Picture Show (Nov 1919-Apr 1920)

22 The Piclurt Show', December 27?/,. 1919. YOUR EDITOR REPLIES. MAKING BRITISH PHOTO-PLAYS. FILMS THAT HAVE IMPRESSED YOU. The present year, already nearing its end, has witnessed a new infusion of effort in the film industry. With the passing of the four years and more o? the world war, there appeared with the dawn of 1919 the prospect of a brighter future. And not the least welcome indication of this latter has been the release of new British films (and the production of others not yet seen by the public), which brought some of our own artistes prominently to the front, and also added to the reputation of the British producer. To these pictures must be added, of course, the larger proportion of those not made in this country, but which have helped considerably to the nation's entertainment. It is possible that some of these films, British as well as American, will be remembered after this year, for it has been proved that the motion-picture, like literature, makes its impression. It is not unusual for people to inquire to-day about films that were shown several years ago. None but they can tell why those particular films should still interest them, and the fact that they do shows the permanent impression such pictures must have made. And so it may be that some of the films of the past twelve months will remain pictured, for some time yet, in the memory of those to whom they have appealed. Doubtless you have been specially struck by some of these pictures, and though your choice may differ from that of hundreds of others, it will only be because the films which have impressed you most have made some direct appeal to your taste. The settings in one may have been superb, while the story in another may have interested you deeply because of its excellence. There will be other reasons, of course, besides these two, why some of the photo-plays of 1919 will be remembered by you long after the re3t have been forgotten. The names of the former and, if not too many, your reasons stated in the fewest possible words, are what I should like to have, if you care to write them down. THE EDITOR. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENT;. Will readers kindly remember that, owing to the fact that this paper goes to press a considerable time before publication, letters cannot be answered in the next issue ? A stamped and addressed envelope must accompany any letter requiring an immediate answer by post. Address : ' The Editor, "The Picture Show," The Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, E.C. 4. " Maeoterite " (Salop). — Pleased to know your real name now. and so this time you will be more fortunate . Dpugfcts Iairbanks is marrijd Will net you particulars of Neat Hart and Milton sills later; A. N. (Plymouth). — Nigel Barrie was born in Calcutta, India, and is just an inch over G feet. Ray Godfrey is twenty-three, and was born in Oregon, she began her public appearance as an acrobat on (be stage. " Day at School," and " Dreamy Night " are two of her films. S. S. (Edinburgh). — I note you present all your bouquets to British artistes, like Alma Taylor, Henry l.dwards, Violet Hopsod (there is no " b " in her name), Stewart Rome, and Gerald Ames. Yes "The Cobweb " is fine. Will E. W. (London. V..), who was answered in the issue for November 8th, 1019, kindly forward bis name and address to this office ? M. Wr. (East London, S.A.). — You are going to be an actress one day and have decided ahead} thai \our professional name shall be " Kitty Ray." ' Well, that's something for a start. No, I do not know of any artiste of that name, although there are other Kays and also Kittys. E. N. I). (Shepherd's Bush). — A keen admirer. I note, of William S. Hart. An art plat of him was given away with the issue for October 11th. •' Isoheli.e " (Glasgow). — Cheeky ? Of course you are not. And such a modest request, too. Bessie Barriscale was born in 1891. "James" (Ashington). — You are "some" artist. Jimmy. Your drawing showing .me driving a quill pen at a roll-top desk with a grinning office boy near l>y made me smile. Virginia Pearson was bom in Louisville, Kentucky, and measures 5 ft. 7{ in. in height. She is at present in America. G. V. K. (Aberdeen). — Here's my hearty thanks for the sixteen new readers you have secured. You have done splendidly. Mae Marsh has auburn hair and grey eyes. Is that all you want to know » You are modest. "Harold" (Canterbury).— Giace Valentine has blond • hair and blue eyes. Springlield. Ohio is the place where she was born twenty-seven years ago. Phyllis Villiers played in " Women Who Win." "J. P. ('." (Bombay).— Yes. 1 do receive letters from the East, and am grateful to you for recommending this piper to all the cinema-goingpeople vou know. Who are my favourite stars » Well, jot dow n the names of all the artistes you like best and then add the ones you have left out. Francis Ford and Monroe Salisbury are keeping the information rdu want a secret tor the present, but just leave it to nie, and I will And out. Mae Haunray is married to Kobert Leonard. You visit the cinema lour times i Witk, That won't do vou anv barm. J-:. R. (London, N.W.). —Phil BlcCullotlgh and Tom Moore exactly alike, you say '. No, they are not {Continued on pane 24 J ¥ HAVE already tried to help my readers I to see something of tbo wonders and romance of the making of a film ; but so far I have touched only on those things that, while they aro essential to the making of a cinematograph picture, are