LIGHTNING TO ORDER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18443, 29 March 1922, Page 9

LIGHTNING TO ORDER

Stage lightning is of very little use in film plays. Realism—and the camera—demand more than the magnesium flash.

Tn a paramount play called “Under the Lash,” which is the screen version of the novel, “The Shulamite,” there is a very realistic storm scene. As a of horses is being driven by, a tree is struck by lightning. This wonderful lightning effect was entirely artificial.

A charge of flash-light powder was made up into a small package and put into a little hole in the tree, over which the bark was replaced. An electric wire ’•an from the charge to a battery a little distance away.

Two big searchlights were then connected up with a portable electric generator a few feet behind the camera, and focussed on to the tree at the spot where the flash light charge was placed. The night was pitch dark when the scene was taken. The character in the scene vas placed, and the signal given. The camera men started “shooting.” At a word from the director, the two big ’lights were suddenly flashed on, and off again, illuminating the entire scene with a sudden blinding flash of light. At the same instant the flashlight charge in the tree was exploaded, giving the effect of a bolt of lightning coming in contact with the tree. Then all was darkness again. A few carefully placed scratches on the emulsion of the film ahead of the scene served as perfect lightning steaks just before the big flash.