FILM OF EVEREST EXPEDITION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27091, 14 July 1953, Page 9

FILM OF EVEREST EXPEDITION

Release Expected In October

LONDON, July 12. The colour film of the conquest of Everest by Colonel Sir John Hunt’s expedition will be a full-length feature lasting an hour and a half with commentary and music. Models may be used to demonstrate the expedition’s plan of attack, but there will be no attempt to re-enact the final climb of Sir Eamund Hillary and Tensing to the summit. The “stills” taken by Sir Edmund Hillary, including a photograph of Tensing holding the nags, will be used, but beyond the point where the expedition reached about 26,000 ft there will be no “movie” sequences.

It is not yet known exactly what material will be available, for the many shots taken by the expedition’s official photographer (Thomas Stobart) and other members are still being developed, and a great deal of work has to be done before everything is ready to knit the film together. Neither the commentator nor the composer of the music has been selected, and the title has yet to be decided. The full cost of the film is being borne by the National Film Corporation and it will be made by Countryman Films, Ltd. The producers, who are J. Taylor, L. Clore, and G. Tharp, hope that it may be possible to organise simultaneous premieres in London, New Zealand, and India in October. These were among the facts given by Mr Stobart, tall, lean, and fair, while modestly recounting some of his experiences with the expedition. He kept a camera record up to Camp 5, about 23,000 ft. Ice-Axe as Tripod Above 18.000 ft he found it impossible to hold the camera sufficiently steady, except for pictures of fairly violent action, and he used an adapted ice-axe as a tripod. Above Camp 5 and up to 26,000 ft, including the climb up to the South Col. pictures were taken by members of the expedition, whom Mr Stobart provided with small cameras.

For a time Mr Stobart lay nightly with the cameras in his sleeping bag to keep them warm, but eventually he gave up this practice as “a bad job.” The first thing he filmed was the meeting of the members of the expedition with the Sherpas and Tensing, and thereafter he recorded daily activities, including some “spectacular things like crossing crazy suspension bridges over rivers.” One constant difficulty was to set up his cameras, film a scene, and then catch up with membters of the expedition again. He learned enough Nepalese to say to the Sherpas: “Don’t look at the camera,” but they were inclined to take, him too literally, and to turn their backs on him.

He found he was “rather unpopular” while working in the icefall, and he was inclined to be “chivvied along" in case pinnacles fell. At Camp 3 on top of the icefall he “managed” to film a violent snowstorm, and. said Mr Stobart, “in this film we have got some really good bad-weather sections.”

He described the advanced base as “an incredible place,” adding: “If you remove your goggles it looks like a blazing white wilderness. You have to put your goggles on again or go snow blind.’’

Mr Stobart also said: “For future expeditions, I think the cameraman ought to have a say in the colour of the clothes of the members. When you are filming on snow you have to reduce exposures quite a bit. and it is annoying to find people have chosen dark blue for clothes.”

He approved, however, of the “incredible variety of hats,” including Sir Edmund Hillary’s famous striped cap, which people called his “beekeeper hat.”

One of the smaller cameras, weighing 4jlb, was carried by Sir Edmund Hillary until the final assault, when he had to leave it behind because it was a great burden at extreme heights and might have affected his chances of reaching the summit. “Audiences will see what we saw,” said Mr Stobart. “The actual final climb will for all time remain with Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing.” He felt that the scene of the return of these two men to camp after their success “with everyone waving iceaxes and going completely mad.” should “make a nice section in the film.