ARTIFICIAL FOG EFFECT

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1934, Page 6

ARTIFICIAL FOG EFFECT

160 MILLION CUBIC METRES.

PRODUCTION FOR MYSTERY PLAY.

Studio technicians of Columbia Pictures were recently faced with the problem of producing 100,000,000 cubic metres of artificial fog for the company’s new production, a mystery play aptly titled “Fog.” The entire action of the photoplay takes place on an Atlantic liner, fogbound during its entire trip from New York to Liverpool. Fog is one of the important elements of the mystery plot and it enters into every scene of the story. . L The producers had to manufacture enough fog to fill the immense stage buildings, which' measure 110 ft by 195 ft, with a 40ft ceiling, and to keep them filled ten hours at a stretch.. The use of steam was out of the question, as the atmosphere of the tightly-closed and sound-proof buildings would soon become so saturated with moisture that the heat from the huge lamps would become unbearable, and also because of its wilting effect upon the clothes of the players. Steam also condenses . upon lenses, rendering photography impossible. The use of smoke was impossible for obvious reasons. The final expedient was the use of mineral oil. Mineral oil had been used successfully in other pictures, but never in the quantities necessary for this production. It is usually sprayed into the set with small hand-sprayers just before ■ the cameras start. This method is effective only when small sets are used, but in several scenes of “Fog” the sets, such as the entire promenade deck of an immense liner, were several times too large to permit use of such a slow and tedious method.

The method finally adopted was unique. Several gallons of the oil were placed in a tank, across the inside of which was welded a pipe pierced with scores of minute holes. Compressed air was pumped into the pipe and forced through the fine holes. The air, ascending through the oil in countless fine streams, formed masses of microscopic bubbles on the surface. When these broke, they precipitated a mist so fine that individual particles of it could not be detected.

So minute were the particles of oil that they remained suspended like down in the air. During the twenty days in which the stages were filled with “fog.” only eight gallons of oil were used. Players worked in this fog the three weeks in the same clothes without their garments showing the least trace of oil on them.