International photographer (Jan-Dec 1935)

March, 1935 The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Twenty-three sound proof as it might have been. Even with a wild motor and without any covering whatever the camera is silent enough so that it was often used at the same time sound was being recorded. This production proved an excellent picture for testing the Akers camera under regular production conditions, and a number of scenes were especially planned for it. Being a western type of picture it was naturally full of action, and the camera not only was useful as an auxiliary camera to cover difficult action and stunts from two angles, but especially to obtain effective angles which, if obtainable at all by a big camera, could have been obtained only by an expenditure of considerable time, which the short production schedule common to most western pictures did not permit. For instance, in a big fight in a saloon set I took the camera up on a light parallel and got some shots which made excellent cuts to increase the speed and effectiveness of the fight. In this scene, as in others where it was desired to increase the speed of action, undercranking was readily permitted by the rheostat controlling the motor speed. The camera was shot wild and without a silencing cover, though sound was being recorded. The light weight of the camera proved to be of value a number of times where a fast setup was necessary or where no tripod could be used. In one instance I carried the camera up a fairly steep hill and had it set up to get a longshot of a stagecoach riding through the scene before the director had finished giving his instructions to the stagecoach driver and the cameraman on the big camera, thus avoiding the delay which would have been necessary to set up heavier equipment. A pictorial longshot of the stagecoach was obtained from the hilltop, while the other camera got a closer shot. On location in Tia Juana the ease and speed with which the camera can be set up again proved its worth, for we happened to hit cloudy weather and had to grab a few scenes in a hurry before the sun again disappeared. Had we taken the time to set up the big camera we would have missed some good shots, for, having no booster lights, we naturally needed the sun. One scene required the camera in a tree to get the hero as he jumped out of the tree on a speeding stagecoach, and as no tripod could have been used without constructing a special platform the hand-held camera was indispensible. For low setups the hand-held camera was also used, and by resting the handle on the ground it could be held Very steadily. In this way several shots of horses' hoofs and stagecoach wheels and some very good effect shots of the three principle characters riding by on horseback were obtained. A worm's eye-view is always effective for that type of scene. In one important scene in which the bandits drive a herd of cattle out of a corral the Akers camera was held in the doorway of the barn adjacent to the corral, and intimate action closeups of the stampede shot while the big camera got the longshot from the opposite angle. The shot with the litle camera proved the most satisfactory, as it took the audience in among the cattle. On the recently completed feature, "Sea Devil," the Akers camera shot some 4,000 feet of film, much of which could not have been obtained with a regular studio camera. Most of the scenes were taken aboard a little fishing boat, where space is naturally limited. Some of the most effective angles were to be obtained only from positions where it was impossible to set up a tripod, so the Akers camera came to the rescue. Sometimes the cameraman would hang with it over the side of the boat, sometimes in the rigging, sometimes lying on his back in a rowboat shooting up on the larger boat — in short, the camera could be shot from any position a man could get (Turn to Page 28) The Mechanical Needs of the Industry Manufacturing Motion Picture Equipment Developing Machines Laboratory Equipment General Machine and Engineering Work Under Water Camera Equipment Special Projection Equipment Synchronizing Devices Optical Printers Camera Booms Miniatures "Props" Under Water Camera Blimp H. W. HOUSTON CO 1041 NO. SYCAMORE AVE., HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. HEmpstead 6732 Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.