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frame enlargements were only possible at a very evident sacrifice in photographic quality. Hansen’s prints, on the other hand, might easily be taken for big-camera portraits. I think these pictures point the way to a new range of possibilities in the publicist’s eternal search for life and action in his stills. Of course such pictures as these can never take the place of conventional stills — but in their own field they get a certain realism never possible by any other method.
“Not every type of cinematography is adaptable to this use; we were fortunate that Gerstad gave us a negative of pleasingly crisp definition and lighting. A scene photographed with heavy diffusion or unduly soft lighting would probably not enlarge at all well.
“I’d like to point out one important fact these pictures bring out. The most common objection to miniature camera and 35mm. cine negatives for making high-quality still enlargements has always been the impossibility of retouching these small negatives. And it is a matter of commonly accepted routine that all stills — especially portraits— be retouched before prints can be released for publication.
“These negatives could not be retouched. They were not. But Gerstad’s lighting was such that no retouching was necessary !
“This proves another important fact: that even though many of us have for years paid tribute to the artistic skill of our ‘ace’ Directors of Photography, most of us have over
looked the fact that they are not only the cine-camera masters of the world, but that their daily achievements rank them among the greatest camera-portrait artists of the world as well.
“We are inclined to overlook this when we see a movie in a theatre or projection-room, for the story properly overshadows the technical contributions. But when you can study a picture like one of these 'Motion Picture Portraits’ at leisure, you cannot help realizing that an ‘ace’ cinematographer like Merritt Gerstad is also an ‘ace’ portraitist.
“I feel this opens up a new field in portraits of our stars. We talk a great deal about what the beautiful photography of an artist like Merritt Gerstad or Jimmie Howe does to make stars such as Loretta Young or Hedy Lamarr even more glamorous than they really are. Now we can show it in stills!
“In addition, there are some very fine players whose chief charm is in animation; who appear delightfully natural on the screen, but who seem stiff and wooden in stills. Motion picture portraits of such players as these would seem the only possible way of being sure of capturing their real personalities in stills. Speed-flash shots can catch the animated moments, but at a sacrifice of good lighting and portrait quality. These motion picture portraits can condense the best phase of animation into a still, and at the same time maintain the high standards of lighting and photographic quality we demand in modern-day pictures.”
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