The art of sound pictures (1930)

THE BUYER’S PROBLEMS 47 million dollars. On this basis, you see, finer actors, more gorgeous sets, and more drill in rehearsals can be afforded. Now, one of the meanest factors to contend with in sound pictures is the frightful cost of recording during rehearsals. The more ingenious directors, such as Herbert Brenon, avoid this in large measure by the use of “skeleton sets.” He tried these out first on the soundpicture version of Fanny Hurst’s Lummox. Odds and ends of stock furniture, stairs, doors, and other properties were arranged on the studio floor, with tags attached to them, indicating what they represented in the story. The players were then drilled in their parts, until speech and movements were as perfect as possible under these conditions. Then, and only then, did the shooting begin. But, no matter how cleverly actors are drilled and camera men instructed, nothing less than a full rehearsal can bring to light the precise effects, good and bad alike. Suppose, however, that a sound picture can be first put on the ordinary stage. Suppose that the director is the very one who will later have full charge of the same story in sound pictures. Suppose that the players on the stage are identical with the picture cast. A thousand and one niceties of act and speech can be tested out on the stage, while the audience pays the costs. The play need not show a dollar of profit on Broadway, in order to benefit the producer and director greatly. The producer usually fears to bring out a picture which has no American characters in the leading roles. They insist that exhibitors will not take such pictures. In this they may be right, of course; the testimony of the