Robert Emmet Welsh

“ To the amateur the ideal manner of staging a motion picture is, of course, to handle every detail of the production within the organization, merely going outside to rent a camera, purchase film stock, and finally for the factory work of developing and printing the film. The pleasure of “doing everything yourself” is almost too great to be resisted, but if a successful production is to be assured it is wise to call on professional help in other branches. ”

“ Like practically all other modern mechanical wonders, the motion picture was not the invention of any one man. Rather, the picture as we know it to-day is the cumulative result of the toil and experiments of a score of workers, whose efforts cover over half a century. As far back as 1795 scientists were striving to produce the phenomena of pictures that moved. Succeeding generations all saw experimenters working toward the same object, each contributing his mite of improvement, until, with Thomas A. Edison’s invention of the kinetoscope, in 1893, the day of modern motion pictures dawned. ”

“ The screen is not a retreat for hackneyed, broken-down plots that failed of a sale everywhere else, nor is it likely to pay you for the idea that you dash off in a few idle moments. True enough, you can see many mediocre stories, many trashy ones, when you attend the picture theater, but the aspirant for success should not take the worst specimens for his ideal. ”

“ We will imagine that you have pencil and paper before you and have set out to write a photoplay. Your brain is barren of ideas, but you can’t afford to wait for an inspiration; you might sit there all day, chewing the end of your pencil, before a plot-germ would come to you out of the empty air. ”

“ The motion photographer is able with the aid of his camera to perform any number of miraculous feats. He can have one man play two or three parts on the screen at one time, thus having an actor engage in conversation with himself, and so on. And then, readers are most likely all familiar with the pictures showing magical appearances and disappearances of characters. Or the picture-maker can give you a thrilling view of the burning of a city, yet he need not have journeyed outside the studio or expended more than a few dollars to get the scene. ”

“ Even to-day the news pictorial is one of the most interesting and profitable of motion-picture subjects. Five of the picture companies have representatives stationed all over the globe, gathering material for these “animated newspapers,” while there are scores of small companies covering limited [Pg 29] territories with a direct appeal to local picture theaters. The news pictorial camera-man must be as alert as his stepbrother, the reporter, for the competition is every bit as keen as that in the newspaper field, and a victory over a rival just as great cause for elation. ”

“ The next few years of the industry’s history is the tale of numerous patent suits that wound in and out of the courts. The legal battles accentuated the naturally bitter competition to be expected in exploiting the new wonder. But the public had given a hearty welcome to the latest form of entertainment, and the picture-makers waxed prosperous, despite the handicap of internal strife. Theaters in all the big cities were showing the pictures as novelties, and traveling exhibitors were frequent. ”

“ The developing of positive film is a process much similar to that we have just described for the negative film. The chemicals used in the formulas are much the same, though the proportions vary. As positive film is less sensitive to light than negative, the developing need not be done in a dark room, though even here daylight, or the “yellow” light of the common electric bulb, is not permissible. To the eye positive and negative film appear much alike, and, in truth, they differ only slightly to render them more adaptable to their different uses. ”

“ Let us now take up some points more closely identified with the photoplay. We have learned how to look for ideas, we have seen how a plot is built; now we must find out how to tell our story on the screen. It should be unnecessary to tell aspirants that since all photoplays are told by means of pantomime, “action” is a prime necessity. The audience wants to see the characters do everything worth while in the story. It feels cheated if you insert a subtitle saying, “Helen loves John because he saved her from death in a factory fire.” ”

“ Especially disastrous fires, which can often be photographed while they are happening, the effects of train wrecks or other accidents, personages prominent in the news of the day, all these are grist for the camera-man’s mill. Parades are the bane of the pictorial editor’s life, for he knows that lengthy views are not of great interest, yet he is often forced to use them because of the scarcity of views of real news events. ”

“ Such changes are not infrequent, for a director will often see ways to strengthen his story while the players are enacting it before his eyes.
We are ready to start to work. It is nine A.M., or perhaps even earlier, for the picture producer does not care to lose any more of the precious daylight than he has to. This is one of the biggest surprises of screen work to the player from the stage. He is accustomed to matinée performances at two in the afternoon, twice a week, but as a usual thing his work is from eight to eleven in the evening. His life is run after the sun has set. ”

“ The business organization of the motion-picture field can find no counterpart in any other line of commercial activity. In some of its aspects it is akin to the theatrical world, in others it resembles publishing, but there are many points distinctly unique. The commercial organization is an evolution peculiarly adapted to picture conditions, and it is still in a state of transition, continuous and even more radical than that evident in the producing methods. ”

