Motography (Jul - Dec 1915)

November 6, 1915. MOTOGRAPHY 965 it, if we have to exhume the dead masters' bodies and get their 'mark' on a contract. "We need unconventional denouements. We need different kinds of climaxes. We must creep, not run, away from the eternal triangle. We must have less of the two women and one man, or one woman and two men. We must so construct our stories that the average auditor of the most humble brain power, or the most intelligent with the greatest brain power, will have to use a certain amount of perspicacity to fathom the plot. Our weakness is the finish of the stories. The first, second and third reels are great. We have novel situations, novel climaxes and novel dramatic action — then comes the last two reels and we see the hero drawing closer to the heroine. We note the coming downfall of the adventuress, the coming expose of the bribe taker, forger, the exonerating of the convicted hero — the forgiven intruder, the punished unfaithful one — and then — tableaux — hero and heroine in each other's arms. "Unconventionality — new business, less trickery — less double exposure, more straight dramatic work with more deductional power required from the audiences—and Equitable is going to get, if we have to go to the Pyramids and the tomb of Noah and dig for the old stone manuscripts and give them modern settings, retaining the great climaxes, powerful tales and new theories they must have contained, and which our modern writers will not put into stories because we accept their conventional stuff. "Within the week we have changed the titles of three pictures, because when we had completed them and dressed them up with original ideas, such as we are demanding from our writers, we found that our stories were so much stronger, so much more novel, and contained so much real interesting material, that the original titles were not applicable, in the sense we wish them." First Set in New Ince Studio An exact replica of the New York Stock Exchange will be the first set erected within the new $75,000 studio that Producer Thomas H. Ince is building at Culver City, for the production of forthcoming InceTriangle features. This set will be used for many of the big scenes in the current production in which H. B. Warner, recently arrived at Inceville, will be offered as star. Work on the construction of the new plant is progressing rapidly, it is stated, and with the completion of one of the eight stages, which is expected in two weeks, carpenters will at once begin the erection of the stock exchange set, under the direction of Tom Brierly. At present Warner and his supporting cast are working under the direction of Charles Swickard in a setting designed to depict the interior of a New York stock broker's office. The set is an exact counterpart of a well known broker's office, it having been built with the assistance of an eastern financier who is a friend of Producer Ince. Its dimensions are 60 by 110 feet. W. N. Selig Honored by Mayor Mayor Thompson of Chicago, on Monday evening, October 23, nominated six new members of the Board of Education of Chicago. The Chicago Board of Education is among the most powerful and important educative boards in the United States. Included among the nominees was William N. Selig, president of the Selig Polyscope Company. Mr. Selig is at present visiting his motion picture studios in Los Angeles, California, and Las Vegas, N. M., and was not appraised of the fact that he had been nominated as a member of the Chicago board. In commenting upon his nominations, Mayor Thompson said: "I think my appointees are the best group of individuals ever suggested for membership on the board. There were many names suggested to me and the choice was a difficult one." Mayor Thompson classifies Mr. Selig as a selfmade man and one qualified in every way for membership on the Chicago school board. Mr. Selig is known as one of Chicago's most influential business men and is probably one of the most widely read men of the present day. His personal friendship with literary men and women of high standing is also very extensive. For many years Mr. Selig personally read and selected the novels, short stories and original photoplays submitted to his company for motion picture filming and his conception of the style of work of authors of high class is probably unsurpassed by any book or magazine editor. Mr. Selig's nomination for membership on the Chicago Board of Education is not only a tribute to Mr. Selig as a man, but is also a tribute to higher art in motion pictures. The product of the Selig Polyscope Company has always been consistently clean and educational. Since the death of a motion picture player of the same name, the family of William West, that veteran and able character Edison player, has been greatly embarrassed through acknowledging the condolences of many friends who naturally confused the Edison actor with his namesake. William N. Selig. Star Registered Real "Surprise" Katherine Kaelred, the eminent emotional actress, received one of the worst shocks of her career at Inceville recently, during the production of "The Winged Idol," the five-part Ice-Triangle feature, in which she is starred. With House Peters, the popular actor who plays the leading male role, she arrived at the "set" prepared for the day's work. The stage was arranged to nresent an interior in the apartments of the seeress, Countess Iva Ivanhoff, the part played by Miss Kaelred. Nothing seemed to have been disturbed since the night before. Miss Kaelred seated herself at the table and when Thomas H. Ince, who was directing the scene, ordered action, the actress lifted the velvet spread which covered the table. Never before did she more truly register surprise and terror than in the scene which followed, for there, coiled beneath the cover was a hissing king snake. Why the snake crawled up the leg of the table