Technique of the photoplay (1916)

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CHAPTER V 13 lie er it be merely the entrance to a house or the Rocky ^Mountains. In the city location work is disliked by many directors because of the crowds that gather when the camera is set up. For this reason di-j rectors as a rule avoid scripts that call for crowded city streets. is not only difficult work to keep the crowd back, but the players get nervous and make mistakes. Some directors take a pride in doing difficult stunts, and by working their people without make-up will get the scenes in the most congested districts, working from a cab with a hole in the curtain for the camera. In this case the actors are rehearsed thoroughly before leaving the studio. 5. Locations may entail a cost all the way firom a cigar to several hundred dollars. Each must be arranged for in advance if a suit for trespass would be avoided, but usually they cost less to hire than the inside sets cost to erect and so locations are favored on account of price as well as their greater variety. . 6. A majority of production managers prefer stories to offer exteriiu;l scenes, particularly landscapes, since these are more pleasing to the frve, and some companies will refuse all stories that carry only in- terior scenes, though some demand interiors only because they can-j not well work in the open. It is rather confusing to the new writer, but in time he learns that almost any scene can be played either in- doors or out and that a good Editor will realize this and change tl>el script to suit his company without requiring the author to recon-l struct. ' (l.XXX:2 & 10> (2.LI:8) (3.XVII :3) (4.11:10). CHAPTER V THE DIRECTOR THE director or producer is the man who directs the production of a play. Usually, though not always, he is a former stage di- rector from the speaking stage, though he may have graduated from the ranks of the photoplayers. He is the autocrat of the studio because the first directors were, in their time, the only men about the place who had the slightest knowledge of stage affairs and their word was law. Succeeding directors have followed the lead of the first comers. 2. It is customary to permit the directo r to pick his own stories and / to do as he likes with them. This is because it is supposed that a director cannot make a good production from a script in which he is not interested. In a certain sense this is true, but a competent man should be able to direct the production of a play that does not appeal to him personally. Because of this tradition the director is, within certain limits, able to select scripts of the sort he wishes. Some di-