Frame-up

“ When it comes to the form and design of a frame, infinite latitude is allowable, but, in general, the law of contrast holds good here also. A very complicated picture which depends for its effect largely upon some graceful and intricate design will show to best advantage in a comparatively flat and simple frame. A simple picture, on the contrary, which is built up with a few broad and powerful masses, will frequently appear best in a rich and ornamental frame, the very richness of design accentuating the simple beauty of the canvas. ”

“ To be effective in a frame, balance and unity are just as necessary. The eye finds repose and delight in the perfect equipoise of elements, brought into combination and bound together by the girdle of the frame.
A picture should be able to hang from its exact centre. Imperfect composition inflicts upon the beholder the duty of accommodating his head to the false angle of the picture. Pictures that stand the test of time do not demand astigmatic glasses. We view them balanced, and they repeat the countersign—“balanced.” ”

“ Money is well expended on picture-frames, as when they are handsome and chosen with taste, they enhance our enjoyment of the pictures. But a costly frame is not always a good one, and when gilt composition runs riot in ferns and fantastic flames, as we frequently see it do around mirrors, its effect is barbaric, rather than elegant. ”

“ If you want a row of people to exhibit their eyes, of course you must have a row of the holes. Supposing you have only one. The frame is placed in front of a door opening into another room or a hall, from which the actors are to come, the audience sitting on chairs on the other side of the frame. Now a boy or girl who is ready at speaking, and can say funny little things nicely, must stand before the frame, and introduce the strange beast or bird, or man or woman, or child, or mummy, just what the showman chooses to call it, to the assembled company. ”

“ A collection of photographs in passe-partout bindings, especially if they deal with subjects in any way related, may form an attractive group. But pictures of any considerable size or those having decided individuality are generally not suited to any plan of grouping. They should appear by themselves, in frames and other surroundings which accentuate their peculiar merits.
The Kind of Frame.—The material of the frame, its colour, and the colour of the mat are determined by the tone of the picture. Oil paintings easily support gilt frames and should be hung in good light. ”

“ In what are called close-up scenes only a small part of an object shows in the camera, and often when a magnificent entrance to a marble house is shown, it is only a plaster-of-Paris imitation of a door with a little frame around it. ”

“ Frames are not necessary for the simpler types of work, but for wide borders in needle-weaving, particularly for the novice, a frame will fix the warp threads by keeping them taut, and prevent puckering of the material—little tambour frames which consist of a couple of rings, the one fitting into the other, will serve the purpose. ”

“ Frames many times control the use of a picture, and an old picture may be placed in a modern frame and used in a contemporary setting. Mats used on pictures may be varied according to the subject matter and the frame selected according to the manner in which the picture is used. Wood frames are popular and in good taste and are shown in natural wood color, mahogany, walnut, maple, or enameled. ”

“ Fig. 2. The floor behind the frame should be raised two feet in order to bring it well into view of the audience, and of course the frame must correspond. The pictures are arranged between the frame and the screens.
The frame and gauze can be omitted, and the picture presented in the space surrounded by the screens or curtains; but of course the best way is the one indicated.
With all accessories ready, and some previous rehearsals, these tableaux can be easily and rapidly presented.
In front and to one side the Grandma sits in an easy chair. No other accessories. ”

“ But good frames are expensive, and it is a great advantage to be able to have a frame always at hand which you can see your work in from time to time; and if you only work on four sizes of canvas, say, then four frames, one for each size, will suit all your pictures and sketches. Use the same sizes for all kinds of work too, and the freedom will come, as I say, in the working on those sizes. ”

“ Frames should always be subordinated to the painting. A blue and white seascape should be framed in a bluish gray frame, which may have a dark bronze moulding on the outer and inner edge. If painters want only one frame to show their work, let that one frame be of somber hue; otherwise it will detract from the painting. ”

“ The exposure having been made in the camera or in the printing frame, place the plate in the developing tray and pour upon it sufficient of the developing solution, mixed as directed, to cover the plate at once, and keep it in motion from time to time. Develop until detail in the high lights is plainly visible. ”

“ A full reel consists of 1,000 feet of film and occupies approximately twenty minutes to display its contents upon the screen. By contents, we mean to include everything that is projected: trade-mark frame of manufacturer, including title of play and name of the author; cast of characters, with Board of Censorship notice at the end. The foregoing take approximately two minutes of valuable time and are merely incidental to the play. They concern the writer only in so far as they act as limitations. The essential photodrama itself includes portrayal of dramatic action of the characters ”

“ But it is a curious thing that it does not matter how irregular the frame may be, or how complicated a mass of froth may be, there can never be more than three films meeting in an edge, or more than four edges, or six films, meeting in a point. ”

“ The film is mounted upon a special frame. A frame made of wood is most generally used. This likewise a handy man can make at home, although it is not expensive to buy. The middle of each side of the frame is fitted with a short pin to serve as a spindle and to facilitate spinning round when the frame is mounted upon its stand. Each transverse end is provided with guide pins for winding the film. ”

“ He could, it is true, soften the sharp boundaries of the picture by using some masking device with the camera, but this is not138 usually done. The four corners of the frame are always strongly emphasized, because of the crossing of lines at right angles. To lead another strong line into one of the corners would surely result in undue emphasis and lack of balance, because of the power of converging lines. It is almost as bad to lead a strong line squarely into the frame between the corners, because such a meeting creates two more right angles to attract attention. ”

