AN EXCITING LIFE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 293, 24 September 1935, Page 7

AN EXCITING LIFE

NEWSREEL CAMERAMAN.

FILMS OF NEW ZEALAND. Several poison-tipped spears, a native’s headdress of forbidding appearance, a combined battleaxe and canoe paddle, and other unusual trophies adorned one of the first saloon cabins on the Marania which arrived at Wellington the other day from Sydney. They belonged! to Mr F. McKechnie, a cameraman, w’ho lias come to New Zealand to make newsreels of Interesting subjects in the North and South Islands. Mr McKechnie recently spent three months in New Guinea, and it was while touring in the interior of the country that he collected the trophies. Mr McKechnie is a New Zealander —Dunedin is his home town—and since he first left the country in 1920 he has seen more and crammed more experience into his comparatively short life so far than half a dozen men do in a lifetime. With his camera he has “covered” important events all over the world, and in America he is regarded as one of the aces of flying cameramen in the newsreel business. One of his exploits was to fly from Albany to New York filming the race between one of America’s fastest trains and a sliced boat. He was the first civilian to ride in the giant dirigible Los Angeles wlien the airship made one of the longest non-stop flights ever undertaken. Starting from Lakehurst, New Jersey, the ship flew to Port Rico in two days. While he was in New Guinea, Mu McKechnio obtained a newsreel of about 3000 natives in full war dress. It is probably the first time that such a scone has been taken by a movie camera. Ho flew 200 mjles into the interior of New Guinea where he made many interesting films. The natives in this part of the country are primitive and ferocious, he said. More cannibalism goes on in New Guinea than most people realise. There are very few countries that Mr McKechnie has not travelled in. In fact, about the only place he has not visited is Abyssinia, he said.

A Narrow Escape. Mr McKechnie will be remembered by many people for his hazardous undertaking on White Island, Bay of Plenty, last year. Witli his camera on his back and his life in his hands he walked up dangerous paths to the crater’s edge and obtained extraordinary films of the belching fumeroles. While on this expedition he was caught by an eruption and narrowly escaped with his life. He nonchalantly dismisses such incidents, however, as trials and tribulations of his work. One means adopted by him of obtaining films is to balance himself and his camera on the wings of aeroplanes while in flight. This is no mean feat, and, obviously, it requires a great deal of nerve.

His programme for New Zealand is not so strenuous or as „ exciting as it has been elsewhere. It includes films of the Dominion’s industrial life, such as timber falling, sheep shearing, cattle drafting, and newsreels on scenic subjects, native life, wild life, sports gatherings, etc. Other interesting subject, such as newsreel oddities, will also find a place on the silver sheet. Mr McKechnie intends to take some “shots” of a trick dog in the Auckland district. This dog, according to reports, feeds the liens, collects the eggs, drives a horse in a sledge, collects tools and carries them to workmen engaged on tho roof of a house, and does many other unusual things. It will* take Mr McKechnie six months, or more to complete the programme mapped out for him.