ACTING FOR THE FILMS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 82, 5 April 1924, Page 21

ACTING FOR THE FILMS

EMOTIONS .MADE TO ORDER.

A .visit to the Ga&nbnt Studios to see a film being produced disposed of many illusions I had previously entertained a3 to the way films were actually made, writes Edith M. Watson in the "Daily News." I had heard the usual talk that the actors and actresses'- have to make up lavishly'; and hideously, with black llips and yellow ifaces,. but Wanda Hawley and Nigel; Barry' presented quite aa ordinary apjpearance, with only the usual stage make-up. > .'. . . A scene was taken from "The Lights o' London," where the young husband comes home 'after a fruitless search for work. I'1 had heard that/producers shouted, at the'actors and bullied them about, but Captain iCalvert,1 who is producing this picture, behaved quite differently. He conferred, with . the two principals, -explained what he wanted with great detail, and then they practised it once or twice, withi expression at half-pressure, as it / were. Then "Lights" was. called,. the' big ' lamps flared (the camera 'was already in position), and the scene was taken... At 'the height of tho emotional.-scene the producer called "Finish," and/then, "Now a' close-up." The actors' remained in their places,' and p, most interesting example was'given of how emotion lias to bo worked up. A gramophone .was start r ed, playing a: touching violin solo,' and we could see. the actors slowly gathering together their emotional forces! When the heroine's eyes were bright with tears (real tears) she nodded to the producer, the cameras began, and the close-up was. taken through. The hero's voice by now was hoarse-with emotion; the heroine clung to him arid smiled through her tears as he clasped her despairingly to him, and then "Fin-, ish again, and just as we were holding our breath at this realistic bit of acting the lights were off and the camera had stopped. The stoppage was painful in its suddenness. To have shut off the full force of any emotion so sharply must make an enormous drain on one's nervous forces. In this case the actreSs sat down on the sofa and actually wiped her tears away, and the man turned his back to us while he calmed down to normal. It • was a revelation of the amount of sincerity some artists put intotheir work. No glycerine tears or onions—real emotion, that made the heroine cry and forced the hero to express it not only by eyes, face, and" body, but even in tho voice, which; no I one would hear. .. ■