process- S h o t s" by Cecil DeMille As told to a staff writer They were on location for a month, and brought back excellent backgrounds. Rosson, who was constantly in touch with me by telephone, could concentrate on handling the 6,000 Indians and the regiment of National Guard Cav- alrymen who figured in the scenes. When his Indians missed their cues, he could retake the scene, without sighing for the loss of perfect foreground action. When they did their scene right, he could OK it; there was no delicate foreground action to worry about. With these backgrounds, we were ready to complete the shots on the process-stage. But before we did this, Farciot Edouart performed a first-class miracle of his own, to make our scenes more complete. In running over the background-shots in the projection-room, it was noticed that there were nice pictorial clouds in some of the shots, and bare, 'bald-headed' skies in others. This was natural, for the location-unit had enjoyed nice skies the first day of their work, and unpleasantly cloudless ones the rest of the time. But it would not be very convincing to see a bunch of Indians charging under white, fluffy clouds in one shot, and in the next, three seconds later, see them coming on under a barren, cloudless sky. So Farciot, by means of his big Optical Printer, pro- ceeded to put clouds in every one of the cloudless back- grounds. And they were natural clouds, too, which could not be distinguished from the real ones. He refuses to tell me just how he did it: but he did a most remarkable job; not a trace of a matte-line shows in any of the shots. Similarly, it seemed that the rifle-firing did not extend far enough into the background. There were plenty of smoke-puffs in the foreground and middle-distance, but not enough to be right for an army large enough to en- danger the group figuring in the foreground action. So again Farciot stepped into the breach, and produced gun- smoke in the right places and at the right times to syn- chronize with the sound. The smoke was perfectly nat- ural, even to the perspective. How he did it, I don't know; but it, too, was so perfect that the added smoke couldn't be told from the actual shots, even by a trick- camera expert. On the stage, we built a set for our foreground. It rep- resented an island in the middle of the river, and was an accurate reproduction of an actual one shown in some of the location-company's reverse angles. This set was built on a wheeled support, so it could be revolved. It was built in sections, so that we could use all, or parts of it, as needed. And it was certainly no small affair: it weighed 50 tons! Set up on the stage, we had not one screen, but two,