International photographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

MONTAQE ! The studied carelessness of effect, told in a few feet of film, must be carefully exact. Montage! A little known but lusty infant imong the sundry arts whose final assem)ly is the motion picture production. Little ;nown. but growing fast. Paced by its own nner fire "tempo," it has seemingly at one troke surged to a position of major influ■nce as a tool for telling the picture story. Define montage? No. As well define an a mood, induced by the increates impressions — mpression angible. Montage noods. Through its devious mechanics the nontage says, "It is Spring!"; "This is a onely house!"; or "This man drinks too nuch and is unkind to old ladies and little logs!" Montage mounts its impressions with consummate cunning. The impact of its inferences are at once studied and careless, never to be analyzed, yet instantly understood. Tempo is the life and blood of montage. Whole chapters of a novel may tell of the boyhood struggles of a leading character. Montage says it in eighty cryptic feet. When, in a picture, a montage impression has passed, an audience must know and understand its message as thoroughly as the one created in a novel. So montage, with all its studied carelessness of effect, has in its practice and achievement of this effect all the craft and LiMITATIONS EINCOUNTEREd by phoToqRApkERs of tIie nucIe By WILLIAM MORTENSEN The Artist in all times has been subected to various limitations. He is limited >y the peculiarities of his medium and the naterials he works with. He is limited by economic stringency and social prejudice, rhese are time-honored limitations. Oddest )f all, perhaps, and most annoying, is the imitation of the contemporary photographer by postal regulations. Our postal regulations are sometimes strange. Some of the strangest are those in the use of the nude in photography. Under them, a nude is very apt to be udged ipso facto obscene — no matter what ts aesthetic worth. At the same time, a lude rendered in any other medium receives the official blessing — no matter what is aesthetic worth — because it is "Art." \11 of which points to very confused thinkng among those who make the rulings. For their predicament, the photograahers themselves are not wholly without jlame. For, by bad taste, by offensive iteralness, by vulgarity, and by occasional lownright lewdness, a few thoughtless and gnorant photographers have brought re proach upon sincere workers in this delicate and difficult field of pictorialism. But to base official rulings upon these offensive performances, and upon these alone, is obviously absurd — just as it would be absurd to judge the moral worth of English poetry by the specimens that sometimes appear on the walls of public lavatories. The photography of the nude must not be attempted frivolously, or in any mood of casual experimentation. The nude is the most difficult of all things to do in photography. Despite all your care, not more than one exposure in a thousand will be worth saving. Yet it is a labor worth while; for the human body, rightly comprehended, expresses the essence of all plastic form, of all beauty. Data on the Picture Leica camera, 50 mm Summitar lens; Agfa Finegrain Plenachrome, without filter; developed in DK 20; printed on Defender I 22, with Powder and Abrasion. precision of a musical composition. "Tempo" is the uncompromising master who remorselessly dictates every device and part of montage. Do the years pass? They fly like a shower of leaves! Does the locale change? Before you the world spins to a new continent! Is it spring, and does "our hero" lazily catch fish? It is and he does — in seven feet! Tempo — simplicity — mood symbolism — action impact — montage! Naturally, for this complex medium, new methods, new conceptions have been imperative. Gone quickly were the first faltering steps of assembling cuts from the production itself. At best the message was muddled, halting and of dubious value. Montage must be made for its own purpose, carefully, exactly. Today a script scene says: "Montage. Purpose: Boy and girl thrown more constantly together develop love to the point of marriage. Cut to ..." A large order! A story in itself. And, as is learned, the picture is long so it must be told in fifty feet of film. At the beginning of this montage a boy has just met a girl. At the end of this montage the audience must feel that it is high time he slipped the ring on the proper finger! At Warner Bros, the problem is attacked in the most advanced manner. The Special Effects department has as one of its busiest divisions the montage unit. This unit is a miniature production company in itself. Director Donald Siegel includes in his crew his editor, James Leicester; his assistant Fred Tyler; prop man "Pat" Patterson. Head einematographer Robert Burks has in his crew; second man Archie Dalzell, assistant James Bell. Siegel, Burks and Leicester form the council of war on the planning of the mechanics of the montage "productions." When the precedure has been set, these scenes are released in script form, budgeted and scheduled as carefully as any part of the main picture. Of especial interest in the shooting of montage are the problems of the cinematographer. During the course of one scene he may be faced with the shooting of miniatures, projection process, split-stages, straight production sets and even highly mechanical inserts. Robert Burks through his 12 years of experience in all branches (Continued on page 13)