Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-10
Cecil de Mile
on the Movies
Present State
Distinguished Laslsy Direc-
tor Talks on the Problems
IS Of the New Art

-, N mn MILE, director general
,no lease i. Lasky Feature Play
,s.,,nsrv and one Of the bejt-known direc-
,ho industry, was in New York last
few hours on business, but be-
WecA could start on his way back to the
ioIs w "a tJollvwood. Cal, the usual reporter
btuS1 htr, He did not, however, give the
.s,s,,ain interview. He had many ana inter-
.,. things TO say, as any one who has
n bts productions at the Stanley or Palace
might have guessed.
~what. in your Judgment" Mr.. De Mile
,,ss asked, "is to be the length oil the mo-
zion picture In the future
4nt wIsh YOU could tell me that" he said,
,rbecause have been trying 10 tell myself
"a don't think there is any one who
.sii,, Knows at the present moment. 1t Is
a,i,a true that the ordinary first-class story
w. he told admirably within the space of an
sour and fifteen minutes. which Is about the
a,sraqe time of presenting fve-reel fea-
ture"
"nont you think many features now told
IN Ave reels might be told In three?'
Mr. De Mile laughed a bit and replied,
.t think there are many fve-reel pictures
- tbe market that had better not been
.od at all Seriously however, | should
s.v there are good many pictures taking
THAR places with standard program re-
,ssses that have been considerably padded.
"The fact is, however" continued Mr..
No Mile, that all this question of length,
SootaRe. time of presentation. etc, Is wholly
dependable upon the very foundation OF
ths dramatic side of motion pictures. That
foundation rests simply and wholly In the
lonc word-story You can take the finest
east of actors that was ever assembled,
amend money lavishly on an elaborate pro-
duction, photograph the entire assemblage
exouistely and unless the story you have
IN fell is n good one you have failure
on YOUR hands. On the other hand. you
can take bad actors. bad production, bad
photography and have good story, and
wild horses can't lead your audience away
until the picture Is finished.
"our great trouble has been to find writ.
,rs who can produce this kind of photo
PLAYS The dramatist seems to rely too
much on the spoken title, which is the voice
of the actor to him. He has Il tendency to
sacrifice the thrilling scenes for some we'll
termed phrase to flash on the screen. The
novelist seems unable to narrow his actions
down to the limitations of the camera. He
gives his descriptions and his characters
too large n field in which to work. He de.
scrlbes some thrilling incident in such a
manner that If it were photographed as
written it would mean merely a waving of
arms to the photodramatic audience
"The new school of photodramatic writer's
seems to be coming from younger genera.
ton. Newspaper men and women seem to
be especially we'll qualified for this work
cannot set my finger on the exact reason
why but such seems to be the case. Our
two best photodramatic authors are still in
their twenties, and they are both graduates
from the newspaper college. Their feet, of
course. had to be placed in the proper path
and their Footsteps guided at first by a
AualY IL u NrN I.,k
grasped the dramatic construction they
were able to go ahead and produce excellent
results. The perfect photodrama has as yet
not been written, for the same reason that
as yet the great American drama has not
appeared on the stage.
"As said in the start, photodramatic
writing Is a new field, and / feel conf
dent that in the not distant future it will
have Its Pinero, Jones, Thomas and perhaps
. Shakespeare.
I The day of the inexperienced actor on
the screen has passed and the casts for the
photoplay must be selected with the same
care as would be taken with the presenta.
uon OF thorough New York production. /
md can get better results with artists
who have had stage experience and dra.
matte training than with those who have
not
Settings are mere background for the
sctoIs' ana While they should be complete |
In every detail, the actor should not be
suoordinated to the scene Painted can.
vas for stage settings has seen it's day |
and should we even attempt to present our |
photodramas with the majority of settings |
used In spoken drama our pictures would |
De laughed out of the theatres. 1t is neces. |
sary TO construct a room exactly as II would |
De IN home. with the painting and the |
woodwork and the interior decorating of |
'he best. The photodramatic audiences do |
not allow us even the slightest margin for
error.
IN regard to photography, have al.
"sys contended that the art of the different |
SCHOOLS or painting could be transferred to
he innnitesimal size of motion picture ex-
posure' and that we can give all the neces-
aary art effects, simply having our char.
lclers moving instead of still as In a paint.
hs. nave used the Rembrandt, the I'm
plesslonistlc and the Japanese schools with
very good results.
nave learned that too much detail
n tne background tends to distract the at
ehlion or the audience from the players
= tne foreground so after establishing the
Ueatons or scenes in the minds of the au-
nehce abandon everything but a mere
u the artists.
As In all branches OF the photodramatic
y. there is room for Improvement in the
typography. l mean in the technical feat
me actual attainment of calculated ef-
's'S Ihere Is also the contributing factor