Hands of Hollywood (1929)

Chapter IV SETS The word SET comes from the theater. In a play, when two or more rooms are shown, the scenery representing these rooms is made in sets. These sets are built in sections and suspended by ropes and pulleys above the stage. As they are needed, they are dropped to the stage and braced into place. The walls of the stage set are made of painted canvas stretched upon light wooden frames. The doors of the set are made in the same way and fastened with very light hinges. In motion pictures, the sets are built on a much larger scale. In fact, some are built to represent whole streets, entire sections of cities or towns, huge castles, cathedrals, etc. These sets are constructed actually of lumber and nails, of plaster, of iron, and of many different kinds of material. Unlike stage sets, they cannot be shoved around. They are built, photographed in a picture, torn down or "struck," and then burned. Of course, there are exceptions to this procedure. If a very large, elaborately designed, costly set is to be built, it is usually erected outside "on the lot," and left standing even after it has been "shot" in a picture. It is left standing in the hope that it can be used in another story, so that much of the initial expenditure can be "written off." However, before an old set is used in a new picture, certain changes have to be made. This is called "pointing" a set. Pointing consists of repainting, replastering, repairing, changing windows, doors, steps, etc. If the changes made on a set are of a radical nature, such as remodeling a church into a castle, or an apartment house into an office building, or even a French castle into an Italian castle, such changes are called rebuilding sets. The smaller sets, "interiors," are built upon a stage where floor [41]