Cinematography

“ How can the art of cinematography be brought within the reach of the amateur? This is the absorbing question of the moment. Moving pictures having become so popular, the traveller wishes to secure animated records of the scenes which he has witnessed in foreign climes, to reveal them to his friends, exactly as he saw them, within the home circle. Unfortunately, such an achievement is impossible under existing conditions. The apparatus, both recording and projecting, is expensive; the film is costly; while the problem incidental to the illuminant is not easily solved in the average home. ”

“ In cinematography, as in ordinary photography, the judgment of the brilliance of the light and of the right stop to use on each occasion, is the one important factor for which mechanical provision is impossible. This is because of the extreme variation of the light conditions. But, while no hard and fast rules concerning exposure can be laid down, it is possible to give the beginner a little guidance to keep him on the safe side. Practice alone can make perfect, and experience is the more necessary because the cinematograph is an all-the-year-round machine. ”

“ Unfortunately, the feeling against the moving picture has not been entirely eliminated, despite its tremendous popularity. Once an energetic Board of Education realises the possibilities of cinematography as a supplement to the information conveyed by text-books and manuals, the film manufacturers will hasten to supply the demand thus created. ”

“ These considerations react against the amateur cinematographer. But should one fall a victim to the fascinating glamour of cinematography, one need not apprehend difficulties in connection with developing and printing. ”

“ Television maps from many cameras to the entire world, and all can simultaneously partake in its images. Television is distributed and introduces simultaneity in that several events from several locations can be broadcast on the TV screen. By comparison, cinematography is centralized. Filming is limited to the location where it is being carried on. Cinematography is intrinsically sequential in that it follows the narrative structure and constitutes a closed entity. Once edited for showing, the film cannot be interrupted to insert anything new. ”

“ The cost of the camera and the expense of the film are the chief drawbacks to the popularisation of cinematography;302 the bulkiness of the apparatus has also militated against its adoption by the amateur. ”

“ Cinematography, which is the technical name for the whole art of motion pictures, is based on one of nature's defects, whereas most inventions are based 165 on some of nature's perfect processes. The defect is called by the scientists the persistence of vision, which means that after you look at an object, and it is quickly taken from before your eyes, the image remains there for the fraction of a second. ”

“ The copyright in a work of architecture is not infringed by the making of a painting, drawing, engraving or photograph of the work, or the inclusion of the work in a cinematography film or in a television broadcast. ”

“ At times their revolutionary ideas are put into practice before they are thoroughly understood, and the result is far from satisfactory. The improvement proves to be more imaginary than real. But if recourse is first had to the cinematograph, the process can be submitted to a searching practical trial before it is installed. A film can be taken and each separate image can be examined minutely with the aid of the magnifying glass, until a pretty complete idea is gained as to the true value of the invention. ”

“ For complete success in moving-picture work it is essential to have an elementary knowledge of the principles upon which the art is based. Although pictures are said to be shown in motion upon the screen, no action is reproduced as a matter of fact. ”

“ Profit and pleasure combine to win recruits for the art of animated photography. As an entertainment offered to the public, the moving-pictures have had no rival. Their popularity has been remarkable and universal. It increases daily, and, since we are only now beginning to see the magnitude of what the cinematograph can effect, it is not likely to diminish. This development has stirred the ambition of the amateur or independent photographer because the field is so vast, fertile, and promising. ”

“ Considering the position which the motion-picture has attained in our social and industrial life, the establishment of national cinematograph laboratories appears not only to be opportune, but necessary. ”

“ It contains the very best efforts of its creator; the other is probably of poor quality, because the man with a name does not realise what the people want, and thinks that for the cinematograph anything is good enough. ”

“ The study of exceedingly slow movements offers a very promising field to the patient worker. A film which occupies a month to photograph, and entails an exposure once every thirty minutes, produces a film only 90 feet in length. In projection it passes across the screen in a minute and a half. This means that a process of Nature is condensed into one thirty-seven-thousandth part of the time it actually took, and its presentation on the screen is a remarkable triumph. ”

“ Although animated photography is regarded popularly as an amusement, and the picture palace is maintained to be the poor man's theatre, efforts are being made to lift the invention into a higher and more useful plane. ”

“ The cinematograph camera differs entirely from the instruments used in other branches of photography. While the advanced worker and the prosperous picture-play producer employ costly and elaborate machines, the amateur, or the independent worker, in the particular field which he has selected for his operations, can get equally good results with an apparatus only a fifteenth or even a twentieth part as expensive. ”

“ Nothing rivals the cinematograph for picking a movement relentlessly to pieces.
The most expert workman is taken for the purpose of the investigation because his skill must be dependent upon his ability to reduce movements to the minimum. Moreover, he [180] serves as an excellent model for speeding-up if such is required. By the time his workmanship has been analysed and perfected by the elimination of all waste or unnecessary motions, and by his mastery of the best methods, the photographing in animation of his experience serves as a pattern for the benefit of all in the factory. ”

