A Camera in a Film, with Its Character - Text 2
In the first half of the 1920s, moving camera shots became more common, to the point that they became standard practice during the second golden age of silent cinema (1919-29).[5] In 1924, the chariot race sequence of the film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925) was shot, for which no fewer than forty-two cameras were employed simultaneously. The shots in this sequence, which took several weeks to film, were supervised by the director of photography Percy Hilburn, an industry veteran. Also taking part in the shooting were several members of the ASC, including E. Burton Steene. In the final sequence, it is possible to make out the shots taken with an Akeley camera, particularly the rapid pans taken with telephoto lenses. This is how E. Burton Steene managed to seize the most crucial moment of the entire chariot race (the collision between the chariot of Francis X. Bushman and that of Ramon Novarro) with unbelievable clarity and sharpness. Taking advantage as much as possible of the ease of use offered by the Akeley and using a 43 cm telephoto lens (probably having a focal length of more than 80 mm), he kept the two protagonists’ chariots in the frame, and in sharp focus, as they were racing.[6] With another camera of the time, such as the Bell & Howell 2709, it would have been impossible to follow in the same shot every movement in an action scene, especially with a powerful telephoto lens, whereas the Akeley handled the abrupt movements perfectly well, holding the image in focus in master shots. This is how the Akeley conquered Hollywood and was used not only by MGM but also by other production studios, becoming an essential instrument for this kind of spectacular shot. What is more, in film scripts there sometimes appeared the indication “Akeley shot” to describe a shot of a subject moving quickly in the foreground with a soft-focus background.
After the release of Ben-Hur, other films followed which did not belong explicitly to the “action film” category but which included sequences specially shot with an Akeley camera. This can be seen in several film genres, and it would be timely here to make a few parenthetical remarks about the western genre in order to comment on Tumbleweeds (1925), the final film of W.S. Hart, which featured an iconic scene of cowboys and had such an influence on the history of genre cinema. This fascinating scene, shot with powerful telephoto lenses mounted on Akeley cameras, emphasizes the vast prairies, the various cowboys and the Conestoga covered wagons racing along at top speed. The result is a visual rendering comparable to the later westerns by John Ford.
The Akeley camera, with its miraculous abilities, literally flew at high altitudes. The Akeley, mounted on its gyroscopic tripod, was the best camera of the day for filming aboard airplanes. Among the noteworthy films with spectacular sequences shot from airplanes are William A. Wellman’s Wings (1927), in particular because of the skill of the camera operator Harry Mason, and Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels (1930). Wings was the first film in film history to win an Oscar in the “Best Picture” category thanks in part to its unbelievable photography, especially in the famous aerial battle scene between American and German fighter planes.
The Akeley also contributed to creating new visual styles, as was the case of Erich von Stroheim. On the set of The Wedding March (1928), for example, a dual-take system was used, pairing the Akeley with, above it, a Bell & Howell. This elementary method made it possible when shooting to alternate between master shots and close-up or detail shots. The Akeley was also used by Josef von Sternberg, whose films had a modern and elegant mise en scène suggestive of the future style of film, although it predated the Hays Code. In Underworld (1927), Sternberg used an Akeley to film a feather whirling along the banister of a staircase as a way of introducing the character Feathers McCoy. He used the Akeley again to accentuate the agitation of George Bancroft’s character during his clash with the police at the end of the film.
