Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1932)

Untrained actors gave fine results if told the story 433 Eastman Teaching: Films, Inc. An amateur studies rofessional ways P and gives comments SOME time ago it was my privilege to spend six weeks on location in various parts of Virginia with Eastman Teaching Films, Inc., producing the official motion picture on the life of George Washington for the United States Bicentennial Commission. It was my first experience in the realm of the professionals and it was a revelation, indeed, for until then my movie making had been confined to the "opportunity shots" field of the not too leisured amateur. It was a real photographic education. Never before had I realized just how great an amount of care and attention to detail is necessary for the production of a really worth while picture. From beginning to end, the making of The Life Of George Washington was a lesson in painstaking. Not only did the film have to be good photographically, it had to be flawless historically. In selecting two actors for the role of Washington, one to portray him as the young man depicted in the Peale painting and the other to play the part as the older man shown in the Stuart portrait, the production manager interviewed scores of applicants who bore, or thought they bore, a resemblance to the first president. Of more than fifty of these actors, screen tests were made and submitted to a committee of authorities on the subject. Through these tests, two of the actors, John Ferguson and Ellsworth Woods, were found to be almost living images of the Peale and Stuart pictures respectively. However, to confirm the choice, Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Woods were arrayed in full Colonial regalia and again subjected to screen tests, which also were approved before production began. As a result of this diligence in trying to secure perfect characterizations, Virginia villagers, familiar with portraits of Washington and seeing Mr. Ferguson or Mr. Woods on the street in costume for the first time, usually looked as if they were met by a ghost. One woman in the mountains near Lexington, where most of the frontier and military scenes were staged, actually took to her heels in terror after one glimpse of Mr. Woods in full dress Colonial uniform, probably to report in absolute earnestness that she had just seen with her own eyes the shade of "G. W." at the head of a phantom Colonial army. The same care that was exercised in the casting was devoted to every other phase of the production. Only when absolutely necessary were sets manufactured. Wherever possible, scenes were taken at the exact place where they were originally enacted a century and a half ago. All of the costumes, furnishings and properties used had to have the approval of a group of experts as to whether they were of precisely the proper period in style and material. In a few instances, the costumes were not costumes at all but the actual garb of the original characters in the scenes being reenacted, preserved and handed down through generations of descendants. Some of the properties were genuine Washington relics. One scene shows a trunk which he carried with him for many years, another his own writing desk. For the first time a movie camera was set up inside Mount Vernon and in Kenmore at Fredericksburg, the lovely home of Washington's only sister. In the latter city, scenes were also made at the Mary Washington House, the home of his mother, and at the Rising Sun Tavern, rendezvous of pre Revolutionary patriots, as well as in several historic private homes and in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. More than half of the furnishings of these places were original pieces. Glaring incandescents blazed down on tables that once were piled high with documents vital to the success of the new republic, written by Washington under the flickering light of a candle. A director's commands resounded through halls that once echoed the tread of the founders of a nation. Actors tried to appear at ease resting gingerly on chairs that had given most of their strength to the support of portly patriots more than 150 years before. Occasionally, with a scene all set and the characters rehearsed, taking would be held up for an hour or more while there ensued debate and research as to whether a certain "prop" in the scene was of the correct period. Once in a while a halt would have to be called so that all hands could search frantically for some precious photostatic copy of an original document that had been too carefully put away. Aye, the price of authenticity is great pains and for those who have the time and money necessary for really artistic and effective amateur photography [Continued on page 448] HORACE H. SMITH, JR. Filming with the Founder