“ The marvelous development of the motion picture and the important place it has won in the heart of the entire civilized world have attracted an interest never before attained in so short a time by any form of amusement. ”

“ The earnings of a motion-picture production are as fluctuating as the rise and fall of stock prices in Wall Street. The cost of a thousand-foot picture is usually placed at the average of a thousand dollars, and the manufacturer selling his positive prints at ten cents a foot and releasing through established channels markets twenty-five prints, though the number may run many more or less, according to the efficiency of the selling organization and the popularity of the particular type of picture. ”

“ Frightened, she turns to run, but a slight noise betrays her, and the tramps, drink-crazed, start after her. All but one run only a few steps, but this one, more daring than the rest, continues the pursuit. ”

“ Once the camera starts to “grind” you are using film, and if everything is not perfect you are either wasting money on scenes that will have to be retaken, or [Pg 118] else you are weakening the picture should the faults be overlooked. In rehearsing, the director must not only assure himself that the players are capably interpreting the emotions called for by the story, but he must also see that there is no danger of their stepping outside the lines of the camera’s vision in the excitement of the action after photography has started. ”

“ The life of the negative is without limit, and after the original investment has been recovered, the cost of supplying new positive prints for those that have worn out is a small item.
Theater-owners who show the long-feature productions pay an average of fifty dollars per day for the rental. If competition is strong between the producers the price may go lower, and long-term contracts to use the output of certain organizations may also make the cost of his pictures less to the [Pg 74] theater-owner. But frequently he will pay more than this sum for the picture that has proven its popularity. ”

“ In practice positive printing is done by a machine using for its essential principles the shutter and feeding devices that we have seen in the motion-picture camera. Negative and positive stock are perforated alike, and when superimposed the perforations fall in alignment. The film-feeding device of the printer engages in these perforations just as we saw it do in the camera, only in this case it is moving the negative and positive film along simultaneously. What would be the lens in the camera is here the place where the light is allowed to pass through. ”

“ The most important censoring body, the National Board of Censorship, was established voluntarily by the manufacturers in co-operation with the People’s Institute of New York. The members of the board, who are appointed from various sociological organizations, serve without remuneration, the only paid employees being the secretaries. The expenses of the organization are borne by the manufacturers. The National Board has been of considerable benefit to the motion-picture industry, a fact largely due to the whole-hearted support of the manufacturers. ”

“ Should the organization be willing to go a step further in seeking the aid of professionals, the services of a capable motion-picture director would go a long way toward the betterment of the final production. We believe it possible for an amateur with the dramatic sense, following the director’s method of work as outlined in this book, to stage a satisfactory picture without the services of a professional director. ”

“ The lost bit of action is not noticed on the screen; the pictures follow one another too rapidly for that. But a corresponding [Pg 27] change cannot be made in the talking-record, and it does not require many patches to throw film and phonograph out of time. It is possible that these mechanical difficulties will be overcome, and also that the talking-picture will be perfected so that, instead of the simplest of scenes as at present, it will be able to depict the entire action of an ambitious drama, but to-day it is clear that the picture patron greatly prefers the silent drama. ”

“ The illusion of seeing the characters and hearing them speak at the same time is produced by the synchronization of a phonograph and the picture-projector. Now, while perfect timing can be secured, no way has been found to keep the synchronization perfect. A scratch on the talking-machine record, for example, can be seen to result disastrously if it jumps the conversation a word in advance of the figure on the screen. Again, motion-picture film must undergo considerable wear in the projection-machine and frequently the perforations are torn. ”

“ The salary of a photographer, supplying his own camera, would be between one hundred and one hundred and fifty dollars per week. The cost of our production [Pg 112] now jumps from five hundred and forty dollars to ten hundred and forty dollars, figuring the camera-man’s salary at one hundred and twenty-five dollars per week. If it should be decided to engage a director the organization will be able to find capable men at salaries starting at the two-hundred-dollar level.
The salaries of players and the expense of purchasing a story do not enter into our calculations here. ”

“ Occasionally the editor of the news pictorial will create his own news by having a daredevil perform some unusual feat.
When the representative has taken his picture the negative is rushed to the headquarters, [Pg 30] where it is developed, and the editor starts to work assembling the film that has been received from the different field men. Often there are little office tragedies when the film is developed and it is found that a singularly interesting piece of film must be thrown away because of poor photography. The news camera-man cannot make his own conditions ”

“ An audience would naturally not take very kindly to a scene in which a man was fighting with an adversary who could not be seen, which would be the case should one of the players step outside the lines while the other remained in view of the camera. It is even possible that many strips of film will be wasted before the scene is taken in a manner to satisfy the director. ”