The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

Ma v— Juno, 1045 THE C INE-TECHXICIAN Deep in the jungle it is surprising how difficult [|t is to gel good long shots, for tin sunlight streams down through the broken skyline of trees making ;i jig-saw pattern of bright high-lights over the -round. Your artists disappear entirely (especially when dressed in "jungle green") and on to], of this the result makes the bush appear quite thin, rather like an English wood. Back lighting is dangerous in full sun too, for all the shadows turn jet black with vivid high-lights from the leaves resulting in a glorious " soot and whitewash." I thank heaven for the genius who sent me off with a spare duplicate set of biters, for soon after exposure to the heat believe it or not the balsam melts and you can easily slide the two glasses apart. Without a one-inch lens I feel we would have had to cut down enormous portions of greenery to get any effect of depth and width in fehis kind of country. That little "bottle" saved mam headaches!! Even so it was necessary to re-dress the jungle for the purposes of set-up for the most perfect location would scream disaster to the shots without a careful trimming with " dingleberries," and often the sky had to be shaded with thick bush or foliage to stop light getting where it was not wanted. The camera, even when shaded, gets so hot that the oil runs out of it and mi one occasion 1 had to strip it down to free a dry Bearing. An unpleasant task without a workbench or the proper tools, and only a torch for light. Among a host of unnecessary accessories that I found I had brought with me was a Weston .Meter, and so for fun I tried it out. The result was alarming, the needle swung hard over and would have wrapped itself round the stop-pin had I not hurriedly put it away. Needless to say I now regard this tool of the trade as being unnecessary for this kind of work. If one were to believe what it says a lens would have to be designed that stopped d iwn to about F200. While directing a sequence a few days back, our director (Ralph Elton) had a snake glide over his left boot. We succeeded in getting a fine insert of it. though needless to say it did not live long alter its screen debut. This particular snake was a "Tic Polanga," and it is liable to jump its own length to strike. The local natives informed us later, when shown the deceased, that it can be very vicious, though ours must have been suffering from stage fright. A delightful beast known as a Kabragoya lives around the camp and seems quite unafraid of either humans or of the camera. He is a large amphibious reptile of the lizard class measuring some four feet overall. He spends his days scav nging around the hushes for tit-bits and appears to have a passion for tinned cheese. Up aloft we are watched by a colony of monkeys who take a deep interest in all our doings. They are TH GROWN THEATRE PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE AT ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE TWO DOUBLE HEADS DUOSONIC SOUND SYSTEM MIXING PANELS FOR TRACKS SEATING FOR 90 PERSONS 86, Wardour St., London, W.1 OUR CONTRIBUTION ... • TITLES • INSERTS • OPTICALS • SPECIAL EFFECTS • ANIMATED DIAGRAMS • PRECISION PROCESSING BACKED BY AN ORGANISATION WHICH HAS PROVED ITSELF RELIABLE EFFICIENT & PROGRESSIVE Studio Film Laboratories Ltd Telephone Gerr. 1365-6-7 80-82 WARDOUR ST., & 71 DEAN STREET, W.1.