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THE ILLUSION OF SOUND AND PICTURE JOHN L. CASS*
The word "illusion" is one of the most patient and long-suffering in common usage. It is a favorite with the official propagandists of the film industry, sharing honors with the appellations, "box-office appeal" and "sure-fire smash." We have many "illusions" in our industry, but the one for which we all strive is the "illusion of reality," which is also the ultimate goal of all other forms of synthetic entertainment. Motion pictures, with or without sound, constitute a medium of expression, and accordingly must be governed by certain fundamental rules.
If a medium of expression is to be powerful, the medium itself must be so utilized that it retires into oblivion as it does its work. This is true in the case of the printed word, the spoken drama, pantomime, the silent motion picture, and the talking picture. Each one of us has had the experience of reading an excellent piece of literature which had been printed rather poorly, but legibly, on cheap paper. As we opened the book, we noticed the lack of quality, but as the worthy contents disclosed themselves, the quality of the medium faded in importance, and eventually we became so engrossed that the consciousness of reading disappeared. The illusion thus created depended upon the fact that legibility was the one requirement of that particular medium. Graceful type, or fine paper, would have added nothing to our enjoyment. On the other hand, graceful type which was more difficult to decipher would have detracted from our pleasure, as it would have made the act of reading more difficult, thus thrusting the medium upon our consciousness, when that consciousness desired to be alone with the meaning of the printed words.
Parallel cases might be drawn for all other media of entertainment, to illustrate that the prime necessity is to create the illusion. The problem of the motion picture is to create the illusion of reality, using gray shadows as the medium of expression. The effort of many years in silent pictures has created a technic of skilled photography
* Gramercy Studio, RCA Photophone, Inc.
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