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

checked theory by experiment; opening the valve wide on such a charged
bottle gave me a firm shove. The method is the same as that used to propel
a toy boat with a CO2 cartridge from a fizz water bottleтАФthe basic rocket
principle.
We had considered using a shotgun, since everyone is familiar with its kick,
but we couldnтАЩt think of an excuse for taking a shotgun to the Moon. Then we
considered using a Very pistol, which has a strong kick and which might well
be taken to the Moon for signaling. But it did not look convincing and it
involved great fire hazard in a sound stage. So we settled on the oxygen
bottle, which looked impressive, would work, and would certainly be available
in a spaceship. -
However, since we were still on Las Palmas Avenue and not in space, it had
to be a wire trick, with four men on wires, not to mention the oxygen bottle
and several safety lines. That adds up to about thirty-six wires for the heavy
ubjects and dozens of black threads for the safety linesтАФand all this
spaghetti must not show. Each man had to have several тАЬpuppeteersтАЭ to
handle him, by means of heavy welded pipe frames not unlike the cradles
used by Tony Sarg for his marionettes, but strong enough for men, not dolls.
These in turn had to be handled by block and tackle and overhead traveling
cranes. Underneath all was a safety net just to reassure the actors and to
keep Lee Zavitz from worrying; our safety factor on each rig was actually in
excess of forty, as each wire had a breaking strength of eight hundred
pounds. To top it off each man had to wear a cumbersome, welded iron,
articulated harness under his spacesuit for attachment of wires. Thi~ was
about as heavy and uncomfortable as. medieval armor.

10
The setups seemed to take forever. Actors would have to be up in the air on
wires for as long as two hours just to shoot a few seconds of film. For ease in
handling, the тАЬoxygen bottleтАЭ was built of balsa wood and embedded in it was
a small CO2 bottle of the fire extinguisher type. This produced another
headache, as, after a few seconds of use, it would begin to produce carbon
dioxide тАЬsnow,тАЭ which fell straight down and ruined the illusion. -
But the wires were our real headache. One member of the special effects
crew did nothing all day long but trot around with a thirty-foot pole with a
paint-soaked sponge on the end, trying to kill highlights on the wires. Usually
he was successful, but we would never know until we saw it on the screen in
the daily rushes. When he was not successful, we had to go back and do the
whole tedious job over again.
Most of creating the illusion of space travel lay not in such major efforts, but
in constant attention to minor details. For example, the crew members are
entering the air lock to go outside the ship in free fall. They -are wearing
тАЬmagneticтАЭ boots, so we donтАЩt have to wire them at this point. Everything in
the airlock is bolted down, so there is nothing to spoil the illusion of no up-
and-down. Very wellтАФтАЭQuiet, everybody! Roll тАШem!тАЭ
тАЬSpeed!тАЭ answers the sound man. -
тАЬAction!тАЭ
The actors go to the lockers in which their spacesuits are kept, open themтАФ
and the suits are hanging straight down, which puts us back on Las Palmas
Avenue! тАЬHold it! Kill it! Where is Lee Zavitz?тАЭ