Moving Picture World (Aug 1920)

862 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD August 14, 1920 Brunton Studios Feature Organization That Gives Quick Service to Producer A WELL-KNOWN motion picture producer remarked at a trade banquet in Los Angeles recently: “I know of two innovations that mean a great saving of time in film production. One is the mercury-vapor lamp, which allows for interior work and precludes delay because of bad weather, and the other is the Robert Brunton studios.” This is not the first time tribute has been paid to the remarkably swift and efficient producing machine Robert Brunton has built up in Los Angeles. New producing tenants invariably marvel at the speed and smoothness with which their plans are carried out, says Rene R. Rivierre in a contributed article to Moving Picture World. The magnitude of the plant and the completeness of its facilities are important preventions of delay. The studios cover fiftyfive acres of land, exclusive of a 500-acre location ranch. Six Stages and Equipment. There are six large stages, a great mill, equipped with the latest machinery devices; a $300,000 electrical plant maintaining a staff of fifty men ; laboratories, fireproof property and administration buildings; ornamental plaster shops, iron foundries and spacious dressing room buildings. Over six hundred carpenters, architects, painters, decorators, electricians, draftsmen, photographers, prop men, stenographers, scenarioists, blacksmiths, clerks, title writers and film editors are regularly employed. If a company renting space at the studios wants a thousand feet of film negative a call is sent to the stores department where everything from nails to dynamite is handled, and delivery is made within a few minutes. If four or five autos are wanted for a location trip the transportation department, with a string of thirty machines, is on hand to serve. Quick Action Is Long Suit. Should a company be in need of a continuity quickly it finds the scenario department just around the corner and ready to oblige. If an exacting director demands Chinese jade instead of old porcelain for a drawing room set the property department, with its immense stores of furniture, brica-brac and what-not sends him jade at once. In short, there is nothing vitally essential to film production that cannot be obtained from the various studio departments in a surprising minimum of time. Proof of the speed at which the great Brunton producing machine travels is the fact that THE lately formed Harry Levey Service Combination, operating in educational and industrial subjects, has taken possession of new studio and laboratory location in New York. The building occupied is right on the fringe of the Times Square district, where filmdom is centering more and more. The newest inventions and contrivances of science and machinery are being installed. In addition to this, the studios are fully equipped with facilities for the making of the best type of pictures. The location at No. 230 West Thirtyeighth street is in line with Mr. Levey’s wish to place his “Truth Productions,” as his pictures are called, on a new plan of production. For that reason he has placed his production center outside the confines of the “motion picture district.” Complete Apparatus. The distinguishing mark of the studios will be the complete mechanical and scientific apparatus. One of the main features is the department where the “mechanigraphs” are made. The “mechanigraphs” is a contrivance invented and perfected by the Levey corporation. Much of the work of the company lies in showing on the screen the mechanism and operation of various kinds of machinery. Mr. Levey uses for this purpose not the animated cartoon, but “mechanigraph” of the original machinery — duplicates fashioned to represent the model under ob 209 film plays have been made at the plant during the past two years — an average of over two pictures a week. Monte Blue Coming East Monte Blue, who played the leading male role in George Melford’s production of “The Jucklins,” which has just been completed at the Lasky studio, will arrive in New York shortly and will play the lead in Charles Maigne’s next production for Paramount, “The Kentuckians,” by John Fox, Jr. Work on this production will be started in a week or two. servation, and which are animated for the screen by a special process. Special rooms for the building of these “mechanigraphs” are being fitted up with revolving platforms for the models to rest upon. Each platform is equipped with magnifying glasses attached at varying angles, so that the machinery may be studied with the most minute care, and the duplicates, when they appear on the screen, be correct in every detail of composition. Another unusual thing about the Levey studios will be the projection room, which is being equipped with a spherical screen. This makes it possible for persons sitting on the side of the room to secure a perfectly focussed view of the picture, as the picture projected on this screen automatically spreads out. Extensive alterations are being made. New executive offices, production department offices, cutting rooms, editing department rooms and dressing rooms are being installed. To Spend $140,000 Rebuilding Fresno House Damaged by Fire OLIVER KEHRLEIN, of the Kehrlein Kinema Circuit of California, has left New York after a stay of two weeks. Mr. Kehrlein, in conversation just before his departure, declared the fire that was recently reported to have seriously damaged the Fresno house of his company was not so destructive as the stories first sent out indicated. Mr. Kehrlein estimated the total damage at perhaps 15 or 20 per cent, and said it was hoped that in three months the work of restoration would be complete. In the course of rebuilding the Fresno Kinema Theatre, the seating capacity would be increased by the addition of 400 seats. Other imporvements that will be made include a new stage and complete redecoration. E. M. Porter, of Simplex, is now at work on a design for a projection room which will embody the latest equipment in that department of picture exhibition. The expense of the addition and restoration will be in the neighborhood of $140,000. Mr. Kehrlein, whose headquarters are in Oakland, where he has immediate charge of the two houses in that city belonging to his company, will make a few stops on his way home. At these points he will continue his search for ideas that may be incorporated in the Fresno house. Dorris and Dean Go West Bert Dorris and Faxon M. Dean, formerly assistant director and cameraman, respectively, for Charles Maigne and known in the Famous Players-Lasky studio organization as the “D’s,” have gone to California after completing their work on “The Frontier of the Stars.” They probably will be assigned to some big production at the Lasky studio some time in the near future. Harry Levey Corporation Takes Over New Studios for “Truth Productions”