The Moving picture world (November 1925-December 1925)

December 12, 1925 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 537 OF the ScreeUy BY the ScreeUf And FOR the Screen (Continued from page 526) The Supervising Director Script is the Scenario Script, as it appears when the Supervising Director gets through with it. He weeds out conventional situations and other commonplaces. He introduces dramatically VALID procedure, ILLUMINATES the script with imaginative touches, working with the scenario writer to make the script a thing of dramatic LIFE. The Continuity Script absorbs the values shown in the Supervising Director Script, with a view of establishing a flawless and final producing script. Mr. Wisby claims that under this check-up, "exits" and "entrances," for instance, are made fool-proof. The Scenario of Scenic Effects covers everything pertaining to atmosphere, including the settings, properties, wardrobe, costume, the sets whether exterior or interior, and an index of all localities acually approved for production. Outstanding in this script are the sequences lending themselves to CREATIVE INTERPRETATION in settings and staging on original lines. As Mr. Wisby puts it :— "Instead of merely REPRODUCING the interior of a cathedral which anyone can do, the Director of Scenic Effects CREATES a stylistic motif expressing the particular ecclesiastical note wanted. The setting is built around that note interpretatively. NOTHING is copied or imitated or reproduced. A stylistic creation has been made, which may be counted upon to produce a far more VIVID and ENDURING impression than mere mechanical reproduction of something made for an entirely different purpose." The sequences in the script which lend themselves to this treatment are blocked out and directions given on which the Director of Scenic Effects may intelligently go to work. The Scenario of Special Cinematography is given to the Director of Cinematography. In this script the Supervising Director has visualized certain novel effects in lighting and photography. It gives the camera artist a chance to think over his OWN problem—an original conception of photography for interpreting the action of the drama. It encourages him to BROADEN and DEEPEN the suggestions made. The Master Scenario is a portfolio into which arc poured the production values of the preceding scripts. Only one scene is described on a page. Under it are affixed the supplementary values pointing to that one scene from the five other scripts. This information is supplied in the briefest form possible, the object being to furnish the Director of Cast and the Supervising Director with a COMPLETELY ORGANIZED conception of each scene on one portfolio page. Here then, is a brief outline of the Wisby Plan of production. A plan in which NOTHING is left to CHANCE, but in which a GREAT DEAL is left to the IMAGINATION and the INDIVIDUAL TALENT of ALL the units entering into harmonious execution of the plan AT the moment of actual production. Wisby is the first rcgisscur — pardon ! — ALL THE LLOYDS AT 0-NCE—Sure! Mildred Hams {Mrs. Lloyd) and the tiny Miss Gloria Lloyd {center), with Mrs. Mildred (at left) getting back into films after three years in '^Behind the Front" and Harold himself (at right) —he's mislaid his "specs," he's working so hard on "For Heaven's Sake" — and both stars and pictures are under Paramount banner. Supervising Director who has methodized every element of production and "housed" them in a system, technically known as a Regi^. The New York Times in a two-column editorial, "Pictures First" said of the Wisby Plan : — "Hrolf Wisby certainly gives one the impression that he could do a great deal with the underlying idea if he had the chance. Anyhow, the idea is good. It is SOUND and CINEMATOGRAPHIC." We talk a great deal about the German system of production. The Plan which Wis by has perfected dates ahead of the German studio system. And it goes, too, beyond it. Executives of several producing companies are now examining into the Wisby Plan. It would be a treat to see this man take the oldest and most hackneyed theme in the world and treat it in a picture along ORIGINAL, CREATIVE lines. (Another instalment of "OF the Screen, BY the Screen and FOR the Screen" will appear in Moving Picture World next week.) Who Is Hrolf Wishy? WHO is Hrolf Wisty, the Dane, of whose Plan of Picture | Production these articles treat? Hrolf Wisby is a broadly ^ educated, widely travelled author and connoisseur, who gave ^ up his Danish title, Baron Dewitz, and Grand Ducal Chamberlain honors j to become an American citizen. He spent more than sixteen years in g exploration, travel and as an officer of the Royal Danish Navy he cir S cumnavigated the world with Prince Valdemar, the nephew of the late | Queen Mother of England. He was the mess-mate and boyhood chum of Prince Karl of Denmark, who became King Haakon VII of Norway. 3 Hrolf Wisby invented, together with Capt. R. E. Scott, U. S. A., not only the aerial torpedo, but the battle-aeroplane, the most decisive ^ factor in the World War. Previously, in 1904, on a special tour of g the United States, he introduced an improved system of business man j agement, which later on became known, and was widely imitated, as efficiency science. P He is the author of "War's New Weapons," the first technical volume on the World War, prefaced by Hudson Maxim, who considers it the most valuable book on the subject. He was Supervising Director for Mme. Oda, prima of the Royal Danish Theatre, and for Mile. I'Aerolia, the Belgian diva. He made "Diana," a three-reel picture in which none but amateurs appeared, first shown as the feature attraction at the New York Mark Strand, and which earned in excess of 800 per cent of its cost. He supervised "Daughter of Destiny," in which Olgra Petrova appeared for First National the first time. A lifetime of study and travel ; seven years of close application to the arts and sciences, from the PICTURE viewpoint ONLY — after years of WORKING study of the screen; these are PARTS welded into the Wisby Plan of Production, presented in a series of articles, beginning herewith. As you will see, the background which Mr. Wisby possesses Is essential to the highly organized Plan which ' he has perfected. Mlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliiiilliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^