THE WIZARD CAMERA

Taranaki Central Press, Volume V, Issue 457, 26 June 1937, Page 3

THE WIZARD CAMERA

Night Scenes In Day Shooting night scenes in broad daylight is the latest accomplishment of the wizard motion picture camera. This, was done recently i t Lake Tahoe, where W. S. Van Dyke was directing scenes for tne spectacular Totem Pole Indian dance. of making his shots at night by artificial light, Van Dyke and Chief Cameraman William Daniels used special filters in the lenses of the eight cameras. The effect on the screen, as determined by the “rushes,” is a dramatic half-light, in character with the frenzied savage dance representing the Northwest Indians’ autumnal Thanksgiving at harvest time. The clouds which were actually large and fleecy appear glowering and dark, shot through with rays of modified sunlight. The movements of the seven hundredodd dancers are perfectly clear, as are their features, their ritualistic cottume and the grotesque figures on the leaning Totem Poles of the set. The filters, Daniels explained, can darken the. scene to any degree re-

quired' by cutting out the infrared rays of the sun. The Totem Pole dance was photographed on a narrow sandpit separating Emerald Eby from Lake Tahoe, known as Rubicon Point. The Indians, representing many tribes, lived in tepees on the shore 1 of the bay, to one side of the set. Their living quarters and habits compose part of the scenes for the colourful picture.