American cinematographer (Feb-Dec 1929)

September. 1929 AMERICAN ClNEMATOGRAPHER Twenty-seven JVbviQ Alaking By WM. STULL, A. 5. C. AFTER the average amateur has filmed the antics of the entire family a few times over he finds the problem of what to shoot next looming larger and larger on his horizon. After all, Baby's first step can only be filmed once, and Uncle Charley's famous "Dance of the Seven Veils" can hardly be repeated with its original success. The pictures taken at the beach were a lot of fun — but after the second picnic is filmed, and found to be merely a repetition of the first, both reels are usually laid aside and forgotten, like last year's snapshots. At this stage, the camera is very likely to follow them unless the user finds within himself the key to renewed interest in his hobby. If he finds it, though, there open to him endless new vistas of enjoyment, recreation and knowledge. And yet this key is no magic talisman, but merely the application of common-sense to cinematography. If random cinematic snapshooting fails to bring lasting satisfaction, it is only logical to expect that perhaps deliberate, planned filming might succeed. If purposeless films don't please, films made with a definite purpose should, shouldn't they? And they usually do. In the first place, if they have been carefully planned, they have generally been well enough thought out beforehand to eliminate most non-essential and uninteresting details in advance. In the second place, if they have been made with some definite underlying purpose, they usually bring to the screen enough of that purpose to arouse and hold audience-interest even after many showings. Incidentally, their conception and realization is splendid mental (and physical) exercise, as well. The Dramatic Subject Of course, the first subject that comes to mind for such premeditated filming is the dramatic film. It offers a vast and fascinating field of endeavor, but it is usually far beyond the scope of the individual worker. Where there is a group interested in such production, there is nothing more interesting — nor more exacting; but for the individual, it is generally entirely out of the question. There are countless other subjects which offer the individual as extensive fields as his ability can grasp. His hobbies, his travels, his work, even his daily surroundings, can all be made into pictures of most surprising interest. There are, for instance, innumerable surgeons who find the cine camera invaluable to their work, and an interesting diversion, as well. Here in Hollywood, one renowned surgeon has a library of several hundred reels of his own operations, and finds the making and reviewing of them a most instructive practice. There are here, too, a number of cine amateurs who have found both pleasure and profit in cine-micography, while many archaeologists and geologists carry filmos on their field trips as a vital part of their equipment. Golfers, Attention! Not all of us, however, are so scientifically minded that we can enjoy filming and viewing appendectomies, spirozoa, or Pleistocene deposits. Fortunately, such things do not entirely exhaust the range of possible subjects for advanced filming. Far from it! There is hardly a phase of normal modern life which has not the germ of a screen subject latent somewhere within it. For instance, four out of every five adults are either golfers, or golf -widows; and what a series of interesting reels cannot be built up around that ancient and honorable game! Imagine the endless possibilities of normal-speed, slow-motion and natural-color reels merely of one's own game. Then similar studies of the play of champions, supplemented by the reels commercially obtainable of the same subjects. And this holds good for tennis, baseball, cricket, football and all the sports. Racing? What endless and spectacular opportunities the followers of the turf have! And as for the rapidly-growing air clan — what can't they do? Imagine the thrilling interest of making and owning a series of reels showing the rudiments of flying — the outstanding types of planes at rest and in action — of scenes from aloft on one's own flights — and of famous flyers and their machines. How interesting and valuable we'd find such films of the pioneer flyers and their amazing little machines — and today's men and machines will be just as interesting tomorrow. But aircraft alone need not be the sole subjects of such collections. There are photographers who have for years specialized in building up collections of still pictures of locomotives, of motor-cars, of ships, and even of bridges. Now imagine the interest of making such a series in motion — perhaps also in color ! Then, consider all of the interesting things that can be filmed during even a short vacation. Aside from the beaten paths of vacation films there are innumerable possibilities. In fact, the little, ordinarily-overlooked subjects are often more interesting than the more obvious ones. Short reels, for example, on wild life, flowers, clouds, and so on, can be made objects of lasting interest. A few years ago, for instance, the writer, while on a vacation trip in Southern Oregon, found enough material between times to make a fascinating little reel merely on rivers! Another time, a vacation on an Eastern farm resulted in several reels showing in detail the various operations of farm life — planting, cultivating, harvesting of crops, stock-raising, and so on. Fields Are Varied But there are vast fields of interest quite aside from these more or less mechanical films. Wherever we are, whatever we do, can in some way be conceived as an interesting subject. Visit an exhibition of paintings or a salon of pictorial photography. What diverse subjects have been turned into beautiful pictures by the magic of the artist's brush or lens! Little things we ordinarily pass by unnoticed, yet having within them, latently, the seeds of beauty and interest. I recall at a recent salon a most striking print which showed merely the rear axle and wheels of some forgotten Ford, half submerged in the oily water of a squalid ditch — yet the photographer's eye had seen the spark of interest in it, and had made of it a most original and decorative picture. We need not deliberately seek the junk yards in search of such objects of potential interest and beauty. Every day there pass by us scores of little scenes which could be made lasting pictures of beauty and interest, did we but see and record them. Years ago there lived in Paris a man who saw these things, and longed passionately to perpetuate them. Yet he could neither draw nor paint, so he turned to the then-despised camera as the sole remaining method of expressing his artistic yearnings. With it, he found his metier, his recreation, and his life-work. Today, the records which he so painstakingly made are priceless, for, aside from having served as inspiration for innumerable great paintings, Eugene Atget's 10.000 photographs of the Parisian life of his day are recognized as artistic achievements on their own merits. He did not merely photograph the obvious: had he done so, both he and his work would long since have been forgotten. Instead, he sought and recorded those thousand-and-one little moments of Parisian life of the '90s