Reel Life (1914-1915)

Supplement REEL LIFE Westward Ho ! With D. W. Griffith EXT to being independently wealthy, I’d rather be a motion-picture actor,” was the recent remark made by Henry Walthall, who is perhaps the most widely known screen favorite in the world. But that he was not thinking of his art or the glory of his position in the world of stardom, came to light in his next sentence when he said: “I can’t see where a millionaire has any¬ thing on me. I’m about to start for the balmy zephyrs of Southern California, where I’ll be free from the annoy¬ ance of a Winter in New York, and I’ll be guided, and, in fact, compelled to spend my time where the weather is the most glorious and where the scenery is the most beautiful.” With the falling of the leaves and the coming of the first smell of snow in the air, the motion-picture com¬ panies wend their way westward or southward, and avoid the cold and storms of Winter as carefully as do the swallows. Many of the stage directors and actors who have long been identified with the theatrical business proper, pack their trunks at about the same time of the year as they used to start “on the road” in the old days, but have the great satisfaction of knowing that, instead of a long, hard winter of frequent jumps from city to city, they will be carefully set down in the heart of some garden spot of the country, chosen because of its natural advantages of scenery and climate. Florida and Southern California have been the two most popular locations for winter studios to date, with Los Angeles and its immediate vicinity so well thought of that millions of dollars of motion-picture money are represented there by enormous plants devoted to the production of photodramas. The studios and buildings of the New York Motion Picture Company alone occupy the space of a small town, and employ more than seven hundred people, including cowboys, Indians and Japanese enough to form a small village of each. The American Film Manufacturing Com¬ pany is another large producing plant which has located in Southern California, as has also the Majestic and Reli¬ ance companies, each consisting of scores of well-known actors and directors, and each occupying large studios of importance. While the main reason for the yearly movement of the picture companies is the desire to avoid the snow and cold of winter, as well as to take advantage of the supe¬ rior photographic conditions offered by the climate, an¬ other reason is the possibilities offered for beautiful scenery and change of backgrounds for the picture dramas. Thus the theatre patrons are treated to con¬ tinued changes even in the very nature of the scenery, in which the different photoplays are enacted. It is not necessary to go East, West, South or North for any particular stage setting, as desirable as such a course might seem. A short trip from New York on a Hudson River ferryboat will suffice to give the wide¬ awake picture director any scenery that he desires and he can be back on Broadway, photographing the Flatiron Building within an hour, if his picture calls for city settings. But picture production has reached such a point of perfection that nine times out of ten it is a safe wager that a certain scene was taken at the exact spot in the exact country demanded by the action of the story. The air of confusion and excitement accompanying the movement of a large motion-picture company is con¬ spicuous by its absence, as compared with the departure of a theatrical company to the next town. Of course, there is no scenery to be loaded into special baggage cars, as in the case of a theatrical organization, and the picture people are as business-like in their actions as if they were intent upon playing outdoor scenes and the location just happened to be a train. At the departure of the great Reliance Company, which left New York recently in three divisions with Holly¬ wood, Los Angeles, as its destination, the many wellknown screen favorites strolled quietly into the depot, seemingly unconscious that they were being stared at by hundreds of people who were wondering why their faces “seemed so familiar,” and made their way quietly to their private cars. Characteristic of the art, the company members were immediately put to work upon the pic¬ tures that had been carefully prepared for staging upon the train and at the stations en route. Frank E. Woods and Russell E. Smith, of the scenario department, soon had an improvised office where photo¬ dramas for early California production could be whipped into shape during the days of travel. Directors could be seen working upon ’scripts or rehearsing scenes and camera men were busy choosing positions for their cam¬ eras, where the light would be the most effective for car scene “interiors.” The great Reliance Company must present or “release,” as they say in the studios and exchanges, so many pic¬ tures a week, and that fact, together with the enormous loss of having people who draw very large salaries idle for days at a time, makes the player-talk a very busy people. Thus, by the time Hollywood was reached, hun¬ dreds of feet of interesting scenes, all carefully thought out and staged with the utmost care by expert directors, had been prepared for the developing tanks, and would soon be ready to add to scenes alreay made in New York and others soon to be made in their winter headquarters. The Reliance plant in Hollywood is located upon the site of the former Kinemacolor plant, and consists of a factory for the handling of the film after it has left the hands of the camera man and is ready for developing and printing, as well as up-to-date studios, buildings for stage properties, carpenter shops, dressing rooms, etc. Director Griffith and his photographic expert, William Bitzer have invented new methods of taking and develop¬ ing moving pictures during several years of experimental work, and the new factory is being constructed along the line of their advanced ideas, with a view to obtaining the clear cameo effect photography, which they have finally succeeded in perfecting. A large bungalow contains the executive offices of the company, as well as the headquarters of the scenario de¬ partment under the editorship of Frank E. Woods and Russell E. Smith, The Voyager, VI.