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Member LoginBob Feeney ACS
This month, former NSW President Bob Feeney ACS writes for AC about his start in the industry nearly 60 years ago…
1941: On Monday September 15, 1941 I walked into the Missenden Road, Camperdown office of Fox Movietone News to start work as an office boy & messenger. Among my duties was the collection of title cards for the weekly newsreel from Cathcart Studios in George Street. Bill Cathcart & Harry Dale did the titles by hand & they were good enough to blow up to the Regent Theatre screen size.
After a period in the office I was promoted to an assistant in the Cutting Room where I learnt to prepare films for screening to the editorial staff. There was no workprint made – the rushes were screened in the negative. The managing editor, news editor & chief cutter viewed the stories & made decisions on length and content. The chief film editor, Syd Wood would cut story & have a workprint made – called a scoring print - & the final cut would be done. Frank Killian, another cutting room assistant would select & match the music for recording. Frank knew the music library backwards. The re-recorders were sound heads from projectors which had to be started when a chinagraph pencil cue mark appeared on the screen. There was no interlock or sync drive on these machines & it was necessary to give the flywheels a good push to get them up to speed quickly. News material which came in during WW2 had to be got out as quickly as possible which meant lots of overtime – for which we were not paid – sometimes until 3 am. One of my jobs at these times was to run into the studio when the commentator, Harry Guinness, who was also the managing editor would fall asleep & wake him before the next commentary cue came up on the screen
Syd Wood left shortly after my arrival to join the Army Military History dept. He went from sergeant to lieutenant & after the war he became chief cameraman.
The camera department often needed help with jobs & I went out on weekends. Eric Pierre was chief cameraman in the early forties & Ross Wood was a junior cameraman & he was well known for his ability to shoot stories using a single lens.
Film stock was in short supply so the assistants had to break down 1000-ft rolls onto 100-ft Eyemo rolls. To avoid waste the assistant would then go the cutting room and splice 10ft of black leader on the tail of the film stock. Back in the darkroom the film was rewound & another 10ft of black leader was spliced on that end of the stock. This meant raw stock was not wasted in threading the camera. The darkroom was the size of an old style phone box – no air conditioning. The glamour of the movies!
A morning ritual was the cleaning & loading of the charcoal burners on the camera cars, as we did not have a big petrol ration.
The camera dept was on the first floor – up a straight flight of 20 steps, which I counted every day. All the camera & sound gear had to be carried up & down which was no mean feat when you realise that the cameras were Wall 35mm single system sound cameras with 1000 ft magazines
After the war I was librarian re-organizing the library with Jim Pearson. He was planning to open his own studio & purchased all the film left in the house of Ernest Higgins. I went to work with Jim and we cleared the house of one million feet of film. A lot of it was decomposing & I spent three months discarding the dangerous and junk film but ending up with 100,000 feet of really good material.
One was expected to do everything at this time. When we did a road safety film I had to be the stuntman – on one occasion being knocked down 3 times by a car at the intersection of Pitt Street & Martin Place, Sydney. There was no traffic control, no first assistants; just the cameraman, the director and me.
Ross Wood joined the company as a cameraman & eventually we got a contract to shoot a feature called ‘Strong is the Seed’, I was operator & had my wages doubled from 4 pounds to 8 pounds per week and no overtime again.
from Australian Cinematographer - Issue 8 - March 2000