Cinema Quarterly (1933 - 1934)

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we knew what results we wanted and considered amongst ourselves the best way to get them. The directing and camera work was my job. I had one Eyemo camera with which I had shot five thousand feet of interest film the previous summer. John Gilbertson, an islander, as well as acting the hero of the story was the practical man-of-all-work, and did anything from mending the camera to constructing all the sets for interior shots. The heroine, Enga S. Stout, took on a variety of jobs, frcm whitewashing the walls of the house to leading the borrowed cow from its home to the set when needed. The other members of the cast lent a hand when necessary, and the old folk were always ready and willing to play their part when they were needed. Weather, fortunately, was exceptionally good, and the northern atmosphere steadily clear, for I shot almost consistently with a K2 filter at 8 from May until November, when I had to open up to 5.6 or 4, though I very often still clung to the favourite K2 filter. The croft one family lived on was used as their background in the film. For the other family a derelict house was repaired and thatched and the land retrieved from the hillside. For the interiors another ruin, five miles away, was converted into a very home-like 'but' room. This room had to act in turn as the "but" of three crofters' houses, a difficulty which was overcome by manufacturing three different types of fireplace, changing whitewashed walls to wall-paper, and varying furniture, photographs, texts, clocks, dishes, etc. As the film came back developed, the rough first cutting was done on dull days in a deserted church hall converted into a studio, and the final cutting was done in the south when the film was completed. Cutting finally your own stuff I find the hardest part of filming. Besides that, it is almost impossible to forget all that went to make each shot and see the film as a stranger; to completely cut out those shots and scenes it took days of hard work to get is almost physically painful. When the cuts are made, of course, one wonders why one ever hesitated. There are thousands of stories in Scotland and England for the independent film producer. Camera instinct, capital, and common sense are the chief essentials. It's expensive, of course, profiting by your own mistakes, but at least you remember them. There is one very important business point — if you want to market your stuff, make certain beforehand the boundary lines of each market, documentary, etc., and keep within them. Otherwise you may have lovely material, but no one will handle it. Jenny Brown 178