WINTER HALL.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18550, 27 November 1925, Page 10

WINTER HALL.

TALK ON HOLLYWOOD. TEN YEARS AS MOVIE ACTOR. After ten and a half years of impersonating successful business men. bankers, heavy fathers, earls, dukes, and haughty aristocrats, a Christchureh man has returned home, and is now to be found quietly resting at his brother's house on Cashmere Hills. He is not an international crook, as the foregoing might infer, but a movie actor, and a very successful one. He is Mr Winter Hall. With his wife, well known some years ago iu Christ-church as Miss Katie Young, a talented pianist, and also his sniai! Mr Winter Hall has revisited New Zealanl primarily for rest, to spend the Christmas season with his relatives. Mr and .Mr.-; Hall arrived from Wellington yesterday morning, and the first, thing they said to a representative of "The Press" who called en them yesterday afternoon, was: "It's very good to be back in this delightful City again, with all its healthy, green landscape, and the beautiful scenery. Of course, you know, it's home to us, and it is always a' wonderful experience to revisit one's home city. "In l.' M.i," he said, "I was with the Piimmer Kail Dramatic Company doing patriotic work, and in 1f1.1<5 I Jeft' for Sydney, and a little later for Los Angeles, starting film work ten days after arrival. And I have been going on steadily ever since. I do all my work on Ihe free lance basis, and am never uudeT contract to anyone. That means that I can accept a part or leave it, just as 1 please. The position is this. J represent- a definite type, and by confining myself to type parts I have been able to work up a reputation. During the whole time I have been engaged in studio work I have met with the greatest courtesy everywhere, and although fairly hard, the work is enjoyable." Making of Films. It is Mr Hall's intention to give illustrated lectures ou how films are made, throughout the Dominion. He has with him a selection of coloured slides which traverse the whole range of picture-making, dealing with the construction of sets, lighting, make-up, and all there is to know about lilmdonj. By the lectures he proposes to conduct his audiences on a personal tour of all the studios of Hollywood—that Mecca of the screen-struck flapper, and the goal of so many seekers after film fame.

'' The studio people were eager to assist me in every way to make my lectures a success." said Mr Hall, "It is to their advantage, of course, but it should also help local exhibitors. When people are acquainted with the actual methods of film construction, and they see photographs of the actual studios, it gives an added interest to an evening at a picture show. The screen actor has to spend a lot of his time waiting about. A story might contain ,500 scenes in script, but they cannot be gone through in the ordinary sequence of the story. For instance, 30 or 40 scenes might take place in one room. They get all the cast together, and 'shoot' all the scenes in. the story connected with that room. When they have been disposed of the set is 'killed' —it is finished with. In one story, I died, and the first scene in the making of the picture was one of myself lying dead. But I had a lot to do after that, and those scenes were then put in their proper position—before the 'death.' Thousands.of 'extras' are gathered from all parts of the world and every living nationality is represented.

No Maoris.' "Curiously enough there- are no Maoris, but" Hawaiians are used when a Maori is wanted, as the features are very similar. Extras, or supers, when taken out in buses to a location scene, are paid from 2$ to 3 dollars a day. with .lunch thrown in and costumes provided. Young fellows cultivate the most freakish appearances possible in the hope of representing a certain type. Without his weird cross-eye, Ben Turpin would be of no use at all. Some men cultivate tremendous obesity, and I can tell you there are some wonderful specimens amongst them> "Scenery and light are excellent in New Zealand for the making of pictures., but you could not hope to compete with the big corporations. The independent producer is up against it, and about all he can do is to sell his stuff to the distributing people. The population here is not large enough to draw upon, and then there is the question of prejudice against the local article. If ever we start making motion pictures in New Zealand we should begin on travelogues and scenics which would sell far more readily than comedy or drama. Film Beauty. "Any girl cherishing visions of screen fame would do well to think hard first," sai> Mr Hall. A girl might be really beautiful in the street but she might not photograph well. Another girl not so beautiful might be an excellent camera subject, and win fame in a day. If a man was of the type visualised in a certain part by the public, then he would succeed. Some of the camera men . were great artists, and big stars would not be shot by anyone but a particular expert. Mary Piekford would be taken by no one but, ChaTles Rother., and Norma Talmadge insisted upon an Italian camera man. Mr Hall has done a considerable amount of legitimate stage work while in Los Angeles, and received exceedinglv high praise for his work in Barrie's "The New World," from H. Christeen Wornack, a famous critic. With Mrs Hall he played Dickens's "Christmas Carol" to raise funds for the purchase of the famous, Hollywood Bowl, an enormous natural amphitheatre, where big symphonies are played in the open air, and where famous musicians and vocalists perform. And Mrs Hall has done a great deal of piano work in America. She, as well as her husband, has achieved a good deal of fame in musical circles in Los Angeles, being featured on eoncert programmes with great artists. Mrs Hall proposes to give a number of pianoforte recitals while in Christchurch.