11/10/2023 0 Comments Paramount gems nyc![]() Late in his Paramount tenure Irmin would be ace 2nd unit cinematographer on memorable films such as the 1953 hit film SHANE where Oscar winning D.O.P Loyal Griggs stated in his awards ceremony acceptance speech that the statuette really belonged as much to Irmin Roberts for his wonderful 2nd unit photography. With expertise in effects and matte photography, Irmin worked on hundreds of pictures made by the studio such as SPAWN OF THE NORTH for which he earned an Academy Award for it's special effects in 1938, FRENCHMAN'S CREEK (see further below), WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS to name but a few. Irmin Roberts was another key member of the photographic effects unit, having joined the studio in 1926 working off and on with his brother Oren, who for a time was head of the department. *Many thanks to Irmin Roberts jnr and his wife Janet for this and other rare photos.įX cameraman Irmin Roberts, upper middle. Gordon's older brother Devereaux Jennings had also joined the Paramount effects department in 1933 as VFX cinematographer and would work alongside his brother on many films for the next 19 years, shooting miniatures mostly.īrothers in arms, and artistry - Irmin and Oren 'Bob' Roberts at work photographing various Jan Domela matte paintings for films such as THE EMPEROR WALTZ and THE GREAT GATSBY in the late 1940's. ![]() DeMille's epic THE TEN COMMANDMENTS - and was widely known as DeMille's favourite trick shot man - but fate stepped in and it sadly wasn't to be. The big, soft spoken Jennings was much liked by his close knit team at Paramount and would be the recipient of three Academy Awards and was lined up to provide visuals on Cecil B. Jennings would hold that post for twenty years until his sudden and untimely death in 1953 during a game of golf soon after completing the arduous effects work on George Pal's WAR OF THE WORLDS, from whence Paramount's visual effects would then be under the management of John P. Gordon started in the industry as an assistant cameraman in 1919 before eventually shifting into trick photography. Paramount's special effects department had had a number of chiefs over the years, with Roy Pomeroy, Oren 'Bob' Roberts and Farciot Edouart running things at various times before Gordon Jennings took over the role in 1933. It would be many years until colour rear projection shots would look acceptable. ![]() While the many visual effects were generally effective and well integrated, the back projection shots tended to let the show down considerably, with process shots in general in most pictures rarely ever coming off with any degree of success when filmed in Technicolor at the time, despite the advances with high intensity illumination and multiple band projection. Generally, films based upon Hemingway's works are, for me, interminable and very much an acquired taste.Ī huge film in all respects, not least in it's mammoth near three hour running time, FWTBT was a very big visual effects showcase for Paramount's trickshot department headed by Gordon Jennings, with dozens of matte painted shots required to transform the Californian Sonora locations into 1930's period Spain with numerous miniatures utilised in the action sequences and often times split screened into painting/live action combination shots. As popular as he was - and still is no doubt - that Hemingway headspace, mindset and especially his use of the English language (at least in the many movies I've seen over the years based upon his writings) in getting his narrative across remains completely lost on me. Personally speaking, although I've never really read any of Hemingway's prose aside from something back in high school in the mid 70's, pretty much every motion picture adaptation of a Hemingway story has left me cold. The three million dollar epic was headlined by two of Hollywood's greats, Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman - both favourite actors of mine though I feel quite miscast in this instance. While the film itself is well known - based upon the immensely popular story of partisan fighters in the Spanish Civil War by Ernest Hemingway - and was a huge hit with audiences at the time, the technical aspects of the movie probably slipped by most fans of the film. In this, the second part in my series examining a number of motion pictures overlooked and in many cases largely unknown to today's generation of multi-plex weened film audiences, we will be taking a look at the special photographic effects work from one of the biggest films of 1943, Sam Wood's FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. ![]() The cumbersome Technicolor blimped camera
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