Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-09-15
Movies Made by
a Naturalist
BY Frederic ]. fiasksn

=
ny Frederic ]. Hssksn Ii
New York. Sept. 1sy--patience md /
subterfuge are the chief essentials In
directing animals fer The movies. ac-
cording TO DIR. Raymond l.. Ditmars,
well known curator Of reptiles Of the
Bronx Geological Park here. "Nio-
lcnce IN never necessary and therefore /
inexcusable." he says. You can yet 1
any effect you want by simple /
trickery.H
DIR. Ditmars, In cooperation with /
Charles Urban. movie producer, Is |
now filming the Fables OF La Fontaine /
--those delightful old animal stories /
which subtly illustrate human fran-
ties--using the animals of the 200 as
actors. TO make the fables effective. |
the animals must portray humor and
tragedy. pleasure and anger. and yari-
ous other emotions quite as convinc-
ingly as human screen stars. And
they do. How2 That is what We ask
ed DIR. Ditmars, and this is what he
told us:
suppose we went TO photograph q
scene which shows the Elephant pre-
siding over a meeting OF the other
animals" he saic. According to the
scenario, the Elephant asks the Mon
key what fault he has 10 find with
himself, and the Monkey can find
none. 4 can swing from high limbs.
he boasts, and run fast, but | feel
sorry for the Bear. He Is big and
clumsy and very slow, I'm told The
Elephant then turns 20 the Bear and
asks him what complaint he has 70
make concerning 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 80 IL goes on clear around the
circle Of animals. illustrating the hu-
man tendency 10 excuse ones own
faults while decrying the gins OF ones
neighbors.
) Finally, the Elephant becomes dis
gusted. He must register great anger
and contempt. turning wrathfully from
one side Of the animal group to the
other. We got that by placing o man the
elephant liked on one side OF him and
another whom he hated on the other.
II was as simple as that.
we get a bear TO stand up on his
hindlegs by placing on a roof on ledge
above him tout OF the cameras view
OF course) man who holds an apple
in his hand. Food is the great bait
You can always get a satisfactory re-
sponse with it. Really case Of di-
recting the food and letting the ami
NAL follow his natural bent.
Movies Of Frogs.
? There are some animals which are
too small and nimble TO make good
actors" continued Dr DitrIars I've
: could not use live frogs. for instance
riH one of the fables, so we had To qse
, dead ones. Fortunately. we wer0 able
to get large number of dead frogs
from an experimental laboratory
which had just used them IN 2
stomach test. The purpose Of the tes
had been to discover wpat kind ot
insects the frogs ate, in an effort e
prove whether they were or were no
Iof value Co the farmer. Wen, we mad,
our fable frogs out of plastic sub
I stance and applied the skins of thu
: dead ones. Then we moved them Will
a invisible wires. / had TO work all daS
: and night on those frog scenes. be.
cause they had 10 be taken while tn,
2 frogs were still moist. IL I'd put i
: off until the next day. they would hav,
: been dried up and useless"
J. Here DR.. Ditmars was interrupts
4 for a few moments by one Of the 20
IS keepers, who communicated his mes
sage in an agitated whisper. Tn
geese, il seems, in one OF the pools ha
y become suddenly up-stage and refuse
TO be trapped into posing for the cam
m era. They were not hungry, and woul
10 not leave their afternoon constitution
5s al on the water for a scattering (
grain.
Let it go until morning" directe
- DR.. Ditmars. Don't feed them until
- get there, and they will be in a col
" ciliatory frame OF mind then. Let n
;, see, where was I?'' he said, gettir
:" back TO the interview.
- What sort of creatures do you fr
ga the most difficult to photograph" v
's' asked. steering him politely.
n insects" replied the doctor imm
ON dialely, because they are so sma
at We have TO trick them, too. We wan
n ed to get some pictures of differe
species of insects which sing at Nigh
ed You know that the singing is perforr
an ed by special organs on the wings III
mt the bow of the fiddle. We want
We close-ups of that singing apparatus
VS.. action, but we had to take them und
o. powerful mercury lights and insec
ed DO not sing under such conditions. v
AT finally got around this difficulty
ut placing decoys-other insects--in dal
an boxes near those under the lights. II
er latter. hearing loud songs issuing fro
the dark security of the boxes. We
fooled into replying, and the came
NJ man secured some excellent picture
N. Some of the most interesting inse
Ids pictures We have obtained are of ants
To- continued Director Ditmars. we hai
IL a splendid closeup of an ant draggiI
ia a weight much greater than that Of /
rnl self. Then we show a closeup of
% pair of scales weighing the matters
he The result revealed that the ants lol
.fr was about in the same proportion as
800 pound load carried by 135 pou
man.
Filming an Ant War.
1--WE also have pictures Of a gre
ant war. We secured two distant a
colonies in solid blocks of earth, bel