American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1942)

Three of Maurine's "screencloseup" portraits. Notice lighting and effect of animation. Go to the Movies— If You Want to Learn Lighting Bv HAL HALL FOUR years ago the girl who was "stand-in" for Jeannette MacDonald had an idea. She decided to do something about it. As a result of that idea and that decision, she is no longer an unrecognized stand-in, but has become Hollywood's most famous woman portrait photographer. Th girl is Maurine (all the name she's found professionally necessary since the great and near-great began beating a path to her studio door) and the idea that started it all was that portraits — especially of picure personalities — shouldn't be presented with the old-fashioned, conventional "portrait lighting," but given the same treatment you'd see in a motion picture close-up photographed by an ace Hollywood director of photography. In four years that idea and that technique have put her on the photographic map in a town where conventional portrait photographers come at less than a dime a dozen. No wonder she advises photographers, professional or amateur alike, to adopt the same method. In other words, to study the art of portraiture in its bes*" modern application by going to the neighborhood movie-house and observing what the masters of motion picture photography do in the way of lighting and posing when they photograph a motion picture star for the screen. But let Maurine tell it herself. "Before I became a stand-in for Miss MacDonald," says Maurine, "I was tremendously interested in photography. I hadn't been working as a stand-in long when I found myself trying to figure out Maurine and her camera. why the cameramen and electricians were changing this light, turning on that, putting a silk over this one and spreading the light from another lamp. I began asking questions. All the cinematographers — Bill Daniels, A.S.C., George Folsey, A.S.C., Clyde DeVinna, A.S.C. and the rest — were very cooperative. They told me the reasons for the various ways in which they were arranging their lights. They explained why a high key had to be used foi one mood and a low key for another. ."I never bothered asking the 'still' photographers questions, for I had an idea that no still photographer ever got the results that were attained by the cinematographers in their closeups. That was what intrigued me, for I couldn't see why, if you got an effect in a movie, you couldn't duplicate it in a still. Finally I began to learn a lot about lighting; so much that when I was standing in for Miss MacDonald I would frequently save the cameraman and gaffer many steps by telling them a light was hitting me too hard from one angle or that another one was in the wrong place. "Well, this went on for four years. One day a cinematographer asked me why I didn't become a portrait photographer. I didn't answer him right away. But within five minutes I had made up my mind to quit being a stand-in and to become a photographer. "I quit work the next day, looked around for a possible location for a studio. A friend gave me an old portrait camera which had no shutter. I made a cardboard shutter, and it worked. I found a one-room place, moved in with the old camera, two borrowed lights — and when I hung up my sign I had a total bank-balance of S3. 75. But I also had my idea that if I could give screen close-up quality to my portraits I would be a success. "Well, I did §350.00 worth of business my first month. Each month thereafter I did better. I did no advertising, but the people who came to me told their friends about how their pictures looked like screen closeups. That sent me business. And then one day Myrna Loy came to my studio. For that sitting I received a check for SIOOO. I knew I was on the right track, so built a darkroom to celebrate! "It really isn't difficult to make portraits that have the screen-closeup style. I know nothing about the technical terms of photography. As a matter of fact, I have never read a book on photography or lighting. I don't believe I could give a technical definition of composition to save my life. But I do know when a picture (Continued on Page 224) 214 May, 1942 American Cinematographer