We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
as they moved about the scene, until we were informed by America — then our biggest customer — that Americans would not stand these movements and we must keep the camera stationary. Think of American films today when the camera is scarcely ever still for two seconds at a time!
I don't say the Americans learned anything from us for that is not at all likely, but I do say that we learned a very great deal from them, though I for one admit that I learned too slowly. Brought up in the stage tradition it seemed to me for years that in all general views you must photograph your actors as they appear on the stage, full length from head right down to feet, and only in admitted close-ups could you omit unnecessary limbs. But the American films unblushingly cut them off at the knees or even higher when they could show important details more easily that way. It looked all wrong to me at first but I soon gave way and adopted the new technique. The American films which were beginning to come over in quantities about then, showed also far better photographic quality, particularly in definition, indicating much better lenses than we were using. So we had to hunt around for better lenses, which soon brought us to the German opticians and their wonderful Jena glass.
We were still printing the third edition of Rover, for beside fresh demands from new customers, earlier buyers were wearing out their copies and demanding reprints. Also the demand for our short films was increasing in many other countries in various parts of the world, and a large share of our attention was necessarily devoted to the growing demands of the dark-rooms, apart from the need of producing a steady stream of new subjects.
Some of the best of the small films in production at this time — early 1906 — under the aegis of our producer, Lewin Fitzhamon, were expanded into series and so came to have the significance of big ones while retaining the cheapness and saleability of 'shorts.'
A notable series of this class started with Tilly the Tomboy, in which the name part was played by Unity More. It was an instant success, but for some reason this clever little dancer was not available when we wanted to make another. But we had two other little girls, just as clever and already on the fringe of our stock-company, Chrissie White and Alma Taylor. Which should be chosen to carry on the good work? They were both thoroughly mischievous by nature and equally suitable. Choosing became too invidious. The Gordian knot was cut by taking them both and
76