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CREATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE ART OF THE CAMERA-MAN
Fig. 76. — Shot from the Georges Melies film "On Saturn's Ring".
mring on this basis to work out and perfect its own means of artistic influence, ecific to the cinema.
What modifications did this form of cinematographic development introduce to the position and the creative production functions of the camera-man as one I the makers of the film ?
His profession was regarded as socially rather higher than that of the chauffeur, it considerably below that which was anciently occupied by the portrait photo■apher. Portrait photography was at least regarded as an artistic phenomenon, hereas the adventure film was regarded only as a ' tolerated violation of the iminal laws ', tolerated to the extent that it turned the attention of the audience, liefly members of the working class, away from social reality.
In the youthful days of the cinema the methods of constructing the shot were I direct dependence upon the slavish imitation of the forms of perception cus•mary to the theatrical spectacle. The frame limits were determined by the imensions and situation of the proscenium. The camera viewpoint was estabIshed along a line perpendicular to the object being filmed, and the height of the imera varied within the strict limits of 4-5 to 5 feet, which corresponds to the ye-level inferred from the average distribution of seats in the theatre (Fig. 77). The composition of the shot was restricted by the demand for unconditional ^mmetry in the distribution of the actors and the objects being filmed. Cinematography, which at that time was still unacquainted with the close-up or even le mid-shot, made no aesthetic demands in constructing the shot, regarding the ntire process of shooting as a mechanical reproduction of moving objects. This "pplied to the same degree to artificial lighting, which to-day is one of the most jnsiderable resources of composition construction. The variability of sunght forced the cinematographer to resort to a darkened studio, and necessitated ae invention of other methods of lighting. Sunlight had to be replaced by someling, and this replacement was effected on the basis of the direct imitation of le action of the lost source of light. The rays of sunlight which penetrated into ;ie primitive film studio through a glass roof lit the filmed scene from above,
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