The Washington herald., 1919-03-13
Wanted--A Camera Genius

Eight or ten years ago a few kim
rred spirits frequently foregathered
IN the studio of a certain portrait
painter in Los Angeles, where they
would hear the portrait-painter dis
russ at length and at large-not
portraits, or landscape canvases. or
ANY other use OF oil or pastel or
water-color, but motion pictures. I
fused to laugh at his enthusiasm, and
SO did the others. We regarded him
as many of the old-line artists re-
gard the cubists and futurists: indi-
viduals determlnedly straining a point
to be original We didn't realize that
he was one Of the few wise men
SamOng the intellectuals, an inspired
gaEer into the future.
had been interested in fiction, In
painting. and in the drama, and had
written something about all Of them.
But couldn't get interested in mo-
ton pictures. I hadn't my friends
vision. I regarded pictures as utterly
lacking in artistry, and l still think
that wasn't entirely wrong-then.
For who shall say that the produc-
| tons Of that era were not crude? To
be sure. like most of the prejudiced.
didn't have data to back unbelief,
L
picture.
But now witness the difference:
For a year have been seeing an
average Of ten features a week, record
| ing my impressions and reactions for
"a hundred thousand readers.
My friend the portrait-painter
was right. The motion picture is an
art to be sure -the Youngest of all
the arts, with many of the faults
and capriCes OF childhood, but every
artist must admit it's artistic
verify. And they do-all save those
who are utterly prejudiced or
spiritually blind.
My training has been that of a
painter. My viewpoint is a paint
ers. Therefore it seems to me that
I have a different angle from most
of the other writing men whose
privilege it Is to discuss the healthy
advances and the small frailties of
these living paintings by the sun.
We have passed through the me-
chanical toy stage Of pictures, and
are almost through the stages OF
cheap and uaudlin drama, and it
Is very evident that in the face of
such advances as a few great men
of the films have made today we
are at the threshold of a new era.
Indeed, the picture has never for
a moment stood still. 1t has come
\ nearest to standing still in the last
1.-TWO years; in fact, it might take
an engineer with a spirit level to
detect any advance at all in the
last twelyemonth. Which makes it
all the more certain that we are
at the boundaries Of some rich new
province
- al
ton: Will the next celIuloid genius
be a cameraman?
So Ear. the progress Of the motion
picture has been made entirely and
exclusively through its directors, in
which class l put Charlie Chaplin,
not for a moment considering him
exclusively as an actor. A few au-
thors have written some very good
things for the movies, but these have
been at the directorial behest. Those
golden birds, the stars, may have
made the world happy for the casual
playgoer. but with the exception Of
Mr.. Chaplin, an unclassi1able COM
btnation OF all the silent talents,
none Of them has contributed n whit
toward the real and permanent ad-
yancement of the photoplay. The
best that can be said of them Is
that they have decorated the photo
play as they found 1t.
Few except the greatest of the di-
rectors have seemed at all aware OF
the remarkable protean loveliness Of
the thing in which they are work.
ing Some persist in seeing only
dramatic situations" others sense
only the STORY" comparatively few
even try to visualize the picture"
h.
been the most important of the three
Essential parts of phOtoplay. The
drama and the story must be shown
in a series Of pictures. Photographic
snapshots won't do. They must be
pictures.
Each and every one OF these
motion pictures must have artistic
completeness, composition. a proper
balance OF light and shade, a correct
distribution Of masses, depth, at