The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-10
WITH THE ACTORS
 |NMAK|NG MOVIES Villain. Angel Child and Shakespeare Mixed Up TWO ACTS ON AT ONCE Much Tape Wasted and Hard Labor Endured Getting Silent Drama
 Right-The Unexpected
 Often Happens

1, 1ong low structure that looked like a skating rink, writes London correspond- ert of the St Louis Globe eDemocrat. We drove right into the building and l real izet that we were just in time to save inc child poignant scene confronted us.
 A weeping wife and mother listened for the third time to the news of her hus- hands death at sea. Her little daughter cluns to her skirts and much-battered doll. A villain, in villainous frock coat, rtood over her, his strong right arm raised in anger. and snorted indignantly. Stand back!
 "Rotten.' said the cinema man, weari- fy: that child's smiling again. Try 1t orce more.
 fell over a beer puirp. an Elizabethan settee and a property ham and looked the other way saw MT. William Shakespeare in brown hose, mournfully contemplating four-poster bed under the canopy of which reposed his charming red-haired wife and twins.
 Somebody take these babies" said Anne Hathaway. "One of them is crying ter its mother
 That's all for the present. shouted an active little man, as he folded bulky manuscript, Tets have some lunch So the merrie dramatist and his friends sat down with the twentieth century Villain and his victim (who was allowed to smile for the first time in three hours), and a miscellaneous company. including two h. dustrious youths who had been cutting up newspapers to make material for a ' enowstorm.
 Very Complex Scene
 Only a cinema studio could present such weird and complex scene as the one describe. This particular studio-the head of ha ay1d Colonial e- matograph company at Walthamstow-is like a two-ring circus, inasmuch as yon can watch two picture stories being un- folded simultaneously before the cam- eras.
 This transformed skating rink, fitted with e4000 system of movable arc lamps, makes an ideal foundation for the pro- duction of elaborate motion pictures. \Four plays can be filmed at the same time.
 v Here two lengthy dramas are being acted within 20 feet of each other al- though they are really three centuries apart. Their proximity is bewildering to the visitor who knows nothing of cinema work. If the agonized heroine in The Tat tooed Will chose to escape from her pros- eoutors in the easiest way, she could step from her plainly furnished dining room in London suburb across to Will Shake speares kitchen. and defy the frock-coat- ed villain to pursue her into the Eliza bethan era rr
 Surprisingly little space is needed for many of the scenes The heroine's dn- it,s room is merely a painted canvas Background, with a practicable doof ard two or three articles of furniture.
 In the Magic Kitchen
 Shakespeares kitchen has great open fireplace back wall. and some painted canvas screens, but to unex perienced eyes it is nothing more than fl,fs verts 1t into a massive Elizabethan kitchen. Many scenic sets are very elaborate and costly, but you realize nevertheless the great possibilities of cinema tography in suggesting reality when only the flimsest of materials are employed.
 i'he absence of dialogue Is discon- certing to a stranger. You a pale faced woman expressing the deepest anguish in dumb show--lifting her eyes to heaven, clasping her hands and her child moving her lips convulsive- ly. and perhaps making inarticulate sunds but saying nothing that can be understood.
 Enter the villain with false news and a false heart. He makes menacing gestures and kind of clucking noise in his throat. Occasionally he says, Curse it,' which apparently helps him to feel that he is villain, shakes his clenched fist at the darling child and backs away, panting, but still tongue tied.
 The angel child (she Is only 3k, and a delightful little actress) cannot be induced to harden her heart against the villain. who is her friend on the other side of the tape. When she gives him his hat and stick she cannot frown and say, in gesture, Now go.!' So you watch the action of the scene. which appears quite rational to a deaf and xl. h aud Its.p any inlfo Tlrf ducer of the drama twho stands Just outside the picture. but apparently in it) say something like this:
 Now. then, dear, quick; give him his hat-no, not his stick first, yes, that's right, now his stick; now tell him to go don't smile; he's a naughty man; point your finger at him; now go, you naughty man; now run to your mother look at her poor mother; no, don't look at your real mother; now hug her; poor, poor mother; kiss her.
 "All right" The film Is stopped. and another heart-rending scene finished. But in order to appreciate 1t you must stop your ears with cotton wool.
 Producers Difficulties
 Yards of film are wasted in order to get the best results. Many scenes have to be repeated over and over again: the critical producer may not be sat isfied with the lighting, or with the gestures of the players.
 Anne Hathaway, for example, has just enacted one scene four times. She hears Will Shakespeare's whistle, runs to her window. and receives note which he throws into the room. Anne missed the note three times The first time she fumbled and it dropped on the floor; the second time it fell beside the bed; the third time she accidentally knocked it under the bed.
 So for the fourth time Anne ex- presses artless surprise, joy, bewilder- ment, smiles from the window. catches the note. reads it, presses 1t to her bosom and the operator Is satisfied at last.
 The unexpected often happens. A few days ago a frolicsome horse put his fore feet through an expensive set of scenery, and drove the scenic artists to the verge of madness, in ad dititn to nearly killing an actor.
 Then there is the melancholy case of the hero of the Tattooed Will. sI am wrecked at sea" he said, ''and the will is tattooed on my back. tNo. 1t is not my wil1) When I was rescued from my lonely raft after many days of suffering Golf Whitstable). broken nail in one of the boards did little tattooing on its own account and for a time I limped and dreamed of lock- jaw.
 "But ft's all fin the day's work, even if it isn't in the picture"
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