International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

:ragmam The Camera Operative Body Is the Power Behind Production in All Motion Picture Activity. FOM THE CAMERAMAN'S ANCLE WHAT THEY DO No. 1 IN A. D. 2034 Walt Disney's "Three Little Pigs *V DEAL TELLS EM HAL PAGE 1) lined into a tremendous controversy m», bewildered as to the right course iy to join the old affiliation. ir;nious contention — there has arisen rinization, an organization which for u ler of the Cameramen. :e in mind that "the stone rejected of n.' and differences, especially those I d." I leramen rejoice because their great tl day cometh and now is here when ith and the place where Labor and n; real place in the sun. th, in the last analysis, his interests v h the Union Local which protects tj studio and on location — near and hd any purpose except that looking It Cameramen, on EQUAL terms, and sf 'Oth. A PRODUCTION MIRACLE Three hundred men working in three eight-hour shifts a day for ten days were required to build the set for "By a Waterfall" sequence which was the big feature of Warner Brothers' "Footlight Parade." Thirty tons of steel, brass and tin were necessary to fabricate the big revolving fountain. Seventy-two hundred pounds of paw-paw fed blondes were required to decorate the amazing mechanism designed and created by Busby Berkeley and by Frank Murphy, the electrical genius of the Warner picture factory. George Barnes photographed dramatic sequences of the big picture and to Sol Polito fell the difficult task of filming the water sequences — and it was one of the finest pieces of camera work in the history of the cinema. Assisting Mr. Polito were: Mike Joyce, operative cameraman ; Louis De Angelis, assistant ; George Whittemore, electrician; George Amy, film editor: Billy Cannon, assistant film editor; Ollie Garrett, sound engineer; Harold Noys, grips; Gene Delaney, props; Irva Ross, script. As seen on the screen this big water set is a spec PARAMOUNT Bert Glennon was the lucky cinematographer to photograph "Catherine the Great." He likes the big ones and is sure fire where majesty is concerned. The picture promises to be worthy of its subject. Leo Tover was assigned to "Bolero" by Chief Cinematographer Virgil Miller; Henry Sharp shot "Three of a Kind"; Theodor Sparkhul photographed "No More Women," while "Good Dame" fell to the camera of Leon Shamroy. Bert Glennon and Henry Sharp are sharing the honors for the extraordinarily fine photographic job thev did in "Alice in Wonderland." Farciot Edouart and his able associates, Dev and Gordon Jennings, did a wonderful job of work with the special effects. Archie Stout has just put the finishing touches upon Paramount's big Western, "The Last Round Up," which the Hollywood Reporter estimates as a "rattling good Western." The author is Zane Grey and the director Henry Holloway. Mr. Stout is an ace at all cinematographic drama, but at the delineation of big Western stuff he is almost in a class by himself. FOX Hal Mohr directed the photography on the great Fox production, "Carolina." Ernest Palmer will pull down the screen ciedit r "Ever Since Eve," the new Fox feature. John Seitz has been exercising his rare cinematographic genius on "Coming Out Party," a Fox offering. Barney McGill and George Schneidermin have completed their camera assignment on "Disillusion" and "Woman and the Law," respectively. Hal Mohr had a wonderful time shooting "David Harum," the big all star feature with Will Rogers as the beloved old hoss trader, James Cruze directed. Lee Garmes and George Schneiderman shared the honors of the photographic work on "George White's Scandals." Rudy Vallee is the star. Producer George White. Ernest Palmer with Winfield Slieehan as producer, did the cinematographic stuff on "Fox Follies," the story idea of Will' Rogers and Philip Klein. The rail-birds say it's good. Lee Garmes did the cinematographic work on "I Am Suzanne," Jesse L. Lasky's most recent production. E. E. Ward handled the sound. The featured players are Lilian Harvey and Gene Raymond. The Mussolini sponsored Piccoli Marionettes, Italy's greatest theatrical troupe, nearly two hundred years old, are shown in the early sequences of this picture and they make a great hit. Mr. Garmes, as usual, lives up to his fine reputation as a virtuoso of the motion camera. tacular disappearing fountain on which sixty glorious blonde girls disport themselves on four alternately rotating platforms, all bathed in a colored mist from three hundred tiny water sprays. But to those who watched the building of this amazing mechanism, who know the problems which confronted artists and engineers when Busby Berkeley first sketched his ideas roughly on a conference room tablecloth, and who remember the short time allowed for its completion, it will always be remembered as a confirmation of the belief that : "Studio technicians can do anything." To begin with, the fountain which is only one feature of an enormous set for the celebrated "water number" created by Berkeley for the Warner Brothers picture, "Footlight Parade," is twenty feet in diameter at its base, twenty-two feet high in the center and under its frothy super-structure more than thirty tons of steel are hidden. Three tons of girls ride these revolving spraying turrets, but their weight is negligible compared to the complex machinery which rides camouflaged within the super-structure. Each whirling platform carries its own propelling motor, its own pump and a huge water storage tank to supply its own share of the sprays on the fountain. Each of the four platforms fits exactly within the inner limits of its larger neighbor. They can turn separately, all on one level, all in any one direction, or alternately and on levels four feet apart. A tremendous steel' platen, such as supports hydraulic elevators in office buildings, and another power motor near the foot of the shaft, can lift the entire assembly on structural steel, spraying water and propelling motors, not to mention the threetons of girls, twenty-two feet high in the air, at any given speed and can also lower them completely out of sight. It can lift all' this as a unit or in four alternate whirling layers. There were no patterns to follow when Berkeley talked first about his idea of a "disappearing fountain." His ideas were sketchy, his mechanical knowledge limited. "Can we do it," he demanded. Louis Geib, technical director for Warner Brothers, and Frank X. Murphy, head of the studio's electrical and mechanical department, thought they could. They had ten days to plan it. fabricate and install it. They submitted first drawings to an outside contractor. The studio was busy with other sets for other pictures and was willing to have the set built off the lot. The contractor, however, wanted three months to do the job. Murphy and Geib had promised it within ten days. Wearily they moved cots into their offices, telephoned their families not to expect to see them for ten days and set about keeping their promise. The mills, the plaster shop, the steel workers and the tinsmiths were all trebled in numbers and put on three eight-hour shifts. The studio foundry blazed day and night. Even the flanged brass wheels on which the giant platforms rotate, were made in the studio under Murphy's orders. The largest steel circle, when it was completed, weighed more than six tons. At exactly one angle it would go through one of the gigantic stage doors. A motor mounted crane brought it to the stage and maneuvered it through the opening and into place near the great hole cut in the stage floor, under which workmen had dug a pit nearly thirty feet deep. Quicksand there impeded the work. Finally the whole excavation was concreted off, pumps were installed to drain seeping water and the huge mechanism was lowered into place. Structural steel workers joined studio forces and worked twenty-four hours a day for three days, riveting and welding the basic structure into permanence. Berkeley, not a little amazed at the vast amount of work his original idea was causing, went to the edge of the hole occasionally and peeked over. Accustomed as he was to having his most outlandish conceptions translated by studio technicians into steel and plaster, lie nevertheless seemed perpetually astonished that his idea was actually feasible. Convinced finally that it was, that thirty tons of steel, eleven powerful motors and pumps, pulsing dynamos and huge water mains would give him the effects he had sketched so roughly on the tablecloth, he washed his hands of all' technical problems and busied himself with the three tons of girls who were to ride the contraption. Llovd Bacon directed the picture from the screennlay by Manual Seff and James S'eymour while Berkeley created and staged the choruses and dance ensembles.