Evening Star Newspaper, December 23, 1934, Page 74

Frances Marsh, one of Hollywood's most expert cutters, busy on the job of taking some 15 miles of film out of a new picture. BY DAN THOMAS. HO are the really important women in the making of a pic- ture? The leading lady, and the girls who play featured roles in her support? That's what you'd naturally suppose, of course—but if you did you'd be wrong. An extremely important part in the produc- tion of any picture is played by women whose names the public never hears and whose faces the public never sees. They work in the back- ground, kept from fame by an anonymity far greater than that of director or scenario writer. But they are the ones who put the picture into shape—and, incidentally, they are func- tionaries powerful enough to snip Clark Gable, .Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford or anybody else out of a stretch of celluloid and drop the sniped-out section in the wastebasket, if they wish to do so. These important people are the film editors— “cutters,” Hollywood calis them. Their job arises from the fact that the ordinary movie, as shown in the theaters, is between 6,500 and 9,000 feet in length, whereas the film as origi- nally teken in the studio will run to 100,000 feet or more. The cutters are the people who reduce the 100,000 feet to 6,500. There are dozens of them. They come from everywhere, and some of them are men. Women, however, predominate. For some reason, they usually do a better job of cutting a picture w=than do their male rivals. In fact, “hree of the highest ranking cutters in the entre industry are women—Margaret Booth, Blanche Sewell and Frances Marsh, Directors and producers vie for their services. UST why women should be favored for this extremely important work is best explained by Sidney Pranklin, director of “The Barretts of Wimpole Street,” “Smilin’ Through” and other films. Says Franklin: “Most directors are men and they are sur- rounded by men in their technical staffs on the set. Their point of view about a picture, there- fore, is entirely masculine. And since a large portion of our audiences is made up of women pwe need the viewpoint of a woman who under=~ stands the problems of picture making suffi- ciently to offer constructive suggestions and advice. “The cutter is best equipped to do this. Her work is closest to that of the director. She weaves, in & manner of speaking, from the threads he sends in.” Without a doubt editing, or cutting, is one of the most important phases of picture making. Many a good picture has been ruined in the cutting room, and an equal number of seemingly hopeless films have been made passable through deft cutting. For this reason the director or the executive directly in charge of a picture usually supervises the cutting. The actual work, however, is done - by the cutters, who sit all day and sometimes all night in their small steel-walled rooms surrounded by ingenious machines. A cutter’s job not only is important, but also very strenuous. During the interim between the last day of shooting and the first preview of a picture, the cutter often works 24 hours a day. Food is sent in from the studio commis- sary and sleep is caught in brief snatches on & cot. The reason for this is that a studio’s pro- duction schedule usually runs neck and neck with its release schedule. Pictures have to be rushed through the “mill” and into theaters. And if a job has to be rushed the cutter simply has to work day and night. ‘To supplant her with an- other would be like having one novelist complete a book started by another. REATIVE work just can’'t be handled that way. And cutting a film most certainly is creative work. From fragments of celluloid strips — discon- nected images, scenes, se- quences, long shots, medium shots, close-ups—must be fashioned a motion picture. “The main thing in cut- ting,”” Margaret Booth ex- plains, “is smoothness and _ rhythm. There is a constant change of cem- era position, but the audience must not be aware of this. It must never jerk or impede the story. “A good picture has an underlying rhythmic beat almost like music. It must be harmonious throughout and the proper tempo must be main- tained through all scenes. This is achieved largely in the cutting rooms.” To understand the duties of these cutters, one must first understand how a picture is cut and assembled. To begin with, a director shoots his picture in a great variety of long shots, mediums and close-ups and from a great many different angles. The preponderance of any of these depends upon his personal technique. But on the whole it holds true of every scene. A scene which in the finished picture is noth- ing more than a mere flash on the screen may originally have been shot in several thousand feet of film from numerous different