Ned Scott - Mexico

Mexico

Ned Scott spent the latter half of 1934 working for Paul Strand on location in Alvarado, Mexico to produce the Mexican funded propaganda film, Redes. Fred Zinnemann, who also worked on this film in his directorial debut, referred to Ned Scott's stills as "classics" in his autobiography. Two months following Strand's return to the USA from Mexico he referred to these stills as "the finest set of still photographs I have ever seen for any film".

His assignment was the creation of film stills during the production of the film. He used a 5 x 7 Graflex camera throughout production. He masked the back plate of the camera to a 5 x 6 size at the suggestion of Paul Strand, thus producing exposed film which was a little smaller than usual. Because the sun was so intense at the midday period, filming of Redes took place in the early morning and late afternoon. Fred Zinnemann made this filming schedule due to the fact that most of the participants wore large straw hats, characteristic of the culture and area, and these hats created very dark shadows over the actors' facial features. So it was that during this midday time, Ned Scott had the opportunity to make photographic forays into the community of Alvarado to document the town. He also used this time to make character portraits.

Conditions in Alvarado were spartan, and travel took time. Crossing the Mexican border was problematic because of sensitivities of the Mexican government to immigrant labor, often causing delays of days for telegrams to be transmitted back and forth with officials in the government. Overall Alvarado was a very shabby place. There was dirt everywhere. Facial qualities of the local population were strong, perhaps due to the African American genetic strain within the group but there was "an appalling amount of toothlessness". Known as Jarochos, members of the local population laughed, sang and drank (aguardiente) as a normal course of things. Throughout Mexico Alvarado was known as the most foul-mouthed village anywhere. Despite the local color, Both Paul Strand and Henwar Rodakiewicz found the town and its people terribly depressing. Underlying this feature, however, was a vitality and a specialness which lent possibilities for a good film. But at the end of 1933 when Henwar arrived to assist in the film's production, he found the scenario ragged and incoherent.

Ned Scott arrived in Alvarado in June 1934. By that time Fred Zinnemann had appeared on the scene, at the request of Henwar, to take over the role of film director after Henwar left to complete a prior commitment on a Sterner film about American Pueblo Indians. Prior to his departure Henwar had completed the shooting script for Strand because he did not feel right about leaving Strand alone in the production of the film. There was no one else on hand in Alvarado who grasped the enormous possibilities of cinema or who knew anything about making a film. By June, the production team was finally assembled, Henwar having returned from the Sterner job, and filming could commence. Ned Scott began his first film still assignment with a rookie director, a rookie producer and a group of rookie actors in a foreign town whose inhabitants were renowned for their drinking and swearing. And he worked for free.

Gunther von Fritsch, the editor of the film, arrived and joined the film crew on October 26, 1934. He was enchanted with the town (he landed in Alvarado during a lengthy fiesta with dancing in the plaza and fireworks every night). His work began immediately, but there were problems. Equipment on hand was primitive as there were no light boxes, cutting tables or bins to organize the film trims, and much had to be improvised. Electricity was unreliable, and when available, it was fluctuating, causing the moviola and projector to run at erratic speeds, a circumstance which hampered timing. Gunther got as much done as he could in Alvarado, then went to Mexico City on Novermber 2 to record the musical score.