Motion picture acting (1947)

Page scan 00036 from Motion picture acting

Record Details:

Title:
Motion picture acting
Date:
1947
Publisher:
New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co
Volume:
Motion picture acting
Leaf #:
00036
Language:
English
Contributor:
Internet Archive
Sponsor:
Internet Archive
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Date Added:
July 19, 2022
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MOTION PICTURE ACTING the camera (the audience) goes to him. He must broaden his pantomime, his facial expression; he must project his voice in the theater. The volume he may use in a studio would barely reach the first row and, remember, any effort to be heard robs speech of just that much intimacy and delicacy. We have simply become accustomed to the tradi- tional aspects of the theater throughout the cen- turies. We have had to accept them or there could have been no drama. We sit there, entranced, while the hero tells his loved one how much he adores her; and all the time we have to believe that her stern old father—whom we can see through the open window, out there on the porch, not ten feet away — hasn't heard a word. But we heard him seventy-five feet away! We paid for our tickets and have a right to hear, regardless of the believability. If this be treason, make the most of it. To my mind, motion picture acting is much freer from restricting conventions and the necessity for in- dulgence on the part of the audience than the stage ever was. The aim of acting in a picture is to be as real as the rock you sit on or the tree you lean against. But when it so often is not, it is phonier than the stage could ever be, because every false tone or expression will be so greatly magnified. I shall try to keep what I have to tell you about 10