Motion Picture News (Sep-Oct 1922)

2056 Motion Picture N e ■ s Ince Stud 10s a Distinctive Achievement By Clark IV. Thomas General Manager Thomas H. Ince Studios, Culver City, Cal. I WOULD like to point out, first of all, the difference between the Thomas H. Ince Studios, at Culver City, and other motion picture units on the Pacific Coast, to support the statement often made that the Ince plant is the most complete in the west. In the early days of the business, studios were makeshift affairs, with stages built in vacant lots or barns fitted up for lighting. From this modest beginning, the production end of the film industry has grown until today, the most magnificent studios in the world are located in the vicinity of Los Angeles. Pictures made in the west, as a rule, are cut and edited locally, but then the negative is shipped to New York where the commercial prints are made to be distributed throughout the United States to exhibitors. In the fall of 1918 Thomas H. Ince built the Ince Studios in Culver City on a tract of land which comprised ten acres. The studios were designed to provide complete facilities for the efficient and artistic production of motion pictures. In addition to the administration building, stages, projection rooms, property buildings, electrical and technical departments, and other features of the average studio, the Ince plant included a laboratory which I believe is one of the finest in the industry. In other studios in the west, the laboratory is used to develop and print the “ daily rushes ” in order that a director may see his work on the screen the day after it is filmed. Sample prints are made for the cutting room, so that the production can be edited into final shape, but the commercial prints are made in large laboratories in the east, after the valuable negative has been shipped across the continent from the studio. The Thomas H. Ince studios complete the entire production within its own plant. After the film has been cut and edited, the negative is matched and hundreds of commercial prints made right in our own laboratories. These are then shipped direct to the exchanges throughout the country and from there distributed to the exhibitors. Time is saved by this method from the completion of a picture until it is in the thea Administration Building of Thomas H. Ince Studios, Culver City; Clark W. Thomas and aeroplane view of Ince Studios tres, but this is not the important factor. I think that everyone who understands motion picture production will agree that printing the film at the plant in which it was made insures greater care and better artistic re-’ suits. Our laboratory men are able to give each scene in a picture individual attention, they shade it to the proper degree and tint the celluloid to perfection, for the reason that they are not rushed. The plant is not a commercial organization, but the last step in a process which has for its aim efficient and artistic production. The studios, as a whole, are among the most attractive in the west, in addition to their efficiency and their completeness. The administration building is a two-story structure of white Colonial design. In this building are the executive offices of Mr. Ince, his private projection room, the production offices, scenario department, “ exhibitors’ service ” department, easting and a uditing offices and still photograph department. Facing the inside of the studio, on the south e posure of the building, are the dressing rooms for stars and principal players. For interior production there are three large stages of seventy by one hundred and eighty feet dimensions. These provide thirtyseven thousand square feet of stage space. Two of the stages are roofed with glass and have sides of canvas fitted into frames, which makes possible the opening of all or any portion of the sides. Dark sliding curtains overhead can be drawn across to darken any portion of the stage in order to photograph by artificial lights. The third stage, constructed A number of permanent sets have bo erected on the lot, such as village strer fronts of buildings, the front and side ele tions of fashionable homes and cottages humble peasants. These sets can be dres : to fit the particular picture for which they ; used, but the main parts of the structures ;. left intact, minor changes only being ma The electrical department of the studio complete in every detail. Much of the lig ing on the stages is done with artificial lam and even on the glass stages they are nec sary for high lights and to supplement the si shine. To supply the current there are two Gene Electric Company converters. One is a ] k.w. converter and the other of 300 k capacity. The equipment includes 110 W field Kerner arc lamps, 30 Crescent spots e innumerable smaller lights. Two porta electric plants, one a 50 k.w. mounted on two-ton Moreland truck, and the other a ] k.w. mounted on a three-and-a-half ton Mt truck, make it possible to “ shoot ” scenes any location and to take night exteriors the stages. In the laboratory, which is fitted with ’ most modern equipment on the market, usi Bell and Howell printers, perforators a splicers, there are two drying rooms, fur c ting rooms, a splicing room, three inspecti rooms, a polishing and shipping rom. p forating room, where the raw stock is ceived a printing room, two dark rooms, o wash room and a color room. IVestinghouse motors are used to turn t drying drums in the laboratory and otl Westinghouse motors are employed in t projection rooms to turn the Simplex at Powers machines. Thomas H. Ince was the first motion p ture producer to use art titles in pietur •e began with simple little drawings and 1 worked up this department until today it : eludes eight artists, a camera man, clay me elers and others who are called upon to i in the work. The staff of nine regular woi ers in the art title department have turn out some of the original title effects, cc