MAKING WEATHER.

Shannon News, 31 December 1923, Page 3

MAKING WEATHER.

FOR THE FILMS. To-day there is very little that the average film producer cannot do —he does not even hesitate to make whatever variety of weather he may require for film purposes (writes a correspondent in a London paper). 'Most of the beautiful and artistic moonlight scenes are taken in sumlight, only the negatives are developed in different toiiebaths, and dyes were used.

For other scenes sunlight is nearly always artificial, and million-candle power " sunlight arcs" and " spot lights " produce the necessary light for very realistic pictures in which the sun plays a large and important part. Snowstorms, too, are easily made, but this requires many tons of «salt, and it is more costly than the traditional rainstorm in every way. The salt is laid on the landscapes, while paper confetti, cut very small.are dropped on the scene from immense pillows hung high up out of range of the cameras. And rain or fog, wind and snowstorms, blizzards and hurricanes do not worry the producer either. To mention the weather in a cinema studio is to attract attention to a network of electrical and mechanical devices, chief among them being a tiny box of black ebony with four buttons.

The chief electrician, at the producer's command, touches, button No. 1, and the result is a downpour of rain in the middle of an uncomfortably hot morning—a veritable deluge, soaking to the skin artists, technicians, and producers alike. Rain for kinenia purposes is a very simple arrangement. Long, leaden piping is placed above the sets that are to be photographed in the rainstorm-, and thousands of gallons of water are forced through the little holes punched in the pipes. The water issues with such terrific force that everyone on the set within a hundred yards gets soaked through. Ten minutes later, after 1800 gallons of water have been wasted in the test, the second button is pressed. The propellers of one, two, three aeroplane engines immediately start to make a thousand or more revolutions per minute, and the "rain" is hurled with added force in the direction of the artists, drenching them to the skin and sending trees, shrubbery, branches and telegraph poles crashing to the ground. , The artistes themselves can even be flung about by the tremendous power of the wind machines.

" Cut ! " shouts the chief producer, and a moment after the cameras have stopped whirring, the rain stops, the wind dies down, the aeroplane engines are silent, the real sun fills the studio with its bright beams, and everybody goes home, very tired but well content after a hard day's work.