Arnold Fanck stands out as a great pioneer of mountain films. Not only did Luis Trenker and Leni Riefenstahl learn from him, but a number of important cinematographers also began their careers under his direction, leaving their mark on German cinematography well into the 1950s. It is Arnold Fanck's achievement to have "freed" the camera from the studio and brought it into nature: all major films before 1920 were shot in studios. Filming in high mountains, on glaciers, in crevasses, on icebergs, volcanoes, and from airplanes required techniques that did not yet exist and were developed by Fanck and his long-time cinematographers.