Have a look at this incredible scene in the video below from the Warner Archive. Just think of all the hard work and planning they went through- with no CGI to help out. Mother naturesings to me Besides a waterfallwith you. Mother naturesings to me Theres a whipperwill thats calling. The scene puts special effects in film today to shame. We can shareit all beneatha ceilingof blue. The “By a Waterfall” scene of the film employed the use of a lighted pool with 20 diving platforms and a team of 300 swim dancers in scanty diamanté illusion swimsuitsto create a host of visual effects, many of which were filmed from overhead so as to capture the designs created by the swimmers. He decides that live action “prologues” for films are the ticket to his renewed success and so the folly begins. The film centers around a Broadway director whose career is flopping as audiences cease their trips to the theater in favor of going to the movies. Some of Berkeley’s most memorable film scenes include feats that simply couldn’t be achieved in real life, like the choreography for dancers in giant white Jenny Lind rocking chairs from Gold Diggers of 1933or his extravagant couples dance scene from Fast and Furious (no relation to the modern franchise) featuring dozens of tap dancing women dressed in scandalous harem costumes.īerkeley’s 1933 film, Footlight Parade, was one of these films that set the imagination flying. During the Great Depression many people sought the cheap seats and air conditioning that going to the movies offered, not to mention the escapism of fantasy and whimsy. One of the masters of this latter style was the choreographer, Busby Berkeley, who was able to create movie scenes that literally awed people. Film productions ranged from more humble dramas to glamorous musicals filled with every conceivable type of glitter and glitz. Just before the big production number in 'Footlight Parade,' James Cagney says: 'If this doesn’t get ‘em, nothin’ will.' What follows is the famous 'By a Waterfall' sequence in which Dick Powell dreams of dozens of beautiful mermaids sliding and swimming down a waterfall. Performer: Adrian Rollini and his Orchestra Herbert WeilWriter: Irving Kahal Sammy FainVocal Chorus by From Footlight Parade.Digitized at 78 revolutions. Many Hollywood films of the 1930s could be truly dazzling spectacles.
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