CINE World (Sep 1965)

(Cont. from page 18) plete with ripples. Traveling thus made me feel quite sea-sick, so much so that I preferred running instead of riding. After running for some time, I became quite warm, and sweating quite profusely. My special arctic clothing made any movement on my part very cumbersome and awkward. This was not the way I had imagined the arctic to be at all! Pelly-Bay and Our Problems Toward the end of the day we arrived in Pelly-Bay. Here we were greeted by Father Van der Velde, head of the Catholic Mission. He is not only the head of the Mission, but of the whole community. He impressed me as being one of the most charming men I have ever met. At the time of our arrival he was occupied with his “Cadillac” or arctic ski-doo. This is a motorized snow vehicle seating two people. The community as a whole was proud and excited about this new means of transportation. We were invited to stay at the mission where we were made as comfottable as possible. Now our shooting problems really began.. The two generators that were supposed to supply power for our lights were both in deplorable condition. The 1500-watt generator stopped working altogether after the first half hour, and the 5000watt job fluctuated in its output between 90 and 150 volts! Despite all our mechanical knowledge we were unable to do anything to improve the situation. It was obvious that the generators needed professional attention. We were facing complete disaster, and knew something would have to be done quickly, for it was just three days before Christmas. We contacted the nearest DEW line station by radio. Help was promised immediately—provided that we could get the generators to the base workshop! This seemed an impossible task, but with the help and enthusiasm of our Eskimo friends, who loaded the heavy machine onto a sled, it was transported by dog team to the DEW base workshop. Page 25 In the meantime, construction of the huge igloo had already started and I went ahead with shooting progress of the construction as planned. I suspected that we would encounter other technical problems when shooting here and I didn’t have to wait long to find out what form they would take. It is a known fact that lenses exposed to regular winter cold weather, on being brought back into room temperature, mist over. This mist cannot be easily removed, without warming up the equipment itself. The same thing happens in the arctic but to a greater extent. Immediately after the camera is brought inside from a sub-zero temperature, the whole body, lenses and even the film inside becomes covered with a thick layer of frost; this naturally makes the equipment unworkable for the rest of the day. To avoid this we divided our equipment and stock into two parts. One half we left outdoors on the veranda where the temperature was extremely low. The remainder we brought inside the mission. Most of the camera operation such as loading, unloading and threading of film, had to be done in sub-zero temperatures. It proved quite difficult for me to perform these operations while wearing gloves, even the silk ones. After several attempts, therefore, I decided that I could work more easily with my bare hands. I discovered also that I could expose my hands to the cold for ten to fifteen seconds at a time without risk of freezing. I divided the operation into separate movements, warming my hands in my pockets or gloves in between times. However, this was a tricky operation as film has a tendency to break easily in low temperatures. All in all, I must say our cameras worked without serious trouble. I give special credit to-the Arri, which I found performed well: in these femperatures as long as the batteries were kept warm. To accomplish this we placed a small gas filled hand-warmer on each side of the battery case. (Cont. next page)