Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood what general tint of light or dark? Thus, for every one of the scenes to be shot on the morrow the director has to decide half a dozen serious questions, as well as a number of minor ones, before the work can be properly begun. The six pieces of action must be visualized from at least six different points of view. Nor can they be considered as separate things only, but as coherent parts of the great unfinished mosaic, the final film. The conscientious and artistic director has a hard evening's work after leaving the lot. Small wonder, then, that a director's wife was seeking divorce complaining that her husband only wanted to " stay home and study nights." In the upper storey of the Technical Department were a dozen small theatres grouped together, and here each morning during the lunch interval the directors, accompanied by script-clerks and perhaps by the stars, came before lunch to review their * rushes/ These were the actual photographs of the previous day. We took our places in comfortable chairs. The darkness snapped down. " Ready? " asked the script-clerk's voice. " Right," said Von Sternberg. The image of Betty leapt into light on the distant screen. She was in bed. She turned to the night-table, hunted for a cigarette, and lit it discontentedly; her eyes swung to the left with an inquiring expression ; suddenly she was blotted out by a blackboard covered with numbers. As suddenly she reappeared, repeated the actions, was blotted out once more, to reappear and be blotted out six or seven times. That was all. On seeing this actual section of the film, detached from all sequence, we were amazed at the short length of each picture. " O.K. — two and six," said Von Sternberg. [112]