Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-04-06
MOVING PICTURES.
HOW THE SKETCHES ARE REPRO
.DUCEO UPON THE FILMS.

"a queer thing about moving pic
lures" said an expert operator in that
line to New Orleans Times Democrat
reporter, lis the illusion they generally
produce as to the time they occupy
while on 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 goer has
seen them, and 1 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 one minute. You can
easily figure it out for yourself. The
ordinary 80 foot film of the kind to
which l refer is put through the repro
ducing machine at the rate of 1G pic
lures to the second. Each picture Is
J lulN C-lOOl lis vi Stu HUI w Hull
makes the 16 measure exactly one
foot, edge to edge; In other words, the
/ film travels foot 4 secOnd-50 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 / don't think anybody had
the least idea how much could be done
in 90 seconds. 1t seemed hardly time
enough to turn around In, yet when
the experts began to study its posi-
bilities they found 1t 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 ev-
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; 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 funny. The all es
sential thing is to crowd it into so Sec
onds, and to that end each bit Of ac-
ton is carefully timed and made to
fit into each other bit like so many
well geared cOgwheels. 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 rehearsalS the act is attempted be-
fore the recording machine. If every
body is lucky, it goes through Oh 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 it seems impossible to fu-
ture spectators that so much could
in 80 seconds.
But some of the most telling effects
In composition pictures" continued the
operator, "have been the result of acct I
dent and were entirely unpremeditat-
ed That was the case with film that
had hand in preparing and that
lfterward made a tremendous hit and
ever put on the market. In getting
Up the picture our principal purpose
vas TO introduce q large and very in
elligent bulldog l owned at the time,
md we sketched out a simple little
Gene in which a tramp steals a pie
rom a kitchen window, is pursued by
he dog and is last seen trying to scale
he back fence with the animal hang 6
ne to his cOattails.
The training Of the dog was the
lain trouble, but finally taught him
0 lay hold Of anything red, and we
owed a big piece of flannel as a mark
, the back Of our tramp's coat. Red
black, so it couldn't be u
cen in the pictures, and after a good {
lany rehearsals the dog learned to v
ash out at exactly the right moment u
nd nail the marauder, whose cue was
len to rush for the fence and consume u
ne remaining time in making an ap-
arently desperate effort to scramble q
4 ho - | u
hing all ready, gave the word and u
arted the record machine to take the ID
icture. q
Immediately the little comedy be- u
an. Tie tramp appeared, looked u
round stealthily. saw the pie. hooked IL
and was having a feast when out
)rang the bulldog and seized him by pl
lie cOattails. He thereupOn sprinted q
the fence and was about to carry out a'
le rest of the programme when, to our ~
the boards gave way, u
nd he came down bang on top of the IL
)g The film had about ten seconds to III
IN, and it was occupied in recording ~
le Of the livelieSt scraps that ever IL
ippened. There was no hippodrome
)out it. Both parties were out for III
God. When the fence fell. the bull III
g had promptly transferred himself sc
ON the tramp's cOattail to the tramp's VI
If, while that unfortunate person III
atched up a broomstick and tried to ci'
y him loose. They rolled over and
1t about 80 times as much action and ne
limation in the last ten seconds as 81
ID been crowded into the preceding Is.
I. We finally pulled them apart. and -
was not until the negative was devel- vi
ed that we realized what a prize we "a
ID accidentally secured. That ear III
st and impromptu wind up has con- la
Used audiences all over Christendom I'd
ID made fully as much Of hit in Eu- oo'
pc as 1t did at home" DC
Ice
Primitive American Rail- e+o