MAKING MOVING PICTURES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLIII, Issue 2285, 19 February 1912, Page 7

MAKING MOVING PICTURES.

As you sit in an electric theatre watching the pictures on the ssreen, sometimes moved to tears by a sympathetic scene, sometimes to laughter* by a humorous one, you have no time to wonder how the effects are brought about. But when you leave the building you may feel that you would like to know how it is all done. In the flrst place the actors and actresses who perform the piece before the camera in order to obtain the film are, many of them, well-known people on the music-hall or regular stage. So great is the demand for films that special buildings have been built in order that pictures may be taken indoors as well as in the open air. The flrst thing., of course, is to obtain a really good plot. After this has been secured it is divided into different scenes, and it is no uncommon thing for an ordinary comic film to be divided into fifteen or twenty scenes. The stage manager then calls the company together, explains the plot to them fully, and allots the different parts. After each has "made up" to represent his or her character, the company starts rehearsing. The mind of every artiste must be concentrated on his work, he must know the time he has to come into the picture to the very instant, for as the operator is taking photographs at the rate of sixteen per second, it is easy to understand that the slightest mistake would ruin the whole picture. Imagine that the operator is waiting for the word to start. "Are you ready?" he calls. "Go 1" The machine buzzes merrily round, the artistes act as if before a crowded house, while the manager is shouting warnings and directions. When the taking of the first scene is complete the scene-shifters are busy preparing for the next scene, so the work goes on until all the scenes are finished. It may be several days before the whole film is completed. The length of the film varies, but one of a thousand feet, which is considered a full length, contains no fewer than sixteen thousand separata pictures, and takes about an hour and three-quarters to develop. The time taken to display this picture on the screen is nearly twenty minutes. —"Strand Magazine."