Although the show is titled "The Navigator", her real name is "SS Buford", a ship that definitely has a story, and there's even a long Wikipedia entry about her.
The ship made its maiden voyage in 1890, then named "SS Mississippi", and was subsequently bought by the U.S. military to transport supplies for the war between the United States and Spain. In 1919, it was given to the US Navy, renamed "USS Buford", and was responsible for transporting US troops back home after World War I. In December of the same year, the ship was also called the "Red Ark" by the media, and was responsible for transporting some Soviet political prisoners in the United States back to the Soviet Union.
The Buford in 1915
The ship was discovered thanks to one of Keaton's formidable photographers, Fred Gabouri, who was also the technical director of Voyager. Frank Lloyd was working on a movie called Sea Hawk for Metro, MGM's predecessor, right across from Keaton's crew, and they borrowed Gabouri and sent him to find an old-fashioned four. masted schooner. Originally, Gabouri had promised Keaton to find him a boat that could make a feature film after the short film "The Boat". It happened that he accidentally discovered this ocean-going ship, and found that only $25,000 can be used. buy it! Keaton's crew immediately made the decision to buy, buy, and buy, and immediately set about creating a story for the ship. In fact, SS Buford is the real protagonist of the film.
2 Are the diving scenes real?
of course! Although the so-called "underwater" shots of many movies at the time were "special effects" shot through glass tanks, Keaton's diving shots were actually shot underwater. Moreover, Keaton adheres to his consistent principle of "reality as painful as the skin", insists that there is no need for a substitute, and personally puts on a diving suit to perform underwater pictures! He even modified a standard diving helmet to expand the front glass to reveal his entire face. Yes, even if you put on a diving suit, you have to show your face so handsome!
However, the filming of this scene was very bumpy. The first thing to do is to find a suitable shooting location: the original plan of the waters of Santa Catalina Island, California, because the fish is in the breeding season, the water becomes very turbid and is not suitable for shooting. So they found another artificial pool. The pool was not deep enough, so the crew spent money to remodel it. As a result, when the renovation was completed, the bottom of the pool was weak and collapsed...
The unlucky Keaton crew had to lose money After they repaired the pool, they had to find another place to shoot. This time they're targeting a new location: Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border. The water here is clear, but it is very cold, and Keaton can only stay underwater for thirty minutes at a time, and then he will freeze to death. The rest of Voyager only took five to six weeks to shoot, and this underwater shot took a month! I really have to admire Keaton's dedication to the show!
When it comes to dedication, Keaton is literally taking his life to make this scene. According to Crisp, there was a piano string (very strong) tied to his helmet for safety, so he could be pulled up at any time. As a result, one day, the staff forgot to tie the piano strings! Thankfully there was still a phone cable strapped to the helmet at the time, otherwise Keaton would have really died for the shoot. The underwater scenes that were actually filmed in the silent film era, "Voyager" should be unique!
3 Who is the scary old captain in the portrait?
If you pay attention to the director list at the beginning of the film, you will find that there is another person besides Keaton, yes, he is the "old captain" Donald Crisp (Donald Crisp).
At that time, in order to focus on acting and screenwriting, Keaton needed someone to help him direct some of the scenes, such as the scene where Keaton and the heroine Catherine were chasing on the boat. Keaton was in it, and he really needed someone who could see the whole situation to direct him. . So he hired Crisp, who was also a famous director, actor and screenwriter at the time. Originally, Keaton wanted Crisp to be mainly responsible for directing some more dramatic scenes, but Crisp probably thought to himself: I have to learn how to make comedy with the comedy master, so I have to mix some things he is not good at The comedy scenes and joke creation that resulted in many shots that did not meet Keaton's requirements and often "overacted" the actors. For example, the scene where foreign spies get together to do things at the beginning was shot by Crisp. You can see how exaggerated the performance is:
Isn't it, how can a normal person say such a thing. But performance exaggeration seems to be a common problem in early films, and Keaton's films are indeed quite natural by comparison. To give another small example, when the cannibals kidnapped the heroine ashore, the setting he gave was: the heroine had fainted from fright, but woke up when she smelled the smell of the cannibals' feet... um, Thinking about it makes me feel embarrassed. Naturally, Keaton couldn't accept it. He once said: This made our crew's little burden-handling expert fight with him all night! So, if it goes on like this, who is the boss!
