Movie Makers (Jun-Dec 1928)

HOW HOLLYWOOD DOES IT WHEN in Hollywood lately, 1 succeeded, by merely juggling the place-cards, in getting myself seated beside Douglas Fairbanks at dinner. "How is it," I asked, "that you can jump from hundred-foot buildings and across man-eating chasms and not spend eleven of the twelve months slowly recuperating from painful injuries in some out-of-the-way sanitanum t He laughed, setting up a row of white teeth against a nut-brown complexion, which is a daily unpaid testimonial for the California sun. "Well, I'll tell you," he confided. "You see, whenever I leap from an emotional cliff, I am always lucky enough to land in a technician's arms. Does that answer your question?" I nodded. "I suppose so," I said. "I suppose that's the secret of the whole business — technique." And I remembered a phrase heard back home from Will H. Hays to the general effect that "nothing happens; it's all brought about." Once we come to that conclusion, half the game is won. We look at the motion picture on the screen and wonder how, in the name of flickering fantasies, some of the wonders came about. And if we are amateurs we may be a bit discouraged when, as a matter of fact, we should be encouraged, because most of the things possible for the professional producer are possible for the amateur. It is simply a ques By Lamar Trotti tion of finding out how Hollywood does it, taking hold of that information, and reducing it to practical application at home. Every amateur in the world to-day should not only be applying what he can of Hollywood's technique, but each one should be an experimenter in his own right, thinking, as does Hollywood, in the technician's terms of motion picture technique. Right now, all of Hollywood is interested in what the scientist is doing in experiments of one sort or another. The actors and producers talk about "sound" pictures. The cameramen experiment with lighting effects. Directors spend hours planning new tricks with the camera. There is a general inclination to study and to experiment, with the technician, the man who actually does things, serving as the pivot about which all of these efforts revolve. An outstanding example of this technical interest is found in the search for new lighting methods, a factor little recognized by the general public, interested only in the entertainment qualities of the completed film, but a problem in which the professional producer, as well as the amateur movie maker, has a vital concern. Carbon and mercury vapor lights have been developed over a period of years, to a high degree of efficiency, so that now it is possible to make "exterior" scenes indoors, with results even more pleasing than those achieved outdoors; but there is ever the serious matter of the cost involved. A general belief also persists that the same excellent results might be obtained, or even improved on, by other lighting devices, and at a smaller cost. Early this year the studios, under the auspices of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, undertook a series of experiments in lighting to find out if such changes would be practical and economic. The impending war between the old lighting methods and filament lights broke with a flourish. During a period of two months, approximately 70,000 feet of film were used in experiments with the new filament lamps, both interiors and exteriors being included. The film was developed as it was "shot." Excitement ran high among cameramen. Out of this footage, two films of 12,000 feet in length each, were assembled and made available for purposes of comparison to all the studios and companies supplying film and lighting equipment. The result has been that several companies are now making pictures with the filament lights. ParamountFamous-Lasky has four such pictures under way at this time, and the entire industry is eagerly awaiting a glimpse of the completed productions. The Photograph by War THE ARK IS READY IF IT SHOULD RAIN IN CALIFORNIA. A Scene From Hoah's Ar\, The Making of Which Is Discussed In This Article. 587