Cinematographic annual : 1931 (1931)

COSTUMES AND SETS 293 character, mood and station — which has been partially expressed by costume, and in order to convey their meaning more convincingly, costumes and sets must be stripped of profuse detail expressed in life, that would appear conglomerate and superfluous on the screen. The "Osage" street completed from model. The fact that fusion of cortume and sets is of vital importance long has been recognized in the theatre where they consistantly are products of the same designer, whose harmonious welding of these mediums into one unit is at once perceptible to the audience. However, in the motion picture, the dependence of costumes and sets upon each other often has been ignored — resultant in obvious incongruities. This has been due at times to lack of cooperation or difference in conception between the designer of costume and the designer of sets. Therefore, from experience I have found that a more harmonious result and greater simplification is attained when these units are executed by the same artist, who is able to visualize as a single unit, both the actor's apparel and the settings that emphasize it. The art-director who doesn't create costume for his own sets is deprived of a very important medium of expression — by which his work is brought to life — for sets are designed only as a part of the visual composition, the screen picture — actors and costumes moving against background. Definite understanding and close cooperation must exist between the director, the cinematogrnpher and the art-director, if the latter's conceptions would be faithfully transmuted to the public. It often