"Robert A. Heinlein - Shooting Destination Moon (Article)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

Do this in Technicolor, which adds a sheaf of new problems, not the least of
which is the effect of extra hot lights on men wearing spacesuits.

The quick answer is that it canтАЩt be done. -
A second answer is to go on location, pick a likely stretch of desert, remove
by hand all trace of vegetation, and shoot the тАЬrealтАЭ thing. Wait a minute; how
about that black and star-studded sky? Fake itтАФuse special effects. Sorry;
once blue sky is on Technicolor emulsion it is there to stay. With black-and-
white there are ways, but not with color.
So we are back on the sound stage and we have to shoot it there. Vacuum
clear atmosphere? No smokingтАФhard tb enforceтАФhigh speed on all blowers,
be resigned to throwing away some footage, and leave the big doors openтАФ
which lets in noise and ruins the sound track. Very well, we must dub in the
soundтАФand up go the costsтАФbut the air must be clear.

Low gravity and tremendous leapsтАФpiano wire, of
courseтАФbut did you ever try to wire a man who is wearing a spacesuit? The
wires have to get inside that suit at several points, producingthe effect a nail
has on a tire, i.e., a man -wearing a pressurized suit cannot be suspended on
wires. So inflation of suits must be replaced by padding; at least during wired
shots. But a padded suit does not wrinkle the same way a pressurized suit
does and the difference shows. Furthermore, the zippered openings for the
3
wires can be seen. Still worse, if inflation is to be faked with padding, how are
we to show them putting on their suits? -
That sobbing in the background comes from the technical adviserтАФyours
trulyтАФwho had hoped not only to have authentic pressure suits but had
expected to be able to cool the actors under the lights by the expansion of
gas from their air bottles. Now they must wear lambтАЩs wool padding and will
have no selfcontained source of breathing air, a situation roughly equivalent
to doing heavy work at noon in desert summer, in a fur coat while wearing a
bucket over your head. Actors are a hardy breed. They did it.
To get around the shortcomings of padded suits we worked in an
тАЬestablishing sceneтАЭ in which the suits were shown to be of two parts, an
outer chafing suit and an inner pressure suit. This makes sense; deep-sea
divers often use chafing suits over their pressure suits, particularly when
working around coral. The relationship is that of an automobile tire carcass to
the inner tube. The outer part takes the beating and the inner part holds the
тАв pressure. It is good engineering and we present this new wrinkle in
spacesuits without apology. The first men actually to walk the rugged floor
of the Moon and to climb its sharp peaks, will, if they are wise, use the
same device. - -
So we padded for wire tricks and used air pressure at other times. Try to see
when and where we switched. I could n├зa tellтАФand I saw the scenes being
shot.
тАв Now for that lunar landscape which has to be compressed into a sound
stageтАФI had selected the crater Aristarchus. Chesley Bonestell did not
like Aristarchus; it did not have the shape he wanted, nor the height of
Crater wall, nor the distance to apparent horizon. Mr. Bonestell knows
more about the surface appearance of the Moon than any other living