International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

Four The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER January, 1934 Teaching Mickey Mouse To Walk By EARL THEISEN Honorary Curator Motion Pictures L. A. Museum EFORE me is a wood carving of Mickey Mouse made by the noted carver, John Cerisoli. It is one of my prized possessions. It shows the little human mouse as he is to each of us the world over. There "Mickey" stands, with chesty pose and arms akimbo, with a so-wise eight year old grin. He is exuding the spirit of a pert youth who has just done something or other. There he stands beckoning me to chase him, or re-do with him some of the things I did long ago. Walt Disney has made him the personification of all that is young in us. On the screen he takes us through all his troubles and victories. He is so human that it is difficult to realize that he is only a drawing photographed on motion picture film. To make a cartoon move; to animate Mickey Mouse is not a mysterious thing. It is a process that anyone can understand. A cartoon studio in many respects is like a real-life studio. In both studios there are four general departments or elements. First, a story or scenario, characters or stars to enact the story, a director, and a setting to serve as a background for the story. Those very few and fortunate persons who visit Mickey's studio look about for him or a model of him ; but in vain. It is hard to "act your age" as you would say, and refrain from getting down and looking under the tables for at least some vestige of "our mouse." Like a youngster, I am all eyes, staring everywhere, anxious not to miss a single item. Just as I am certain that T have discovered the darkened corner where Mickey is hiding and I am intent upon it, out walks a blinking cat. A near giggle is stopped. There are cats everywhere. They are in all sizes and colors. My hunt for Mickey is stopped when I am told that he never appears before the camera in person, but does so as a cartoon painted on a sheet of celluloid. And instead of sets made by a carpenter, of wood, as they have in the real-life studios, the cartoon set is a painting by an artist on water color paper. First, Walt calls together a "gag-meeting" which is actually in the form of a lunch that lasts all afternoon. Herein they organize a story idea. Now with a conception of the story they start out to build the plot and various sequences. A cartoon scenario differs from the conventional studio scenario in that it is in two parts, one part telling the story step by step during every inch of the film and the other part describes and notes all sound and music. These two parts are matched by musical beats ; each beat requires a certain length of film and for each beat Mickey Mouse is required to do a certain bit of action. The reason for the two scenarios is that the picture part of the story cannot be photographed with sound. The cartoon sounds are recorded independently on a separate strip of film and then later it is "synchronized" to the picture. The cartoon director is known as the "lavout" man. As the term implies, it is his duty to lay out the story for the artists to draw. He makes rough sketches of the characters, illustrating how they are to do the things called for in the story. He also makes background sketches which are painted on water color paper by an artist. A group of artists, who are known as the "animators," takes the rough sketches of the story and begin to draw. They make cartoon drawings by the thousands in order to show the motion. In fact, it is necessary to draw from 10,000 to 12,000 separate pictures for a cartoon movie of the average length. This average length of six or seven hundred feet, by the way, is seen in the theatre in seven minutes. It takes about 100 artists two weeks to make a sufficient number of drawings to make a cartoon movie. These drawings which are known as "original" drawings then go to another department where they are traced to sheets of celluloid. They are traced to celluloid for a reason that I'll explain presently. In the meantime Walt is teaching Mickey to be a good mouse ; he is showing him new stunts and reading to him from Emily Post. Now we have two things completed ; the backgrounds and the cartoon stars on celluloid. These go to the camera department to be photographed. The cartoon camera is like the regular studio camera, — all movie cameras have two cranks, one that will take a foot of film or sixteen "frames" as they are known, and another that will take just one frame for each turn of the crank. The cartoon cameraman uses the crank that takes only one frame. The camera is anchored on a framework and is focused upon a table. The reason for this is because the backgrounds are laid on this table and the celluloid characters are laid on top for photographing. This table is equipped with an air pressure device that holds the drawings steady during the photographing. Too, it presses the celluloids with the pictures of the characters into firm contact with the background painting. Now to explain how a cartoon is made to move. It is not a feat of magic, nor is it a mysterious accomplishment of Walt's. If you look at a piece of film you will see sixteen tiny photographs for each foot. Upon close examination it is found that where there is action the camera has recorded it in progressive poses. As the camera eye "saw" the action it recorded it stage by stage in different positions. Let us suppose that Mickey Mouse is to be photographed doing a bow on the stage. To show this the cameraman would have a painting of the desired stage and a series of pictures of Mickey on celluloid. The cameraman would lay the picture of the stage on the camera table. Upon it he would lay a picture of Mickey standing in a straight pose. When the transparent celluloid with the cartoon of Mickey is laid over the stage painting, he appears to be standing on the stage. Now a single photo is taken with the movie camera. The celluloid picture of Mickey is now removed and rep]aced by a second celluloid of him. This second celluloid picture shows him in a position where in he is leaning slightly forward. This is photographed. This process of photographing the pictures of Mickey Mouse over the stage painting continues until the bow is completed. In this manner the bow is photographed in pose after pose as he leans forward. To depict a bow requires about twenty-four different poses or about one and a half feet of film. When the different poses are projected at high speed in the theatre, they blend together and give an illusion of motion. The process of Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.