The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-09-14

NEW YORK, Sept. ii - Patience
and subterfuge are the chief essentials
In directing animals for the movies,
according to DIR. Raymond l.. Ditmars.
we'll known curator Of reptiles of the
Bronx Geological Park here. violence
is never necessary and therefore IN
excusable." he says. You can get any
effect you want by simple trickery."
DIR. Ditmars, in cooperation with
Charles Urban, movie producer, is now
filming the Fables of La Fontafne-
those delightful old animal stories
which subtly illustrate human frail-
ties-using the animals of the zoo as
actorsd To make the fables effective,
the animals must portray humor and
tragedy. pleasure and anger, and var
.ious other emotions quite as convinc-
ingly as human screen stars. And
they do. How? That is what we
asked DR.. Ditmars. and this is what
he told us:
Suppose we want to photograph a
scene which shows the Elephant pre-
siding over a meeting of the. other
animals" he said. According to the
scenario, the elephant asks the monk
ey what fault he has to find with him.
self, and the monkey can find none.
I can swing from high limbs he
boasts, and run fast, but l feel sorry
for the bear. He is big and clumsy
and very slow, I'm told The elephant
then turns to the bear and asks him
what complaint he has TO make con
corning himself. The bear does not
share the monkeys view He is strong
and can crush his enemies beneath
| his giant paws and he gets a splendid
rest cure every winter, but there is
the poor little fox. He feels sorry
for him. The fox, however, feels sorry
for one of his neighbors, and so it goes
on clear around the circle of animals
illustrating the human tendency tc
excuse ones own faults while decry
ing the sins of ones neighbors.
Finally, the elephant becomes dis
gusted. He must register great anger
and contempt, turning wrathfully from
one side of he animal group to the
other. We got that by placing mar
the elephant liked on one side of hin
and another whom he hated on the
other. 1t was as simple as that
I've get a bear to stand up on hi!
hindlegs by placing on a roof o.
ledge above him (out of the camera!
view of course) a man who holds al
apple in his hand. Food is the grea
bait. You can always get a satisfac
tory response with it. Really a cas-
of directing the food and letting tn,
animal follow his natural bent.
Movies of Frogs
There are some animals which ar
too small and nimble to make goo,
actors" continued DR. dinners "W
could not use live frogs. for instance
in one of the fables, so we had to us
dead ones. Fortunately, we were abb
, to get large number of dead frog
from an experimental laborator
which had Just used them in a stomac
test. The purpose of the test had bee
.. to discover what kind of insects tn
) frogs ate, in an effort to prove whethe
, they were or were not of value to tn
, farmer Well, we made our fabl
frogs out of plastic substance an
applied the skins of the dead ones
Then we moved them with invisibl
wires. l had to work all day an
, night on those frog scenes, becaus
they had to be taken while the frog
were still moist. If I'd put it off unit
, the next day, they would have bee
I dried up and useless"
+ Here DR.. Ditmars was interrupte
q for few moments by one Of the &c
q keepers, who communicated his me
n sage in an agitated whisper Tt
: geese, it seems, in one of the pools hs
4 become suddenly up-stage and refuse
5 to be trapped into posing for Il
n camera. They were not hungry, ar
q would not leave their afternoon co
shtutional on the water for a seattle
ing of grain.
Let it go until morning." direct,
DR.. Ditmars. Don't feed them I'M
n | get there, and they will be in a co
ciliatory frame of mind then L
e. me see, where was II" he said, getti1
s. back to the interview.
What sort of creature do you fiji
s the most difficult to photograph" '
asked, steering him politely.
Insects" replied the doctor i
IN mediately, because they are so sma
We have to trick them, too. Y
wanted to get some pictures of d
ferent species of insects which 81
as at night. You know that the singi
is performed by special organs on t
ID wings like the bow of the fiddle. Y
wanted closeups of that singing
paratus in action, but we had to ia
~ them under powerful mercury ligh
and insects do not usually sing unt
'e' such conditions. We finally got arou
ey this difficulty by placing decoys
other insects-in dark boxes ne
Us those under the lights. The latt
hearing loud songs issuing from (
dark security of the boxes, were foo
re into replying, and the camera m
secured some excellent pictures.
re Some of the most interesting ms
pictures we have obtained are Of ant
ne continued Director Ditmars. "'
have splendid closeup Of an
ne dragging weight much greater tt
that of itself Then we show a clio