New-York tribune., 1920-06-20
Editing Motion Pictures
How Riesenfeld Cha nges Films So That
the Producer Wou ldn't Know Them

of the large pictures that you had seen
at one of the big Broadway picture
houses. You told your neighbor the pic
ture was 'corher' and had Just the
proper punch, with none of the over
done wheezes OF tragedy and none of the
fresh remarks which so often have
caused you worry over pictures that are
supposed to be high class When your
neighbor went 70 the outlying picture
theater in Bayside or lonkers. or where
ever he lives, he saw the same picture.
true enough. That is, IL was the real
original and unchanged or unedlted pic.
ture that he saw. In it he saw trite
lines of explanation. crude situations,
overmellow love scenes and lot OF
other things that caused him TO come
tearing into your Office the next day and
tell you how little you knew about good
acting.
That ncighbor saw the picture you
saw, with the exception that the picture
theater man whore he lives restored the
film to its normal condition. disrcgard rd-
ing alterations made by discriminate
ing editor. Therefore. you and your
neighbor saw the same picture, but saw
it in different forms.
When Mr Kiesenfeld and Mr.. Shor
sit in dark room at the Rialto to
judge a picture that is to be shown at
their houses they instruct the operator
to run the picture fifty feet at time.
stopping al the end OF each fifty feet
Il title IS offensive. which often is
the case, the two men agree on
proper line. record j, and send II 70
Claude Z, Millard. artist Tor the Riesen-
/ field interests, who draws an artistic
title 20 substitute for the discarded
one. The film s "whacked' with the
scissors and the old title is removed
and laid aside. while the new one Is re
duced through process we'll known
to photographers and is cemented into
the reel of film. Then the operator
turns TO the mex. spot in the film that
is TO be "doctored'
Often X IS scene tina. dspleases
the theater owner. He sees a particu-
4 larly glarng piece Of bad acting..or
murder scene or a suicide scene He
stops the operator instantly and has
the scene eliminated % bloodcur-
ding details for Broaduay's great blaz-
ing picture thea:ers. re people see
and hear enough OF tina. outside his
,neaters he says.
Recently a comedy was bought by
Mr. Rieserleld called Uneasy Feet"
l. opened with a pantomime enacted
solely by pictures Of the feet of two
actors, mar and woman. Il grew
INTO lote mach. after awhile bed
r"om scene and later scene showing
ne TWO on beach. disclosing partlcd-
.arly ugly faces. Mr. Resented said
Wait . moment, That's no. so
good nov But see a great idea
here Anc 'hen hs sat abou; elm
mating tho bedroom scene. which he
deplores eeaerally, and tho beach
scene IN vhich the faces we're shown,
making 4 the comedy ono done en-
'iroly by --e .t. ors' fce. The comedy
was = rear success and il vas neces-
sary % keep X weeH longer than had
uecn cxpo y order II satisfy the
demands Of the patrons The offensive
scenes had bccn eliminated. the fnal
touch. which Sas supposed to nc the
punch in the mind of the scenario
writer. was done away with and. att,-
cether through the idea OF the thea
ter owner himself. the picture was
! made splendid drawing card
News reels" says Mr Riesenfeld.
ARE now holding second place in i'm
portancc in our lists of motion picture
features. Tie time Was when they
were negligible IN comparison. We
are subscribing TO aii Of the news pic
ture concerns in the United States
every one Of them. and 10 all OF the
magazine film concerns in the country
|, and still we are unable 10 get as much
| news material on our screens as ",
would like. think we are going n
- Continued on page three