The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-03-22
MOTION PICTURE FILMS
HOW THEY ARE MADE
Picture Machine Companies Hire Conn
bamies Of Actors, Buy No End of Properties, and
Go to Any Length to Get Their Motion Films
Secrets of Some of the Illusions Exbosed.

produces the "f1icker' common to
most picture machines.
Since the advent of the first pro-
jecting machines, it has been the con-
slant study of. designers to construct
an appliance to diminish the flicker
By persistent effort the designers of
the kinodrome have constructed ma
Expensive talent is now employed by
publishers Of picture films to direct the
posing Of subjects, and in many cases
there is employed Fstock company
Of actors schooled in this particular
line of business. Many Of the recent
story pictures have been first produced
before an audience which paid to see
publishing company from piracy by Civ
ing the company a copyright on the
play as we'll as the film.
Many OF these .picture-mac hine sac
tors' become decidedly proficient. The
actor who takes the part Of the French
nobleman in the famous Chase pic
ture, which was on the opening bill at
before the camera, and all with sue
cess.
In the early days of the motion pic
lures the subjects were posed entirely
in the sunlight, either in outdoor stu
dos built to face the sun, or indoors
under big skylights. Now all leading
film makers have studios with elaborate
candle power of artificial light, the
light being so distributed as to cut out
all shadow.
The many mysterious films, much
in vogue two or three years ago, were
easily made, altho large sums were Of
ten spent in preparing the "props.'
An illustration Of the ease with which
illusions are produced in the continu-
ous-motion machine is found in the
familiar 'ducks-in-tub" trick. The pic
lures show an empty tub presided over
with water by an assistant, after which
the magician covers the tub with a
cloth, makes g few mysterious passes,
and, presto! the tub is filed with live
ducks. In making the picture the
camera is stopped while the cover is
removed and the ducks placed in the
tub, the illusion thus being, created
While many wonderful scenes have
been placed on the screen, "The Great
Train Robbery" is probably the most
wonderful, as it was the most expen-
sive in it's production. For this series
the. producing company chartered a
train on an eastern Pennsylvania rail
road and hired over two hundred "su-
collected g cast'5 and drilled them
under regular stage director" altho
the directors STAGE was many miles
in length. The men who were to pose
as the train robbers were made emo
ton perfect before the final trial,
and the scene in the dance hall-the
train robbery is supposed to occur in
the far west-was actually built for
the occasion.
The minutest details were arranged,
even, to securing from Washington the
regular United States mailbags and
locks. During that portion of the Sc
ries which shows the fight on the loco
motive tender and the killing of the
fireman, the camera was placed on the
rear Of the tender and the pictures
were taken while the locomotive was
going at the rate of forty miles an
hour. So proficient did the principal
actors in the pictured drama become
that the fall of one of the bandits from
his horse remains the most realistic bit
af acting ever done before camera.
The equally famous "Moonshiners
series was taken in the mountains of
Tennessee, and most of the characters