CINE World (Sep 1965)

The huge igloo had been constructed large enough to accomodate all the Pelly-Bay community and guests. It was constructed solely from snow, and I was fascinated to see what Eskimos could do with this flimsy substance. First, a suitable spot was chosen—flat, and large enough to serve as a floor for the igloo. It also had to be in a vicinity where the snow for its construction was particularly suitable. Large size blocks of heavily packed snow were cut out with a saw or special knife, loaded onto a sled and taken to the construction site. The whole community turned out in full force to help build the igloo. It is the custom of Eskimo women to carry their babies in a hood slung from their backs, somewhat similar to the way American Indians carry their children. It was amusing to see little faces, full of curiosity, peeping out of these hoods, giving the impression that they, too, were helping. This whole scene made a perfect story, and we took full advantage of it. First, four regular size igloos were built close together in the form of a circle, and formed the base for a larger igloo which was built on top of them like a second story. Then the whole mass was hollowed out from the inside. The crucial moment was the placing of the last block of snow on the summit. In spite of the simple beauty of this construction it was difficult to make it interesting, photographically. Good photographic light was non-existant. I could have got some exposure but it would have been quite unsatisfactory. While we were still waiting for our power generator, Father Van der Velde came to our rescue with two gasgenerated lamps. They were just what I needed. Lighting power matched perfectly as a photographic source, and the little remaining daylight created an effective ambiance. I changed the position. according to the framing and occasionally I would switch on one of my Frezzo lights for a few seconds, but saving its battery power as much as possible. Using Tri-X film I was able to set the lens at f£/5.6 to obtain a semi-night effect, which it really was. Once construction of the huge igloo was finished, I had to give serious thought as to how I would place my lights, cables and the rest of the equipment inside. I had to take into consideration that approximately a hundred people would be inside and there was going to be a lot of activity, including drum-dancers, shosting for trophies, and other games. To make this operation possible I had to avoid having cables and electrical connections lying on the floor. We located some lumber in the back yard of the mission with which we managed to improvise a simple grid. We chose the longest pieces and pushed them through the wall of the Igloo from outside, crossing them in the center well over everyone's head. To this I attached five clip-on lights and mounted one within easy reach for more control. To simulate natural lighting, I mounted two lamps on the opposite wall that I had used outside. Our generator finally arrived and was placed in an adjoining shack about two hundred feet away in order to minimize exhaust noise. We had just enough cable to make two separate lines from our fuse box outside. This set-up of lights provided between 90 and 125 foot candles of light. Using Tri-X film, I could stop my lenses to approximately £/4. Only the Auricon camera was placed in a permanent position, as far back as possible and opposite the entrance to the igloo. Positions of the other cameras were constantly changed as required. In this way I obtained a maximum field in which to pan. As for sound, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the dome-shaped igloo was practically perfect, acoustically. We used two microphones for two different recordings, magnetic wild and optical sync-sound. Both provided very good results. (Cont. next page)