THE CAMERAMAN NEVER TURNS THE CRANK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 55, 20 March 1937, Page 16

THE CAMERAMAN NEVER TURNS THE CRANK

It is just one of the cinema's little anomalies that the man they eall the camera man never operates the eamera. Officially, the camera man is not the camera man; he's a photographer. He is listed on the pieture 's credit sheet as having photographed the pieture, while fhe • man who' actually operates the camera— -the second camera man, or, in the studio parlance, the ' 1 operative photographer" gets no credit whatever. The camera crew on any pieture con-' sists of at least three photographic experts. The photographer, or "first camera man," is in charge. The "second camera man" operates the cqmera — actually takes the pictures. The "assistant camera man" attends to the loading of film," checks the focus, handles the "slate" which records the scenes, an,d attends to other details. For iastance, in a . recent pieture with Trene Dunne in the starring role, Joseph Walker was the photographer. His operating camera man was Vic Scheurich and Al. Kellar was the assistant. "Walker was not behind the camera; he was on the set, "painting the pieture." .He and the director went into frequent huddles to plot the , seene and the positions of the players. It was "the work o'f Scheurich to see .that every scene plotted by the director and. Walker got, on the screen as they wanted It..' ' ... ' The -second* camera man sees , to it that the. camera is so: placed that no movement will spoil the shot. ; ■ Motion pieture eff eets .. f requently are obtained with shadows. The camdra man watches carefully to see that face shadows, wall shadows, mirror reflec- , tions and other atmospheric touches are right. The second camera .man, however, takes no chah'ces. He " rechccks' every item, to make "sure that his chief, busy "painting the pieture/' has not slipped up on anything.