Wednesday, February 02, 2022

check out the camera truck used in the movie That Thing You Do (thanks 80 Griiip!)



its a Titan made by Chapman Leonard in Hollywood https://www.chapman-leonard.com/details.php?products_id=16


largely built out of repurposed materials from World War II, including parts from retired military vehicles and even a landing gear from a WWII military plane

the cab is from a 1958 Bel Air

"a Titan was no mere crane, but a moving camera platform able to cruise along the road while a camera operator and assistant did their work way out at the end of the long crane arm. The wheels of a Titan could even “crab” like a dolly (all the wheels turning in the same direction), enabling the driver to put the camera and lens exactly where the director wanted it. With the weight balance adjusted by pumps moving liquid mercury within the arm rather than manually-loading lead weights, the Chapman Titan was a top-shelf item -- other than the camera itself, probably the biggest and most sophisticated piece of film equipment available at the time."



As Samuelson tells it, “After World War II, Ralph Chapman, a special effects technician with an engineering bent, produced the first studio crane that was more than a one-off in 1945.” The Chapman line of equipment began with small, medium and large stage cranes developed between 1946 and 1947. Of the large cranes, the biggest of them were able to get the camera mount up to forty feet off the stage floor.

About 1950, Chapman developed a crane than could travel independently. The cranes were equipped with gasoline engines so they could be taken to the location under their own power. The unit was mounted on a chassis that could also run on a silent electric motor drive for use on sets using recording takes using sensitive sound equipment.

On gasoline, it could travel anywhere. No longer confined to the sound stage, it could travel with the production and shoot exteriors from city streets to deserts and mountains. And wherever the set was they could be set up to do all the things they had been doing on the stage or backlot including a six-wheel crab ability.

After graduating from UCLA’s school of engineering in 1956,  his son Leonard formed his own company, Leonard’s Studio Equipment, and, in 1965, merged with his father’s company to create Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment.


The company began life in 1945 as the Studio Equipment Company, where Leonard Chapman's father, Ralph, was one of the partners. Not only were they not "Chapman/Leonard" at that point, they weren't even "Chapman." Ralph was Ralph Terkanian, and his bride-to-be, Mabel Mahakian, sold some of her personal properties so that Ralph could buy out his partners.

Leonard was 11 when that happened, and a few years later, found himself at Los Angeles City College, using that engineering talent to modify a 1951 Studebaker for more power. A slew of scholarship offers followed upon graduation - including to MIT and Cal Tech - but Leonard stayed local and finished at UCLA. The newly-minted Bruin graduated in 1956, with honours in mechanical engineering, and then promptly went to work for his dad. Before the Eisenhower era was over, Ralph had changed his name to Ralph T. Chapman and Leonard followed suit, and thus Chapman Studio Equipment was born.

In that same 1956, director Cecil B. DeMille needed a crane that could deliver some of the epic shots he was envisioning for The Ten Commandments (DP Loyal Griggs). Ralph was flown to Egypt, and the result was cinema history - along with the company now having "C.B.'s" imprimatur.

1 comment:

  1. That is a Titan crane built by Chapman Studio Equipment in North Hollywood. They are old tech that was really advanced when they were built in the 50's and 60's. They have 6 wheel drive and 6 wheel steering and can either crab or go in a circle. They have enough batteries to run electrically for hours (silent for sound). I think the coolest thing is that the crane operator (usually the Dolly Grip) can shift the balance of the crane, for people and equipment to get on and off, by pumping mercury forward or aft with a simple toggle switch. The arm itself weighs 8000 pounds and can easily be moved with a fingertip. The whole rig weighs about 26,000 pounds without people or a camera and there are a couple of dozen of them in the world. There are many newer cranes now, but these are still used regularly because there are many things they can do that modern tech can't.

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