Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Dec 1916)

Have You a Camera Face? ( Continued from page 15) MOTION PICTURE The Photoplay Hit of the Season The Little Book of Honest Advice “he:r,e LIES” By L. CASE RUSSELL WE have exhausted the flr«t edition of “H^re Lie*,” but not its demand. A second edition i« now read'. This clever and timely booklet on^How Not To Write photoplays is invaluable to bewildered and discouraged writers. The greatest obstacle in the road to success is the "Has been done before” rejection slip. At least RO per cent of the unsold scripts now on the market were written around stale plots. For the first time, these forbidden themes have been collected, classified, crucified and buried in “Here Lies.” Head what studio editors think of it: Its subtle humor is delicious, while underlying it all there is so much truth that it is worth reading many times. It is of value to the trained and professional author, as well as to the amateur. CALDEK JOHNSTONE, Universal Film Manufacturing Co., Pacific Coast Studios. It would save some of these poor beginners many a heart-ache if they would learn what to avoid, and you seem to have struck the keVooteJn jour Dont List. I.OCn.T.A I. PM! SO vs, Editor of Scenarios, Essauay Film Manufacturing Co. Sent postpaid on receipt of 25c in etampn or coin THE PHOTOPLAY CLEARING HOUSE 17S Duffield Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. not have camera personality, and for that reason their picture value was worthless. "The matter of film personality,” said Mr. Wilson, “is possibly, after all, the most important one. I have seen people, who might be called positively homely, go before the cinematograph and, bv reason of the personality and snirit expressed in their faces, be transformed on the screen into extremely good-looking types. How often have you heard people say, ‘I saw So-andSo, the great film beauty, the other day, and she didn’t look half so well as she does on the screen’ ? That is frequently very true, and, invariably, it is because that particular actress was possessed of such unusual spirit of mind and personality that the light of it. reflected in her face by the mysterious camera, rendered her beautiful ! “And, lastly, the power of expression is an all-important one. A man might be as handsome as six Greek gods put together and still be utterly unable to qualify as a photoplayer. The face must do everything, far more than the face of an actor on the stage. The latter has the words of the piay and the inflections of his trained voice to get his points across, whereas the movie actor has nothing but his face, and a verv occasional sub-title, to express his meaning. He must be able to run the gamut of human emotions by merely altering his expression, and, altho this may sound fairly simple, it is a gift that comes to but one out of many thousands of people. It is primarily a matter of knowing, not what to do, but what not to do. If I ask an applicant at the studio to express prodigious grief, during his test, and he begins a series of agonized facial contortions, I at once know that he’s no good. If, on the other hand, his eyes look straight and tragically ahead of him without moving, and if his nostrils dilate very slightly, and his lower lip quivers as he catches it with his teeth — then I know that he has the right idea. Simplicity of expression is always the most natural expression. People in real life never act. And the highest form of Motion Picture acting is behaving just as people would in real life. “Photography, when all is said and done, is a matter of lights and shadows, and one can readily see why prominent features have the advantage over smaller ones, especially at an average foreground. Possibly in the close-up there would not be so much difference. This, of course, does not hold good in all cases. The lens of the camera is much keener than the human eye, and very often it will get a twitch of the mouth, or the lift of an eyebrow, or some little thing about some one that is hardly perceptible to the eye. These are essentials that are the making of features for camera work, especially so in women. And let me repeat that personality is the one gigantic asset essential to picture work, and oftentimes, when it is not apparent to the eye, the camera-lens has an .uncanny way of bringing it out, for, as I have said before, that certain twitch, or little characteristic, that passes unobserved to the eye, is forcibly brought out by the camera-lens. “Women very often lose a lot of their finer points by the eternal changing of style in hair-dressing. They dress their hair becomingly enough to the eye, but, by covering the temple, forehead, ear, or some part of the face or head that holds that little attraction so necessary, they lose that something which the camera needs to bring out their personality more forcibly, and for this reason I believe that women should study, or accept advice about, their attractions and try at all times to keep their best points well in the foreground. The complexion which I consider best for camera work is the fair, with brown hair and hazel-brown eyes. One’s skin must not be too thin, as the blood too close to the surface will naturally cause one to photograph dark. As for myself, my features are big, and I have been told by experts that my face was particularly adapted to the screen. “My complexion is very much the same as I have described. I dont use this argument because I happen to be so constituted, but I find, in nearly all cases, that it is true. Take Earle Williams — a splendid photographic subject — and I think you will find his complexion the same. On the other hand, King Baggot is fair, while his eyes are light, yet he will tell you how long it took him to overcome the disadvantage of light eyes. However, he has mastered it, and is to be given credit for having overcome that difficulty by the art of make-up.” Features that are prominent, and yet not too prominent ; a coloring that is full of contrasts; a personality so strong that it can be felt even by seeing a shadow on a screen ; a power of expression that can portray all the elements of drama by simple pantomime— these are the prime requisites. Have you, dear reader, a movie camera face? ( Sixty -four)