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The Latest Wrinkle— Silhouette Movies 41
decorating our fifteen-cent literature with debutantes for the more precarious and exciting task of producing original pictures was in this fashion :
For six or seven months, he had mulled over the idea of moving-picture shadows, silhouettes in black and white. He wondered why it was. not put into execution by others, and finally, the idea interested him so strongly, he decided to make an attempt to produce these novel moving pictures himself.
Although his skill in depicting the lovely goddesses of our American rosycheeked mythology had brought him a comfortable livelihood, it had not given him enough to build that expensive toy, a private moving-picture studio. So he brought his plans to J. R. Bray.
Mr. Bray had, for seven years, been a newspaper cartoonist, as well as a steady contributor to our humorous weeklies. He had invented and had had patented the ingenious process of animated cartoons. He was the creator of "Colonel Heeza Liar."
He had formed a company of his own, and was a successful producer of his own special pictures. It was a shrewd move on Mr. Gilbert's part to go to Mr. Bray, for the latter had the acumen to see the striking quality of Mr. Gilbert's idea and the foresight to envisage its imaginative possibilities.
Silhouette moving pictures ! That suggested a mechanical opportunity to Mr. Bray. Inasmuch as the silhouettes were in plain black and white, why not do what are called "transformation" scenes in actual line drawing, filling in with black? It would be thus impossible to tell, granted careful sketching on his part, where the real moving picture ended and the drawing began. Also, the transformations could be seen uninterruptedly and clearly taking place, with no blur and no misty "dissolving" film. Every step could be depicted. Thus the basic principles of these new pictures were evolved — Mr. Gilbert's idea of shadow moving pictures combined with Mr. Bray's clever process of animated cartoons.
A drawing in preparation for the transformation — not a motion picture of real players.