Roy Pomeroy (April 20, 1892 – September 3, 1947) was an American

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual w ...

s artist and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...

. One of the only three technicians that founded the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

, he was awarded the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...

for Engineering Effects for the film ''

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...

'' at the

1st Academy Awards The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks, honored the best films from 1 August 1927 to 31 July 1928 and took place on May ...

Biography

Pomeroy's career began during the silent era, when he worked as a special effects engineer for

Famous Players-Lasky Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and t ...

and its successor studio

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. For 1923's ''

The Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...

,'' Pomeroy designed the

parting of the Red Sea The Crossing of the Red Sea ( he, קריעת ים סוף, Kriat Yam Suph, parting of the Sea of Reeds) forms an episode in the biblical narrative of The Exodus. It tells of the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egypti ...

sequence and an effect in which the commandments appeared in letters of flame.Walker, Alexander. ''The Shattered Silents: How the Talkies Came to Stay.'' 1978. Morrow, 1979. He worked on ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...

, Old Ironsides,'' and '' The Rough Riders,'' all for Famous Players or Paramount. His work on the groundbreaking aviation film ''

,'' released in 1927, earned him the

for Engineering Effects at the first-ever Academy Awards ceremony. Pomeroy was head of research at Paramount, and experimented on an ultimately unsuccessful device to add

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...

to the studio's large-format Magnascope process. He was sent to visit the

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westin ...

and

Western Electric The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...

sound laboratories to study

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

sound technology, and upon his return was treated by studio workers and executives as an expert. Jesse Lasky said, "We couldn't have treated him with more awe and homage if he had been Edison himself." Propman Joe Youngerman said, "He threw his weight around. He claimed he knew all about it."Eyman, Scott. ''The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930.'' Simon and Schuster, New York: 1997. In 1928, Paramount decided it was ready to release an "all-talkie", a film with synchronized dialogue throughout rather than in select scenes. They chose ''

Interference Interference is the act of interfering, invading, or poaching. Interference may also refer to: Communications * Interference (communication), anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a message * Adjacent-channel interference, caused by extra ...

,'' a

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

directed by

Lothar Mendes Lothar Mendes (19 May 1894 – 24 February 1974) was a German-born screenwriter and film director. His two best known films are '' Jew Süss'' (1934) and ''The Man Who Could Work Miracles'' (1936), both productions for British studios. Career Bo ...

that had been completed but not yet released. Pomeroy was assigned to reshoot the film with sound. He demanded—and received—a pay raise from $250 per week to $2,500. The silent and sound versions were released simultaneously; the sound version was better regarded by critics, but still detracted for stilted dialogue. However, the sound techniques were praised for their relative sophistication (the critic

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.reaction shot In film production, cinematography and video production, a reaction shot is a shot which cuts away from the main scene in order to show the reaction of a character to it, a basic unit of film grammar. A reaction shot usually implies the display ...

of her lover, placing the attention on his emotional reaction rather than insistently displaying the source of the sound. After being tapped for his next directing assignment, Pomeroy asked for another raise to $3,500 a week. The studio balked and reassigned the project to William DeMille instead, and Pomeroy resigned from the studio. He directed two more sound films: '' Inside the Lines'' for RKO in 1930, and ''

Shock Shock may refer to: Common uses Collective noun *Shock, a historic commercial term for a group of 60, see English numerals#Special names * Stook, or shock of grain, stacked sheaves Healthcare * Shock (circulatory), circulatory medical emerge ...

'' for

W.T. Lackey Productions WT or Wt may refer to: * Weight People * Watertender, a former petty officer rating in the United States Navy * Weapons technician, a former petty officer rating in the United States Navy * Robert Wight (1796–1872), in botanical taxonomy, abb ...

in 1934. Pomeroy was passionate about archery and kept a collection of bows in his studio office.

Filmography

* ''

'' (1924) * ''

'' (1927) * ''

'' (1928) * '' Inside the Lines'' (1930) * ''

'' (1934)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pomeroy, Roy 1892 births 1947 deaths Special effects people People from Darjeeling Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners British people in colonial India British emigrants to the United States