The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

September— October, 1944 T HE CINE-TECH N I C I A X K", I REMEMBER Billy Bitzer, 1). W. Griffith's cameraman, died on April 29th, 1944, at the age of 73. He shot " Birth of a Nation" "Intolerance," " Way Down F.ctst "all Griffith's famous pictures and over a thousand others. He was in on the invention of the closeup, the fade-out and soft focus. He began as a mechanic and electrician with Edison, and by 1806 was working for Biograph, later helping to make famous Marx Pickford and Blanche Sweet, Lilian Gish, Mae Marsh and Henry B. Walthall. He made two fortunes and lost them both. His best-known saying was to Mack Sennelt when Sennett once ventured to offer some photographic advice : " I ou keep it funny; I'll keep it in focus." This article written a month or so before his death, is reprinted from the " International Photographer." Some "t the boys have an idea that the earner is we had in the early days were light contrapti made by Pathe. When I started out the Amerii an Bi< graph I used weighed close to a ton. In IP*1' the film ran at 320 feet a minute as compared with 90 feel today. In thai year I took a picture of the fight between Sharkey and Jeffries at the Coney Island Athletic Club. The fighl lasted 25 founds (2 hours and 10 minutes) and I exposed seven and a halt miles of film. A 4-.1 lens with 8-inch focus was used ami the pi< tures were made withoui the aid of a Fisher light. The old Biograph film was nine limes larger than that used today. The Birth of a Nation was made with Pathe cameras. It was about then that the Bell & Howell was coming out. I1 was a much steadier camera, bu1 we didn't have money to buy it. All the pictures I ever made wi re shot with a Pathe. Being pioneers we are credited with inventive When we took scenes for Lumiere and Pathe. such as a man getting into a cab and ten ing out, it was considered quite a feat. Of! n learned new tricks by our mistakes. For in e, hi going out with lour magazines of film. 160 feel in each, you'd wonder when you came back why you had five pictures. What happet thai y u'd put the same magazine back, forgetting that you'd already made a picture on it. Thus it happened one day that my film showed a Ball River steamer coming up the middle oi l!)oadwa\ . 1 was the first man who ever photographed Mary Pickford, and she was more than a fine actress. Her constructive criticism improved the ■1 make-up even in those earl} davs. She complained thai her face looked much too white when photographed, that it almost resembled a mask. by G. W. (BILLY) BITZER She decided that if she used a darker make-up it would improve the photographic quality, and the first day she appeared on the set to try out her idea Griffith wanted to know if we were going to make a Zulu picture. However, Marj insisted and tin' result was another step for which Biograph will he remembered. < )n The Birth of a Nation the cameraman was Heated swell. I know he had some two hundred and forty thousand dollars before the smoke cleared away or while it was still clearing away from those sandbag trenches. The author, Thomas B. Dixon, who w ni ed $25,000 and something to saj about the direction got his $2.1.01)1) and a promise of a I'|| utage instead. The actual total he received amounted to about a million dollars — the highest price ever paid for any scenario as near as I can find out. Everyone who had anything to do with the picture was happy. It was a mortgage litter for many theatres. The Birth was road-showed, each show carrying its own complete orchestra, operate rs, sound effects, screen ; in fact everything hut the sour milk which used to whiten the screen. If a theatre had its own projecting machines they were taken out and for the first time in pictures two projectors were used (our own) to eliminate the "One moment, please" while the film was changed. All of this brings to mind the Magic Carpet — a carpet in the Old Alexandria Hotel lobby. If anyone had some $30,000 picture scheme tiny would step awa\ Item the cheap talk at the bar and on to this carpet, f "p to that time deals over that amount never were talked of — nor even thought of — hut when the fabulous earnings of The Birth of a Nation became known sixty to ninety " grand " was the line. They all thought they could make a picture along similar lines with similar earnings. And so The Fall of a Nation, The Blue and the Grey, The Betrayal, and others followed — and flopped. The Birth of a Nation was math' practically in the studio backyard it the corner of Sunset and Hollywood Boulevard. (Reliance Majestic), ex(Continued at foot of previous page) MISCELLANEOUS WANTED, AEROGRAPH BlIBSH. TYPE Ai: or E, with FULCRUM PUMP. Particulars Bos No. C.T. 10-1. Charles Sell, 5 6, Bed Lion Square, London, W'.t'.l