Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood A spick young man stood forward between the actors and cameras with a blackboard in his hand. N.G. in white letters was inscribed on it. The cameras whirred half a turn. " You didn't get that quite right, Betty. Give it less action. Very quiet, see. What I mean is . . ." The scene was shot again and again, half a dozen times before the autocrat was satisfied. " That'll do. Wrap it up," he grunted. " Did you hear him, ' wrap it up ' ? " said Ornitz to us. "I have a theory about the phrase. That is the way all directors express their satisfaction at a piece of work. I maintain that it comes from the cloak-and-suit business which has provided us with so many of our first and most successful promoters. " While the cameras were being moved in for a * close-up ' the director stretched himself and greeted Ornitz. Betty Compson and Bancroft came out of the glare, their places being taken by two other actors, dressed as they were and resembling them superficially. These were the doubles. The assistant camera-man extended a tape-measure from the lens to their noses. The focus was adjusted. Von Sternberg was one of the younger, more advanced directors. He had ambitions. Not content merely to tell stories, sequently pictured in appropriate situations, he strove to make them also works of calculated art. In other words, he had ideals. He also wished to raise the tone of the movies. His hair indicated this. It was a carefully unkempt Whistlerian shock, though lacking the famous white lock. But a successful director is not able to be too consistently artistic, and the whole of his person indicated, by stages, a certain blend of interests in his make-up. If the hair was artistic the face was keenly business and practical ; his rough tweed Norfolk jacket was sportive ; his fat walking-cane betokened a dash [82]