The Cine Technician (1939)

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179 1 E (IN E E < II N : I i I a N Dec. -Jan., 1937-8 BIOSCOPE WALLAHS by OSMOND BORRADAILE Filming on the N.W. Frontier of India LAST May, I was appointed by London Film Productions to go to India to photograph scenes for their second Indian film. We were instructed to proceed to the North-West Frontier, a very different country to that of Mysore, where I spent over a year with Robert Flaherty on "Elephant Boy." This time, we were heading for one of the hottest parts of a hot country, with the hottest period of the year just beginning. This knowledge was not very comforting, especially as we were to work in colour, which meant that the all-important task of trying to keep the negative cool— or I should say negatives, because we were to use Technicolour — would give us many anxious hours and would be the cause of many headaches. As our camera was needed for the Coronation, we were unable to leave before May 16th, on which date Christopher Challis, I and our 00.000 feet of negative left for Southampton to embark in the Imperial Airways' flying boat "Canopus." Yes, we were to fly to India. They couldn't get us warmed up fast enough ! Owing to the weight of our equipment, it was necessary to split our party and it was decided that Henry Imus would follow by the next plane, bringing with him his pet Technicolour Camera D4. Challis and I had a rather rough trip as far as Brindisi, then we had our only carefree day to Alexandria ; from then on, we were worried about the film ; we felt it was all right as long as we were in the air, but as soon as we landed that old plane seemed to get hot enough to melt. What a relief to be in the air again. They were unable to carry us through to Delhi by air. so at Karachi we did our necessai'y shopping, engaged one Syed ITassin as bearer, and took the train for Delhi. In our compartmenl we placed a big tin bath into which we st ;ieked our negative, surrounding it with mounds of ice (or what was supposed to be .mounds, a mound being 18 lbs.), and covered it all with two layers of heavy canvas; another mound was kepi in another tray, but uncovered: on to this ice we directed all three tans in an 'tint to cool the atm It was necessary to renew our ice everj two or three hours. Our trip across the i Deserl was very hot, but in thi manner we were able to keep our him within the safety margin. At Delhi. 1 managed to get in touch with Geoffrey Boothby, who bad arrived a few weeks earlier and \ then at Peshawar; he told me over the 'phone that officials had been most helpful, had promised us evenpossible assistance and bad advised making our base at Peshawar. So that evening I caught the train to join Boothby, leaving Challis and Imus, who had just arrived, to collect the few things we were having made : umbrella stand, ice chests for magazines, etc. Boothby and I -pent the following week spotting locations, getting permits, arranging lor troops, hiring a ear and a lorry, having reflectors made, and so on. To say that it was hot is indeed putting it mildly, the thermometer always keeping on the wrong side of 100°, but it rose nobly to the occasion of our first day of shooting, when it won the hot weather sweepstake for all India by reaching 120° in the shade. Of course, we were in the sun! What a day! We were shooting the rifle factory in the Kohat Pass, which is in tribal territory, where every man — and many children for that matter — carries a gun. I was amazed to see the fine work these chaps do with such crude home made lathes and tools. In appearance, the finished rifle is hard to distinguish from our army service rifle, from winch it is coped; however, the marking such as "V.R. 193'2" generally betrays its origin. I didn't care to risk firing one as I haven't much faith in rifle barrels made from railway track, although I was assured that they are quite dependable and accurate for the first fifty rounds. The next few days were spent in picking up scenes in the Peshawar Bazaar ; the heat still persisted and seemed to be intensified in the crowded streets. The task of keeping the film cool while on location was more or less successfully accomplished by keeping the magazines in our portable ice chests until we were ready to shoot, when one would be loaded on the camera and covered as quickly as possible with wet canvas. By now, I had decided that it was impossible to ship the exposed negative back to England unaccompanied, as it was sure to be subjected to high temperature for a much longer period than Technicolour deemed advisable (a measure of precaution that always seemed beyond the comprehension of officials in the cool of the Denham Studios, judging from the numerous telegraphic requests for the despatch of the exposed film). Of course, I had very reluctantly taken that decision, as it prevented me from getting any reports from the "rushes" and meant that I should have to wait until I returned to England to know the result of the expedition. Working in such darkness was not very comforting and possibly accounted for some ot the 261bs, in weight I left behind in India. Our script called for an important looking settlement surrounded by gaunt snow-capped mountains. Yes, we had a script ! ... or I should say scripts, for it was a disappointing air-mail that failed to bring a different v< r sion from Denham. It was in search of this location that lie,, tires and I dro\etn Srinagar, in the beautiful Kashmir Vallej ; a more beautiful place I have yet to see. 11 r we were surrounded by snov capped mountains, but w< could not find a suitable village. It was all too beautiful and peaceful lor our purpi ses ; we needed a more dramatic background. So it was with reluctance that we returned to the heal oi the plains. We wen advised to drive through Kohat and on to Parachinar on the Atudian border.