[SML] Am I seeing what I?m seeing?

[Dougherty, Jim]

There are two shots of that chair setup - one from the ground, showing the camera boom setup, and one taken from the film itself.  If you look in the first shot with the camera, you can see an additional wire on the left that I'd bet was a safety line for the actor that was removed in post-production (this was the high-budget film in their piece), while the later shot shows it in the film using the hemp rigging and wooden chair, no wire visible. That being said, I'd bet there were a lot of lighthouses painted and ships maintained using that same rope-and-chair setup over the years.

The movie Hacksaw Ridge isn't quite so careful removing the safety wires - if you watch towards the end, there's a scene with an injured person being lowered via a rope-rigged stretcher and you can clearly see the wire ropes doing the actual work.  IIRC there was a thimble or something that caught my eye - it's been a while.

- Jim Dougherty
Middlebury College Theatre Dept