Motography (Jul - Dec 1915)

October 16, 1915. MOTOGRAPHY 789 Preparation and Team Work in Producing BY FRED E. WRIGHT1 Fred E. Wright. FROM the cheap productions of one-reel photoplays, the scenarios of which were oftentimes written on the backs of old envelopes — to the six-reel productions of today, costing thousands of dollars, would seem to be a story of industrial progress covering generations — instead of barely a decade. In the early days a couple of muslin "flats," covered with cheap wall paper served both as a living room in the slums and a drawing room in the palace, the only difference being the size of the figures on the paper. A chair or two, a bronze, a vase, or a picture purchased at the nearest ten-cent store — together with half a dozen people at five per day — who acted and perhaps assisted in the setting of the stage and the result was considered a very satisfying artistic triumph. Little of our talent had theatrical experience. Actors of the legitimate "pooh-poohed" the picture proposition and predicted its early collapse. They refused disdainfully to lend their services to productions that they felt would degrade and belittle them in the eyes of theatrical managers. I insulted many of my professional friends by offering to cast them in my early pictures. Observations of the rapid growth of the business soon won some of them over but many came like martyrs to the block — after their honored profession had landed them in a state of starvation and their dreams were of irate landladies that were and romantic beef stews that were not! Our early audiences were called "low brows" — the motion picture was considered an amusement to catch the nickels and dimes of the poor — with as little future as the game of "ping pong." Those who considered themselves the better class — whose curiosity got the better of them — "gumshoed" their way into picture houses, looking over their shoulders to see if any chance acquaintance might see them. Newspapers held aloof from acknowledging the growing industry. Their columns were filled with assertions that moving pictures were causing the youth of the land to be drawn into damnation ! A crime committed by a youthful desperado was blamed on the pictures. Cigarettes, the time-honored cause of all crimes, became an innocent habit and motion pictures were promoted to their time-honored place. *Director of Essanay Productions. Many clergymen whose hearts were bursting with indignation, sweated by the hour in hoarse denunciation and added another commandment to the biblical eleven, "Thou shalt not enter a motion picture theater!" The motion pictures faced the same opposition that befalls all great industries — Morse faced it with his telegraph — Watts with his steam engine — Stephenson with his locomotive — Fulton with his steamboat. It gave a new fad to the little men and little women who do nothing for the world save worry over the eternal conundrum of how people shall exercise the five senses that the Creator has given them — Censorship! But in spite of all, the moving picture has grown from the poor, little, cheap one-reel production — with a very ordinary story, to the great pulsating drama, picturing actual life, of six, eight, ten and twelve reels — from the cheap nickel show for the so-called "low brow," to a Broadway attraction at $2.00 — for all kinds of brows. Today our carpenters and scenic artists vie with each other in the creation of magnificent and costly settings. Antique shops are searched for rare and priceless bric-a-brac, bronzes, tapestries and paintings. Furniture of carved mahogany and draperies of silk and velvet are used by the vanload. Celebrated writers obtain high prices for writing the stories. Theatrical Broadway, once howling with derision, is now groaning over the loss of its stars. Even its skeptical managers are hotfooting it into picturedom. Newspapers have given recognition. The clergy, with slight exception, has returned to the original version of the biblical commandments. It is pictures — pictures everywhere. They have in less than a decade ^Zllr ■m h^BL ...:_s ^* ^BvjS Bafjjpl rvB^H 1 t ikH ttt%^k?^< V-:;y ■ JI3P5P1 pp 1 Some of the men behind the pictures — {Left to right), Harry A. Zech, head cameraman; Emit W. Kuauf, scenic artist; H. Smith, studio carpenter; Gus Smith. Al Way, Property man; Herman R. Lutzenberger, chief electrician; Fred McWithey. 'Joseph Demsky. chief carpenter; Arthur S. Dowd, assistant director, Fred E. Wright. leaped forward until they are the third of the greatest industries of the world. I am proud to be a unit of that marvelous industrial growth — no matter how small may have been my contribution.