Truth About Youth (Warner Bros.) (1930)

The Campaign In This Sheet Is Sui Be A Showman And Make Shou ONE CIGARETTE ASH ISN’T MUCH, BUT IT WRECKED A SCENE, AND IT COST — OUCH! (Feature) On the expense budget of every picture there is an item, tacked on the very end of the long list of expenditures, that reads, ‘‘ Miscellaneous . .. 0%.’’ Five per cent is a whole lot of money, especially when a production’s cost runs to half a dozen figures, and yet it is seldom that a director is so fortunate as to keep his incidental expenses within that allowance. Where, as producers so often and loudly demand, does that money go to? And how ean it be saved? Answering the last question first, it can’t be saved. The money that rolls its merry way through the “Miscellaneous” item of the budget is money spent on “the human education,” an element that mere humans have never quite been able to eliminate. With all the experts and technicians’ that surround the director, with all the eare and forethought that is used in preparing each stage of the production, there still is never a production that is completed without having exhausted at least half of the five per cent “Miscellaneous” costs. An example of the complications that cannot be foreseen by the most astute of directors is an incident that happened on the set of “The Truth About Youth,” the First National picture which is coming next week to the Theatre. It seems a night club sequence was being shot. This particular bit involved Conway Tearle and Loretta Young seated at a small table on one. side of the room while the camera shot past them, clear across a hundred diners, to where Myrna Loy was singing on a raised dais. Tearle and Miss Young were to be heard in a conversation that was to last almost three minutes, and all the time the camera was to catch that alley of diners eating and Miss Loy singing. This is a fairly difficult shot for several reason. There are so many persons in the camera-eye that the chances for a misstep are very great. Very important is the fact that a shot such as this is so detailed that the director cannot see any errors until the negative is developed. And, most important, this is not one of the shots that ean be taken and retaken with no-~-other pains or expense except the time involved, which is what is usually done, even with crowd shots. In the three minutes that the camera is on the hundred diners many things happen. The consumption of food is something, but not very much; the important thing is that the sequence was planned so that three minutes finds a definite ‘change on the various tables. The art director lays out just so many tables with celery in an upright vase, just so many tables with flowers on one side, just so many tables with lamps whose shades are flat to the camera, and during. the “You Think You Can Get Away With Anything Because You’re A Man’’ —Hasn’t a Girl ANY Chance?_ Times “The Widow From Chicago”’ with||LORETTA YOCU NG CONWAY TEARLE DAVID MANNERS A FIRST NATIONAL & VITAPHONE PICTURE What chance has a girl in love when a sexflashing cutie goes after her man? Do _ the ““snappiest” girls get the best husbands? Every parent knows the truth about youth—but none dare tell it! THEATRE ng WILES AGA NST ANOTye BEGIN TOMC A First National & Vitaphone fF three minutes just so many diners break so many sticks ef celery, are served with the next course, move the lamps, or do any of the thousand things that only directors can think of to denote realism. To repeat a shot like this is costly. Food, as has been said, would amount to little in comparison; but setting at least seventyfive of the hundred diners in the exact positions they occupied before, the time—expensive, costly time,— required to reset the scene while a hundred $10 a day extras dawdle about, all make for a situation that is not the cheapest way out. A much better idea is to rehearse the scene over and over again until it is perfect, without eating or up setting any of the props, and when everything runs to the director’s taste, commence shooting. This is the formula and this is what William A. Seiter, who directed “The Truth About Youth,” did. Finally, after two hours of straightening and smoothing of edges, the company was able to run through the three minutes without a noticeable hitch. Came the shot. Three bells for silence, a ghastly hush over the set, the piano began its accompaniment and Myrna Loy began to. sing. Loretta Young and Conway Tearle spoke their lines: MISS YOUNG—Call me Phyllis... It’s perfectly thrilling meeting you. Whatever can a wonderful person like you see in an old dry-as-dust like that? CONWAY TEARLE—Dry as gold dust. By this time Myrna Loy has reached the second verse, the cue for Tearle to reach into his lower vest pocket and draw out his silver cigarette case. He opens it at the third line of the second verse, takes a cigarette, taps it on the table and puts it in his mouth. A waiter lights it, and he puffs deeply. Cigarettes burn fast and presently Tearle has a nice ash on his ciga mas (rette. He flicks it carelessly, as per script. It remains He mustn’t flick i of attracting atten continues smoking. CONWAY TEARLE flattering me. MISS YOUNG—No cere. Tearle flicks the The ash, never havi to ash trays, remai: time it is almost hz No one in the audie Miss Young or Tear they would gaze e1 half inch cigarett: from Tearle’s lips. Desperately, Tear puff to loosen the quarter of an inch ] is hard. Nothing : remains. Director Seiter i tears. “Cut, cut,” good money after rush over to Tearle, ping his cigarette, | lodging the ash. Ii through the center some joker has inser Either at the fac hardly possible sine handled by machine: package was opened, doesn’t remember ¥ his cigarette case. I _{the case full, even three spaces are opé¢ case anywhere, at ho on the set, or in the Who placed that te cigarette. No one k Practical joke, or must be shot again hours to reset the s extras at ten dollar ing around smoking have ashes that dc overhead constantly Seiter gnashing his t time the producer i the studio head in h “Don’t tell me, 5 much to lay out f expense. Let them re-F ire. vuman Profits! ith Lovely Loretta YOUNG CONWAY TEARLE DAVID MANNERS IS Cut No. 27 Cut 60¢ RROW Mat 15¢ icture on the cigarette! t again for fear tion to it, so he IN TROUBLE? —I think you’re , ’m really sin cigarette again. ig heard of ashes as firm. By this ilf an inch long. nee would watch le or Myrna Loy, iraptured at the 3 ash dangling le takes a deep ash; it grows a onger. He flicks stirring, the ash s practically in no use sending bad. They all who is still tapput still not dis; develops that of the cigarette ted a toothpick. tory, which is e everything is ry, or since the . Tearle himself then he refilled [le always keeps when two or m. He fills the me, at the club, } dressing room. othpick in that nows even now. Loretta Young is here shown in a pose from ‘‘The Truth About Youth’’ the First National and Vitaphone hit due not, the scene At least two tage, a hundred 's a day standcigarettes that ) drop off, the mounting up, eeth, and all the 8 arguing with is private office, percent is too jr miscellaneous be carefull!” at the Theatre .... Featured with her in this drama of youth’s ideals are David Manners (you remember him in ‘‘Journey’s End’’), Conway Tearle, Myrna Loy and a host of others. It’s a First National and Vitaphone Picture. Cut No. 10 Cut 15¢ Mat 5c Page Nine