Technique of the photoplay (1916)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

CHAPTER XLI 207 Bill thinks again—FADE. 6. Fade in —Room—Bill jumping through hoop—crazy woman ap- proves—pats him on head—FADE. 7. Back to No. 3 —Bill looks at Clarke—smiles—it's foolish to ask him to take a job like that—Clarke casually adds— Cut-in —"She thinks she is Cleopatra. You must be her Antony." Bill straightens up—sees things—FADE. 8. Fade in —Oriental room—Beautiful girl as Cleopatra—fondles Bill as Antony—FADE. 9. Back to No. 7 —Bill all smiles—sure he'll take the job—jumps in- to the car—tries to hurry Clarke in—car out of scene. Here the succession of small visions and short scenes gives the com- plete exposition of the play within sixty feet of action and twenty feet of leader. In the vision within the frame it would not be pos- sible to get over clearly the first and second visions, since there would scarcely be sufficient room. 16. On the other hand the device does not work out as well as tlie frame vision where a small effect is desired. Suppose that Mary is engaged to Malcolm, a wealthy but elderly man. She loves Jack, but may not marry him. She and Jack are in the garden. She thinks of marriage with Jack. Here the small action would look better as a frame vision, as shown: 26. Garden —Mary and John on bench—he looks at her—she turns face away—his glance is too ardent—she looks up—VISION of Mary and John at altar—vision fades—Mary looks down at ring on finger—sighs. Here the small vision is to be preferred to one which will fill the full stage with a church scene and yet the current practice would give: 26. Garden —Mary and John on bench—he looks at her—she turns face away—his glance is too ardent—she looks down—FADE. 27. Fade in —Chancel—Mary and John being married—FADE. 28. Back to No. 26 —Mary looks at ring on finger—sighs. Now to dress the stage a number of persons must be employed. This may be reduced by using a close-up, but the picture will still be too important for the fact. It is probable that when the golden days of the film come that the vision will be selected to fit the scene and not merely the convenience of the director. 17. The vision is useful, but its use is most sadly abused. Per- haps no single element of the photoplay suffers more. It is much easier to write in a vision than to rewrite the play and put in a fact forgotten. The careless author forgets to put a fact in its proper place. He has Tom tell Harry about it in a vision. He strikes a fact that requires some explanation. It should have been explained in the early action, but he had not thought of it then. No matter. A vision will serve as well. Even professional writers are not slow to avail themselves of this privilege. Some go even further. They argue that if a vision is effective a number will be still more effective and they write in so many that not only do the visions lose their novelty but