International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

June, 1934 The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Twenty-three ber one of J. P. Medbury's in which a native was shown trying to light a fire by friction. This scene was inserted several times throughout the picture, but still no fire, until near the end a big brush fire was shown, to which Mr. Medbury announced that the native had finally started his fire. In another travel short on Holland, a native was shown bailing out his boat throughout the picture, while in a Pete Smith short on bicycles from old times to the present one of the old-timers ran into a lake, and spent the rest of the picture struggling to get out. The same scene, was, of course, used each time. The amateur who plans to travel would be wise to study professional travel films for tricks of continuity. Clever titles will help much, and will to some extent supplant the explanatory dialogue of the professional pictures. My advice to the beginning amateur who wishes to make a picture with continuity is to first take into consideration his resources. He should consider what characters are avaiable and what are their dramatic abilities. Then the locations must be considered, for they can naturally not be made to order as in a Hollywood studio. An amateur living in the Middle Westcannot expect to make a South Sea Island picture, or a Foreign Legion picture, but must confine his picture subjects to life in the cities and countrysides of that section of the country. Then, too, the amateur must choose stories which his equipment will allow him to film. For example, if he does not have adequate lighting equipment, an abundance of interiors is naturally out of the question, or if his camera does not have a critical focusing device it would hardly be wise to make a picture entirely in close-ups. Technical problems, however, should be the least worry to the amateur who has any ingenuity and inventive ability. In planning to make a picture he should first consider what he has to work with, and build his story and continuity accordingly. His characters, his locations, and his equipment will suggest the story, the continuity, and the technical treatment he can give it. No amateur, 1 am sure, is so unimaginative or has so few resources that something will not suggest itself to him. Once the story has been chosen, the next stage is to put it into detailed scenario, or continuity, form. This is also called the treatment. Assuming that the subject matter, or story, is the same, the treatment is the deciding factor in the quality of the film. It can make a story into a good picture or a bad one, an artistic picture or an uninspiring one. Two current pictures, "Catherine the Great" and "The Scarlet Empress" have almost identical stories, yet their treatments make them as different as any two pictures could be. "The Scarlet Empress" is an excellent (though, perhaps, somewhat overdone) example of purely cinematic treatment, and of the tremendous possibilities of the motion picture as an art medium, while the English picture is, by comparison, just another picture, leaning, because of the large amount of dialogue, too much toward stage technique, and above the average only because of subject-matter. When writing the continuity, always think in terms of pictures, not in words or thoughts which cannot be shown on the screen. The camera can record only concrete physical events, not the abstract, like thoughts or emotions which have no visible manifestation and cannot be translated into visible terms. There can be no abstract explanations except in dialogue or titles. In the scenario words should serve only the purpose of explaining how a visible subject is to be photographed — they must not express something that is purely literary and cannot readily be transformed into the pictorial. The pictorial is always more vivid than the spoken or written word, and the motion picture is essentially a pictorial art. If a person in your picture is to be characterized, don't use a title for this purpose, but express it through his actions and appearance. His thoughts and emotions can (Turn to Page 25) MEET OUR NEW MANAGER! Courtesy Attention Service Sacha L. Bollas Secretary Courtesy Attention Service Edward T. Estabrook Studio Rentals RUDDY GERAUS CAMERA SUPPLY CO. Ltd Phone CL 2404 1515 Cahuenga Avenue Nite Phones: No. Hollywood 1271— CLadstone 6583 Cable Address "CAMERAS" All Codes Hollywood, California Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.