Arizona republican., 1915-02-01
EXPLAINS FEW
 MOVIE TRICKS
Double Exposure Camera, One of New Things in Motion Picture World, / Makes Miracle Film s Seemingly Impossible

The motion picture is such a new visitation and the industrial side of | the business has advanced with such rapid leaps and bounds that few of the millions of people who are inter- | ested in the picture show have had a chance to learn how the wonderful and mystifying effects upon the screen are actually obtained.
 For instance, there is the vision, in which the ghost of the departed doors; the illusion, as best exempli- | fled in the Italian production, Ca biria," in which hosts of people are seen fleeing down the mountain side with the lava from an erupting vol cano flowing molten hot all round and finally over them; or a maiden coming face to face with roaring lion. Everyone has marveled at such as l tonishingly realistic effects, but how many know the method by which such wonderful photography is made Little, if anything, has ever beeen written on the subject, and even now, before the method in use has been mastered by more than half Of the film manufacturers themselves. comes the announcement of a new camera which revolutionizes the en- tire scheme.
 This wonder is known as the du- pleX double exposure camera, and IS the invention of David Horsley. a pioneer of the picture world. who has contributed many essential patents which have been largely responsi- ble for the rapid and substantial de- velopment of the industry.
 l Under the methods in vogue up to the present time, the baffling eff fects suggested in the fore part of this article are obtained by double and triple exposures, each made sep arately. Take for instance, pie ture released recently. in which the same actor plays the part of man who is injured and the doctor who comes to attend him. The photo of the man being hurt. falling. and the body lying on the floor is made first. Then the film is rewound with ab- solute exactness. Every object in the scene is covered with black vel vet. which does not photograph. The wounded man is no longer there. of course, and the same actor, now made up as the doctor. plays his part to an imaginary patient But he must be in precisely proper relative positions-if he goes step too far he would appear in the finished pie ture to be stepping on the man on the floor. Every move he makes is measured to the fraction of an inch and timed with the exactness of a stop watch.
 Any error, however slight. means that the entire negative must be thrown away and the scene made over and over until it is right. One well known producer spent three months in obtaining a satisfactory vision in 9 single scene. Hundreds of feet of film and the time and ex- pense of actors. directors and cam era men were wasted in the work.
 With the new double exposure camera the two exposures are made at one and the same time. and all such waste of film and that far more valuable commodity to the producer time is eliminated. When the "won der box is used. two scenes or the scene and a black velveted space exactly correspondine to it. are set up close to each other. both being
 photographed at the same instant or the same negative. The solid figure sees the vision working and times his moves accordingly. or may he dissolved out of one place and made to appear in the other. or vice versa A thousand new and astonishinf tricks are made possible. The head
 of one man can he made to appear on another mans shoulders ano
 changed back and forth at will. A
 little child is apparently seen shar- ing it's food with savage tiger, anc Ia sharn-taloned eagle perchins "r
 the bald head of a man. But its
 wonders do not cease here With the laid of another of Horsley's inven- lions, device attached to and oper- lated simultaneously with the camera the speeches necessary to make the
 story complete are photographed right on the negative with perfect standardization, so that when the lpicture is thrown on the screer things the characters are saying tf one another are read by the audi
 enca as the play goes on.
 The camera is duplex in that il makes two separate negatives a once. each doubly exposed. This is
 done merely as an insurance agains
 inc many accidents that are liable tc
 hefan negative before it reache'
 it's finished state.