Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

Motion Picture Research Clive of hidia" The theatre belonged to the film company concerned and the number could be used. In one recent picture the Lamda Chi fraternity was mentioned. Since this is the name of a fraternity, Kappa Chi was devised. In the same college film, the locale was obviously a college in California. The names of the professors and the students at all California colleges were checked so that each name used in the picture would be fictitious. A Miss Fiske, for example, became a Miss Luke. Miss Luke is a studio secretary who signed a waiver giving the film concern the full right to use her name. Precautions of this sort are obviously necessary. Research for great costume pictures often becomes a matter of careful selection from a great bulk of material. Before costumes and sets were prepared for David Copperfield, photostatic copies were made of six thousand different illustrations of the period. Preliminary to the making of Romeo and Juliet, a research expert brought back from Europe nearly ten thousand photographs of paintings, frescoes, and building details. For one story of slave-trade days, more than three hundred reference books were read. These facts are so plain that it is not necessary to emphasize further how important it is to understand the science of film research. Understanding its function is a prelude to the correct appreciation of a fine modern photoplay. It provides employment to many people. Scholarship is not, as some would believe, limited to professions with established traditions. The details which the research department supply are the results of [87]