Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1940)

223 Natural and man made beauty are found in Virginia ^^m^^^zt^ BOUND FOR THE OLD DOMINION Plans for a vacation that will soon be here I WAS in Old Virginia twice, lately, but my movie camera had to be left at home. This summer, I am going again to that historic State, and my camera will have the place of honor among the things that will be put into the motor car. I have even planned the footage that I intend to get during this visit. If determination and care can produce results — and I believe they can — I shall come back with a real Virginia movie. The opening sequence will show the Nation's capital, because Washington may well be called the northern gateway to the Old Dominion. This sequence will be introduced by the title, Washington, a city of distances. There will be several scenes taken from the top of the Washington Monument, to show the city spread out below; eastward is the Mall, the broad and beautiful opening that connects the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol; southwest lies the Potomac River, Arlington Cemetery and the Virginia shore; northeast are clustered the buildings of the United States Government, in the famous "Triangle." There will be no panorama here, but there will be well chosen viewpoints with some foreground for the shots, to give depth to the scenes. Down to earth again, from the Monument, after a few scenes have been taken of the shaft itself, going northward across the park that surrounds it, the camera will record the Treasury Building, on Fifteenth Street, and will secure a long shot up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. This will emphasize the initial title. To the Capitol we go next, and then out on the Mall, at its eastern limit, to get another long shot, westward to the Lincoln Memorial. This will be filmed in the morning, when lighting is at its best for color, because I shall use Kodachrome. There will be a journey down the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, where the morning sunlight will strike the great statue of Abraham Lincoln. I shall get some extra footage here that will be used later. The massive columns of the Memorial invite efforts at composition from interesting angles. J. STUART WHITE Another title, Washington, city of splendor, will introduce sequences of some of the imposing public structures. There will be shots of the Federal Reserve Building, the Folger Shakespeare Memorial Library, the Library of Congress and the beautifully classical Supreme Court Building; last will come the White House, as a climax for this sequence. A third title, Washington, city of history, will begin the final capital sequence. Here will be used the shots of the Lincoln Memorial and of the Washington Monument that will have been taken earlier. Without interruption, now, my film (and my vacation) will move across the Potomac River to Arlington Cemetery, where so many of the makers of American history are buried. I shall get a scene of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Going on to Alexandria, the camera will find itself surrounded by historical associations. Christ Church with its tombs, where Washington's pew and his family Bible may be seen, and some of the old houses will be filmed. In Alexandria, too, is the tomb of an unknown soldier in the Presbyterian Meeting House churchyard. This hero died in the Revolutionary War, but the Alexandria Post of the American Legion has done honor to him with a tablet that reads: Here lies a soldier of the Revolution whose identity is known but to God. His was an idealism that recognized a Supreme Being, that planted religious liberty on our shores, that overthrew despotism, that established a people's government, that wrote a Constitution setting metes and bounds of delegated authority, that fixed a standard of value upon men above gold and lifted high the torch of civil liberty along the pathway of mankind. In ourselves his soul exists as part of ours, his Memory's Mansion. My film will record this sturdy American sentiment. We shall leave Alexandria by Route One and go on to Pohick Church, built in 1768 under the supervision of George Washington and George William [Continued on page 244]