The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-03-18
SOME ILLUSIONS
OF THE SCREENS
How Men Walk on Ceilings and
Fall From Dizzy Heights

''rrick" photography was known be-
tore the birth az the motion picture.
The spirit" photographs, as used 10y
the confederates OF spurious mediums
IL familiar to ali. Thomas Hardy
effective use of delusive photograph
Ia one of his novels. But il is through
cinematography the camera has reach
ed its highest development in the art
of the spectator
The skill reached 10y operators In
this form of camera manipulation has
enabled them to attain results that
seem - verge on the miraculous, even
when the methods they employ have
been thoroughly explained and seem
wholly miraculous when the spectator
remains innocent of knowledge of
those methods.
How illusions Began.
The tricks had their beginning In a
mechanical peculiarly OF the moving
picture camera. The photographs each
one inch wide. and seven eights of an
inch deep. are taken on "a continuous
moving film. The makers found that
the apparatus could he stopped at any
point so that each picture might he
taken separately or group together.
or that subsituations and changes in
the scene might he made between the
exposure.
When the manufacturers realized
these possibilities, the earlier styles
Of trick pictures began To appear
thick and fast. A French magician
named Males originated the so-called
magical pictures. in which persons
and objects appeared or disappeared
in an instant. OF course, these were
merely placed in or removed from the
scene while the shutter of the camera
was closed between the photographs.
Falling From Dizzy Heights.
Then the trick of substitution was
brought to perfection. 1t has sur
ViVed as one of the best of the devices.
in the picture of the Great Train
Robbery" for example dummy was
substituted and thrown from moving
train in place of the living fireman.
with a piece of coal In later pictures
this substitutions was carried to such
perfection that the spectators fairly
rose in their seats in their excitement.
Two men seem to be lighting on the
edge of high wall of a castle one
overpowers the other ana throws him
from the parapet to the ground TAR
M hnnn SllhSti-
uted for the living performer so neat
~ that the illusion of the fall can not
Ice detected in "A scene of startling
realism.
Alice in Wonderland.
BY other devices known To the pie
lure man the impossible marVels Of
Alice in Wonderland" have been
made possible the wildly fantastic
imagnings of Lewis Carroll have been
TRANSMITTED into realities. and child
rem unfortunate afflicted with preco-
cious skepticism, who may nave
doubted the truth of the story as they
read its pages. have been diverted
from the dangerous path upon when
they were entering and restored To
the proper menlal Shil'N VI
hood by seeing Alice actually gong
through her strange adventures before
their very own eyes.
by still other devices the fathers
or those children have been enabled
Ia see John Paul Jones and his men
ON the blood stained deck OF the Bon
Homme Richard again fight and con-
quer the Scraps
Ia this latter picture the sea ana
sky were actual. That is. MOTION
picture camera was taken ON the ocean
and film made of an unobstructeu
horizon. Then models of the two war
ships, each about four feet high' were
constructed and placed on rockers
Each of the miniature black gums
protruding from their portholes hau
behind 1t cup for holding powder
,.,o. ounIaAa1 electricity.