Movie Makers (Jan-May 1928)

man figure (sometimes two) surrounded by the framework of an open window. This, like a circular composition also had objects distributed around to carry out the idea. These catch lights from the general illumination and so stand out to fill the area with both graphic interest and light and shade allurement. This scheme of an arched opening, a window, a doorway, or a portal of some kind easily comes into use for many purposes. An old doorway of some ordinary building, or a large gateway in a wall with a little addition of suitable stage property, make a set around which episodes in a motion picture story can be taken. Or else in fantastic, whimsical, or odd stories, where settings in keeping with these kind of subjects are wanted, flat constructions can be made out of cardboard or some of the composition building boards. As examples: (Figure 2A) — A large circle is cut out of the board through which some figures are viewed. The board is painted black with, as a touch of contrast, a conventional tree painted in a plain tint. (2-B) A flat cardboard has cut out in its center an entrance space which takes on in the upper part the form of a flat ellipse. Two simply formed lanterns flank each side of this cut-out pattern. (2-C) A Moorish doorway with its inverted turnip-shape top is another pattern. This could have other openings covered with a transparent material through which the light is seen. (2-D) Another idea is to have the opening of odd freakish shapes with some similarily designed pat terns painted in flat gray tones. Sometimes in these settings the pantomimic business is viewed as if a vista through the openings. At other times a figure will be directly under the opening or pass through. In the two latter cases the figures will form more or less simple silhouettes. The silhouette idea in posing figures in connection with an arrangement showing a window, or doorway, is one in frequent practise. Generally they are but short flashes in the film but withal important items in the development of the theme. As examples we see a figure in a room through an open, or partly opened doorway, or between half-parted curtains. Or we get, in another form of a similar idea, a glimpse of a figure or two through a break in some shrubbery. These arrangements have a resemblance to the circular type of composition given when considering landscape composition. A modification of the construction now in view is exemplified in a posing of a figure at a window in strong contrast against the illuminated effect of outdoors. A figure so placed is, in simple description, a silhouette and an instance of an arrangement of black against white. Besides of course, as Figure 3 PYRAMIDAL ARRANGEMENT OF FURNITURE FOR A SET stated, a circular composition. In speaking of the placing of a black detail against a field of lighter tones, as well as the subject of silhouettes, we might mention the following ways of illustrating episodes in film stories. (1) Two men are fighting, united as if one silhouette, on top of a cliff against a light portion of a darkening sky. (2) A parade of horses, or a string of camels, all in silhouette, along the top of a dark-toned hill against a light sky. (3) A few figures in silhouette going through some dramatic and strenuous gesturing placed so as to give the appearance of great numbers of men. Effects such as these are not ordinarily thought of as matters of composition but, distinctly, they must be planned to procure eye alluring and mind absorbing effects. The pictorial arrangements which we are next considering, those with graphic precision, do not ordinarily have effects of light and shade as essentials. In these screen pictures what is commonly called good sharp photography is the feature. Light and shade is employed, not for the (Continued on page 194) Figure 4 ARRANGEMENT OF FIGURES IN TRIANGLE PLAN Figure 5 CIRCULAR ARRANGEMENT OF FIGURES One-hundred-sixty-two