“ M. Mechanism to turn camera shutter. F. Hinged frame with glass to press down on the drawings. B. Board holding the registering pegs.
Some animators have mounted their camera so that the same framework can be used for a [204] small field as well as a larger one. This necessitates, each time that the size of field is changed, a troublesome setting of the camera in order again. It is wisdom to keep to one size of field for all work, so that when the camera is once in position it need not be changed. ”

“ Methinks I see your mirror frame,
Ornate with photographs of them.
Place mine therein, for, all the same,
I'll have my little laughs at them.
For girls may come, and girls may go,
I think I have the best of them ”

“ This position will allow the operator to frame either up or down without seriously affecting the loop. The framing is best done by looking at the picture thrown upon the screen.
Film Gate. Film Gate.—The film gate needs special attention when new film is being used. Very often new film is so damp that some of the emulsion sticks to the gate. [103] Wet film running through a machine makes it work hard and is likely to cause much trouble. With such film it is often necessary to stop during a run and clean off the gate and it is always necessary to do so after each run. ”

“ The impulses which made frames beautiful have long been extinct or dormant, but fine work was produced in such profusion that great numbers of examples are still extant. Frames for pictures or mirrors are usually square, oblong, round or oval, and, although they have usually been made of wood or composition overlaid upon wood, the richest and most costly materials have often been used. ”

“ The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. ”

“ Consider the devices whereby the stage actor holds the audience as he goes out at the side and back. He sighs, gestures, howls, and strides. With what studious preparation he ripens his quietness, if he goes out that way. In the new contraption, the moving picture, the hero or villain in exit strides past the nose of the camera, growing much bigger than a human being, marching toward us as though he would step on our heads, disappearing when largest. There is an explosive power about the mildest motion picture exit, be the actor skilful or the reverse. ”

“ False, or apparent, motion occurs when the camera itself has been moving about while the picture was being taken. Thus a road is made to shoot upwards over the screen while our hero is riding madly toward us, or a parlor slides drunkenly to one side while some fair lady marches toward a door, or a stairway becomes a waterfall which she swims upstairs. The real motion, of course, contains the dramatic interest, but the false motion forces itself upon us by its novelty or unexpectedness; it becomes difficult for us to see much with ease, and the result is ugliness. ”

“ Thus a sudden gesture, or the waving branches of trees or bushes, or a motor car driving up in front of a house, or even such intended grace as the movement in dancing, may spoil a picture by being too near the camera.
Another thing which makes close-up movements ugly is the flicker, which cannot be entirely eliminated. Our readers are doubtless generally aware that what we see on the screen is simply the blending of a rapid succession of still pictures falling on different spots in an order and a direction which gives the appearance of motion. ”

“ But if the director wants a pattern to move to the right or left, up or down, away from him or toward him, or to change its character gradually, then a new problem of composition arises, and the solution of this new problem is both inviting and perplexing.
It is inviting because there are so many patterns which gain beauty from motion or change. A fixed circle is not so appealing to the eye, for example, as a rolling hoop. A wheel standing still is not so fascinating as one that rotates, like the wheel of a wind mill, or one that rolls, like the wheel of a carriage. ”

“ Yet we can blend the whole123 scene into a single rhythm by suffusing all its elements with the warm glow of the furnace and by playing over them all the same movement of quivering light and shadow. This vibrant, welding beauty which lady and laborer and machine may have in common, while still retaining their individual dramatic significance, will thus give the touch of art to a motion picture which might otherwise be merely a crude photographic record of an incident in a story. ”

“ It falls to the lot of an exceptional few to have frames made to fit them. Some of us make frames for ourselves, and as we always over-estimate our size such frames are never suitable. As we cannot expand or contract our frames to our liking, we must do the other thing, stretch and shape our pictures to them. I have seen coloured sketches on an elastic material capable of being extended indefinitely. Well for us if our life's picture be painted on such accommodating material. ”

“ When we consider that changing tonal value may be combined with changing direction, as well as with changing velocity, of moving spots, moving lines, moving patterns, and moving textures, we realize more keenly the problems of the cinema composer. His medium is at once extremely complex, extremely flexible, and extremely delicate.
But we have not yet revealed all of the strange qualities of the motion picture. A unique power of the screen, which can never be utilized by any other graphic art, is that which gives motion to things that are themselves absolutely at rest and immovable. ”

“ Let us simply add that the kind of rest we have in mind is never the rest of inaction, of sleep, or of death; it is rather a dynamic repose. Just as the still portions of the motion picture may be active upon the spectator’s mind, so the motions may be reposeful while they are both at work and at play. Such harmony of pictorial motions on the screen is not too high an ideal for the lovers of the cinema. ”

“ By alternating the picture of a man and the check he is forging, we have his soliloquy. When two people talk to each other, it is by lifting and lowering objects rather than their voices. The collector presents a bill: the adventurer shows him the door. The boy plucks a rose: the girl accepts it. Moving objects, not moving lips, make the words of the photoplay.
The old-fashioned stage producer, feeling he is getting nowhere, but still helpless, puts the climax of some puzzling lip-debate, often the climax of the whole film, as a sentence on the screen. ”

“ Even the pyramids of Egypt can be invested with apparent motion, so that their sharp lines flow constantly into new patterns. It can be done by simply moving the camera itself while the film is being exposed. The appeal of apparent motion in natural setting is familiar to any one who has ever gazed dreamily from the window of a railroad car or from the deck of a yacht sailing among islands. Apparent motion on the screen makes a similar appeal, which can be enhanced by changing distance and point of view and by artistic combination with real motions in the picture. ”