The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-05-04
PAGE ELEVEN

dragon. Then he had the children
photographed running up steps to a
refuge in an enchanted tower.
! Running the film back he made a
second exposure showing the dragon
crossing the foreground in all his
horrific design, crawling up the steps
and finding himself baffled by the en-
chanted doorsill. Maybe We didn't
have time making that dragon act
his role" said Hall. The skill of the
thing consisted in the mathematical
accuracy with which the double ex-
posture had to be done. The illusion
was perfect.
Another wonder worker OF the cam
era-the master of them all, in fact.
| in the creation of fake thrill-stuff, as
it is called in the argot Of the studios
lis Fred Jackman, head of the photo
graphic staff for Sennett Everybody
knows that the Sennett comedies are
in class by themselves for thrill in
ventions and executions, real and
otherwise.
1t is usually Sennett that invents or
conceives the situations. Then it's up
to Jackman- The number Of impos-
sible things he has done with the
camera to catch. improve upon and
fake up these situations is marvellous.
If he has ever fallen down on the job
there is no record or tradition of it
Jackman can show a man falling off
the top of the Washington monument,
landing on his feet and walking away
with an unruffled cigar in his mouth.
He's nice about refusing to give away
the tricks of his trade, explaining that
in his particular line it's especially de-
sirable to keep people guessing which
is real and which fake.
Make no mistake about this he
said, most of the thrill stuff you see
nowadays in our films is genuine.
Audiences have grown wise and de
mand the real thing. Too many Of
them know when you are resorting 10
tricks to try to pull the old simple
stuff on them. What we do now is the
rarity, and it's got to be so good that
they can't detect it"
, But Jackman admits that he does
put it over on them now and then.
I He's so expert, in fact, that often 9th
. er producers borrow him from Sennett
, for particularly difficult trick photo
a graphy. He told how he made the
horse eat a bag of oats and grow fat
q before your eyes. He photographed Il
cadaverous old Dobbin eating the feed.
Then he faded the scene out with six
turns OF the crank. Then he substi-
> tuted a horse swollen up with wind
:, collie.
Next he turned the film back six
: turns and faded in. The optical effect
is an animal gaining a hundred-weight
, in few seconds. In the same way he
. made a frightened darby turn snow
:. white. But it's not so simple as it
sounds. The darby had to retire TO
y Put on white makeup but before do
:. ing so another camera was trained on
h ND cl-n tal o1
. the glass plate.
- If in retaking the scene the darby
: had been a small part of an inch out
of the position he left, the figure
! would appear to jump on the screen
:. and the trick would be spotted. When
= the darby came back he was located
in this precise spot and in the precise
attitude by the second cameras plate
. and the "lap-dissolve." as il is termed.
d was completed. This trick explains
how Mary Pickford, in a recent play.
u was shown shedding rags that were
u simultaneously replaced by a prin-
- cess's gown.
% In one Sennett comedy Jackman
showed a girl skating into room.
= making a complete loop-the-loop circle
and skating out. While the camera
showed her looping she was actually
standing still on one spot. She skated
to that spot, the camera was revolved
and as it reached even keel the girl
skated out of the scene. The revolv-
ing of the camera made it appear that
she had described full circle.
Most Comedy Leaps are Fakes.
Here's the way they make men in
comedy chase leap from roof to roof
across a street say 60 feet. They
make a photograph of the real build
10 he
moving picture Of the actors jumping
from one spot TO another say 10 feet
All around and behind them are hung
black velvet curtains so that nothing
registers on the film but the flying
figures.
By superimposing that on the pic
ture OF the buildings. after getting far
enough away with the camera 10 see
that the perspective of the leap fits
exactly on the cornices of the build
ings, they show you men doing the i'm
possible. In justice to Fairbanks it
should be said he doesn't use these
tricks.
In Mary Pickfords "Pollyanna" two
little imps are seen to dance on a
large cake. This and kindred stunt Z
(like a fairy rising out Of the bowl
of mans pipe) were first done by Il
French cinematogr3pher named Paul.
but Americans have developed the
idea. 1t is carried out with mirrors.
At a certain angle and far enough
away to make them appear tiny on
the film, life-size imps dance before
a mirror. With the aid Of another mir
ror the reflection is caught by the
camera at a point directly over the
cake and so nicely can the matching
be done that YOU can see the feet OF
the imps touch the frosting OF the
cake.
I Well. fans. that will be about enough
Z of the forbidden fruit today. Run
= along to the thsater and if you see
=. some fine stunt on the screen don't
: whisper to your seatmate that it's a
faxed affair.
Nine and a half chances in ten you
: will be wrong. The only rule for
s cpotting fake is this: If scene looks
- very much as if it might have been
: tricked it is probably genuine: and II