The Cine Technician (1939)

THE (' I X E-T ECHNICIAN Dec-. -Jan., 1937-8 ROBERT STEVENSON STUDIOS WHILE YOU SLEEP. WIIEX the Editor of the "Cine-Technician" asked for an article, I did not quite know what to do, for J have seen no films for two months and thought about them not at all. Having lived in studios for nine years, I made up my mind that it was time to brush up my knowledge of the outside world, and 1 now live on a [arm, with hens, ducks, pigeons and a horse (and quite a good long-shot with the dovecote in the foreground), and no cinema lor tr\) miles. I knew the Editor would not thank me for a note on Buff Orpingtons or a discussion on the merits of Wessex Saddlebacks. So I put the matter off and went on cultivating my garden (and I can't help thinking Voltaire must have served nine years in a studio when he insisted on the necessity of that excellent cathartic). Fortunately Anna tried yesterday to make cheese, a thing that she has never done before and I hope will never do again. I was forced to ea( some of her cheese for supper, and as a result, dreamt that a capitalist hail presented me with a million pounds to start a studio. Why he did so, I don't remember, perhaps he had misread the new Quota Bill ; but I spent the resl of the night deciding how 1 should run it, and my schemes may be of interest to cine-technicians, if only that they may disagree with I hem. At least, they are not the fancy pokerwork designed to adorn a company prospectus, but the protest of a humble cine-technician, who lias suffered every studio misery Irian dry-nursing directors as associate producer to seeing his own sad face on the screen as (dapper boy. First of all, T found that in my studio the creative and the non-creative sides were sternk separated. The creative side was defined as the producer, the writers and the whole floor unit, with people like the art director and the cutter who are directly alloted to a picture. This delighted me, as 1 have always been mildly surprised that the door unit, who make the film, should sometimes be the Cinderellas of a big studio. As f:ir as I can remember, the people in offices were made to wear bowler ha Is to show that they were businessmen, though an honourable exception was made for the producer, who, il he is the right man (and in my experience I have been blessed with the most pleasanl producers), is creative. And another thing in this salaries of the people in bowler hats i the picture, so thai the lloor unit he shadow of a claustrophobic over e no doubt that they were added in a hundred per cent . curious dream, the were not charged t did not live under head ; I llOUgh I ha\ h\ head Office thev like who in thei r greai mystery can do what Xext in my dream. I abandoned the style and title of Assistant Director, for no Assistant Director is an Assistant Director, but something tar more important, the Director's Chief of Staff. The best title I could think of was Floor Manager, but I was asleep at the time and might do better in daylight. J also remember multiplying his salary by four, on the grounds that what a man earns should bear some relation to the money he can save or lose for his employers. Then 1 found myself choosing my staff by most peculiar standards. I did not pick a cameraman just because I had been to the trade show of his last film and thought a couple of long shots "very artistic." 1 found out how long he had been allowed to take in lighting and bore that in mind. It make a slight difference to the cosi of a picture! So with directors: any director who messed about and didn't know what he wanted and tried things out was taken off the picture, which was somewhat of a surprise to him. Also with directors. 1 ruled out any who could not write. This is a peculiar theory of mine that as direction is the visualisation of the completed film, a director who can't write and therefore can't visualise, is incompetent and wastes time. But, as I say, this is a peculiar theory of mine. At the same time. 1 ruled out any director who insisted on writing everything himself. The writers are the writing specialists; a director's job on the script is that of a sub-editor, to sele< I from them what he wants. By now the effects Ol the cheese had become ! insistent and 1 launched an attack on the thing 1 loathe