The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

June 1954 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 119 away on the other side of the courtyard. " The first time we attempted the shot, we made it with a 10-inch lens. On the screen it wasn't clear that the object was a wedding ring. It was obvious that it was a ring, but that was all. Then we made the shot over, using different lighting, and it still wasn't what we wanted. So we finally moved out on the boom and put the 6-inch lens on the camera set at f5.6. The results were sharp as a tack. " Here was a story point that simply couldn't be done in any other way, without making it look artificial. An insert just wouldn't do, because all action as we put it on the screen was as seen from Stewart's point of view; it had to have the same pictorial and spacial perspective. In this case, Stewart was viewing the scene through his telephoto-equipped camera. Our aim was to match exactly the same visual perspective he obtained when actually viewing the scene with the aid of his camera." One of the more interesting things about this production, perhaps, is the " pre-lighting " phase in which Burks and his gaffers spent the better part of ten days in planning the illumination and rigging the huge complex set prior to starting to shoot. " If this large composite set had been lighted in the conventional manner," said Burks, " we would have required over a hundred days in which to complete the picture. I went on the sound stage about ten days prior to the starting date. Using a skeleton crew, we pre-lit every one of the 31 apartments for both day and night, as well as lit the exterior of the courtyard for the dual-type illumination required. A remote switch controlled the lights in each apartment. On the stage, we had a switching setup that looked like the console of the biggest organ ever made! Actually, lighting this composite set was the biggest electrical job ever undertaken on the lot by Paramount — not excepting even Cecil B. De-Mille's big spectacle sets. Biggest, that is, in terms of number of electrical units used, amps used, and the number of individual light units and amount of cable laid. At one time, we had every switch on the lot in use on the sound stage. " With a vast setup of this kind, it was a simple matter to light any portion of the set with the mere throw of a switch or two. Thus if Hitchcock decided to start the day's shooting with action in the salesman-murderer's apartment, we'd simply ask the gaffer to ' hit number 37 ' ! " A big chart was prepared, following the prelighting activities, which showed graphically the complete set-lighting plan. It indicated what switches controlled what lights, for either the day or night lighting scheme. This is not to imply that lighting adjustments were not continually being made as the picture progressed; lighting had to be adjusted frequently to fit certain action. But the basic lighting structure was established — the walls, the effect of light coming through the windows and curtains, etc. When the salesman-murderer went over and sat down in his chair and picked up the telephone, for example, an adjustment might be made in the key light for that position. This would take but a few minutes compared to the time that would be required if the action in each apartment was filmed in the conventional manner, where each had to be lighted separately just prior to shooting. "In the beginning", said Burks, "we attempted to establish three separate lighting schemes — for day, night, and a ' sunset ' lighting. But we soon found that in order to do all this would require setting up a complete pattern of lighting units for each scheme. Obviously this would require more lights than the studio had at its disposal; and besides, there wouldn't be room on the scaffolding and stage for them or the attendant equipment. " So what we did was to set up the day lighting complete, which could be ' put on ' the set simply by throwing a few switches. Then we partially set up the night lighting pattern. For the night shots, we then augmented the night lighting setup by robbing the day lighting of some of its units; this also was true when we required the ' sunset ' lighting scheme. " But ' pre-lighting ' did pay off, even though we were not able to carry out the plan as extensively as we would like. Ordinarily, to light a set as extensive and complicated as this would entail from a half to a full day's time. We had it down to a routine where we could change the overall lighting from night to day on the entire set, including the apartment interiors, in about 45 minutes." Some idea of what this means can be gained when it is considered that there were 70 openings— windows, doors, etc. — in the set. Every apartment across the courtyard was loaded with lighting equipment : lamps, spots, photofloods, gauzes, scrims, etc. This was not just effect lighting but carefully worked out set lighting, because action takes place in almost every apartment or apartment balcony sometime during the story, and in some cases a number of times. " One of the major problems I encountered," said Burks, " was making the day shots, where action was going on in the apartments. Ordinarily, when one looks at an average apartment window in the daytime, one cannot readily see what is going on inside, even though the room lights are on. When first we lit the apartments