Christopher Challis(1919-2012)

Christopher was very keen on films when he was at school and made 16mm films so 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 but charging 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 went into the RAF but in their film unit and found his friend Jack Cardiff there making A Matter of Life and Death and got Christopher in 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 firstly on The Small Back Room with Freddie Francis as his operator, Sound on Colonel Blimp took 4 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 2 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 2 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 but 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'd brought him over and if he wasn't happy he'd go back home. Selznick saw the rushes next day & 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 to university level He served time in the RAF but in their film unit