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glossy than that of the average white person. But too often cinematographers yield to the temptations of pictorial effectiveness and allowr makeup and lighting to combine to give an unnaturally shiny texture to the dusky countenances. To my mind, and I believe also to that of tbe colored audience as well, a smootb-textured rendition is much more pleasing. Therefore I prefer to have my players made up smoothly, and normally pow'dered to remove the shine the heat of incandescent lamps gives to colored and white complexions alike.
Of course this is only a generality: there are times when a shiny-faced rendition may be much more effective dramatically. This is especially true when playing for either comedy or melodramatic effects, as I found recently in a colored-cast melodrama where strong rim-lighted effects proved dramatically valuable.
In any photography, securing adequate separation between faces, costumes and sets is a problem. Ordinarily, my experience in filming colored pictures has been that photographically neutral-toned costumes — especially shades of gray — are best. However if one understands bis film and its reaction to lighting, even darkskinned players in light-colored clothes, or lighter players in dark clothes, can be most effective. One of the most effective shots made of the somewhat dark-skinned leading lady in one recent film was one in which she wore a dark-toned evening gown.
Filtering
Regardless of the color of your players, filtering on exterior scenes has always been something to approach with care, especially as the
action progresses from long-shot to close-up. As faces figure more and more prominently, the lightening effect of some filters on face tones becomes more prominent. When your cast is made up of Negroes of varying complexions, this problem may be magnified since tbe filtering may not act uniformly, but instead may affect tbe lighter complexions first, while having far less effect on tbe darker skins. For this reason I have found il best in these pictures to modify my filtering rather more quickly as 1 move in from long-shots to close angles than I would with an all-white cast.
In general, however, the technical requirements of photographing colored-cast productions do not differ too greatly from those with which we are familiar from experience in filming pictures of more accustomed types. The differences, I believe, can be summed up by the statement that the cinematographer should have complete confidence in the negative stock he uses, and he thoroughly familiar with its behavior under the special conditions of tonal qualities and reflectivity involved.
For the rest, the success of these pioneer Negro producing units is making possible a constant increase in the standard of schedules, budgets and production facilities available. Since ibis results in a constant improvement in the quality of these films — to the extent that there exists already a probability that from time to time some of them will be regularly booked into representative first-run theatres which have heretofore shown only major “white” productions — it seems that the continued success of good allcolored productions is assured.
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