Pictorial beauty on the screen (1923)

FIXED PATTERNS 63 of design to weave places into a definite unity with persons, things, and action. Let us see how this problem has been met in the cabin scene of "The Spell of the Yukon," facing page 28, which, in spite of the too conspicuous window, already spoken of, has a rather successful pictorial arrangement. For the sake of experiment, this "still" may be analyzed by making a simple drawing, as in the sketch facing page 28. We see that the design consists essentially of an oval shape surrounded by rectangles. The rectangles may be seen in the lines of the window, the bunk, the table, etc. The oval, which includes all of the dramatic action, may be traced from the boy's head, down the boy's arm to the man's right knee and leg, up the man's left hand, arm, and shoulder to his head, and thence across to the boy's head again. In the center of this oval is the hand holding a pipe and making a telling gesture in the story. This oval design, taken by iself, is an excellent composition. The lines furnish easy paths for the eye, and bind the boy and man together into a dramatic unity. There is, to be sure, only an imaginary line between the faces of the man and the boy, but that imaginary line is nevertheless as vivid as any visible thing in the picture. In fact, the break in the visible part of the oval serves to arrest our attention upon the faces for a moment every time our glance swings through the oval pattern. Leading toward this oval are the straight lines of the bunk and the table, thus serving to give unity and force. But the lines of the window make an isolated pattern which, instead of leading one's eye toward the dramatic focus, does just the opposite. The