£.S.D. OF MOTION PICTURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16234, 20 May 1916, Page 5

£.S.D. OF MOTION PICTURES.

SPECIALLY BUILT TOWNS AND PALACES, AND OTHER COSTLY ACCESSORIES USED IN THE MAKING OF A BIG PHOTO. -PLAY SERIAL.

How much does a big picture-play cost to produce? That is a question cinema. - goers are always asking. In the case of " The Broken Coin," the wonderful TransAtlantic serial which is showing on Monday next at the King George Theatre, the answer is: Thousands upon thousands of pounds.

If you pay a visit to the King George you will be able to see for yourself how very costly is the production of a big serial photo-play. Quite apart from the high salaries paid to a very large company of actors and actresses, there is the cost of special scenery needed for wonderful settings that are a feature of "The Broken Coin." Unless these special settings are solidly constructed they do not look at all well upon the screen, so that scenery that looks like scenery when photographed is quite useless. Consequently, a special setting is built in such close resemblance to the real thing that it costs almost as much as the real thing to manufacture.

Take the scene in " The Broken Coin " that represents a street in Coronia. As Coronia is an imaginary kingdom a special set had to be built in order that the correct atmosphere might be obtained. And so big buildings were erected, shops were built and houses designed all for the purpose of securing a few hundred feet of film. Yet, costly as this scene was to erect, it does not play at all an important part in "The Broken Coin." Indeed, it does not appear in the picture at all until the fifth episode, and then it is only flashed upon the screen for a very few seconds.

Another costly scene is one representing the den of some Apaches, who are hiding in a disused sewer. The depth of this sceno is over 200 ft long, and stones, pipes and cement walls have all been reproduced with absolute fidelity. Then there is the King's palace with its fort-like exterior and wonderfully decorated state rooms inside. Dozens of scenes were erected to show the various rooms inside the palace, and all had to bo furnished and fitted in the style in which a king's palace would be arranged. And many of these expensive scenes are completely wrecked before the camera in the pnisodos which show the bombardment of the palace by the cannon of an enemy country. The exterior of the palace is one of the! most wonderful scenes ever built for pic-! ture-making purposes. In architecture and in construction it is beautiful in the. extreme. I

Two bridges were specially built for " The Broken Coin," only to be destroyed in a spectacular fashion before the motionpicture camera. One of these is blown up with dynamite just after Lucille Love, the heroine, has driven over it in her car; the other collapses when Roleaux, an important character in the serial, tries to i ride across it on horseback. Needless to ! say both scenes are breathlessly thrilling. The cost of clothing and feeding even the smallest army reaches a huge figure, yet. for weeks the Trans-Atlantic had an army of hundreds of men working for the scenes in " The Broken Coin " which show the war between the kingdoms of Coronia and Koinardia. This army had to be armed and supplied with enormous quantities of ammunition, so it can readily be J realised how heavy are the expenses the producer of first-class picture serials musti be prepared to meet. The instances we have quoted are bub a few of the scenes in " The Broken Coin " which have called for the spending of' enormous sums; the others you will be I able to see for yourself if you pay a visit 1 to the King George Theatre on Monday! next when Episode 1 will be presented. j