Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-11-27
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Did you eve come out of moving
picture show with the feeling that you
! had been dreaming dreams?"
There is nothing that so thoroughly
/ combines absolute matthew atical exact
ness with fantastic Unreality as the
modern entertainment known as a
moving picture show. There is moth
/ ing that requires more scientific and
artistic skill in the making or more
/ care and dexterity in the reproducing
/ than the pictures shown by the kline
! tOScope, and there is nothing more
mystifying to the beholder than these
same pictures, when they are thrown
! on the screen in the theater In the
! same afternoon, perhaps, you will see
| q thrilling train robbery, prize fight,
dainty little domestic comedy, q
! scene during q trip of one Of the pres
/ idential candidates, a fairy tale of
| your childhood, and some of the magi-
cal pictures in which stones roll rap
! idly up HILL saws and hammers work
! without human assistance, Or a skele-
! ton gradually develops flesh and cloth
! Ing. The commonplace is so mixed
! with the impossible that while you
are looking at. the pictures you find
! yourself believing it is all perfectly
| real and natural, and it is only after
/ you have left the theater that you
| realize it is a trick, an optical illu-
! sion, and you wonder how It is done.
/ The effect upon your mind is much
| like that produced by dream you
! have had, only in the case of the cine
matograph you try to analyze the
| process.
Behind the Scenes.
i But the process is unanaIyzable, IN
less you are permitted a peep behind
the scenes of the business of film MAX
| ing. Once in the film makers studio,
! however, you find the making of the
pictures far more interesting than the
| pictures themselves. One moment YOU
laugh at your own stupidity in not
guessing how it worked" The next
you are lost in admiration of the clev-
| erness Of the film makers in being able
to arrange the natural and ordinary
means about them to produce such ex-
traord1nary results. And you never
see moving picture afterwards with
| out remembering how it, or one like it.
was made.
Art, the drama, nature, mechanical
forces, all have part in the produc-
ton of the pictures that are repro
duced all over the civilized world. for
the moving picture show has become
the most universal of all amusements.
Every manufacturer of motion picture
nlms maintains a large company of
actors, theater of his own with an
immense stage fitted with traps, tanks.
lift and other usual scenic accessories.
and a larger corps Of stage carpenters,
scene painters, scene shutters and
property men than is thought neces-
sary ID any Of the first-class theaters
IN Europe or America All sorts Of
| ingenious methods of producing I'M
usual effects, all the devices for Gre
: ating realistic illusions known to the
stage and many that are impossible on
| the real stage, are employed Every
KIND of scenery and stage setting are
used. People Of all ages, sizes and con-
d1t1ons, the lame, the halt and the
blind as well as the physically per-
feet, take part in the various scenes.
Sometimes the actors play their parts
on a real stage, sometimes they act in
the fields or woods or even on the
streets Of city, and sometimes they
so partly through a performance In
the midst of natural surroundings and
complete the play on the stage of a the
ater, or vice versa. 1t all depends on
the subject Of the picture and the way
! the idea is worked out.
Dramatic ability Of q high order is
| necessary in the actors who pose be-
fore the speeding kaleidoscope, for act
ing alone must tell the story of the
| play they are presenting, and many of
| the subjects are too artistic to admit
| of mere pantomime as an exposition
of their meaning
Trick Pictures from France
The kaleidoscope is not a French in
yention, but its development along ar
tisttc lines is due almost entirely to
French ingenuity. In England, and in
America till quite recently, 1t was
used merely to record events as they
occurred, such as the unwilling of a
monument, the Inauguration of q pres
ident Of the United States, boat
race, prize fight, championship
baseball game, or a great parade. No
attempt was made to create subjects
for the machine to photograph, and all
| fanciful pictures, color pictures, or
others that were out of the ordinary
were left for the French film makers
to produce, and the result has been
three distinctively characteristic class
es Of motion pictures
England produces the current
events" films. She sends her kineto-
scope operators wherever great things
are happening She had one in the
trenches at Casablanca, another in
! CODSta ybo,, bo