Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1930)

JTiUWMJym.MK^ft' 19 3 O SLOW, FAST And STOP MOTION yi Discussion Of Thei?^ 07igi7t A?id Use By Herman G. Weinberg I HOPE that, by detailing a few of the well known uses to which slow, fast and stop motion photography have been put, by citing a few examples of the more advanced uses for which these same effects have been utilized and by detailing a few practical applications of the theory involved, the cinema amateur will be encouraged to discover for himself new and better uses for this exceedingly variable technique. The field of experiment in projected motion of varied speeds has been by no means exhausted, and it provides one of the most fascinating excursions into the realms of cinematography. (I use "cinematography" in contradistinction to photography to differentiate between the essentially fluid, dynamic quality of the one and the static quality of the other.) Cinematography first manifested itself in what we now term slow motion or motion-analysis. The first attempts of Edison and his contemporary pioneers in France and America resulted in film that gave the effect we know as slow motion, as they were working with rudimentary cameras, not yet perfected so far as to achieve a synchronous adjustment between the natural action of the moving body and the speed of the unwinding film as it clicked through the camera. Later, with the advent of the first comedies, especially the early Mack Sennets and the famous Keystones, another difficulty of the camera caused these pictures to be projected on the screen in what we call fast motion, that is, faster than normal movement which today is only achieved by purposely slowing the camera. So this at first was also merely another peculiarity of motion picture photography, especially in slap-stick comedies and in short two or three-reel dramas. In the latter lay the first real use of the cinema as a kinetic force. The exaggerated, unreal, highly accelerated movements of the Keystone Kops as they chased the villain over the roof tops, across countryside, through lakes, city streets and parks, resulted in a highly comic, fantastically improbable picture which, by virtue of its very grotesquerie, marked one of the first important steps achieved by cinematography in the creation of a distinctly new medium and mode of expression. We can observe the history of slow motion by closely following the multitudinous Chaplin comedies, alone, from such early, crude affairs as The Fatal Mallet and The Champion (with their exaggerated speed) through The Bank, 40 The Rink (with their exquisite perfection of timed speed). The Floorwalker (equally remarkable). Easy Street, A Dog's Life and The Pilgrim (by which time the camera is no longer in the experimental stage) to The Kid, where Chaplin utilizes slow-motion in the dream sequence and uses it, as will be remembered, with psychoanalytical effect ! Since the perfection of the hand crank on the professional motion picture camera as well as on some of the amateur cameras, effects of fast and slow motion have been sought purposely to achieve varied desired accelerations and slow motion analyses of movement. It is fortunate that several companies are now putting out amateur FLOWERS THAT BLOOM ON THE SCREEN A Scene From An Arthur C. Pillsbury Stop Motion Fi^m spring cameras to secure slow or fast motion, and this simplifies an interesting field and gives an invitation to experimentation. Probably the greatest example of slow motion for the purpose of motion analysis was that achieved many years ago with an ultra-speed camera which recorded 3,300 pictures per second. This succeeded in stopping the action of a pigeon's wing in full flight. To show the progress of the bird from the bottom of the screen to the top took more than 1,000 feet of film! It is a matter of common knowledge that the famous walking gait of Charlie Chaplin is as much a product of camera speed as it is of Chariot himself. The powerful effect which the Russian directors achieve, by having clouds skim across the sky at an unnatural speed (an example of fast motion) to denote foreboding and impending disaster, is well known. The use of slow-motion in that extraordinary amateur film. The Fall of the House of Usher, product of the rich cinematic imagination of Watson and Webber, is unusually apt and imaginative and represents the legitimate use of this phase of cinematic technique. There we see the hammer nail the coffin down and then fall slowly to the ground in the most macabre and eerie manner. There is seen the lovely sister, arisen from her coffin, floating through the air in her shroud and crushing her brother with a slow deliberateness that is as oppressive as the stifling atmosphere in the decayed House of Usher. Marcel I'Herbiere, , a French director, in his early film. The Late Mattheiv Pascal, utilizes slow motion to achieve a comij effect in a manner slightly reminiscent of O'Neill's Strange Interlude technique, whereby a man's subconscious actions are superimposed on his conscious action. Incidentally, S e a Strom's employment of this idea, sans slow-motion t e c h nique, in Masks of the Devil, was decidedly ineffective and inferior to I'Herbiere's much earlier film. There must certainly be a distinction between the real and the unreal, the conscious and the sub-conscious. O'Neill's employment of the verbal (Continued on page 50)