International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

June, 1934 T h INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Twenty-five CONTINUITY IN AMATEUR PICTURES (Continued from Page 23) usually be shown cinematically. The Russians and Germans are especially adept in showing thoughts and emotions in terms of pictures, sometimes symbolically or by indirect suggestion, and sometimes by close-ups of the actor's features, hands, etc. That this does not necessarily require difficult action is borne out by the fact that the Russians (whose pictures, though not entirely according to our tastes, are dramatically powerful and vivid) use mostly natural types, that is, characters taken from the walks of life they depict in the picture, and who have had no previous motion picture experience. An actor need not go into hysterics to show that he is angry: a close-up of his clenched fist will put the idea across much more effectively. Overacting to express an emotion is inexcusable, for there are many more subtle ways in which it can be shown. Restraint is often more powerful than a violent exhibition of emotion, as is evidenced in the pictures of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Norma Shearer, Helen Hayes, and other outstanding actresses. For the amateur it is especially well to practice restraint, for there is always a tendency to overact. Observation of the people around him will teach him better than anything else how people act, and suggest little characteristics and mannerisms which he can use very effectively in his pictures. Keen observation is indeed a valuable help in writing and directing a picture. Little details of action and properties can often be used much more effectively than the whole. Details, if used properly, give emphasis. The detail becomes the symbol for the whole, and, because it concentrates the attention, has more dramatic significance than the whole. The close-up is a very valuable property of the motion picture, and if used judiciously there is little danger that it will be over-done. The amateur, especially, will find it useful in showing scenes which, because of limited sets and equipment, could not be shown in full shot. Symbolism and indirect suggestion, which frequently go hand in hand, may also be used to express incidents which are prohibitive to the amateur. The symbol, whose meaning must, of course, be generally understood, can be a representation of the object, the event, or even an abstract subject, which cannot be, or is not desired to be, shown actually. A flag, for instance, is a symbol of the country to which it belongs, and if it be desired to show the defeat of that country in war, which, of course, the amateur could never do, it is a simple matter to show the flag being taken down from its staff and the flag of the victorious country being raised in its place. The Russian Eagle is a symbol of Imperial Russia, and I remember one picture in which the Russian revolution was symbolized by mud being thrown on the coat-of-arms. In "Scarlet Empress" gargoyles where used continuously to symbolize the grotesqueness of that period. In "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", instead of showing a passionate love scene the camera panned to a statue of cupid. Innumerable examples of symbolism and indirect suggestion could be given, especially from the pictures of Ernst Lubitsch, Rouben Mamoulian, and Josef von Sternberg, as well as those of outstanding European directors. A word of warning in their use should be given, however. They must not be trite, or their effectiveness will be lost, yet they must be such that their significance is clearly understood. Subtleness in pictures is desired only to the extent where its meaning is still evident. The amateur continuity writer should, by all means, have a knowledge of the principles of montage, which are outlined in detail in Rudolf Arnheim's book, and by Podovkin in "Film Technique." It is essentially a process of constructive editing — of assembling the separate strips of film, irrelated by time and space, or even subject. into a complete, unified pictures — and involves the utilization of many cinematic devices, such as similarity and contrast, parallel action, repetition, flash-backs, association, camera position and angle, details, symbolism and indirect suggestion, transitions, intercutting, superimposition, tempo and rhythm, and others, with which most amateurs are, no doubt, already partly familiar. With all these possibilities at the disposal of the continuity writer it is just as important that he know what effect not to use as to what to use, for, as Arnheim puts it, "It is the fundamental condition of a work of art that it should contain everything essential and nothing superfluous." An unusual camera angle used just for an unusual (Turn to Page 28) The Leading Cinematographers of the Motion Picture Industry, The Men who know Make-up, to insure the best in photography, insist on the use of NUCHROMATIC MAKE-UP FOUNDATION /f Hollywood Compounded of the finest and purest of ingredients and certified colors. DE LONG MAKE-UP STUDIO GLadsrone 8140 5533 Sunset Blvd. DOUBLE MATTING (3 PATENTS. 1932) mWJTlLLIAMCS ▼T SHOTS » Phone OXford 1611 8111 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, Calif. To the Cameraman We supply fresh 35 mm. Eastman or Dupont Gray Backed Negative Film at .02^ per foot. KINEMA KRAFTS KOMPANY 6510 Selma Ave., Hollywood, Calif. GL. 0276 LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZINE • the first and only magazine devoted exclusively to the LEICA camera in the United States. • if you own a LEICA, register its serial number with us and receive this magazine regularly each month free of charge. • non-LEICA-owners may secure this magazine at 10c per copy or $1.00 per year, (foreign, $1.50 to all — owners and non-owners.) • edited by famous authorities, crammed with useful and interesting information, LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY sets a new standard in photographic journals. Ask for sample copy. E. Leitz, Inc., 60 East 10th St., New York City Please mention The International Photographer v.hcn corresponding with advertisers.