Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog - Posts Tagged "blogging"

Let’s go to the Movies

David Selznick had some sleepless nights mulling over his vision for the final cut of his Gone With the Wind film. Not only did it involve the length of the picture it involved the grand scope of every frame. Could they make a larger than life picture within the confines of their back lot? The answer was a resounding NO.
Selznick tackled the problem and alluded to a partial answer in a memo dated March 9, 1939 directed to Ray Klune, his production manager,
Selznick complained about the exteriors being shot outside Tara and compared them to other films such as ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘The Great Waltz,’ and he wasn’t pleased with what he saw…’Frankly, I’m now terribly sorry we didn’t build Tara on location…I’d like you and Mr. Menzies to get together immediately to make sure that out remaining exteriors, such as the exterior of Twelve Oaks, and the shot in which Gerald talks about the land being the only thing that matters, have real beauty instead of looking like B picture film…This is quite apart from the photography – I don’t see how the greatest cameraman in the world could get much beauty out of what we have given him for the exterior of Tara. (I am not speaking now of the set itself but of the landscaping, the line of trees etc…Incidentally, I would also like you to consider whether your second unit should go immediately to Georgia, or any other place, to pick up some shots for the opening sequence…’
Well, that memo sparked an increase in location scouting and eventually second unit film crews moved off the Selznick Studio back lot and began shooting GWTW’s exterior scenes in the great outdoors.
James Fitzpatrick (‘Travel Talks’ short subject producer) was hired as a second unit director and dispatched to Georgia to get an authentic sense of the land and the Georgia environment.
Second unit camera’s cast and crew’s traveled from Culver City to locations at Agoura Hills, Big Bear, Calabasas, Chico, Malibu Lake, Pasadena, San Bernardino National Forest, Simi Valley, and probably several other locations.
Some of the directors involve in that location filming were Sam Wood, Yakima Canutt, Chester Franklin, and the aforementioned James Fitzpatrick filmed Georgia scenes, some of which were used in the title sequence of the film.
The second unit work on those exterior scenes was well worth the effort as they gave the film an openness that would otherwise have been missing had Selznick not had that great vision.
Some of the outdoor scenes that added real life and continuity to the film include Big Sam’s ‘Quittin’ time’ scene with men coming home from the fields.
Gerald O’Hara’s horse riding and jumping sequences, Gerald and Scarlett’s walk and his talk about the land.
Scarlett’s ‘As God is my witness’ scene in the open field gives us a few moments of true movie magic.
The cotton field scene with sisters Suellen and Careen as well as the returning veterans and the long shot sequence of Ashley coming home from the war are all effective.
And when you consider that this film was made long before modern special effects became a part of moviemaking is hard to believe they actually pulled it off. But the test of time alone proves that their hard work was rewarded and that Selznick’s vision had been right on target.
The industry recognized the quality of the film immediately and gave awards to Lyle Wheeler for best interior decoration and William Cameron Menzies for outstanding achievement in the use of color. (Those are just a couple of awards; Gone With the Wind almost swept the Academy Awards in 1939 – a year of great films. More later on 1939 films and awards.)

Hitler’s Stolen Art Still in the News
The irony is in the timing. While America was waiting for the opening of ‘Gone With the Wind’ Europe was preparing for World War II. .

BERLIN (AP) — Two paintings that the Nazis forced a Jewish art dealer to sell off in the 1930s have been returned to his estate, and its heirs said Wednesday they were working hard to recover hundreds more.

‘Tom Barnes has tapped the headlines into Nazis stolen art and crafted a spellbinding mystery.’ Julie Burton, playwright and author of “Consider the Tulips.”
‘The Goring Collection.’
Jacob Meyers is stunned to see his father’s Pissarro – taken by the Nazi’s in 1945 – among the paintings up for sale at the Old World Auction House in Manhattan. He questions management and while he reads a phony provenance, the Pissarro is withdrawn from sale and mysteriously disappears. Jacob, head of an intelligence group, alerts Interpol and joins their ongoing investigation into the underground world of stolen art.
Two suspect paintings, a Manet and a Cézanne sold by an international cartel in Berlin as copies, are tracked to the Berghoff Gallery in Chicago where they are auctioned off as originals. An accidental shooting at the gallery exposes the cartel’s shell game and leads to blackmail of a Las Vegas odds maker, murder of a San Francisco politician, and the assassination of a former matinee idol in West Virginia.
Link to stolen art display: Click Here
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/art...

Writers Notebook:
On Internet Blogging:
Think of blogging as a community bulletin board.
Simply put you blog to share information with others and you can blog about anything Aunt Suzie’s favorite recipes, politics, pop art, gardening or fly-fishing.
The political classes are having a field day in the blog world.
My ‘RocktheTower’ blog reflects many of my personal experiences as writer, actor and hurricane hunter.
Most writers have files filled with stuff (and some is just that – stuff) we’ve written in the past articles, essays etc. If you’ve written a book you’re in good shape because you have lots of material to fall back on. Use excerpts to promote your book or make a point.
You set your own schedule and deadline to post. My idea is to work with consistency in order to make that deadline. One of the incentives I use is that at the end of the day I will have accumulated enough material to edit into a book about storytelling on the blog.
Twitter is something you might look into, it will give you another way to generate new ideas and feed your blog: something to think about.

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com