The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

230 The Educational Screen Almost an entire dwelling was built on one of the Ince stages for a comedy-drama, including a living room, bedroom, dining room, butler's pantry and kitchen. The kitchen was one to charm the most exact- ing housekeeper—all glistening nickel, shin- ing enamel, and blue-and-white linoleum. It was furnished with linen and silver, real water ran from the faucets, and the range was connected with gas. "For in comedy," said the art director who was showing me the sets and demon- strating the completeness of everything, "they never know what they're going to need, so we have everything ready." The one "dress-up" set for Mary Pick- ford's revival of "Tess of the Storm Coun- try" shows a reception room in a colonial mansion, and as I stepped past the camera and into the room, I was, as far as my own impressions were concerned, in a real house. A great Chinese rug, dull blue and tan, of beautiful weave and deeply luxurious, lay before me. Broad stairs rose at the right, with ivory spindles and dark, gleam- ing rail. The walls were panelled and painted with landscapes in shadowy grey; and the tops of the door columns and the medallions of the candelabra were bands of little Wedgewood figures in cream and blue, echoing the rich tones of the rug. The sofa and the chair or two that fur- nished the room, were beautifully simple in line, finished in dark velvet with a quaint flower pattern in heavy embroidery on the backs. A table in the center bore a bowl of fruit in delicately colored glass, and above it, a crystal chandelier added the last touch. It was a restful room. "It seems a pity," Miss Pickford said in discussing it, "that so much hand work is put on a set that is used only for a short time. Those borders, lovely as they are, may not even show in the picture. We never can tell until we see the film. "And yet," she added with enthusiasm, "think how many people are going to see it. If this room were in a private home, it might be seen by possibly five thousand people—even that is a large estimate. Bi in me picture, hundreds of thousands wj see it! So it pays after all." But in spite of the obvious advantages c constructing sets on the studio stage, I day may come when the "studio" will J merely the laboratory where the story j prepared and the films are put through the chemical processes, while the actual shoo ing is done entirely "on location." Marshall Meilan has this to say on t$ subject: "In the presentation on the screen of story of any nature and particularly a stoi of every-day life with which the averag American theatregoer is familiar, the pre ducer is treating with fundamentals th; certain persons in the audience are moi thoroughly acquainted with than is the d rector himself. "Take for instance, the interior of a ban! It is not a very difficult matter for th persons in an audience who are bank en: ployees to discern whether or not th scenes in the photoplay were staged in real bank or a 'set.' "In my latest production, for instanci much action takes place in a modern banl with its heavy furnishings, its giant vau doors, etc. To 'fake' these scenes success fully would be an impossibility. To 'rt produce' them correctly on the studio stag would cost an unnecessary fortune. "The perfection of the big portable gen erating plant makes it a simple matter t get the correct background for a motio picture. These electric generators may b hauled to any building. Cables are ru into the rooms which are to be photc graphed and hooked up to arc and 'flooc lights, the generator is started, and we ar ready to 'shoot' The entire proceeding i handled on the order of the portable carpe cleaning plants we see outside of building; thus eliminating the necessity of buildin; reproductions of the desired background; "This practice is rapidly becoming pop ular among motion picture producers, an as far as my pictures are concerned, th