The Moving Picture World (July 1907)

30o THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. having happened fifteen years before. The murder scene took place in the woods in the dead of Winter when the murdered man was driving homeward from an inn in the snow. The woods near the moving picture factory were utilized for this on a snowy day last Winter, and the whole thing was acted out, a dummy figure being struck with the ax of the murderer. Some things can be faked in the moving picture, but never action. That must be genuine. When the actors in moving picture dramas set forth from the factory to the nearby woods to be pictured for various scenes there is usually an accompanying string of small boys and curiosity seekers who follow in their train and sometimes interfere with the taking of the pic- tures. Sometimes the onlookers become so absorbed in the drama that is going on that they stray within the focus of the camera and mar the reality. Occasionally they add a note of naturalness to it, however. One day recently a fight between two men was under way for a picture when a bulldog in the neighborhood, having his spirit stirred by watching the encounter, rushed in and grabbed one of the combatants by the trouser leg. It helped the picture immediately, but as it happened the plate was not good and when the picture was taken over again, nothing could induce the dog to repeat his part of the perfor- mance. Sometimes spontaneous, unrehearsed acts make a picture much more valuable. When a good theme for a moving picture drama has been found, too much trouble cannot be taken to find just the right setting and the necessary properties to make the thing real and genuine to the eyes of the on- looker. The other day when a pig was needed for one oi the pictures, a boy was sent into the regions around the factory to get one. It seemed an easy thing to find, but the messenger scoured the country for miles around and nothing that vaguely resembled a pig could be found any- where. For two days the moving picture man telephoned vigorously and no pig in all New York or Brooklyn was forthcoming, when finally a man in Jersey City located one. The messenger was hurriedly sent forth and told without fail to bring back that pig before the day. was over. Toward 9 o'clock at night the boy came wearily in with the squealing pig in his wake. Once half of a troublesome series of pictures had been taken and the manager arranged for the other half to be made on another day. At the appointed time the whole cast appeared at the moving picture studio except the hero. The manager was in despair, because he was in a hurry for the pictures. The hero was tall and blond and there was nobody that could possibly be substituted except one of the scene painters who was short and dark. The experiment was made with the substitute hero in place of the real, however, and the pictures were finished, with the hope that they are turned out so fast that the sud- den change in the hero would not be noticed. In order to add to the reality of the moving pictures, music is always played while the actors .pose. A very fine phonograph is one of the important properties of the factory. When there is a picture where quick modoa is needed, a lively record is played by the phonograph- where pathos or emotion is to be expressed, some oi the plaintive music from Carmen or Peer Gynt is used; and where there is a dream scene mysterious music is played It is wonderful help to the actors in throwing themselves into the part. As a great variety of scenery is needed in the plays that are introduced, the moving picture man has to be on the keen watch for localities that can be adapted for his pur- poses. Though some of the wildest of Western scenery is often introduced, there are very few scenes for which some bit within a few miles of the city cannot be found and utilized. The man behind the camera knows many a trick of focusing whereby a small excavation can be made to look like a deep, treacherous gorge, and a slight hill like a rugged mountainside. In a Western drams where such rugged looking scenes were introduced that in England the pictures called forth a column article about the wild scenery in America, the gorges were in reality excavations for houses on the outskirts of Brook- lyn within a few yards of the trolley line, and the steep mountain side was rocks in the park. The huts and in- teriors and unusual scenes are usually the result of the painter's brush and are merely of canvas. The way the moving picture man explains the scena of an automobile running up to a house and climbing right over the top is that the picture is taken with the machine really approaching the cottage. Then the front of tin house is painted on canvas and laid flat on the ground The automobile goes over the painted house while the man with the camera takes the picture from above. That picture is joined right on to the other where the auto- mobile is approaching the cottages and the effect is of the machine climbing over the house. The mysterious pictures where one sees a knife cutting bread without the aid of the-hand, a pitcher pouring milk, sugar dropping in the tea, the saucer walking off the table, etc, is explained by what is called stop-work on the part of the camera, and is a very tedious process. The artick that is to move, for instance, the knife, is moved by some one the tiniest bit at a time and after it is moved the camera takes each stage and stops, instead of continuing taking many pictures in a second. Gradually little by little the knife is pictured approaching- the bread and finally ap- pears cutting it. When the pictures are joined together and moved at the enormous rate at which the pictures art shown, the effect is of the knife moving itself in some mysterious way. It takes a whole day sometimes to wort out one of these pictures that is shown in a few seconds. NOTICE.-If yoti wian to get youf copies regularly, leave an ordes -with your NewsAgent, or &end ttf $2.00 for one year's ©tslbscriptioB.