Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

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130 DOCl/MENTARY NEWS LETTER Denis Segaller has just returned from USA he sends us this brief account of AMERICAN LOCATION dnl has asked me to write down some of my impressions of America. What shall I write about? I have come back absolutely saturated with impressions — mostly good ones! This 11week trip of mine (April, May, and half of June) has been wonderful — one of the greatest and most delightful experiences I have ever had. (Or maybe that much is obvious anyhow.) RMS Queen Elizabeth is breathtaking . . . and can take your appetite away, too. For an exquisitely uncomfortable sensation I can recommend seeing a film — any film — on board ship in a rough sea, with the screen pitching gently to and fro. The Queen Elizabeth has two fully equipped cinemas, with a daily change of programme — single feature — films such as Johnnie O'Clock, Nicholas Nickleby, Margie (which I rather went for) plus the usual short. This Modern Age's Coal Crisis went down extremely well with a somewhat cosmopolitan audience. The purpose of my trip was to shoot certain processes in oil refining for the instructional Refinery Series I am making at Shell. One of my two chief refinery locations was at Dominguez, some twenty miles from Hollywood. So after two days in New York off I went to the West Coast. I enjoyed Hollywood a lot. One of the things I liked about it was the pleasant cool, white architecture — nary an ugly building in sight — and an air of spaciousness. Hollywood isn't a very clearly-defined geographical unit, but just a 'district' in the enormous sprawling mass of Los Angeles, bounded on the West and South by other districts known vaguely as Beverley Hills (where Shirley Temple lives) and Wilshire (one T and no 't'), and on the North by the Santa Monica mountains, which are reminiscent of Italy and reputed to contain poisonous snakes. 'The Boulevard' — Hollywood Boulevard — is mainly shops — not as expensive as you'd think — and, of course, Sid Grauman's beautiful Chinese Theatre with hand and footprints of many stars (including the Durrante schnozzle-print). My shooting was all exterior work. Union minimum crew consisted of: cameraman (£23 a day), operator (about half that amount), assistant (can't remember his rate), and electrician (about £5 a day). These are full studio rates as there is no separate shorts agreement. The crew were grand to work with and turned in the best possible stuff. We had our weather troubles, however. The Los Angeles district suffers from a fairly new climatic disease known locally as 'smog'. This is not unlike a London peasouper, only blue, not yellow; it is largely caused by the many new industrial plants which have sprung up in the area during the war years, plus, I suspect, some THE HORIZON FILM UNIT • • An Associate oj the Film Producers Guild Ltd A Unit of seven people who during the past two years have made twelve films for Government Departments and Industry, for informational or instructional purposes. They specialize in, and are experienced in, the writing and film technique of helping to communicate people to each other in different aspects of citizenship. THE HORIZON FILM UNIT (producer: max m u n d e n ) GUILD HOUSE, UPPER ST. M A R I I N ' S LANE, W . C . 2 sea mist blowing in from the Pacific. It tended to be very thick most mornings on location, and sometimes we had no sun until late afternoon. We also had considerable cloud and general overcast. Shooting in and around oil refineries is an interesting but rather mucky business. Our feet sank in tar melted by the heat of the sun (when there was any sun), our hands and clothes got covered in oil and grease climbing up tanks and towers. I left my 'refinery suit' behind when the job was finished. George Pal is at present making a series of Puppetoon Films in colour for Shell; I met him two or three times and was lucky enough to be shown round his studios. I was glad to learn something of his shooting methods and to examine his fascinating little puppets, which are models of craftsmanship. He uses a variety of animation techniques : changes of facial expression for example are produced by a series of heads, each with a peg registering into a hole in the neck. I was also taken on to a couple of sets at Warners during rehearsals between takes. Much impressed by general air of efficiency and order yet at the same time a feeling of good humour. Many units in Hollywood and elsewhere making documentary, instructional or "commercial' films are operating entirely on 16 mm. Main reasons are: lower cost, and colour. Right now it is difficult or even impossible to obtain 35 mm. colour facilities for any non-theatrical productions, whereas on 16 mm. Kodachrome is readily available. 16 mm. shooting, editing, printing and optical facilities are much better organized on the whole than over here, and quality of show copies tends to be higher. My other main location was at a refinery in Texas, near the Gulf Coast. Here by contrast we had a week of the most perfect shooting weather — sun (and was it hot?), brilliant blue sky and some wonderful cloud effects. I was told photographers come to the Gulf Coast from all over the USA to shoot clouds, and Hollywood even sends cameramen the 1,800 miles to get clouds for library material to be used for back-projection. Everywhere I went folks were extremely hospitable and kind. I found Americans on the whole a friendly, informal and delightful people, and liked what I saw of the American way of life. Everywhere, too, I found the greatest appreciation of British films. Not only are such British Shell films as Distillation, Transfer of Power, and Hydraulics acclaimed and widely used by the Shell organization in the USA, but these and other more recent British documentaries such as Children's Charter, Your Children's Eyes. etc. seem to be achieving great things in the schools and in other non-theatrical fields. (I would like to be able to say a lot more about this nontheatrical distribution set-up, but must plead limited knowledge. This 1 do know, that numerous small private firms seem to be hiring projectors and other visual aids apparatus to schools and youth clubs, and w ith these go a fair proportion of British documentaries. US educational bodies as a w hole seem a w hole lot more filmconscious than in this country.) Nearl) everyone I spoke to had seen and was enthusiastic about such films as Brut Encounter, Henry \\ Suit wax to Heaven {A Matter of Life and Death) and This Happy Breed. I saw Great Expectations playing to a full house of 6,500 in Radio City Music Hall in New York. It went down good and big: mv two American friends declared it the best film they had ever seen.