A LETTER FROM HARPER GOFF
Almost twenty years after the debut of Disney’s 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea, Production Designer HARPER GOFF wrote this memoir
describing the creative process by which he created the NAUTILUS, the Leagues
Diving Suits, and more. This transcript
is posted here exactly as it was provided to me: with no changes in spelling or
punctuation. For an interesting look
into the mind of a creative genius, read on.
I was assigned the task of
getting together a 'true-life' adventure film using some exceptional underwater
footage shot in a laboratory aquarium, by Dr. McGinnity of Cal-Tech's Marine
Biology lab in Carona Del Mar. Walt (Disney) thought inasmuch as "20,000
L.U.T.S." was in public domain we might do worse than use the title for a
current True-Life adventure short subject. Walt went to England and I stayed in
Burbank and made a story-board of a live action version of the classic using
McGinnity's footage as a sort of ballet episode where Nemo shows Aronax the
wonders of the deep. Walt liked the story-board well enough to have me give an
'A.R.I.' (Audience Reaction Inquiry) to a group of exhibitors who were in town.
They were enthusiastic and the rest is history.
In motion pictures, the text of a classic like this subject is sacrosanct like
the Bible! The 'word' of Jules Verne is not to be made light of, so the duty of
the production designer like myself is to take the sometimes arbitary
discriptions of the Nautilus as recorded by 'J.V.' and "make it
work".
a. Jules Verne while foreseeing brilliantly the atomic submarine of today, did
not at that time invent the periscope, the torpedo tube, or sonar. He did not
prophesy closed curcut television. According to Verne, if Nemo wanted to see
what was going on the surface, he simply poked the glass ports of the conning
tower out of the depths and took a direct look. He risked his vessel, himself,
and his crew by ramming the enemy at frightening speed. If he wanted to study
the marvels of life under the surface, he reclined in his elegent bay window
lounge, and passed the hours studying the marine life outside the amazing
pressure proof window of his luxurious salon. These items dictated much of the
direction of my production designs.
b. Nemo is quoted by Verne as telling Aronax that "I need no coal for my
bunkers. I have instead harnessed the very building blocks of the material
universe to heat my boilers and drive this craft". No one can doubt Verne
meant Atomic Power.
c. It is not sound economics to study and design obviously unnesscessary parts
of the Nautilus if it will not appear on screen. The crews quarters were thus
unaccounted for. In Verne's original text Nemo from time to time leaves the
chart room and steps directly into other diversified areas of the submarine.
Directors do not like to slow down the action and clutter up a dramatic moment
by showing actors leave a room, lift a hatch, enter another room.
d. At the time Captain Nemo constructed Nautilus on Mysterious Island, the iron
riveted ship was the last word in marine construction. I have always thought
rivet patterns were beautiful. I wanted no slick shelled moonship to transport
Nemo thru the emerald deep and so fought and somehow got my way. On Mysterious
Island Nemo had the white hot heat of a volcano to help him build his
dreamship, but I am sure that flat iron plates profusely riveted would have
been his way. His stock pile of material was always the countless sunken ships
uniquely available to him alone. Even the Greek amphora and the works of art
that graced his great salon was salvaged from wrecks.
e. The free diving suits - (self-contained) were developed by myself with the
assistance of Fred Zender, and exceptionally able underwater man. The helmets
were souped-up Japanese pearl diving helmets. We masked the scuba gear, let
water into the helmet, put a breathing tube in our mouth, the clamps on our
nose and one night in 1952 Freddie and I walked slowly from the shallow end to
the deep end of the Santa Monica pool. Lead around our middle and 16 lbs. shoes...it
worked! Many had predicted failure. This formed the basis of the suits that
appeared in the film. We spent 9 hrs. a day, 7 days a week for 8 weeks at
Lyford Key in the Bahamas, underwater! Never lost a man, Fred was in charge of
safety.
f. 20,000 Leagues was the second cinemascope picture to go into production. Fox
had the worldrights to the anamorphic lenses developed by a French inventor
named Cretien. This lense "squeezes" the horizontal dimensions of a
scene into half the normal area on a cinema frame. If projected thru an
anamorphic projection lense it "unsqueezes" this image and the
resulting image is widescreen. Fox had only one lense to lease and this meant
that Disney could not shoot miniture set ups while the main action sequences were
before the cameras. I hit upon the idea of having the prop miniature shop build
a "squeezed" Nautilus miniature. The model was built half as wide and
half as long, but just as high. Even the rivets were "squeezed". This
one miniature was shot with a normal lense. If care was taken to insure the
Nautilus remained on an even keel, the resulting footage was more than
adequate. When "unsqueezed" by anamorphic projection, the image of
the Nautilus was stretched to normal proportions. Of course the bubbles looked
strange, but no one seemed to mind. The success of this experiment made it
possible for the special effects department to make its necessary footage of
many of the underwater miniatures simultaniously with principal photography of
the actors.
g. My idea has always been that the shark and the aligator were the most
terrifying monsters living in the water. I there for combined the scary eyes of
the aligator that can watch you even when it is nearly submerged....with the
dangerous pointed nose and menacing dorsal fin - its sleek streamlining and its
distinctive tail. The discusting rough skin of the aligator is well simulated
by the rivets. As Verne insists that the Nautilus drove its way clean threw
it's victim, I designed a protective sawtooth spline that started forward at
the bulb of the ram and slid around all outjutting structures of the hull.
These included the conning tower, the diving planes, and the great helical
propellor at the stern.
Sincerely,
Harper Goff