Photographing Holland in California 



New motion picture trickery, how it 

 is done and how pleasing the results 



WHEN the legitimate stage wishes 

 to produce a scene laid in some 

 foreign country all it relies on 

 is a few painted sets and appropriate 

 furniture. In motion pictures, however, 

 the director has to find some means of 

 building a real duplicate. 



An excellent illustration of the resource- 

 fulness displayed in such matters is 

 found in the construction by a film direc- 

 tor of a Dutch village — in California! 

 The buildings were simple enough; a rigid 

 framework covered with papier mache, 

 light plaster or even painted burlap being 

 quite sufficient. But the canals and 

 bridges were by no means so simply con- 

 structed. Fortunately, however, the 

 scenario did not call for any dives or 

 marine disasters. Hence the canal was 

 only a foot deep — just enough to float a 

 small boat. The sides were constructed 



of wood, well tarred and caulked, and 

 the earth in the stream bed tamped 

 solid to prevent drainage. Then began 

 the real camouflaging. 



It would never do, of course, for you to 

 suspect that the scene was made in the 

 studio loft, in spite of the fact that com- 

 mon sense would tell you that it couldn't 

 have been made anywhere else. So the 

 framework, as it were, had to be covered 

 over and retouched until every detail 

 was perfect. One of our photographs 

 shows the result. The "bricks" on the 

 sidewalk are thin strips of wood with 

 loose sand sprinkled between. The tree 

 was cut in a nearby field the day before 

 this photograph was taken. The bridge, 

 apparently of concrete, is simply wood 

 covered with plaster. The flag paving 

 on the bridge itself is merely wood 

 grooved in irregular oblongs and squares 



This picture shows In 

 and houses in Cahfoim; 



' tK.ii 1)11 ti HO concern built a Dutch village, canal, bridge, 

 The framework is rigid, the rest mainly papier niache 



912 