adjuncls to the one central object of perhaps the greatest importance— I mean the camera. It is a little difficult to talk of so wonderful a piece of mechanism as a cinematograph camera without using highly technical terms, and yet the wonder and the beauty of this part of the trade, in which I am interested, is so great tliat I want if I can to convey something of the feeling of almost awe that it is capable of inspiring. And yet any possessor of a snap-shot box-camera has the real potential power of tbo film-camera in his or her hands. There is no mystery about it, there is gimp]} development. Never Look at the Camera. IN the first place it is necessary to realise that a camera has only one eye, and that, i? the lens ; but that one eye is the colleelive eye of a picture palace audience. When an actor or actress first faces a camera in a studio there is one most important rule they have to grasp, and that is — never look at the camera — the reason being that when the picture was shown they would apparently be looking straight into the eyes of every man and woman in front of them, and would so create-a most weird and .unpleasant effect. This is really a most difficult rule to observe for beginners, and 1 have seen a really great stage actor commit this unpardonable sin when first facing a camera, and so ruin many feet of film. There is some fatal attraction about the small wooden case on its tripod and the moving hand of the camera-man turning the crank, and I have known a producer, in desperation at last, stop the picture and make some member of his "crowd " come and look at the camera all over — touch it if they liked — so long as th.y could promise that they never wanted to look at it again ! What Flicker Is. THERE is one thing that is often asked by people interested in films, and that is how it was that in the early clays moving pictures had a torturing flicker the whole time they were running, and it is prettv generally supposed that cameras have been vastly improved of later years. A= a matter of fact it is a very simple device that has removed this disadvantage, and that is what is technically termed a " shutter." The key to the difficulty was the " persistence of vision " in the human eye, which means that the eye holds a picture for a longer space of time than it actually sees it. In other words, on a film one picture is shown every sixteenth of a second, but each picture is only seen for the thirty second part of a second, for the rest of the time the picture is coming and going. Nevertheless, the picture remains imprinted on the retina until the next one' comes to take its place, and it was the rapidly-moving line where each picture finished and the next one began that gave the old-time flickering effect which was so distressing. Nowadays, both in a camera and a projecting machine, there is a rapidly rotating shutter that passes in front of the lens once between each two pictures' taken, in tln~ way fading out and fading in (be going and coming pic! urc. greatest mystery, among many, to the outside public, a rid that is the '" doubling" of parts by one man or woman. The picture we give here of Miss Edna Fluginth, grown-up. looking at herself when twelve years of age, is an excellent example of uhal we mean. This is in the picture just completed at the Loudon Film Company s studio of ' The Pursuit of Pamela." and in it the actress at a stressful moment ot her life looks back at the child she had once been. The whole thing is of course worked by " double exposure," The first step is to fit on to the front of the camera a " light shade." On the front of this shade, running in slots, are two little metal shut ■ ters running from either side and meeting very exactly in the middle. When the camera man begins to take his picture one of these shutters is drawn back, and so leaves exactly the half of the picture exposed for working on. Tbo camera-man threads bis film most carefully into bis machine, and where the beginning of the picture is to be taken, with a pencil be. marks the lit lie piece of film exposed in the frame that grips it ready for taking. From then as he turns his crank he counts most carefully just how many revolutions he makes until the producer holds up his band for a halt. Say eighty revolutions have been made — and each revolution means one tiny perfect photograph Miss Flugrath will have risen from a chair, rested her hand upon a table, and turned and looked at where she will presently be seen a h child on the other side of the film. The aefress has worked entirely on the right hand side of the "set," and the shutter on the right ot tiecamera has been drawn back, leaving that bah of the film exposed. A Quick Change. WHEN the eighty revolutions have thus been made and the grown-up Pamela taken, the camera-man closes his shutters and reverses the winding of the film and counts back eighty revolutions of the crank, opens his machine to see that his pencil mark is once again in place in the frame. He then opens the shutter on the left of the camera and is ready to start again. Miss Flugrath by this time has metamorphosed herself into a Srn iH girl of twelve and is ready at the left of the stage, to play the happy, light-hearted child on whom the grown-up Pamela looks back regretfully from the other side of the film. T A Film Mystery Explained. HK HK is one kind of camera work in films EDNA FLUGRATH, grown up, looking at herself when twelve yer.rs that is probably the ot age. A mystery explained in the article above