The Sunday globe., 1901-05-26

THE GLOBE had an interesting chat
the past week with an operator and
thorough professor in the moving pic
ture business and CLEANED the follow
ing facts. Said the professor"
THE illusion as to the time the
moving picture is on the screen is de-
ceptive to everybody. 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 theatre goer has
seen them, and | 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
matter of fact the picture is on the
screen less than one minute. You can
easily figure it out for yourself The
ordinary 50-foot film of the kind to
which l refer is put through the repro
ducing machine at the rate Of 16 pic
lures to the second. Each picture Is
three-fouFths of an inch broad, which
makes the 16 measure exactly one
foot, edge to edge; in other words, the
film travels foot a second-50 feet, 80
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 1t is in
view. Until the moving picture was
invented I 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 possi.
bilities they found it was ample for
hundreds of little pictorial comedies
that have since delighted audiences all
over the world.
1T is entirely a matter Of rehearsal.
A subject is selected, generally calling
for from three to four people, and ey-
cry detail of the business or action is
carefully worked out in advance. Sup
pose, for illustration, that 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; erpoliceman, search
es the room, collars old gent; they
fight and roll on the floor while bur-
glar suddenly emerges 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 funny. The all es
sential thing is to crowd it into so Sec
onds, and to that end each bit of ac.
tion is carefully timed and made to
fit into each other bit like so many
onorvrrhoa1g oil
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 rehearsals the act is attempted be-
fore the recording machine. If every
body is lucky, it goes through on sched-
ule time, but the slightest hitch is ia
tai, and If one occurs the film is spoil
ed, and they must try all over again.
No wonder 1t seems impossible to fu-
ture spectators that so much could
in so seconds.
"But some of the most telling effects
in composition pictures" continued the
operator, have been the results Of ac-
cident and were entirely unpremedi-
tated That was the case with film
that | had a hand in preparing and
that afterwards made a tremendous
hit and proved to be one Of the best |
sellers ever put on the market. In get
ting up the picture our principal pur-
pose was to introduce large and very |
bulldog | owned at the |
time, and we sketched out simple |
little scene in which a tramp steals a |
pie from a kitchen window is pursued |
by the dog and at last seen trying ID |
scale the back fence with the animal |
hanging to his coattails.
THE training of the dog was the |
main trouble, but | finally taught him |
to lay hold of anything red and we |
sewed a big piece Of flannel as a mark |
to the back of our tramp's coat. Red
black, so 1t couldn't be |
seen in the pictures, and after a goo0 |
many reheaTsals the dog learned to |
dash out at exactly the right moment |
and nail the marauder, whose cue was |
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 and |
started the record machine to take the |
picture.
Immediately the little comedy be-
gan. The tramp appeared, looked |
around stealthily, saw the pie, hooked
ii and was having a feast when out
sprang the bulldog and seized him by
the coattails. He thereupon sprinted
to the fence and was about to carry out
the rest Of the program when, to our
CONSERVATION, the boards gave way,
and he came down bang on top of the
dog. The film had about ten seconds
to run, and it was occupied in record
ing one of the liveliest scraps that ever
happened. There was no hippodTome
about it. Both parties were out for
blood. When the fence fell, the bull.
dog had promptly transferred himself
from the tramp's coattails to the
tramps calf, while that unfortunate
person snatched up a broomstick and
tried to pry him loose. They rolled
over and put about so times as much
action and animation In the last ten
seconds as had been crowded into the
preceding 40. We finally pulled them
apart, and it was not until the negative
was developed that we realized what
prize we had accidentally secured.
That earnest and impromptu wind up
has convulsed audiences all over Chris
tendon and made fully as much Of a
hit in Europe as It did at home"
At a store on the avenue a net daily
income Of considerable amount Is real
ized from the exhibition Of the penny
in-the-slot" moving picture machines
Notwithstanding that the pictures ex-
hibited have not been changed or add
ed to since the place was opened, show
ing concluslvely the great number OF
transient visitors, for It is absurd to
believe that the same class Of patrons
visit the establishment every day.
A light-headed dramatist had just
aatIed for | I.oudon with "A telp. cone full