Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

January 12, 1918. MOTOGRAPHY 77 Film Editor's Work Is Important Margaret Mayo Emphasizes Value of Work Done in Cutting Room After Filming of Play Is Finished MARGARET MAYO, playwright and *'* photoplay specialist, member of Selwyn & Co., Broadway producers, and editorial director of the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, has found at least one parallel between the divergent arts of stage and screen. She found it in Goldwyn's Fort Lee studio, and she has given a year of active work to its understanding. "A photoplay is no more produced till it goes into the cutting room to be edited, than a play before it goes into rehearsal," says Miss Mayo. "A photoplay is as truly made or unmade in the process of cutting as any Broadway production in the rehearsal period. "Scenario writers, actors, directors, may do their utmost — and a very splendid utmost at that — but the success of their work is never assured until the cutter or editor is through. He may ruin a splendid idea, a fine continuity, superb acting. He may take mediocre material and sublimate it. His is the ultimate work in the motion picture industry. And that is why, I suppose, I was immensely attracted by this side of studio work from the beginning and have given so much time to it. "It was very interesting to come to the cutting room from a long experience in the rehearsing and producing of plays. I feel the parallel very keenly. It is the stage director who makes or mars a play. Like a moving picture, a play must have its inherent good qualities ; but the man who shapes its final, flesh-and-blood form and makes it live upon the stage, holds its ultimate effect and its success in the hollow of his hand. It is just as true of the film editor. "Quite apart from matters of continuity, which may or may not be properly or perfectly adjusted in the mind's eye of the writer, the film editor controls that vitally important factor of screen art — tempo. Not only may he find that a certain arrangement of episodes visualizes much better in a way that the continuity writer could not forsee. Further than that he may decrease or increase speed of this or that scene, this or that series of scenes, in fact the whole story, by the manner in which he cuts and arranges scenes. "The cutter's work — limited as it is physically — is to my mind the most fascinating in the studio. It makes me glad to give up the drama for the screen." Taylor Joins Select C. W. Taylor recently became manager of Select's branch exchange at Des Moines. More than a dozen years ago he was connected with the Amusement Supply Company in Chicago. Later he was with the Theater Film Service Company in the same city which was founded by Hutchinson and Aiken. He went with the Mutual Film Corporation in 1915 as manager of their Omaha branch. He is thoroughly conversant with conditions throughout Nebraska and Iowa territory. New Title Plan Is Successful Paralta Uses Animated Scenes With Lettering Showins Above Action in Subtitles for "Madam Who" CRE of Bessie the striking features of Barriscale's first Paralta Play, "Madam Who," which will be released the middle of December is the manner in which the titling of the production has been handled. For a long time, producers of motion pictures have been endeavoring to get away from the old style of titles which, in many cases caused a breach in holding the interest to the action of the story. Illustrated titles were found to be a great improvement over those which were displayed in cold type, but Paralta Plays announce that they have taken another great step forward in the development of an artistic effect that holds the interest at the same time giving the audience the message that can be interpreted only through reading titles. The new titles, which will be used for the first time in the production of "Madam Who" are animated scenes built in such a manner that the wording appears to stand out in mid air. In one instance where the title is descriptive of a battle which is supposed to be raging-, a shell bursts, obliterating the entire title and showing, just for an instant, a field of battle with the cannon smoking-. This is the only element of battle that is really shown in the play, as the story is not that of the trench and conflict but of the secret service that is the great unseen power that guides the destiny of the armies. The other titles are all worked in effectively, and do not break into the thread of the story. Rather they appear as a part of the action. This new style of titles marks another important step in the advancement of the photoplay art, a step which is bound to> have a marked effect in future productions. Edith Storey in a stirring scene from the Metro froducti ■The Legion of Death." Reviewer Is Enthusiastic Over "Polly" The following review appeared in a Bristol, Conn., newspaper after the showing there of "Polly of the Circus." "O-O! Skinnay! Hello, Jimmie. Say, Skinnay, did you go to the Princess last night to see 'Polly of the Circus'? You just bet I did, and I had a hard time trying to get a seat. But, say, Jim, when I did get in at last I saw the dandiest show that ever came here. Gee, it was a crackerjack; better'n any three-ring circus I ever hooked into. Why, there was everything in it to make you forget you went without your supper. I just sat dere for two whole hours an' it didn't seem five minits, till it was all over. And say, dat Mae Marsh is a peach, and Oh how she can ride a horse. An' you ought to see the big race on the fair grounds an' the elephants squirting water on the coon. I just laughed until me sides were sore and I clapped my hands until dey was all blisters. An' the whole thing was like Barnum & Bailey's or de Ringlings. I wish circuses like dat one would come to Bristol in de summer, an' pa says he never saw anything like it in the pictures before, an' I'm goin' again tonight. Ain't you going? Sure, Skinnay. I got to see dat show, cause everyone says its great. Mr. Healy, de manager, told us kids dat its de best ting de Princess ever showed, an' I guess what he says goes wid me, for he's gettin' all de good pictchures day show in Noo York and in Hartford. Why just tink, de 'Fightin' Trail' opened in de biggest cities only last week an' he's got it already. Just like 'Polly of the Circus,' only one week out of Noo York. He's puttin' Bristol on the movin' picture map aw right."