“ Accordingly, great ingenuity has been displayed by cinematograph investigators in the evolution of a means of snapping such extremely rapid movements at sufficient speed to make the films interesting or scientifically useful. ”

“ While it is assumed that the reader has practised ordinary snap-shot and still-life work, and thus is familiar with the elements of photography, yet the subject is set forth in such a manner as to enable one who never has attempted photography to take moving-pictures. ”

“ Another reason why the independent cinematographer should embark upon this field is that he is generally more ingenious and fertile in the preparation of experiments to suit the limitations of a lesson. He will know how to be simple, so that the pupil, after the demonstration, can go into the laboratory and repeat the experiments with a knowledge of what he is doing. ”

“ Many of the films used for the purpose are prepared by amateur workers, especially when the subject is of local importance, and their ventures are proving highly profitable. Experience has proved in no uncertain manner that moving-pictures will soon be the world's most powerful educator. ”

“ In all quarters there is an increasing demand for films of prominent topical interest, either of general or local significance. The proprietors of picture palaces have discovered that no films draw better audiences than these. ”

“ Remunerative reward is obtainable practically in every phase of endeavour so long as the elements of novelty or originality are manifest. The result is that it is attracting one and all. Animated photography can convey so fascinating [2] and convincing a record of scenes and events that many persons—sportsmen, explorers, and travellers—make use of it. ”

“ Rapid strides are being made in the utilisation of animated photography as an aid to scientific investigation. It is a development useful in all fields of research where phenomena can be recorded in pictorial form. ”

“ When one recalls the valuable assistance given to science by the French Institute, there should be no hesitation in other countries to emulate the idea, and to establish national institutions for a similar purpose. Animated photography is still in its infancy. ”

“ Any films suited to the subject may be used, hydroplanes, airships, birds, wild animals, and so forth, just as successfully as the military films prepared specially for the work. In fact any picture where movement is portrayed is equally applicable, so that the marksman can become used to all sorts of conditions. ”

“ In this Act, except in so far as the context otherwise Interpretation requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, that is to say:
"adaptation”, in relation to a literary, dramatic or musical work, has the meaning assigned to it by section two of this Act; "artistic work” has the meaning assigned to it by section three of this Act;
"assignment”, in relation to Scotland, means an assignation;
"building” includes any structure;
"cinematography film” has the meaning assigned to it by section thirteen of this Act ”

“ 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. ”

“ Proceeding upon the assumption that a photoplay is a screen drama which must be unrolled before an audience within a specified time limit, it is clearly necessary to give concentrated attention to the important matter of beginning the story. We are dealing with a situation—a dramatic crisis or a correlated series of situations or dramatic crises. The start must not be too far in advance of the climax, for in that case there will not be sufficient time or film footage to logically and consecutively arrive at such climax. ”

“ The word, though common on our side of the Atlantic now, was at that time peculiar to the American language.
“Cinematographs?” I said. “I’ve seen them of course. You have them in your circus, haven’t you, as part of the show?”
“Yes. That’s what set me thinking about them. I’ve always felt that the next step in perfecting the cinematograph would be doing away with the screen, putting the figures on the stage, that is to say reflections of them, so that they would actually move about backwards and forwards instead of on a flat surface. You understand?” ”

“ The camera’s eye may roam the world for subjects; its range equals that of the newspaper or magazine. The stage and literature, travel, science, news and advertising, all are open to the motion picture. The photoplay, presenting a visualized story, is the most popular form, for the public heeds quickest the call of entertainment. But serious students of the motion picture believe that, in time, its purely amusement features will be dwarfed by the development along lines that may be roughly grouped under the heading “educational.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ At its present rate of progress, the cinema will soon become more powerful as an influence upon the minds of the masses than are the newspaper, the novel and the play taken together.
For the sun never sets upon the screen! Day and night, in all parts of the civilized, and an increasing portion of the uncivilized, globe the motion picture is making its imprint upon the minds and souls of countless millions of men, women and children. ”

“ Nothing is too difficult for the motion-picture man, and he has never proposed a feat so daring but what he could find plenty of actors willing to take the necessary parts. Battles, scenes from history, sessions of Congress, railroad wrecks, earthquakes and hundreds of other spectacles have been planned, staged and acted out by the makers of cinematograph films, while, of course, all the plays that we see on the screen are planned and carefully rehearsed before they are photographed. ”

“ Some day they will realize that the public really loves simple drama more than they do sensational spectacle.
3. THE MANUSCRIPT (a) Technique—In fiction the deeds need only be probable; in photodrama they must be actually performable, because the audience must see them. For the photoplay must show whatever is vital. Keep your captions down to 15 words at the most, and your inserts to 20, as every word means a foot of film. Tell how your characters shall act, leave to the director where and how they enter and exit. ”

“ Several of the scenes in the principal drama had been made, but most of the largest ones, those of the battles, of Alice's spy work, and of Ruth's nursing, were yet to come.
The making of a big moving picture is the work not of days, but of weeks, and often of [65] months. If every scene took place in a studio, where artificial lights could be used, the filming could go on every day the actors were on hand, or whenever the director felt like working them and the camera men. ”