Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1917 - Jun 1918)

Efll E X H I TOR HERALD fgg IMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiii How David Belasco Would Make Jrictures Greatest director of the stage tells how he would go about the production of a film drama Ilwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim By David Belasco [HAVE often thought of the process I would adopt if I were to undertake to make a motion picture. It vould be greatly at variance with the methods now folowed in the studios, but I wager I would obtain good esults. I would select a very human story adjusted to the implest backgrounds, with very few characters and no nsemble whatever. In inventing the '"business" of the cenes I would contrive to have the hero or heroine old the stage alone whenever possible ; for I would im to tell the story, not by a correlation of incidents, ut by the facial expressions of the actors. Experience my own theater .has convinced me that nothing is so alculated to command the interest of an audience as e concentration of a scene upon the work of one perrmer. I would avoid the use of "cut •acks," "close-ups,'' and the other umbersome and disconcerting deices now in vogue on the screens, ind I would never consider my picire fit for public exhibition so long s it had to be interrupted by capions of explanation. A motion■icture play which must depend on lottoes to communicate its meanag to the spectator is suitable only o be thrown away. As oh my regutr stage, I would scrutinize every cene closely to discover distracting, onfusing, or reiterated points, and these I would conrive to remove. I 1 * * * ^ EHEARSALS would be continued until the actors ^ were able to go through their roles without rompting or directing of any kind, and when it came a the filming process I would insist that the scenes ,hould be photographed consecutively and in the order f their development. This last detail I would consider ne of the most important features of my method, since ■y following it out I feel sure that I could show the lental processes of the characters, which now are so eldom even suggested in motion-picture plays. It is a fatal error of the motion-picture director to lotograph the opening scene of a screen drama a week, erhaps, after the final scene has been made. In the igular theater a play works up to its biggest scene by egrees. The actor also rises gradually to his great ramatic moment. This is the natural process by which IN MAKING A MOTION PICTURE DAVID BELASCO WOULD— the mind and the emotions work, and there is no reason why it should not be followed in acting before the camera. I am positive that the absence of inspiration and imagination from even the best of the motion-picture plays up to the present time is because directors have fallen into the habit, for reasons of economy or convenience, of doing their work in patches. My picture being now complete and ready for the public, I would require that the speed of its exhibition should be regulated to fit the natural gestures and movements of human beings. In all the picture plays I have ever seen the figures dash through the scenes with such lightning rapidity that every facial expression becomes a grimace, and the effect of the whole is turned into travesty. Nothing in the motion-picture profession is quite so appalling to me — as this malicious energy of the camera-man. * and Select a human story. Use few characters. Avoid use of "cut-backs" "close-ups." Rehearse until actors could go through roles without prompting or directing of any kind. Photograph scenes in order of their development. Regulate speed of picture to fit natural gestures exactly. Eliminate sub-titles. I F, in these observations concerning a comparatively new medium of entertainment and its relation to the spoken and acted drama, to which my life has been devoted, I have combined criticism with suggestion, it is not because I underrate the pleasure it now affords for a vast public or the possibilities its development promises for the future. The motion-picture better deserves commendation fon what it has already accomplished than blame because its necessary limitations deny it a place among the theater's allied arts. Those who regard the picture play lightly, because they cannot derive from it the artistic satisfaction which they find in real drama, make the mistake of demanding too much of it. They should remember that one cannot be confused with the other, for the reason that drama is life, while the screen is destined always to remain a cold picture of life. But there is no reason, in view of the mechanical perfection of the camera, why it should not develop an art of its own, or, at least, something which is akin to art. That art will not appear until the motion-picture has developed a separate medium which does not borrow from the acted and spoken drama, has founded its own school of writers, and has trained its own kind of actors. (The above views of Mr. Belasco are extracted from an article in Munsey's Magazine, current issue.) 19