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178 CINEMATOGRAPHIC ANNUAL ยป
from that. The painting is usually done by air guns, and in many cases the light effects are put on by expert air gun operators.
As much as it possible, now-a-days, everything is shot on the lot. Forests, ships, country lanes, mountains, canals, and all, are built up and tricked so that what, on the screen, may cover miles of ground, in reality only occupies a few acres of the back lot, or a few hundred square feet of the stage.
Sometimes we have to resort to optical illusions. In the "Thief of Bagdad," Douglas Fairbanks wanted to swim under water to find a pearl or something, on the bottom of the ocean. We took a set and cut out seaweeds of buckram, and had a series of them hanging down in several places. A wind machine was put on so that seaweeds flapped, but as the scene was taken in slow motion, they undulated when shown on the screen. The camera had a marine disc over the lens and was turned over. Mr. Fairbanks was let down through the scene and went through the motions of swimming under water. The scene had the appearance of water and gave almost a water feeling. It was a very interesting effect.
In this same picture we had the problem of photographing Mr. Fairbanks on a flying magic carpet. We got a ninety foot Llewellyn crane and had the carpet suspended on six wires. There was Doug hanging on six wires he couldn't see. They were each guaranteed to hold four hundred pounds, but he said, "I would like something more than a guarantee in a place like this." When the beam was started, the carpet would be left behind a little until the slack was taken up and it gave us quite a thrill each time it was started. We also had to arrange for a traveling camera (which by the way is another thing that an art director is involved in) , and had a platform built for the cameraman which travelled with the crane. That was the first travelling shot. Of course today they have complicated machinery for this purpose. For instance in "Broadway," they had equipment for moving shots which cost thousands of dollars to build. The Fox company has a lense they can use to bring a person from a long shot up to a closeup which saves a great deal of expense.
As an illustration of the advance made in this matter of getting trick shots, I might mention my first experience in pictures. When 1 got out of art school I went to see George Fitzmaurice to get a job, and he tried me out. The studio where his pictures were made was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, across the river from New York. For one of his pictures he wanted a close-up in a tropical setting. Now here in California there are plenty of palm trees and you would have no difficulty, but in Fort Lee, New Jersey, there is nothing of the kind. The only thing I could find was a couple of palm leaf fans. I stripped them down to palms and to secure my effect, stood on a chair in the sun, waving the palm leaves so that the shadow was thrown on the wall back of the actors.
So you see the motion picture technician must have great ingenuity. He must have a knowledge of architecture of all periods and nationalities. He must be able to picturize and make interesting a