The Sea Walls alone

Annotated photograph used in the production process for the `Parting of the Red Sea' sequence from the film THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, 1955: The Sea Walls alone, no. #FF1122AXA-1.

Water cascading down a tiled ramp and frothing up via a network of wooden riffles were photographed from various distances. These sections were then combined on the optical printer with soft split-screen mattes. Each water wall used 2 or 3 sections combined in this manner. This can be seen at the dark centre of the photograph, where the various exposures overlap.

To see how the water actually looked during photography, turn the panel to a vertical position. The water flowed down from a large tank, down an 80 foot ramp, frothed up and spilled over into a reservoir. The frothing sections wer then isolated and used to create the water wall images.