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