The Moving picture world (September 1923-October 1923)

m Selling thePicTuRE to the Public EDITED BY EPES WINTHROP SARGENT Production Requirements Are Simple and Within the Reach of Small Time LAST week we printed an expression of our belief that an increase in the production idea would be the outstanding feature of the coming season, and before the matter appeared in print, a letter from Trinidad as'<ed for some book on the subject. Evidently the realization that something more than film is required is more widely spread than we realized. We could think of nothing in the way of a book that could give any help, so we wrote a letter instead, and we are repeating the main points here in the belief that it may help others to realize that "production" does not comprehend an extensive staff and an elaborate outlay. Need Not Be Costly Some time ago we published a story about M. A. Kadow, of Manitowoc, Wis. Mr. Kadow, you may recall, reduced the production idea to its simplest form. He had a black cyclorama drop for his small stage, and this was the foundation of all his sets. If he wanted a seascape he pinned a couple of ships to the drop, a few trees gave him a forest and a pair of potted plants suffices for a garden. It was almost as elemental as the Elizabethan drama, but it pleased his patrons, and with home talent his productions gave real satisfaction. A pair of baby spots were his illuminants, and Mr. Kadow added that too strong an illumination was apt to confuse his amateur stars. They seemed to feel greater confidence on a stage not too brilliantly lighted. Start Slowly Perhaps this may strike the small house manager as being a little too elemental, but in any event care should be taken not to start in on too large a scale. It is far better to start in a small way and work up gradually to a larger production than to open with a big presentation and drop to something more within the limits of reasonable expense. Mr. Kadow's scheme is good, but we like better the device often used by Edward L. Hyman, who works with scrim instead of black. Black is a little too sombre, but with scrim you can produce some wonderful light effects. If scrim is too costly, you can star: with cheesecloth. It is not as good, but will serve at a pinch. The scrim should not he tightly stretched, but should hang in soft folds, not too close together. But "soft folds" does not mean regular pleats. If you have any trouble, perhaps the window dresser in some store will help you, or even the dressmaker. The scrim or cheesecloth is merely the canvas. You must light it up, and you should have two or more spots or floods, with plenty of colored medium. Where only two are used, they should be placed either side of the stage, with the spot from the projection room helping out. The mediums can be all one color, but it is better to use contrasting colors, and often you ca'i better an effect by shooting the lights across the stage, lighting the left hand from the right and playing the left hand spot on the right hand side, with the front light cutting through. This yields a better blending. Try Some Experiments If more than two stage lights are available, you can work even four colors, but train your lamps so that you do not get four squares of color. Blend them into each other. You can even cut up torn mediums so as to get strips of four or more into a single frame, and get wonderfully pretty mixed effects. The best way to arrive at effects is through experiment. We have already told how Mr. Hyman holds lengthy light rehearsals, experimenting with all sorts of combinations of colors and placement. Whenever a striking effect is achieved, the position of the lamps and the colors is carefully noted. As a result, when a production is being staged he has only to refer to his memoranda and find the effect he wants. This done, it is merely a matter of telling the crew to "Use 28" or whatever the number of that effect may be, the effects being copied in duplicate for the stage manager, the electrician and the carpenter. Building Up If money permits, doors and windows can be made or bought and these can be set into the scrim drop. A French window in the center is effective, and can be simply made of batten. Potted plants and pedestals, garden benches and furniture, piano lamps and statuettes all help to dress the set when they can be acquired, and gradually balustrades, garden walls, fences and the like can be added. Five dollars this week and three the next will cut no especial figure on the expense sheet, but at the end of the year the property room will be far better filled. Still more ambitious is the cyclorama of cloth of gold. This can be lighted with wonderful effect, hut wait until you can afford good material. Nothing is worse than cheap cloth that will tarnish to black in a few weeks. A drop of tinsel ribbons will serve in the meantime. Real Scenery Real scenery will run costs up. but if you have a carpenter you can work out good effects at comparatively small cost, with set cottages, and the like, but when you build, do not build with just one setting in mind. Plan all your flats and flippers to work interchangeably. Never build a set that cannot be made to work in with your other sets. Plan for a general interchange and you can ring a variety of changes. J. Waldere Kirk, once known as King of the Dudes, confessed to this writer in the heydey of his fame that his reputation was built upon half a dozen suits and a couple of dozen fancy vests. He worked the changes and was credited with owning a hundred suits. Plan your scenery on the same lines and get credit for a better filled dock than you possess. You can pull a surprising number of set pieces from old 24-sheets. Varnish them with" dammar varnish and they will last even better than paint. Stage Lighting In addition to your spots you are going to need strip and border lights. Have a set of foots with white lights on one circuit and red and blue on others. On a trough wide enough for thirty lights use IS white, seven red and eight blue, then experiment with mixing these colors. The blue can stay on for the white lighting to take off the yellow. Have a strip of lights either side of the proscenium, and one or two rows of borders at the top. If possible have borders in XF«rW ™ ~ APPEAL TO A MILLION PERSONS FOR ASHES OF VENGEANCE A WINDOW STUNT THAI Talmadge, Conway Tearle, and other, in Ashe, of Vengeance was made in This double window display of costume. ^ won, by «™ ' o«,; . b|ock and . h.,f from where the picture wa. being .hown at the window of Stern Brothers, on W est *°r*y-™ particular dre.. or doublet in u.e. Thi. doe. not .how in the the Apollo. Each co.tume wa. '"PP^^^'l/Slo the intere.t of nearly a million per.on..