Christopher Challis(1919-2012)

Christopher was very keen on films when he was at school and made 16mm films. When his father met the managing director of Gaumont British News, he was told to send the lad along, resulting in him becoming a camera assistant. Sound was just starting to come in. A year later, he was ferrying film from the cameramen back to the studio for processing, but going by tube instead of by taxi, as he was told to do. However, he charged for a taxi on his expenses, making more money that way than his £1 a week wages. After that he wanted to get into features. When technicolor arrived in Britain, he was asked to direct the first one at Denham which was Wings of the Morning.He went to see the head of Technicolor and talked his way into a job mainly in the labs and became the first permanent employee when new labs were built at Denham, working on Thief of Baghdad. With the outbreak of war, he joined the RAF film unit and found his friend Jack Cardiff there, making A Matter of Life and Death. Christopher was tasked working as lighting cameraman with Geoffrey Unsworth on The River, then as camera operator on The Red Shoes. When Jack left, Christopher became a fixture with The Archers film producers, first on The Small Back Room with Freddie Francis as his operator. Colonel Blimp took four men to lift the Technicolor camera which could only go up and down because of its weight and size. If it had gone sideways it would have tipped over. It took over two weeks walking round Shropshire looking for suitable locations for Gone to Earth, as there were no jeeps in those days, so everything had to be carried over fields. Jennifer Jones had married Selznick two weeks previously, so he was more or less blackmailed into using her as he financed most of the film. Powell refused to direct and Pressburger to write. Christopher went over as representative, but was unable to take any of his crew, so the gaffer was Gregg Toland. In one instance, Jennifer was in a candle lit bedroom scene when Selznick came in and said there was too much light. Christopher said he had been brought over and if Selznick wasn't happy, he'd go back home. Selznick saw the rushes next day and publicly apologised. Technicolor, on the strength of the film, decided to build labs over here and employed staff, who, in the main, had all been educated at university level.