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17
Movie Magic
oped by the Germans, are effects on the screen which been possible.
Addison Elliott
has entailed long, painstaking work, often with inadequate results, because of differences in timing, lighting, and the like.
Miniatures have long been used in making motion pictures, but mainly for scenes in which no figures are shown, such as a ship rolling in a storm at sea, or for the tops of tall buildings. The towers of the cathedral set in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" were enlarged miniatures. But the lower part of the cathedral, in front of which the actors performed, had to be built in life size. But Schuefftan can make any kind of combination of miniature and reality ; he can project a photograph of clouds moving over a mountain on a model of a landscape before which there is a real waterfall !
The pictures on this page, which are taken from Ufa's "The Wonders of the Universe," give some hint of the immense possibilities of this invention in removing all limitations upon the imagination of man in devising stories for the screen. In this film, a group of scientists invent a gyroscopic flying machine which is able to leave the earth and travel to other planets. Here they find huge giants, and the sequences in which the earth dwellers and giants appear together are made with a single exposure, the giant being an ordinary man, whose reflection is enlarged by mirrors, and the others, being men whose reflections are diminished in size by other mirrors.
Eugen Schuefftan, the inventor of the process, worked upon the invention for four years before considering it to be sufficiently perfected to show to producers. It was at once
"The Wonders of the Universe" still further illustrate the Schuefftan process. In the scene above, where the earth dwellers have come upon a giant on another planet, the action was filmed in a single operation, giving a much better result than double exposure. The scene below, showing the gyroscopic airship leaving the earth, is another example of the use of a small model for the setting.
taken over by Ufa, and as soon as they had demonstrated its value, the American; rights were purchased by Carl Laemmle for Universal. It will soon be in operation in Universal City, and it is not unlikely that the use of the process will be rented out to other American producers.
The other process, which Laemmle also procured in Germany, and which is being developed in Universal City, is quite as remarkable in its possibilities, if in actual use it comes up to expectations. Briefly, as stated before, it consists of the use of automatons representing human figures, much smaller than life size, which will be operated by electricity so as to move their arms, legs, and heads in lifelike manner. These movements will be controlled by radio, so that no wires will be needed, and as the different ones will have different controls, they will not all work together. For huge mobs, it will be readily seen how valuable this device will be, for only a few of these figures will be needed, as, by the Schuefftan process, they can be multiplied indefinitely. Continued on page 115