Moving pictures

“ Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world over, and in this line of books the reader is given a full description of how the films are made—the scenes of little dramas, indoors and out, trick pictures to satisfy the curious, soul-stirring pictures of city affairs, life in the Wild West, among the cowboys and Indians, thrilling rescues along the seacoast, the daring of picture hunters in the jungle among savage beasts, and the great risks run in picturing conditions in a land of earthquakes. ”

“ CHAPTER IV MOVING PICTURES Photographing Motion—Edison's Kinetoscope—Lumiere's
Cinematographe—Before the Camera—The Mission of the Moving
Picture.
Few can realize the extent of the field covered by moving pictures. In the dual capacity of entertainment and instruction there is not a rival in sight. As an instructor, science is daily widening the sphere of the motion picture for the purpose of illustration. Films are rapidly superseding text books in many branches. Every department capable of photographic demonstration is being covered by moving pictures. ”

“ All scenery has to be painted in black and white, and the excellence of the work plays an important part in the effect of the picture, for the camera is ruthless in its exposure of indifferent work. The scene may be the interior of a shack, or a sylvan valley with a river winding like a ribbon of silver among the trees and a stately castle rearing above the foliage. In each instance the same artistic care is demanded, for it must be remembered that by the time the picture reaches the screen it is of the same dimensions as the original, or even larger. ”

“ The most striking application made of photography in recent years is in the production of so-called moving pictures, in which a series of photographic figures thrown upon the screen have all the motion of animated scenes which have been caught and imprisoned by the swiftly acting and never failing memory of the camera, to be again turned loose in active play through the Kinetoscope or Biograph. ”

“ In 1782 he planned and constructed an ingenious system of moving pictures within a proscenium, which, by a clever disposition of lights, coloured gauzes, and the like, imitated atmospheric effects at different times of the day. ”

“ Thus the eye acts as a sort of dissolving lantern for the motion-picture man, and lets one image fade into another without showing any perceptible change in pictures. Thus the 'moving picture' is only a scientifically worked out illusion of motion. ”

“ DeVere. "Better use the subway all you can. Even the elevated will have trouble with all this sleet. Good-bye," and he kissed them as he hurried out.
The girls made short shrift of the housework, and then left for the place where the moving pictures were made.
As I have described in the first book of this series how moving pictures are taken, I will not repeat it here, except to say that in a special camera, made for the purpose, there is a long narrow strip of celluloid film, of the same nature as in the ordinary camera. ”

“ The marvellous, universal popularity of moving pictures is my reason for writing this volume. A vast industry has been established of which the great majority of picture-palace patrons have no idea, and the moment appears timely to describe the many branches of the art. ”

“ The attractive value of an object in the scale of balance may be weakened by moving it toward the centre or extending the picture on that side.
Motion toward, either in intention or by action, is equivalent to balancing weight in that space of the picture to which the action is directed.
Light is increased by deepening contiguous tones; dark, by heightening contiguous tones.
A still-life may be constructed on the same lines as any form on the vertical plane and many of the perspective plane of composition. ”

“ Animals and men in rapid movement, railway trains, the waves of the sea are thus photographed, and when the serial pictures are thrown successively on the screen the result is that the eye detects no interval between the successive pictures—the figures appear as continuous moving objects. ”

“ Turning a handle on the outside of the camera operates it. So that when the scene is ready to be photographed the actors, whether men or animals, begin to move. The handle turns, and the unexposed film is wound from one reel to the other, inside the camera, passing behind the lens, so that the picture falls on it in a flash, just as you take one snapshot. But, as I have said, the moving picture camera takes snapshot after snapshot—sixteen a second—until many thousands are taken, so that when the pictures are shown afterward they give the effect of continuous motion. ”

“ Therefore in this “still” from “The Four Horsemen” the jagged holes in the buildings attract more attention than they do on the screen, where the movement of the soldiers and civilians brings the whole composition into balance.
When the whole picture is deep, as in the example just discussed, it offends us if some of the moving objects come near the camera, because this produces two pictures within a single frame, namely, a close-up and a long shot. ”

“ Indeed, there is not the slightest doubt that a thousand pictures will impress themselves upon the schoolboy’s mind, and impart to him more definite knowledge of their subject in one minute than hours of hammering with the aid of text-book and blackboard. Even actual ocular demonstration fails to be so convincing as a projection upon a whitened sheet, where everything immediately concerned is magnified to an extreme degree. ”

“ I want you to invent a new kind of moving picture camera. A small light one—worked by electricity—a regular wizard camera. I want you to take it up in an airship with you, and then go to all sorts of wild and strange countries, Africa, India—the jungles—get pictures of wild animals at peace and fighting—herds of elephants—get scenes of native wars—earthquakes—eruptions of volcanoes—all the newest and most wonderful pictures you can. You'll have to make a new kind of camera to do it. The kind we use won't do the trick. ”

“ For instance, the artist may draw the head, arms, body, and limbs of a figure and then, by means of tabs, move them about under glass plates so as to secure the impression of animation. The idea of perspective may be secured by drawing the object in different sizes, to the proper scale, of course, and then bringing the object forward from a distance by using gradually increasing figures, or, by reversing the process, carrying the object away. “Stop” cameras are used, which remain idle while the artist is moving his figures for the next photograph. ”

“ By controlling the rate at which the pictures are represented on the screen, movements too rapid to be analyzed by the eye may be made slow enough to permit observation; and, similarly, movements too slow for comprehension or rapid observation may often be quickened. The busy life of a city street, the progress of races or other competitions, many scenes in nature, and even the growth of a plant from seed to maturity, may be shown by means of a "moving picture." ”

