COLOUR FILM OF NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21992, 16 January 1937, Page 14

COLOUR FILM OF NEW ZEALAND

AMERICAN CAMERAMAN IN CHRISTCHURCH BIG CYCLE SCENE TO BE "SHOT" ! From an adventurous trip through the Atlas Mountains, where "the Arabs shoot only once," Mr L. H. Roos, cameraman for "Warner Bros., has been rushed to New Zealand to make a travel film of the country. Mr Roos is used to such sudden changes of scene. "It's the American way" he said, in an interview yesterday Once when he had bought a summer outfit for a trip, .to South America, he- was sent instead at a moment's notice to Japan, which was then in the grip of winter. S noon to-day the cameraman hopes to meet as many of Christchurchs great army of cyclists as can be got together. He'wants them dressed in bright clothes. He wants them young and old—all sorts and sizes. They are to gather in Cathedral square and when at a given signal they pour though the bottle-neck, Mr Roos will turn the handle of his camera. He is wondering if. Christchurch can produce as effective a "shot" as .Holland, where, he says, a re 4 000,000 bicycles for a population of 7,000,000. It was possible to count theni there because all machines were taxed. In Hoiland, too, the cyclists were confined to special tracks.

Brilliant Light

Mr Roos has been in New Zealand before—he was here 10 years ago, working for the Fox Company—and he is very much impressed with the brilliance of the light here. In. Rotorua, where he has taken films of the geysers and the Maoris, he found that he had to adjust his lens "two stops further than anywhere else he has been. Even on a day that in other countries would be .regarded as too dull to photograph he was able to get a good film. _ The film is to be in colour and is the first colour film to be made of New Zealand. Mr George M. Dillon, the general manager for New Zealand of Warner Bros., travelled by air from Auckland to Bluff, and was so much impressed by the beauty and variety of the scenery, that he sent for Mr Roos to make a colour film of it.

Mr Roos intends to charter an aeroplane to take aerial photographs of Mount Cook, the Westland glaciers, and the Sounds. Mr J. J. Busch will probably be the pilot. During their travels through the country, Mr Roos and Mr Dillon are keeping an eye open for oddities. For instance, there is a person in Christchurch who collects malbh-boxes. and has an assortment of thousands and there is the woman who has tame eels that come when whistled for. They have films too, of kiwis and the gannets of Cape Kidnappers. Some of these shots will find their way into such series as "Believe it or Not," and "Oddities." Film for World Release Altogether about 10,000 feet of film would be used, said Mr Roos. This however, would be condensed in America, to the size of a short feature, and would be issued for world release. It was expected that the film would be exhibited in New Zealand about May. It would be accompanied by descriptive matter and recordings of national music. The New Zealand Government had given Mr Roos its co-operation for it was realised that the film would have great publicity value.