American cinematographer (Nov 1921-Jan 1922)

12 THE AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER December 15, 1921 Interesting Statistics for 192 1 The year 1921 just closing has been a busy one in the motion picture industry, and the statistics appertaining to it are unusually interesting. Here are some just compiled by The American Cinematographer : If all the money taken in at the box offices of the picture theatres in 1921 were changed into gold and made into one big brick it wouldn't do any good. If changed into one dollar bills and pasted into a long string end to end they would reach part way to the moon, but we don't know how far. If changed into pennies and stacked one upon another in a single column said column would fall over before half of 'em were stacked. If all the film used in 1921 were cemented together into a single strip it would make a swinging bridge to some planet, but we don't know which one. If all the money made by the movies in 1921 were invested in prunes and made into pies there would be enough pies to feed quite a number of starving Russians, but we don't know how many. If all the raw stock film used in 1921 were made into one big picture it would require a long time to run it through a projecting machine, but we don't know how long. Also, nobody would want to see it. If all the publicity written about the movies in 1921 were put into one big waste basket three miles in diameter and ninety miles high there would still be enough left to fill 3,856 baskets just like it. If all the people who paid admissions or bummed their way into the motion picture theatres in 1921 would attempt to march in single file across the Pacific Ocean they would all be drowned. If all the knocks directed at the movies in 1921 were concentrated into one huge knock it would drive a nail 9,000 miles long and 1,837 miles in diameter clear through the earth. If all the hot air released around the studios in 1921 could be caught in one immense gas container it would heat and light the entire earth for 3,729 years. And finally if all the stars of 1921 were cast in one big picture nobody would have money enough to make the picture. And lastly if all the motion picture theatres in the U. S. were piled on top of each other it wouldn't do any good. To conclude: If all the salaries paid motion picture workers in 1921 had been economically handled, conserved and frugally administered the year 1922 would look a lot brighter to a lot of folk we know. SUBSCRIPTION ORDER Herewith $3.00 to pay for The American Cinematoqrapher for one year beginning with the issue of Name : Address City State or Country Why Is a Subtitle? Why is a subtitle? President Fred W. Jackman, of the American Society of Cinematographers, says it is a part of the primordial curse, but that since it is here, it behooves us to make the best of it. Do you know that in the average five-reel picture you see about four reels of picture and one of subtitles? Mr. Jackman takes issue with those writers who favor many subtitles and condemns the idea as being subversive of the true art of motion picture expression. Says Mr. Jackman: "The motion picture is a story told in visualized action by players working to a definite purpose. It is a drama in living pictures. The subtitle as originally used had for its purpose the explanation of things that could not be told by the action or to express the passage of time. A clever subtitle may get a laugh, but it is the action of the play that people pay to see. "The argument that mental action cannot adequately be expressed by mimetic art without the use of a spoken subtitle is a fallacy. More real dramatic action may be put over in a close-up showing repression than in all the shouted subtitles that ever were written. Many an actor spoils the effect of his work by letting his body get in the way of his mind, but properly interpreted mental action will not need a subtitle to explain it. A subtitle should be used wherever necessary, but that is the end of its usefulness, otherwise the photoplay of the future will evolve into a thing which will be more like a film of illustrated subtitles than a motion picture with subtitles as merely incidental to the pictorial text. "Physical action is but a good, bad or indifferent reflection of mental action and, if good, few words of explanation are needed — if bad, subtitles, no matter how clever, will not save the picture. A lesser element is that pictures are more easily understood by the common mind than written text, and the subtitle must not go over the heads of the proletariat. "Again, multiplicity of substitles make impatient the man who goes to see pictures and the straining after effects in subtitling is as distressing as meaningless scenes in the picture. "The ideal picture is one with the dramatic action interpreted as nearly perfectly as skilled playing and direction can do it with the fewest possible subtitles, but those, also lucid, pat and clever." Why is the Cooper Hewitt Lamp "Standard Equipment" in the Studio ASK THE DIRECTOR: "He knows — he knows — he knows" He says: "Because Cooper Hewitt's are the only lights that will give the combination of brightness and softness that is necessary for the general lighting, upon which to build whatever special effects that may be required. You simply can't get along without it."