“ Though the excellence of a moving picture display depends primarily upon the projector and the film, its brilliancy and clear definition can be made or marred by the screen. When the pictures are being thrown from the front of the house and the audience see a reflected projection, the screen must be opaque and prepared from a suitably woven cloth. ”

“ As the pictures grow fainter on one film they become correspondingly stronger on the other film, with the result that when the two are overlapped and printed the sum of the two exposures produces a complete and fully-detailed picture, the second film supplying to the first precisely the complement of its incomplete exposure, in the case of each image. ”

“ And in the starlight, which in a measure made the night less black, several shadowy, slinking forms might have been observed creeping toward the camp and the pile of provisions and supplies, among the latter of which were the boxes containing the valuable films of the moving pictures. ”

“ Then by means of the zoopraxoscope, a form of the wheel of life, whereby pictures in action could be thrown upon the screen, they were displayed in animation, thereby conclusively demonstrating the fact that what appeared so incredibly singular an attitude in a painting or an individual photograph was in reality part of a graceful harmonious natural movement. ”

“ The players may be mute, but yet one hears the slam of a door, or the crash of an overturned chair as it strikes the floor, and so on. Accordingly it would seem that sound effects are perfectly justifiable in moving pictures, provided they are judiciously managed. ”

“ If the work is skilfully performed the results are distinctly pleasing and effective. After one288 has been watching brilliant black and white pictures, the introduction of a coloured film comes as a restful interlude to the eyes. ”

“ As a matter of fact, the slowest funeral procession has to be taken with the same number of revolutions per second, and the same number of exposures—sixteen pictures per second—as an express train travelling at 60 miles an hour; the crawl of the tortoise has to be photographed just as rapidly as a horse race, in order to secure natural motion. ”

“ If every alternate image is eliminated in this manner, and the remaining pieces of film are re-joined, the length of the film is reduced by one half, and when thrown upon the screen at the normal speed of sixteen pictures per second, the moving objects travel at twice the speed at which they were moving when photographed. ”

“ Now as a picture will linger in the brain for 2/48ths of6 a second after it has vanished from the sight of the eye, the brain retains the impression during 1/32nd part of a second, while the shutter is passing across the lens. ”

“ Forty years ago no expedition of importance set out without some member who possessed artistic ability, that pictorial records of the life and character of the new country might be brought back to civilisation. As photography developed, the artist of palette and brush was superseded by a man armed with a camera. ”

“ With the double cinematograph, therefore, as a section of sensitised surface always is exposed during the running of the machine, either through the right or left-hand lens, it follows that the whole of the movement must be photographed. ”

“ Though the cinematographic world be flooded with talking and singing pictures, unless they are of some peculiar interest, the majority of picture-theatre lovers, after the first wave of excitement and curiosity, will patronise those establishments where they can see movement alone. ”

“ The perfection of this illusion has demanded years of unremitting experiment and research. When animated pictures first came before the public they had a violent flickering, oscillating, and jumping motion, which proved exceedingly painful to the eyes. The effect was somewhat similar to that produced by gazing at a picture which is vibrating, and blinking rapidly meanwhile, or when a flicker-disc is rotated very rapidly before the limelight centred upon a stage scene and actors. ”

“ Transformations from one scene to another are carried out in a manner that completely eclipse the handiwork of the stage-manager behind the footlights. Success depends to a great degree upon the skilfulness of the operator, because it is imperative that the stop of the lens should be closed and opened equally, in order that the combined exposures upon each successive image should be equal to a single exposure with a full aperture, so as to provide a uniform intensity and brilliancy throughout all the images. ”

“ The similarity between the zoetrope, despite the fact that it did not make use of photography, and the modern motion picture, lies in the scientific principle responsible for the illusion of moving figures. In viewing a particular object there is the briefest delay in conveying the impression from the eye to the brain, so that the latter has the conception of seeing the object after it has actually passed from the field of vision. ”

“ We're going to take the picture machine up in the airship, and get some photos from the sky. I expect to make some films from high in the air, as well as some in the regular way, on the ground, and I want a little practice. ”

“ If a subject has been photographed too slowly it cannot be corrected by accelerating the speed in projection. The judgment of the actinic value of the sunlight, and the requisite stop for the lens, as well as the adjustment of the shutter, are factors which only can be determined from experience. ”

“ Although it was as far back as 1894 that the first commercial moving picture camera appeared in Great Britain, the years have not produced many marked departures from the design as elaborated by Paul. Time has proved his plan to be the most reliable and efficient. ”

“ If the camera is run at a speed of thirty-two pictures per second, representing sixteen pictures for each lens, either of the two films when run through the ordinary projector gives a faithful representation of the event photographed. At the same time, however, each film gives a different record, for the simple reason that one film carries the moving incidents which the other has lost during the regularly intermittent closing of the lens. ”

“ The moving picture producer is even capable of turning to account a disaster to his own plant. While a play was in progress upon a studio-stage in New York the building caught fire, and unrehearsed scenes were enacted. ”

“ On the other hand, a friend of mine who has produced many, eminently successful picture films, scribbles the bare idea on a single sheet of paper—the back of an envelope suffices sometimes—briefly indicating the progress of the plot step by step, retaining all the stage business in his head, and modifying his ideas as he proceeds, to suit the circumstances. ”

“ The eye is in itself a wonderful camera. The imprint of an object is received upon a nervous membrane which is called the retina. This is connected with the brain, where the actual conception of the impression is formed, by the optic nerve. ”