Coincidentally, Crisp didn't just take on this job at the time. During the filming process, he also took some time to direct a "Don Q, Son of Zorro" starring Fairbanks, while Crisp was away. , Keaton hurriedly ran out to do something, scrapped most of the shots he had taken before, and re-shot it himself! When Crisp came back, Keaton went up and said to him, "Oops, you're back, we're all done!" (smiling)
Crisp must be confused. In fact, Keaton and the others have not finished filming. At this time, they are shooting the diving scene, but it is impossible for the entire crew to dive underwater. It only needs Keaton and the photographer. For Crisp, he could indeed take his lunch and leave.
However, Crisp's name is still written in the "director" column. Not sure if he wanted to tease him or not, Keaton put a ferocious mug of Crisp into the film and made him appear on camera this way. The stare of the old captain also became a stalk that made the audience laugh out loud.
4 What is one of Keaton's most poignant shots?
Many people don't know that there is a scene in "Voyager" that Keaton personally cut out. When underwater, Keaton fought lobster, swordfish and octopus. He originally designed a scene: Keaton picked up a starfish and put it on his chest, pretended to be a traffic policeman to direct traffic to the fish, and stopped a school of fish with his bare hands. Just to let a lonely little fish pass the "junction" first in front of them. For this purpose, the props team produced more than 1,000 rubber fishes, which were mechanically operated, and laboriously filmed the scene. However, during the test screening, the audience did not laugh. Keaton also reflected on it himself and found that this joke did not promote the storyline that was in a tense atmosphere at the time, but he liked this meme very much and couldn't let it go, so he cut this clip from the feature film. , put it in the trailer, and in this way, the audience laughed again. The good news is that this clip has not been discarded. The sad thing is that even if the film exists, it is difficult to be seen now.
5 The colored version is so poisonous, is it a fake movie?
If you attended this month's screening in Shanghai (for details , click on "The King of Comedy" Buster Keaton Movie Sharing Phase 1 - When Buster Keaton Goes to Sailing ), you will notice that the screening was on An overcolored version, not a complete black and white film. Is it being manipulated? wrong! In fact, this simple and rude color is precisely the original version shown in the cinema that year! Don't be surprised!
At that time, coloring black and white films was a trend, or standard, although it seems incomprehensible now, people at that time may think that this color is a kind of respect and technological progress for the film. Hence this poisonous color: amber day, blue night and green underwater scene.
Moreover, no one can see this colored version after it was released in cinemas that year. It can be said that it has been lost for a long time. The appearance of this version may be to bring everyone back to that era. In short, although it is poisonous, it is actually quite lucky to see it!
6
Easter eggs! ! ! Listen to one of Keaton's "Soft Favorites."
Remember the song that scared Keaton and Katherine half to death on the first night on the boat? This song also exists, called "Asleep in the Deep", composed in 1897.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time this song has "appeared" in a Keaton movie! In Keaton's 1921 short film "Theatre", if you pay attention to the program list full of Keaton, you will find that one of the tracks is this "Asleep in the Deep"! It seems that Keaton has been obsessed with this song!
If you want to listen to the original sound recording of this song, please go to [Keton's Theater] WeChat public account to listen to the original text!
The above content is excavated from the "Voyager" documentary produced by Bruce Lawton, as well as the "Voyager" movie commentary. Interested friends can click [Film Story] Buster Keaton's "Voyager" Documentary Direct to Station B to watch this 8 A documentary of about minutes, with Chinese subtitles~
This article was first published on the WeChat public account of [Keton's Theater], the author is himself, please contact the official account for reprinting~
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