The Washington herald., 1916-04-23

the same time. Or can on- ever quire
efface from memory the majestic man
ner with which Mansfield, as Cyrano
de Bergerae, tossed his purse to the
crowd? These are specific instances e
illustrate my meaning. ~
II was the art OF Interpretation glori-
fed. The player and his mood became
the great figure In such cases. With
the moving picture 1t is different. The
poetic stimulation, the tour de force
which arrests attention and makes
memories that are to live, Is silent
power. The brain behind this art is
never revealed. 1t lends itself to that
concealment which is one of the rarest
attributes of true art. The living thing
is subjective. There is no rivalry with
the spoken drama Each has its niche
and, IL artistically done, viii live. The
mere presentation may be ephemeral,
but the ideas and the recollections go
on and on as long as life lasts.
In motion pictures we have larger
field in which to operate. On the stage
these so called effects" are limitations
at best. In the flm play we show the
actual occurrence and are not hamper
ed by the size of our stage or the num-
Der of people we can crowd into the
scene. IL our story traverses TO bat.
tlefeld we show an actual battlefield.
II It means that 10000 people were
part of this conflict we engage 10000
people, rehesrse them in minute detail,
and when we are ready we show you
that scene as realistically as II you
were looking down from hilltop and
watching an engagement Of eontending
forces.
Let us look into the cost of this. This
scene for a 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 ex-
pense is the comparatively slight one
Of making new copies from the original
negative.
A big spectacle on the stage can at
the utmost employ 400 people In a
scene. This is an unusually large num-
Der. II takes the same time and pains
to rehearse them that it does to handle
10000 people in motion picture scene.
But the stage production goes on daily.
with eight or ten performances a 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
s150,oo0. Here you have twice the out
lay for 400 people that 1t costs a mo-
ton picture director to employ 10000.
II 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. II there is a
shipwreck we show the angry sea and
the restless waves. For a lovers tryst
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
IL GIG SuhhbhN WIN chO" u uSltu
mountain in the background, In our
drama the trees wave in the breezes
and blades of grass damp with real
dewdrops are none too insignificant to
become a part of the sction. You see,
an observing director has the world
for his studios. The centuries have
been piling up these inexhaustible pro-
ductions for him. He has but to use
artistic sense in the matter Of selec-
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. l firmly believe the day
will come when great poetic pictures
will not only compare with the best
Of the legitimate stage, but will be
upon a parity with the greatest pro-
ductions OF grand opera and at corre-
spending prices. Remember, a few
years ago 1t was the limit of extrava-
gance to spend $500 on a moving pic
ture production. At that time we
played to FIVE cent audiences. Now we
spend $4,000 on a picture, and we
crowd the theaters everywhere at 81
a seat. BY this ratio what is to him
der the superproducer from spending
three times that amount and getting