angles. The cutter always views the daily ‘“rushes” with the director, who points out what he be- lieves to be the best features of each shot. Then the cutter goes to work. From a basketful of celluloid fragments she must fashion a motion picture. She must make the story flow as if it had been photographed continuously. Dramatic scenes must be pointed, usually with elose-ups. Less important scenes which still are essential in carrying the thread of the story must move rapidly, presenting all of the essential details without wasting any footage. ‘Anything unimportant to the story as a whole must be eliminated, no maliter how charming or beautiful the scene may be. That is why s0 many beautiful girls have turned out to be nothing but the face on the cutting room floor. Pictures are always assembled several thou- sand feet overlength for the first preview. That is because it is often impossible to tell in ad- vance which scenes are the most important. HOSE who have worked on e film become too close to it to have the proper perspec- tive. They must be told by audiences what scenes must be kept and which should be short- ened.or eliminated entirely. Sometimes, too, a THE SUNDAY SI‘AR WASHINGTON D €, DECEMBER 23, 1934 FirM THRONE A word about the “cutters,” those unsung craftsmen (and most of them are women) who unscramble the pictures and trim them to suit your taste e e 4 delightful scene like this one of Claudette Colbert and Clive Brook may run on and on. in the studio—but how much the public sees of it depends (aside from the censor) on the girls & the cutting room. preview will show that a better effect can be bad simply by transposing a few scenes. The introduction of sound into pictures made cutting at once a more difficult and easier job— difficult from a technical and easier from a dra- matic standpoint. Since dialogue and sound are now synchro- nized absolutely with the filming of action, both the sound track and picture must be ¢ * so they harmonize exactly. Otherwise a character might be seen to speak before an audience heard him. However, sound has given the cutter a wider medium for expression. For example, a dra- matic scene often can be enhanced by permit- ting the audience to hear forceful dialogue while it is watching the reaction on the face of the person to whom the lines are directed. This particular medium may be noted in Ann Harding’s new picture, “Biography of a Bache- lor Girl,” in which there is a scene showing Miss Harding’s reaction to voices heard outside & door. And now aebout the cutters themselves. Nearly all start as script girls so that they may learn something of the technique of shooting a pic- ture. Often their first cutting jobs are on pic- tures made by the same directors for whom they have worked as script girls. The reason for this is that each director has his own par- ticular technique with which the cutter must be familiar if a smooth picture is to result. Another reason why so many women are at the top of the cutting profession is that they are inclined to look more sentimentally upon the film which passes through their hands. And sentimentality in a picture plays an im- portant part in satisfying feminine fans. “I have often cried right there in the cute ting room while ending a particularly romantie or sentimental scene,” declares Frances Marsh. *I know that sounds sort of stupid. But after all, I'm just a fan who happens to know a little more of the technical end of pictures than the average fan. “I know that most of the other girls in this end of the business feel the same way. Nobody hates to see a beautiful close-up relegated to the floor any more than I do, particularly if the girl is a youngster just getting her first real break. But that can’t be taken into considera= tion. The only thing that counts is the picture in its entirety.” Cuba Pushes Produce S A result of the trade agreement between the United States and Cuba, Cuban farm- ers have expanded their plantings of Winter gardens, in order that a greater supply of vege- tables might be available for shipment to the United States. Present prospects are that there will be well over 37,000,000 pounds of tomatoes raised for American buyers, an in- crease of 6,000,000 pounds over last year. Lima beans, eggplants, cucumbers and pep- pers are also being grown in increased quantity. Mexico Guards Wealth EXICO is defermined to keep her capital at home, or at least discourage the ex- portation. Hereafter, money sent abroad for investment will be taxed 4 per cent. Funds which are sent out of the country in payment of rent or interest will also be subjected to a levy, but the tax in this case will be only 2 per cent. The law providing for these taxes is ex= pected to keep between 3,000,000 and 5,000,000 pesos in the country during the first year.