Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1916-04-30

the same time. Or can one ever quite
efface from memory the majestic man
ner with which Mansfield, as Cyrano /
de Bergerac, tossed his purse to the
crowd? These are specific instances to
illustrate my meaning.
It was the art of Interpretation g1Ori-
fed. The player and his mood became
the great figure in such cases. With
the moving picture it is different. The
poetic stimulation, the tour de force
which arrests attention and makes
memories that are to live, is a(silent
power. The brain behind this art is
never revealed. 1t lends itself to that
concealment which is one of the rarcat
attributes of true art The living thing
Is subjective. There is no rivalry with
the spoken drama. Each has it's niche
and, if artistically done, will live. The
mere presentation may be ephemerai,
but the ideas and the recollections go
on and on as long as life lasts.
In motion pictures we have a larger
field in which to operate. On the stage
these so called effects" are limitations
at best. In the film play we show the
actual occurrence and are not hampci-
ed by the size Of our stage or the num-
Der of people we can crowd into the
scene. If our story traverses to a bat
tlefeld we show an actual battlefield.
If it means that 10000 people Were
part Of this conflict we engage 10000
people, rehearse them in minute detail.
and when we are ready we show sou
that scene as realistically as if you
were looking down from a hilltop and
watching an engagement of contending
forces.
Let us look into the cost of this. This
scene for motion picture might cost
YOU in the neighborhood of $4,000
But the cost ends with the taking of
the original negative. There are no
salaries after this, and the only cx-
pense is the comparatively slight one
of making new copies from the original
negative.
A big spectacle on the stage can ar
the utmost employ 400 people in
scene. This is an unusually large num-
Der. 1t takes the same time and pains
to rehearse them that it does to handle
10000 people in a motion picture scene.
But the stage production goes on daily.
with eight or ten performances week.
and the salaries and costuming Of the
supernumeraries run up to $500 a.
week, so that at the end of two sea-
sons these forces have cost easily
$150OOO. Here you have twice the out.
lay for 400 people that it costs a mo-
ton picture director to employ 10000.
If there is any significance in these
figures they point an important moral
without need of further explanation
In the same way we can go afield and
get anything we want. If there is &
shipwreck we show the angry sea and
the restless waves. For a lovers tryss
we have but to pick out some sylvan
dell and bring our players there and let
them act as two people in love would
act under a given circumstance, and
the great audiences weave their own
romances and do the larger share OF
the acting for that scene. Along the
side lines we can have roses blooming
in the sunlight with a snow crusted
mountain in the background In our
drama the trees wave in the breezcs;
and blades of grass damp with real
dewdrOpS are none too insignificant Il
become part of the action. Yea sac,
an observing director has the world
for his. studios. The centuries have
been piling up these incxhaustibie pro
auctions for him. He has but to ,lso
artistic sense in the matter Of selcc4
ton.
The motion picture is no longer an
infant art. 1t is the newest and most
powerful form of dramatic expression,
and there is no end to which it can
be carried. I firmly believe the day
will come when great poetic pictures
will not only compare with the best
of the legitimate stage, but will btj
upon a parity with the greatest pro-
iductions of grand opera and at CORE
spending prices. Remember, few
years ago it was the limit of extrava'
gance to spend $500 on a moving pic,
ture production. At that time va
played to five cent audiences. Now VIZ
spend $500.0OO on ii picture. and wo
crowd the theaters everywhere at ST.
seat. BY this ratio what is to hin
der the superproducer from spending
three times that amount and getting
| IS seat for it?