Motion picture acting (1947)

Page scan 00035 from Motion picture acting

Record Details:

Title:
Motion picture acting
Date:
1947
Publisher:
New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co
Volume:
Motion picture acting
Leaf #:
00035
Language:
English
Contributor:
Internet Archive
Sponsor:
Internet Archive
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Date Added:
July 19, 2022
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STAGE AND SCREEN ACTING But the CAMERA does that very thing. It comes up close to the actor, and registers every fleeting expression. This is called, logically enough, a "close shot." And when we see the scene projected on the screen, it will be as though we had stood but a couple of feet from him, and could look right through his eyes into his very soul. The MICROPHONE is nothing more, in its more subtle uses, than an eavesdropping ear, set to catch every tiniest nuance. There is never any thought in a motion picture studio of that hypothetical man in the last row of the balcony who, actors in the theater are always being admonished to remember, has paid for his seat and has a right to hear. He will hear, all right—even whispers, if properly recorded in a motion picture. He will be made to hear, not by the actor, but through the amplification of sound from the projection booth. But there will be perspective between the low, whispered intima- cies and the louder scenes, a far greater range than is possible on the stage. Let no one tell you that "picture" acting is limited and confined. It just isn't so! The truth is, there are many acting devices that a player must employ on the stage, which he doesn't have to make use of in a picture. He must, figuratively, come to us over the footlights whereas, in a motion picture, 9