The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-29

ana nrnS which are nghting Tor ex-
istence. One of the big companies
uses huge machines run by electric
motors, which weigh in the neighbor-
hood of 500 pounds. The other de-
ponds on a hand turned crank and
gets along with apparatus which
weighs less than twenty pounds.
Up to the last two years most of
the really good films for moving pic
lures machines-under whatever name
they may masquerade-have come
from one firm in Paris and from an
other in London, but recently Ameri-
can companies have begun to turn out
pictures which equal and often excel
the best foreign products.
Every company which is in the bust
ness of producing moving pictures for
the market has a stage fitted up, en-
which the actors who appear in most
of the pictures pose for the camera.
In this way and by the aid of profess
sional actors are produced almost all
the comic films which afford so much
amusement to vaudeville audiences.
Almost any vaudeville team which
does funny dumb" act-that is, an
act which does not depend upon any
thing outside of pantomime for its hui
MORGAN get an engagement to make
up and pose for the moving picture
camera. On these same backyard
stages are also posed the scenes from
the big English pantomimes like Lit
tie Red Riding Hood" which are af-
forwards colored up and sold to ex-
hibiters everywhere at high prices.
When such a catastrophe as the
eruption of Mont Pelee, for instance,
occurs, 1t is a signal for intense ec-
tivity on the part of all the moving
picture film makers. They get busy
| in several ways. A couple of opera
tors, with the necessary machines are
| at once dispatched to the scene of the
| hanpening to take views of what is
| lef of the surrounding country. But
| their activity does not stop there. 1t
| is necessary to show views of the vol
| cano in active operation, so they pro-
| coed to fake" 1t. If necessary a spec
ial lot of scenery is painted and built;
| then, If a volcanic eruption is to be
photographed, a large lot of black
| smoke producing powder is ignited and
a quantity of some viscid liquid, which
may look live lava, is started running
| down the side of the canvas noun
| tain. OF course, the proper kind and
| quantity of properties" are distribu-
| ted in the foreground, and the result
| is something extremely realistic. AS a
| matter of fact, no moving pictures re-
| Gently shown III Chicago have aroused
| so much enthusiasm as a certain series
| which we're announced as showing
| Mont Pele in active operation and
which really were the result of COM
bination of black smoke, thick mo-
lasses, ad canvas mountain.
The standard price for a
common subject is fifteen dollars
hundred feet, but when the subjects
| of exceptional difficulty are shown the
price may go as high as 81 a running
| foot. The films are run through the
projecting machine at the rate of about
100 feet a minute. The films are ex-
tremely thin and in their passage
through the projecting machine are
unwound from spool at one side of
the machine and rewound, automatic
ally, on the other side. If the eelluloid
of which the film is made is good stock
and the completed film was properly
and carefully handled a film will last
almost indefinitely. There are films in
Chicago which have been shown as
many as 1000 times and which are still
in good condition.
The outbreak of the war with Spain
and the subsequent hostilties in the
Philippines gave the moving picture
men their first great opportunity, and
they were quick to take advantage of
1t. Daring and expert operators were
sent out both to Cuba and to the
Philippines with instructions to take
photographs of battle scenes charges,
and everything else possible. But, in
spite of their daring. they soon found
it impossible to take a real moving
picture of an army in battle. In the
first place, a battle line changes 50
swiftly that the firing might move out
of focus Of the camera minute after
hostilities began, while, even If that
had not been in the
way. the enemy seemed to make the
moving picture machines an especial
target for their fire.
There was one moving picture, man
in the Philippines who declared
that he would take a real battle scene
If 1t cost his life. He took his machine
and went out with a battalion of ma
rines which was sent to dislodge a
body of insurgents from their hiding
place in a jungle. The marines landed
from the warships at the foot of a
high bluff. which led up to the jungle
where the "niggers'' were hidden
Cautiously they crept UP to the crest,
the moving picture man and his as
sistants with them. At the top they
halted a moment to allow the man
with the camera to get ready for hos
tilities. With great bravery he
climbed to the top of the bluff and
laboIipusly got his apparatus into
place, the insurgents meanwhile keep
ing at quiet as death. But
the minute the poor photographer
commenced to turn the crank of hts
machine the rebels hidden In the trOp-
ical Jungle opened fusillade of but
let's before which no living thing
could have stood up. The photogra-
pher faced II for a fraction OF a sec
ond and then as the bullets commenced
to sing through his hair he gave
wild scream. gathered his beloved in
etrument into his arm, and leaped
over the brow. OF the blum. eventually
landing some forty feet below in The
surf
When the marines had got over
laughing they crept forward on their
faces and dislodged the enemy. cap
turing a number Of them. These cap
tiges explained that they took the
moving picture machine for new fan
gied machin gun and decided that Il
would not be wise 10 wait for more Of
them 10 be- set uD.
American officers, both In Cuba and
Ia the Eastern Islands. felt sorry for
the moving picture men who hHi been
70 10 much trouble and expense 10