Cinematographic annual : 1930 (1930)

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INTRODUCTION 19 settings, the necessary division of a play into acts, is restricted to the one-channel type of story. It cannot achieve the freedom of a novelist who can develop a theme through a principal and many interesting, related channels, all advancing toward a desired culmination. This, the screen can accomplish, is in fact in some respects, a better medium for the complex story than the novel, its only limitation being that of time. No picture, however great, should require much more than two hours for its showing, but so much (with careful selection) can be told in that length of time. Could one adequately picture, for example, the drainage of the Mississippi Valley simply by following its principal river, the Mississippi, from its source to the point where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, what of the Missouri, Ohio, and other rivers that flow into it, that contribute so much to its greatness? It is safer, of course, to follow the principal channel, we are not likely to be lost in doing so, but by pursuing this course, are we not presenting only a narrow two-dimensional view of the subject? Can we not suggest and portray infinitely more with this great, fourdimensional instrument, the motion picture? The law of progress is such, that a richer story telling technique must be evolved in time by the cinema; a technique based upon its essential nature. Methods peculiar to other arts and based upon their limitations, that do not suffice, will be abandoned. The full power of the motion picture will begin to be felt only when writers, directors, producers and others understand it to be what it really is, the most modern and expressive of the arts, the only four-dimensional art thus far invented by man. To those who take the motion picture seriously, who believe in its future, who sincerely wish to progress in this art, the Cinematographic Annual is offered. We have felt for some time that there was need for a book such as this; a book that would make a sincere effort to advance the art and science of cinematography. Without doubt much desirable material will have been omitted in this, the first Annual. It is but natural to make some mistakes in a first effort of any kind, but from year to year we hope to improve; to make this publication a most valuable and useful adjunct to the profession; a book that will be eagerly awaited by everyone interested in this art. The hopes of the American Society of Cinematographers are bound in this volume. Twelve years of effort (a long time in this business) are climaxed in the publication of this book. We earnestly hope you will like it and derive benefit from its perusal.