Technique of the photoplay (1916)

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CHAPTER III 11 six feet, is the front line. As the closer an object is to the camera the larger the image, and as this image rapidly decreases in size as it is moved from the lens, it is the object of the director to bring his players down to the front line when they are shown in an image so large that every detail of expression can be noted. For practical purposes the photographic stage is but six feet wide and four to six feet deep, no matter how much more may be included in the scene. The so-called French stage sets the front line further back so that the feet and head of a player standing on the front line are both within the angle of the camera. On the American stage the lower part of the legs of a player standing on the front line is not shown. Erecting the camera and determining just what is to be included in the field of the lens is termed making a set-up. 9. Most studios also have a costume room where unusual articles of dress are supplied for the use of the players, who are supposed to have a complete modern wardrobe as part of their personal equip- ment, but who are not required to have police uniforms and similar dress. Here special costumes are made, though most of the wardrobe not regularly in use is hired from the tlieatrical costumers. 10. The property room is supposed to have on hand or to obtain anything required for dressing the scene or for use in the play in outdoor locations. The property staff is distinct from the stage staff. These latter set the scenes, forming the walls of the room with doors, windows and stairways. Wherever there is an opening in the wall a backing is used. This is a flat that shows either another room in perspective or the landscape seen through a window. Then the property man and his assistants set down the rugs, hang the pictures and place the furniture under the direction of the director or his assistant. All of the scenes in one set are made at one time and then the set is struck or taken down and another put in its place. 11. Most studios have more than one stage, and in some of the larger plants fifty or sixty sets may be put in position at once and two or three may be assigned a director who must work several people in each of these sets in different costumes. Having all the sets up avoids constant changing of costume. 12. Not all interior scenes are made in the studio. Sometimes it is easier to take portable lighting apparatus and make the scenes in actual interiors than to endeavor to reproduce these places in scenery. With the constantly increasing improvement in portable lights this device is being more and more resorted to. This aids the author in that it increases the range of scenes he may obtain without undue expense, but this should not lead him to the excessive use of machine shops and similar places, for the temporary installation of the lighting system is costly and to be figured upon. (6.XXX:.3) (7.V:4) (9.XVU-A0) OO.XXX :24).