Screenland (May-Oct 1928)

SCREEN LAND 99 and plenty smart, the £irls with a few sweet words of flattery were giving them a good trimming. At a dance. Bill and Alan meet Jackie Logan, who is their image of sweetness and innocence. Actually, she was a few ideas ahead of the boys. They both fall for her and become bitter rivals for her attentions. You know, the 'We'll settle this in the alley" type of hate. At the dam. Alan has an accident. Bill, risking his own neck, goes to Alan and rescues him. Alan thought that Bill would take this opportunity to bump him off and he told Bill so. Bill told Alan that when he bumps him off. 'It ain't going to be any accident.' Jackie is only playing them for their money and is secretly wild over a little dance hall sheik, whom both Alan and Bill despise. Very cleverly, Jackie cleans both Bill and Alan of their bank-rolls and watches, and elopes with the sheik. As the boys are ready to shoot it out over who is to have her hand, they notice her leaving on the train with the sheik and are too late to stop her. The sheik, true to his form, is letting Jackie pay their ways and carry the luggage while he struts on ahead carrying his dignity, and she loves it. The boys with their ideal proven false swear that they are through with 'wimmin* and then they see a cute little blonde go by. Should they? Oh. what good are resolutions anyhow if you can break them! This is Power, 'An Epic of the West." where men are still men. This picture is a clever vehicle for Bill and Alan as it is very much suited to their types. Both of them are very funny off the screen as well as on. Bill is the handsome boy for whom all of the girls fall and x\lan is the big-wise-cracker who has 'that way." you know. The story has some real thrills and you can depend on a full quota of laughs. I have told you enough about the story of the picture so now I shall tell you a few interesting high lights about how it was filmed. Naturally, this is the part that I am really interested in. but when we get a good cast and a good story to work with we sometimes grow enthusiastic. Of course a cameraman's work is always interesting and exciting. About the time we finished talking and laughing over the plot of the picture, we had reached the dam. The dam is right between two mountains. The mountains at this point are very close together, only two hundred feet apart, at their bases. The valley back of the dam gradually widens, and becomes over two miles wide. The dam is for flood control, because when it rains out here, it rains. Previously the water rushing down the mountains would go through the valley with tremendous destructive force. The country back of the dam is very rugged. Two or three miles back of the dam is a group of cabins that are occupied by government surveyors. All of their supplies are hauled by pack-mule over mountain trails. During the season, you can hunt deer in the forests beyond. When you reach the construction camp at the base of the mountains, the dam is not in sight, due to a twist in the valley. This feature made it hard to obtain long shots of the dam. The ones that we did obtain were very dangerous to secure, as we had to climb the side of the mountain over paths that could hardly be described as trails. All of the cabins are wired and weighed down with stones for protection against winds and rains. Going up the side of the mountain, is a tramway on which run two cars. One balances the other. These steel cars are used to haul -and and rock up the mountain to the concrete mixer. The workmen also use these cars to ride to and from work. The cars, by the way, are pulled almost straight up the mountain side by a single cable and there are no safeties on the cars should one of the cables snap. At the bottom of the tramway is a loading pit, back of which is a great stone wall. One naturally visualized a cable breaking, the cars rushing down the mountain side, and smashing into the stone wall. This indeed was a splendid stimulant for the nerves! All of us viewed the tramway with suspicion and made the usual bright cracks, to gloss over our anxiety and to impress others with o".r courage. On one side of the tramway is a flight of stairs. They go up, up, and still up. Of course we could walk up these steps, but how about our cameras and the five hundred pounds of camera equipment? One of our truck drivers walked up the flight of stairs for curiosity's sake and complained of sore leg muscles for a week. The directors and the actors began to arrive. While the work on the dam was temporarily suspended, the studio hired extras to act as workmen. They also hired some of the regular employees who had worked for the construction company. The studio got a splendid break, in that actual construction at the dam was at a standstill, while we were there. We were able to use all of the hoists, rigging, in fact anything, at our own wish. This we could never have done if construction had been going on. After they started building the dam again, I returned with another cameraman and we obtained all of the construction atmosphere shots necessary. All of our extras worked under the supervision of Mr. Frank Livingston, superintendent of the dam. In appreciation of his splendid cooperation we gave him a leather-covered stool on which were autographed the names of the principal actors, the director, and the rest of the staff. Mr. Higgin, our director, after sun-eying the situation and. I imagine, feeling the same way we did toward the height, decided that we should work from the bottom up. So we shot every conceivable angle and imagined a few more, showing how the workman rode up and down the tramway — Bill and Alan, of course, acting their prescribed roles. They are constantly in an argument over girls. No more angles or scenes left, we had to get into the cars with cameras and everything and ride to the top. Man, that"s a ride. Talk about your Coney Island, Venice, or Ocean Park coaster rides, they're pikers compared to what they build out here. This ride only proved to be a little introduction to what was in store for us. By the time everyone and all of the equipment had reached the top it was twelve o'clock, so we quit for lunch. The property department issued the old famous box lunches and a pint bottle of milk. The only shade in sight was the interior of the building where they store concrete, so all of us retired there. As one of the boys said later. "Two more lunches here and I won't need that new porcelain filling I was going to get in my tooth. I got a good concrete foundation starting now." After lunch and a rest and feeling more venturesome, we returned to the job of making pictures. Of course my cameraman and myself drew the hard camera set-up. We had to set up on the roof of the hoist-shed, at the top of the tramway! A full seventy-five feet above the other cameramen. It was here that I got my first glimpse of the dam and also my initiation to the heights from which we were to work. See How Easy You Can Qet... A Business #YourOwn "This New Way! SEND your name and address for an amazing FREE book which gives facts that will surprise you about Modern Photography. It tells of an amazingly easy way to start your own business quickly, with very little capital. It also shows how hundreds of othermen andwomen aremakingrealmoney in spare time taking pictures. Many Earn $35 to $90 a Week in Spare Time In this day of pictures, photographers are making more than ever before. But just ordinary photography is not enough. 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