The Cine Technician (1935-1937)

November, 1935 The Journal of the Association of CineTechnicians 61 are ingenious, now and again they are apt to distract. It doesn't matter in an unimportant frivolous picture so much as in a serious one, but I do think that these ideas lose their force by being overdone. You may, of course, find something that is funny in it for its own sake. Some years ago I remember Buster Keaton getting into a car in a picture, pulling the lever, and the background changed and he arrived at his destination. This was, of course, a joke, and speeded up the story, but that being done in a lighthearted way is very different to a really serious story. I strongly suspect that the scenarist and cameraman work together. You may have a pork pie on a table and in a closer shot it turns to a bunch of roses in another scene. I think it should be discarded — it seems to be almost a stock idea now in linking things together. I don't know how the public look on this, but I think that they would appreciate something a little more creative, and it is possible to have more creative ideas. I am very glad to notice that lighting from a cameraman's point of view is now enormously improved — it is not as good in this country as in America, naturally, but I think that we have at last got to the stage in this country that "lighting effects" should not be darkening effects. Some of the most artistic pictorial compositions consist of deep shadows, and I don't think they should disappear, but in my experience there are hundreds of times when shadow effects make it impossible to identify players and the whole story is thrown off the line. All these little gadgets have the danger that if you once take a false step with them you may lose the audience's interest, and I don't think there is any recipe for making film stories except holding the audience's interest. The cameraman wants to put as many beautiful shots in the picture as possible, but I suggest that they have held up many a good film. I do feel, however, that there is a time and place to introduce a shot that is just beautiful for its own sake, but it should never occur in the critical state of a story. It can be legitimately used when there is a lull in the drama. I am afraid that my early training and slight recent experience in the writing side of pictures, coupled with the fact that I am a critic, makes me give the story of a film the greater importance. I don't think any factor— even beauty in a picture — should stop you from telling the story. Here I come to m} criticism of British pictures which is the loitering pace of action which maddens all critics and most audiences, and sends them to sleep It is terrible the way characters cross the screen, go to doors, don't say a word, sit down before they speak and 40 or 50 feet seems to be gone in no time. I don't think these things can be corrected by the cutter. The whole problem seems to be a matter of proper economy of footage. Art direction has become so artistic as to be unbelievable. I was on a set the other day — it was extraordinarily beautiful and full of chromium plating, etc. The director asked me what I thought of this set. I said I thought it was very beautiful and he replied, "Thank God ' nobody can live in it," which was true. Art in films should be ahead of fashions, and should lead them. Yet I think it tends to become unnatural. I am not making any direct attack on art directors. I think British art directors are certainly better than any in the world, better than American, but are liable to become stiff and unnatural. Another dodge is one which I wouldn't condemn, because it can be very clever and very useful. That is the {Continued on page 62, second column.) THE "PARLINE" SERIES OF DRAWING PAPERS, SECTIONAL PAPERS, ARTISTS' COLOURS, INKS AND BRUSHES. DRAWING OFFICE EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES FOR THE TECHNICAL DEPARTMENTS OF THE FILM INDUSTRY DACRES RABJOHNS LIE Head Office : j . Telephone ; Telegroms : WHITEHALL |4 VICTORIA STREET parlubbey 3213 SOWEST, (Three Lnes) WESTMINSTER, S.W.I LONDON