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l82 THE CINEMA
and the eventual dynamic of the film is the product both of acting and of editing. When it is finished, the film is a construct, considered, unalterable, a thing that has been completed in the past and is now available in a metal can. It is built up with laborious care, and everv scene or word or note of music is a single spot in a pointilliste picture ; innumerable judgements are passed on it at every stage, and its life rests in its very artificiality.
But the live television programme has none of these qualities. Consider the prospect of a televised film, on the one hand, and a live programme on the other. The one is a thing that exists and is to be displayed to you ; the other promises the excitement of seeing something that is going to happen. So much for the audience : from the other side of the camera, the effect of direct transmission is far stronger. For a complete scene or act or play must be performed without a break, and every succeeding moment is as fresh as the last. This dynamic fact, which the cinema will have none of and which to the stage is everything, determines the quality of performance ; the cast and producer are involved in a continuous tension which heightens their performance and communicates its excitement to the viewer.
As we watch a live programme, we observe the cast and producer shaping and working on their material, we overlook the very act of producing the writer's effect, and simultaneously experience the effect itself. In this respect, television can obtain the excitement of theatre and touch on regions where cinema cannot venture. Further, the pleasure of watching a live play or feature unfold itself differs totally from that of enjoying the res gesta, refined, approved, rubberstamped, which is the film. It is the critical difference between stage and screen which is strong enough, despite enormous propaganda on the screen's behalf, to keep the stage Still alive ; and television can work on either side of this important frontier.