"Dartmouth Visited"

The College's New Film Producing Unit Presents the First Fruit of Its Labors

"Dartmouth Visited." the first film from Dartmouth's new motion picture sound stage, tries to accomplish the impossible. It attempts in thirty minutes (sound and color) to tell all about Dartmouth; it shows everything from admission requirements to the College snack bar; from a talk by President Dickey on "Why Go to College?" to skiing on the golf course.

When you set out to tackle the impossible, you make plans carefully. A little over a year ago, we knew the kind of film we wanted. We had fine results from "My First Week at Dartmouth," the film that was written and directed by Maurice Rapf '35. We needed another enrollment film that would tell an even more complete story of the College and its requirements.

The job, a project of the Secretary's Office, headed by Sidney C. Hayward '26, called for the best team effort that the College could muster. First of all we worked out an outline of what we would include. It was relatively easy, because we were after everything. Next, we wanted to assure that we were proceeding along sound cinematic lines, so we asked Charles A. (Cap) Palmer '23, a Hollywood veteran, to join up and assume the duties of Film Consultant. Palmer, president of his own company, Parthenon Pictures, agreed and we were on our way.

Results at the outset were far from certain. Although the College has been producing films for many years, the sound equipment was completely new to us. We did have the advantage of an excellent sound studio, constructed in what had been the Clark School gymnasium in back of Baker Library, but much of our sound recording had to be on location.

Our shooting schedule took us all over the campus. We trundled lights, camera, dolly, and sound equipment to Baker and Sanborn, Tuck School, Thayer School, the hospital, Silsby Hall, Wilder, the Administration Building, etc., etc., etc. We were on the go all the time on an extremely tight schedule. It was usual to spend half a day to get set up and shoot something that might last a minute or less on the screen. But, with Adrian Bouchard as a fine photographer and with Blair Watson accepting a big challenge on the sound, we made progress and, finally, after months of work, we were ready for the trial edit on a workprint.

At that point we asked those officers of the College most concerned with the use of the film to view it. How did it do the job we set down in our outline? What had been left out? Where could it be strengthened? They had several suggestions and then we went into the final edit and musical scoring. With the film about four minutes longer than had been intended, we went out to Hollywood and finished the cutting at Cap Palmer's.

We have a number of motion pictures listed for future production. Some will be directed toward the general television audience; others will be for alumni and secondary school audiences. All, we hope, will do their part toward telling the story of Dartmouth College, its work and its plans for the future.

"Dartmouth Visited" is now ready for distribution, rental free for official use or for sale (below cost) at $125.00 a print. How close does it come to telling the whole story? See it when it plays in your town and let us know what you think.

Producer