Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1901-03-28
MOVING PICTURES.
HOW THE SKETCHES ARE REPRO
DuCED UPON THE FILMS. it,

HOW THE SKETCHES ARE REPRO
DucED UPON THE FILMS. i
Tie Amount OF movement That May
He Crowded Int Fifty Seconds.
The Greatest Successes Are OFTEN
Brought About by Accident.
"a queer thing about moving pic
lures" said an expert operator in that
line to a New Orleans Times-D Democrat
reporter, 'is the illusion they generally
produce as to the time they occupy
while Oh the screen. What is known
as the standard exhibition film is so
feet long. 1t is used almost entirely
for comic scenes, trick pictures and
other effects that are got up in the
studios of the experts who make them
a speciality. Every theater goert has
seen them, and I will venture the as
sertion that the average man will de-
clare they take at least three or four
minutes in passing before the eye. As
a matter of fact the picture is on the
screen less than n minute. You can
easily figure it out for yourself. The
ordinary 80 foot film of the kind to
which I refer is put through the repro
ducing machine at the rate of 16 pic
lures to the second. Each picture is
three-fourths of an inch broad, which
makes the 16 measure exactly one
foot, edge to edge; in other words, the
film travels a foot a second-5O feet, so
seconds. What gives it the effect of
taking up so much more time is the
immense lot of action that is usually
crowded into the brief period it is in
view. Until the moving picture was
Invented 1 don't think anybody had
the least idea how much could be done
in SO seconds. 1t seemed hardly time
enough to turn around in, yet when
the experts began to study it's posi-
bilities they found it was ample for
hundreds of little pictorial comedies
that have since delighted audiences all
over the world.
cit is entirely a matter Of rehearsal.
A subject is selected, generally calling
for from three to four people, and ev-
cry. detail of the business or action is
carefully worked out in advance. Sup
pose, for illustration, that a comic bur-
glary is the topic. The business, in
skeleton, might run something like
this: Old gentleman doing in parlor;
enter burglar; old gentleman awakes;
burglar hides; enter policeman, search
es the room, collars old gent; they
fight and roll on the floor while bur
glar suddenly energies and leaps out
of the window. That doesn't sound
particularly side splitting, but in the
hands. Of intelligent: comedians it can
be made really very fuzzy. The all es.
sential thing is to crowd it into SO sec.
onds, and to that end each bit Of &C.
ton is carefully timed and made to
fit into each other bit like SO many
well geared cogwhee]s. The old gen
tleman's startled yawn. the burglars
glance around the room and every
step, movement and gesture from be
ginning to end is calculated with the
utmost nicely, and at last after dozens
of, reheafsals the act is attempted be
fore the recording machine. If every
body is lucky, it gees through on SEIZED
ule time, but the slightest hitch is "a
tai, and if one occurs the film is spoil
ed, and they must try all over again
No wonder it seems impossible to fR
ture spectators that so much coul6
transpire in so seconds.
"But some Of the most telling effects
in oonroc;finp p;of,,roS - oontfp1,od fht
operator, shave been the result of acct
dent and We're entirely unpremeditat
ed. That was the case with a film thai
]. had q hand in preparing and tha1
afterward made a tremendous hit ani
proved to be one of the best sellers
ever put OF the market. In getting
up the picture our principal purpos'
was to introduce q large and very in
telligent bulldog / owned at the time
and we sketched out a simple LITTLE
scene in which a tramp steals a pi,
from a kitchen window, is pursued b,
the dog and is last seen trying to scale
the back fence with the animal hang
ing to his c~oattails. 49,
'The training of the dog was th,
main trouble, but I finally taught hin
to lay hold Of anything red, and W.
sowed q big piece Of flannel as a mari
to the back of our tramp's coat Rec
photographs black, so it couldn't b,
seen In the pictures, and after a gooG
many r%ehearsals the dog learned t.
dash out at exactly the right momen'
and nail the marauder, whose cue wa.
then to rush for the fence and CONSUME
the remaining time in making an ap
parently desperate effort to scramble
over the top. At last we got every
thing all ready, gave the word ant
started the record machine to take thu
picture. *
Immediately the little comedy be
gan. The tramp appeared, looked