Cinematographic annual : 1930 (1930)

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CINEMATICS S3 Cascading motion, as of a bouncing ball: sprightliness, lightness, elasticity, etc. (Douglas Fairbanks.) Spreading, centrifugal motion, as the ripple on the surface of a pool after a stone has been thrown in: growth, scattering (mob panic scenes) , explosion, broadcasting, etc. Indeed a whole grammar of motions could be written, analysing the elements of the cinema language. And by means of that language many new and wonderful things are yet to be told. I firmly believe that there is no scene in any picture which could not be made more effective, emotionally — more intense and artistically more lasting by imparting to it the proper rhythm and devising some significant motion which would best express the given mood. A perfect motion picture would be comparable to a symphony. Ir would have a definite rhythmical pattern, each of its movements would correspond to the mood of the sequence and each individual phrase (scene) would be an organic part of the whole. And like a svmphony it would be interesting at every moment of its development regardless of the meaning or story it has to convey. In other words: a motion picture should be visually interesting even if we entered the theatre in the middle of the performance; we should be visually entertained even if we did not know the beginning of the story. In the present article the subject of cinematography has been treated only from the visual point of view, which will always remain the most important one. The invention of sound devices has opened new and almost unlimited possibilities. To discuss these in relation to the' theory here expressed would require much more space than is permitted. But we can mention the obvious fact that the sound can be made to harmonize audibly with whatever is given on the screen visually, and that it could enhance the cinema's original power of expression to an immense degree. There is no cause for alarm if the present pictures seem to have lost some of the tempo they formerly had, no matter how primitive it was. This is a period of experiments and adjustments. Eventually the sound apparatus will — like the camera — evolve from a merely reproductive into a creative instrument.