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60 A. S. HOWELL AND J. A. DUBRAY [J. S. M. P. B.
cutting off parts of the heads of the performers, or some detail at the lower part of the picture area essential to the story and part of the general scheme of composition. Such procedure is rebellion and, what is more important, it is, seemingly, justifiable.
We do not want to impose upon you a long dissertation on the reasons which sustain the preference accorded the rectangular shape of picture in pictorial representations. Volumes have been written on this subject. The psychological, metaphysical, and physiological effects and influences that a certain form may have upon the mind and eye have been analyzed and discussed from the point of purely aesthetic considerations following complete and detailed investigations based upon undeniable scientific axioms. The deductions derived from such analyses have been invoked not only as proof that a rectangular form is the most logical to adopt for pictorial representations, but also have led to the establishment of a definite ratio of 3 to 5 as the dynamic ratio between the sides of the rectangle. This ratio has been called the "Golden Rule" of design proportion. It is pertinent to this Society to consider the influence exerted by these conclusions and their applications to the motion picture screen.
The main function of motion pictures is to give a faithful reproduction of life. It is true that incidents are dramatized, that more emphasis is given to details, that outdoor scenes are selected with an eye to scenic beauty, and that interiors are always chosen, dressed and decorated in accord with the general theme of the story and the personalities of the characters which are the human elements representing what we would call an exaltation of emotions. However the exposition of this essence of life through motion pictures demands truth of presentation and naturalness in even its most minute details.
An ideal motion picture production is one which causes the onlooker to forget his own personality and make him live with the characters of the story and in their ambient. If this psychological effect is not reached, the picture is classed as indifferent, if not entirely bad.
One of the most important reasons which make us declare the square form of the screen objectionable is the fact that the eye iri its continual horizontal motion is constantly and unnaturally arrested by the black nothingness at each side of the screen. This barrier, which abruptly arrests the natural horizontal sweep of the