Screenland (May-Oct 1928)

too wide to permit reproduction of detail. This espedaily affects news pictures where crowds are shown, or in long shots covering considerable territory. * "Some experiments have been made in enlarging single pictures from the negative, one after another. This leads into difficulties as to proper registration of motion pic ture film, as well as the loss of photographic quality through the necessity of re-photographing too many times. The greatest handicap of all is the amount of time consumed in transmission. By the enlargement method it would take 27 times the amount of time to transmit, as is necessary in sending close-ups, such as the one transmitted from Chicago. It took nine hours to get that picture on the screen. It is obvious that the loss of time thus shown would be a grave factor, since an air mail recently made the trip from Chicago in four hours and twenty minutes. "Close-ups are rarely of use in a news reel, as they do not tell the story. A close-up is merely an illustration of a caption. Any method of transmission of motion pictures by wire to be useful to a news reel must first give detail in medium and long shots, secondly give a material saving in time over air mail delivery, afvd thirdly have good photographic quality. The methods used in the transmission of this pioneer picture from Chicago will have to be very materially simplified and improved before they will be applicable to the news reel and the handicaps are very great." Douglas MacLean, the star of the film farce Soft Cush' ions of the past season and of many another smashing success, has returned to Paramount. He just was signed by Al Christie to star in two feature productions, to be released during the coming season of 1928-29. The star made Soft Cushions with his own producing organization, but it was released by Paramount. As light comedy and farce, such as MacLean displayed in The Hottentot and Going Up is the particular forte of this star, it is likely that Christie will present him in the same type of films for the new season. The first of the new comedies is expected to be filmed next summer. Several stories and plays now are under consideration for MacLean, and the titles are expected to be selected by the first of May. The world's first hotel with an airp o r t attachment will be built by Pola Negri, according to announcements made in Los Angeles by her architect, Richard M. Bates, Jr. Plans for the novel departure in hotel and club accomodations are well under way and the $300,000 apartment' hotel which the Paramount actress will build on property in the exclusive Wilshire district is intended to provide housing space for planes of 210 tenants. The build' ing will be of six stories, with 210 rooms. Cecil B. De Mille at wor\ on The Godless Girl.' (Sh certainly the \ind of a girl that gets ta\\ed about.) Per Marley stands beside him and over at the left is Clarence Slifer, assistant cameraman and Screenland contest winner. Tsfext month he tells in Screenland how they made the picture. Under Henry King's direction, screen players lose their real life identities during the filming of a picture and become, in his eyes and mind, the actual characters they portray. Thus in The Woman Disputed, the latest Norma Talmadge vehicle for United Artists, the star and members of the supporting cast are always addressed by their character names. Miss Talmadge is "Elsie," an Austrian street girl; Gilbert Roland, leading man, is "Paul," one of her sweethearts; Arnold Kent is "Nika," the third member of the triangle, and so on for the rest of the cast. "When we are making a scene, I think of the actors in the terms of the story," says King. "They are living their roles, and I believe the director should see them only in their characters. It would never even occur to me to speak to Miss Talmadge as Miss Talmadge while we are on the set." The Woman Disputed is in the second month of production. Sam Wood, M etro Goldwyn-Mayer director, has signed a new long-term contract with that company, Louis B. Mayer announces, and will direct Norma Shearer in Ballyhoo, Beth Brown's story of carnival life, as soon as the feminine star returns from Europe. Wood has just completed He Learned About Women, starring William Haines, and his other recent pictures include The Fair Co-ed and The Latest From Paris. He has earned a reputation as a pioneer in the development of new film talent, since he directed Karl Dane and George K. Arthur in their first co-starring pictures, Rookies, brought forward Johnny Mack Brown in The Fair Co-ed and Anita Page in He Learned About Women, and is believed to have made a new 'discovery' in the person of Eddie Nugent, former property boy who recently signed a contract as featured player. * * * Staking his reputation as a showman and a film pro' ducer for fifteen years, Jesse L. Lasky, first vice president of Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation has gone on record that Anne Nichols' personally supervised film version of her famous play Abie's Irish Rose is the greatest motion picture ever made. 77