East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1919-06-30
DETAILS GALORE IN
PICTURE MAKING

Not n little has been written of the
fcare with which modern photoplay
predictions are made. When one sees
reproduced before him on the screen
la series OF incidents which combine to
te'' :. dramatic story il is easy enough
| to forget the nyriads of little things
which the producer and his staff have
lhnd to think of in order that the re-
presentation may be true to life. Quite
naturally the interest centers in what
the principal characters in the story
are doing, and as long as there is
nothing in the picture atmosphere to
Jar, this mass of detail is forgotten.
1 but let some little apaprently unm-
\ portant setting be something other
than what 1t should be, and the whole
effect is destroyed.
! The manner in which Harry Gar
SONS 'The objectionable Sin," STAR
sring Blanche Sweet, under the person
| al direction of Marshall Nielan, was
produced. is in point along the lines
which have just been suggested.
| The big photoplay will be easily,
identified as a screen adaptation of the
powerful Rupert Hughes novel by
THE same name, which created such n
lfurore some months ago when it was
lllSt an Ctiiai lot III Nllt
iRed Book, and later as a complete
book from the presses of Harper d
Bros. Mr.. Carson was impressed with
the picture possibilities of the story.
and secured photoplay rights upon the
payment of a price which Will stand
las a record for a long time. The re-
iparation of the scenario by one of the
lablest writers in the motion picture
Industry required number of weeks
and then came a lapse of fully two
months, during which time Director
lNielan and his research assistants laid
out. in minute detail. the plans for ac-
itual production.
The story told is a thrilling one of
Hove and adventure, with locations that
lembrace n little town in the Middle
West section of the United States,
washington, ID. c., one or two of the
larger cities in Belgium. some of the
rural sections of Belgium, a couple of
important cities in Germany. typical
military communities occupied by the
German army, and finally New York
City.
The average theatregoer knows but
little difference between the customs,
architectural peculiarities, etc, of one
country and another-but in every
audience of any size, before which n
big photoplay is shown, there are sure
20 be some spectators whose first-hand !
knowledge of the scenes represented |
is likely TO make them more captious |
critics along these lines than the pro- |
Queer of the picture himself. And the !
success of a big photoplay depends al /
most entirely upon the impression |
which the detail of production makes |
upon these comparatively few people |
who, by the way, are usually the peo-
pie who talk loudest. either in praise
or dcnunciation. 1t is of record that |
in Mr. .Garson's production offices in
Los Angeles, Mr.. Neilan and n good
sized force of especially trained men
and women thumbed over stacks of
aliases and maps and
hundreds of current magazines and
until they had decided
Just how each set should be built.
down to the cobblestones and pump in
4 typical Belgium village or to the uni
forms of n German bell-hop..
Mr.. Nielan says that this long, diff
cult work of preparation for the pic
.ure was the most trying part of his
ask but, in looking back at IL, gives
III the credit to this system, for the !