CRAFTSMEN OF THE CINEMA

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 129, 3 June 1935, Page 8

CRAFTSMEN OF THE CINEMA

The films have created a number of specialists whose work has been brought into being by the cinema. The scenarist as distinct from the author of a screen-play, and the director who is not the producer have no counterparts outside the film studios.. Something of the craftsmanship of the "cutter" is fairly well known, states the "Manchester Guardian." There are other professionals with equally misleading names. The "continuity girl" does not so much check the dramatic continuity of the scenes as to see there are no accidental alterations in dress or properties from day to day. If the heroine puts down a freshly-lit cigarette at the end of a day's work on Monday the cigarette must be the same length when the scene is filmed again. If the hero .had a striped tie. in Tuesday's long-shot he must not wear a spotted one in Wednesday's close-ups' of the same spene. All this and more the "continuity girl" must attend to, and those acquainted with film-making wonder not ttiat there are so many discrepancies but that there are so few. Newsreels have a "diary clerk," who keeps track of suitable events, and a "contact man,? who must negotiate for permission to film them. Research and recording have their own experts, but strangest job of all is' that of the "stand-in." Not necessarily a "double," he or she must wear clothes similar to the star's, but simpler, and take the star's place while grouping, lighting, and focusing are arranged and actionrehearsals are held. When all is at last raady to the satisfaction of all the experts the lights go on, the camera' is ready to "shoot"—but the "stand-in" is no longer there. Spick and span the star walks into the limelight, and the "stand-in" returns to the shadows til] more rehearsals call for his dumb and dummy-like presence.