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REAL LIFE VERSUS REAL DEATH.(Uy 11. ¥. S. Deivducy.)Nairobi, Kenya Colony. Cineitin. audiences in Hr i tain and America will be treated to the choicest LhriJki they can ivjsh for as soon as the films now'being made in Jfiufit- Africa readi civilisation. They will see mad elephants tearing up trees, with *'close-ups’1 of the animals' heads, thr-ee-tou black rhinos charging down on the movie machine operator, and leopards being shut when in tfie- act of springing at the throats of the* camera men. Then the wiseacres among the picturc-gocrti will try to explur. how it is all done—but they will be wrong. 1 have seen the films made, and they are the real thing, with no more safety devices than pluck and stec-1-nervcd operators.In their search tnrough the world for some thing new, cinema folk have turned their attention to Kenya, almost the last stronghold oi real wild 'big game, and they are now scouring the country with batteries of photographer jr. Already there are three well-known film magnates 011 the trail, Mtws Cherry Kearton, Martin Johnson, and H. A. Snow, mich working independently.II is a thrilling business. The setting for a “real lift* picture is nearly ah ways the- same—tile cud might he anything. Suppose the hunting party have located something big hiding in a hunch of scrub. First the- camera man selects his pitch on a nice piece of open ground about 50 yards away. When everything is fixed to his satisfaction a crack shot is stationed at his side and the balance of the party make a detour and beat up the game from the other side.Soon the animal breaks cover arijci nine times out of ten makes straight for the camera. Then the operator gets busy and starts reeling out the footage. Nearer the brute comes, but the “cine” man keeps on grinding for all the world as if he was safe in his .studio at home When the animal is as near as safety permits things happen quickly. Jiang goes the gunman, down goes the livestock, the operator grabs am precious camera, and the whole party streak away to comparative safety.In one instance, during u recent trip of Mr Snow’s the camera’ man fixed lu.s machine about forty yards to the leewards of n small herd of hull elephants, and had begun filming when the animals caught the sound of the operating. Ileiiig unable to locate the spot owing to their poor eyesight, they ran amok instead, and began routing up trees and smashing everyUiiug in the vicinity.Finally a seven-foot tusker winded the operator and charged straight for him. When within about fifteen yards it halt ed, ^ beg a n waving its trunk about, Happing its huge ears and generally posing for a first-class close-up”—id I of which was registered. Then, apparently frightened at the strange tiling in front of it, the clt phant- obligingly turned and made off into the bush. Not till then did the operator stop and mop his brow. Ho had obtained about- 100 feet of superstuff.Another mode of securing good animal pictures is to build a blind, or screen, of brushwood at the end of a well-frequented water hole. With patience and a good photographer Mr Snow has succeeded in obtaining sonic beautiful pictures of various kinds of buck and birds in this manner. On one occasion a whole family of some eight baboons, mothers, fathers, and babies, came down for a bathe. They disported themselves for nearly an hour before they went on their way, after having unconsciously taken the. leading parts iti a few hundred feet of a real life drama of the wilds.Mr Snow is leaving for India shortly, where lie hopes to be able to film a real jungle tight to the death between a tiger and an elephant. He will get it
Newspaper Details
Clyde Dunstan Times
Clyde, South Island, NZ
Mon, Dec 26, 1921
Page 7
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USA 05 Apr 2024
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Clyde Dunstan Times
