MOVING PICTURE ENTERPRISE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1634, 7 November 1916, Page 4

MOVING PICTURE ENTERPRISE.

A £200,000 FILM. A vast film enterprise, comparable to nothing ever known before, has just been completed by Mr William Fox, of New York. This superfilm has cost £200,000 and was eleven and a-half months in the making. It engaged the services of 20.000 people, and the story of its production is in itself a romance. The picture is entitled “A Daughter of the Gods.” Miss Anette Kellerman, the great Australian swimmer, who is said to be the perfect woman, played the title role, and in one scene makes a sensational 100 feel dive from a lighthouse. .Jamaica was chosen as the site for the scones of the picture because of its wonderful scenic effects, and the sub-tropical atmosphere gives the best kinematographic results. Fort Augusta, a small island, was rented. When taken over it was a fever-stricken swamp. A firm of sanitary engineers got to work, drained the swamps, made the island habitable, and a Moorish city came into being. The streets for this mushroom town extended for If miles, and in one scene over 10,700 people come into the picture. Seven camera operators were engaged, who took 23.000 feet of film; and all this has been incorporated in the finished picture of 12,000 feet. A £50,000 FIRE. The end of the film is the. realistic burning of the Moorish city. It took Jive months to erect, cost £50,000, and was burned in one hour. To film this burning city the camera men took up their position in fiat bottomed boats on the sea so as to avoid earth tremors from the successive explosions as one building after another blew up. It was a wonderful picture taken against a sotting sun.

Tim tsikiiiji' of the picture was under the direction of Herbert. Brenan, a native of Clapham. The crowd of 20,000 men and women, mostly natives, who were accommodated upon the island during the making of the film, necessitated special arrangements which included police courts, hospitals, and all the “municipal” offices of a big town.

Two nights a week theatrical performances were given by the company, which included musical comedy stars and Shakesperean actors. By this means over £4,000 was collected for the various West Indian charities.

During the transformation of the fever-stricken island, thousands of visitors went to see the great work, and on completion of the picture the swamps were handed over to the Government in such good condition that the island is now being used as a park—no longer a prohibited fever area.