Technique of the photoplay (1916)

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CHAPTER XL 195 the only example in two pages of script that smacks in any way of shop stuff and it is used merely because it best explains the effect he desires. Had Mr. Lang not been the head of the script staff at the time this was written; had he been writing from the outside, he might have omitted even this. ]Mr. Hall (J) writes that the wind causes the candles to flicker, but he does not tell in the scene that an electric fan is employed to gain this effect. In his special space he calls for the properties, but unless you are asked to provide a property plot you do not do so, and unless you specify the properties used you do not say that the candles flicker in the wind from an electric fan. Tell what happens and leave the means to the director. 3. Light effects are the development of recent years. Little was done along these lines until about 1910, when the spotlight was brought into use. Then lighting was so little understood that it was not uncommon for the spot to completely efface the player's expres- sion, leaving on the screen only a luminous patch. Now the lighting is under better control and light effects frequently enhance the value of a scene. The most common effects are persons sitting by the fire; the illumination supposedly coming from the blazing wood, and moonlight streaming through an open window. These are obtained by keeping down the banks Qi lights and using stronger illumination through the window or fireplace opening. This has somewhat the effect of the close-up because .it throws into relief some particular part of the scene, perhaps the dead body on the floor that is thrown into promi- nence when the window opens or it may be the pair beside the fire. This is an effect easy to obtain if not complicated by other effects. 4. Another common effect is the electric hand flash used by burglars and others. The small circle of light is thrown about the room, per- haps to rest upon the safe or other object of attack. The scene is played upon the darkened stage, and the illumination, instead of coming from the hand-lamp, is thrown from a spotlight outside the lines, for of course the two or three candle lamp cannot provide a proper illumination. 5. Color is sometimes used to enhance the light effect, not through the use of several colors but a single tint. Moonlight is suggested by film colored blue, yellow is supposed to suggest artificial illumi- nation of an interior, red is employed for fire scenes and sometimes a green is used to suggest the supernatural. Now and then you will find a film done in a soft photographic brown instead of the usual black and white. This does not suggest anything in particular. It tells the experienced man that the film was of such poor photo- graphic quality that the blacks were a sickly gray. Changing the color makes the subject more acceptable and sometimes even artistic. 6. These colorings are obtained by one of two processes. The first, tinting or staining, is merely the dyeing of the gelatine emulsion by immersion in a tank of analine dye. All parts of the film take up the color, but it shows more strongly in the clear parts. The other process, known as toning, is more intricate. In this there is a chemical change