Screenland (Nov 1929-Apr 1930)

for March 19 3 0 123 Color Makes the Form Go Round Continued from page 25 have advanced as far in color photography as they moved in black and white in ten. By expert use of color, Mrs. Kalmus points out, the producers are getting the effect of a third dimension on the screen. Sometimes by accident, now more often by design, you see a technicolor sequence that is truly stereoscopic. The figures ■stand out, round and real. The background falls away from the figures. A few more trials, a few more errors, and every technicolor scene will be like that. It is a matter of shades and shadows, tricking your eye into an illusion of roundness and depth. Edward Stevenson, in charge of costuming for First National, has gone far in painting curves on costumes to give depth. "Fitting the form, now," he says, "is only half of the job. We are using color to create an illusion of the third dimension. And when we get that effect we are able to do anything we choose with figures. We can cut the curves and make a star slender or we can let them run wide and add fifty pounds." No longer can a star wear outside the studio all the gowns she has used in a picture. Gowns now are made up with the same skill as faces and the beautiful lacy costumes in pastel shades that made Marilyn Miller stand out, a dainty, slender figure, in "Sally," would look something like a camouflaged battleship if worn at the Biltmore. Colors in contrast, shading, strength here, weakness there, handled expertly by the artists and cameramen give the effect of actual perspective, and the figure that in black and white was flat against a background now stands out as if seen through a stereoscope. Colleen Moore's slender figure needed roundness and more than a hint of voluptuousness for "Footlights and Fools," and technicolor, with painted costumes, gave it to her. Shadows and highlights bring various effects. As dark make-up under a chin takes age from the throat and streaks on the cheeks add years — tricks that remodel the face — so does the designer lay colors on a gown or stockings or shoes to bring an appearance of curves or angles or thinness or weight. Just any fabric won't do, in getting these effects. Several Eastern mills have prepared special dyes and textures — technicolor blue, technicolor lavender, etc, they call them — which perform under lights exactly the job that the designers wish. Some fabrics die under cross lights, some jump out at you with shades you never suspected they had in them. The job of the color staffs, these days, is to harness these bucking colors and to use their eccentricities to the best advantage. When a color jumps back — that's the one to use on a background. A color that leaps forward — put that, of course, in front. And there you have perspective. It's not quite as simple as all that, unfortunately, but that's the general idea. In "No, No, Nanette," Bernice Claire needed to be made almost chubby, when she was the little Dutch dancing girl. Color added ten pounds and took two inches off her height. White girls by the proper use of color were given Oriental face and figures in Richard Barthelmess' "Son of the Gods." The costumer also must make his colors fit the moods of the story. In Paramount's "The Vagabond King," warm colors were used for situations of happiness and with tragedy came the menace of bright scarlet and deep black. The art department must color its sets to fit into the mood of the scene. Rich blue and gold are used in "The Vagabond King" for suggestions of cold majesty, and somber grays and browns for the gallows and for the meaner sections of Paris. The old ideas of make-up are thrown aside for technicolor. While it wouldn't do to go to a party, in many instances, in a gown made up for technicolor, your technicolor face probably would do rather well. John Collins, make-up artist for Paramount, is one of the pioneers in color make-up. He has taught the actors to use mascara and grease paint sparingly, so that they look like human beings, rather than dolls. Some actors with ruddy or dark skins are able to work entirely without make-up. George Bancroft and Jack Oakie, for instance. Dennis King requires only a thin coating of light grease paint, and Jeanette MacDonald could go right from the studio stage to the theater and not touch a tint. Lillian Roth, as the vagabond maid in "The Vagabond King," needed dark hues, because of her characterization, as did Warner Oland, as the villain. Lawrence Tibbett, in making "The Rogue Song" for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, found, with Lionel Barrymore, the director, many opportunities to blend harmony with color. Spring songs are enhanced by spring colors. For dramatic songs, somber hues are used. Color puts the audience into the proper mood even before the first notes of the song are heard. Every department in the studio is effected by color, just as it was by sound. Color is making new material available. For instance, Universal, in its Paul Whiteman picture, "The King of Jazz," is to stage George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, in blue. It's a job that would fall flat in black and white. As the various departments in the studios learn the knack of color, new effects are certain to appear in every new technicolor picture. Anything is possible in motion pictures. Perhaps someday a producer may need an elephant, when no elephant is available, and his clever color experts will take a camel and color him up until you can't tell him from Jumbo. Why not? Hollywood, I Love You — Continued from page 19 said. 'I know,' she said. 'That's what had just got a memorandum to try white, worries me.' maybe it would photograph yellow." "Well, of course, I knew I was pretty "How did you like Hollywood, really?" 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