Cinema Progress (1935 - 1937)

CINEMA PROGRESS last of the five technical wizards, had to wave his magical wand and open wide the gates of this recreated world so that the audience, too, might enter and participate with reborn Zolas and Dreyfuses in their struggles and adventures. As director of photography, it was Gaudio's job to synthesize the work of the others, to set the mood and atmosphere in such a way as to most effectively play upon the emotions of theatre-goers. With the director and art director he decides upon camera angles, lighting, and composition of the set. With the make-up artist, he determines the amount and type of make-up to be used by the actors. A notable example of Gaudio's work is the creation of Dreyfus' Devil's Island cell. To give a feeling of close confinement, Gaudio had the walls painted in such a way as to emphasize the dirtiness and grey bleakness of the surroundings. It produced a sketchy, engraved effect which only suggested details, but did not bring them out. That, plus lighting, made the cell, supposedly 8 feet square, seem much smaller than it really was. Actually, the cell was built considerably larger to give the camera greater mobility. An effect of narrowness was also obtained in one shot by sharp-angling the camera lens through a special hole dug in the wall. Lighting was the problem faced by Gaudio in the opening garret scene. The garret, a small set with a skylight forming most of the background, made special precautions necessary to see that the side walls wouldn't be too bright, but would still have enough light to pick up the faces of the players. Therefore small "spots" were used instead of large floodlights. If the latter had been used, all the walls would have been as bright as the skylight, which wouldn't have been natural. A realistic deception was achieved in the Parthenon by means of "spots" ranging in intensity from 400 amperes to 10,000 amperes, which were focused in such a way as to give the building a dome effect which it did not naturally have. The lights were placed to produce just the right amount of shadow needed to give the ceiling a curved appearance. The ray of light streaming down upon Zola's coffin from the high Parthenon window was actually only a painting upon a piece of black georgette cloth 6 inches square, which was placed 4 feet in front of the camera lens. In executing the effect, Gaudio first determined the relation of the cloth to the camera angle, and then its perspective in relation to the window and the coffin below. The ray of light was then painted in white at the proper angle upon the cloth. The texture of the black georgette was so coarse that the camera lens could easily catch the action through it. The white ray of "light" did not show up, however, until a lamp at the side of the camera was turned on at the psychological moment when the ray was meant to appear. Briefly, then, we have glimpsed a few of the many factors entering into the making of a picture, have seen how five little-publicized men recreated an era and those who lived in it. Invaluable and necessary as their work is, however, it must be brought to fruition by good directing. And, as Perc Westmore sums it up, "The best make-up in the world is of no use unless the actor, himself, can complete the characterization." Rut these five — — 7 —