New Britain Herald Newspaper, November 27, 1918, Page 8

TRICKS IN MOVIELAND—HOW THEY FILM “THRILLERS”- By Joseph Jackson Y SARS of familiarity with moving Pictures have not yet cleared up the mystery of their preparation to the average movie fan. The fade- &way, the villain's fall from the roof of a twenty-story office building, the mangled body at the hott the CUff where the automobile went over, still are regarded as by the uninitiated. How the actors can do these things and be able to get up and go home safe in limb and wind and be ready for the next assignment by the direc tor are things that probably will re main mysteries to a certain number of persons. But their now out, for Homer Croy has book, “How Motion Pictures Are Made” (Harper & Brothers) which short all the secrets motion picture making. In the forepart of his book he zives e history of the invention, and from his it appoars that tne firs 10 make pictures by raphy was the Coleman § who in 1861 made a soties of scoplc views of his two children, and by having each of the periods of ac- tion photographed, when the were shown rapldly In w stereoscopic viewer gave the appearance of motion to the eye. 1t might be mentioned that the basis of motfon pictures lies in the prin ciple of persistenice of vision, which may be explained by the statement that when pictures more pidly than the rate of sixteen per second the eye do detect the ehange, but receives an impression of continuous action. That is why the pictures shown on the screen are pro- jected at an average rate of sixteen per second. if they were shown at a lesser rate—say ten per second—there would be an interrupted procession of different awkward actions; but the taking and the exhibiting of the action in a series at the higher rate removas this, and the result is a continuity of movement that the eye recognizes as natural, In 1861, however, there thought of the time when reels of 1000 or 1200 feet would or could be shown or that some photoplays would be shown in from seven to ten reels. Even now it would not be. wise to predict that the end of novelty or in vention in the fleld had been reached. Among the early motion pictures which were received with the great est success were those termed trick pictures. In general the plans used to produce them were famillar to photos- raphy for a long time and suggested the magician’s art. One in particular mentioned by Mr. Croy in his /book concerned a French picturc which ap- parently showed a workingman re- turning a little worse for drink. who while overcome in the roadway was run over by automobile :nd had his legs cut off. The man, not at all liscommoded, reached out for the sev: m of marvels secret written a wal work of person 10tion photog ellera, tereo- series are shown not was no By Bruce Crawford URLS enlisted in the army at a time when the Germans were still on the offensive. So it was clear to all that he joined expecting to fight. By so doing he amazed the town, for no had ever suspected that this gentle youth, who still clung to the girlish curls of his childhood, would take part in even a cock fight, much less a gory death grapple of millions. one Curls! The name his parents save him was a misnomer, proved such in the fact that since his chiidhood this nickname had ever been on the tip of. everybody's tongue. Be; cause his friends and acquaintances preferred to call him.by that fond so- briquet he never objected, but allowed it to go with the curls he grew. And did not the military Napoleon declare, “Nicknames should never be de- spised; it is by such means mankind familiar is governed”? In the army a Hoboken man called him Curls. Every rookie laughed. Curls smiled at the coincidence. The name kne « placa and stayed stuck. Curls began to take discipline. His Awky movements in drilling were more noticeable to the hard-boiled in- structor than were those of the others, 1s was so pathetically con- And when he was “bawled the because Ci spicuous. out” in army ranks tittered and, after the command “rest,” laughed aloud. though good- naturedly. A lovable lad out of luck in an army of rough-and-readys. Worse still, whenever an cxtra “k. p.” was needed in the kitchen Curls was first to arrest the mess sergeant’s eve. Same when a man was needed on any other work detail. But he al regulation lingo cered limbs and, placing them stumps again, proceeded to get up and walk but not before he shook his fi at the oifending chauffeur. This picture was shown in the early SR e e e well informed as they have since be- come. They could figure how actor could walk into the middle of the street and be run over and have his legs completely cut off and still regard it as no more than an incident. As a matter of fact on his away, not an two actors were photozrapher looked at the distance down that the man was to cover and estimated the number of seconds the take, put his hand over the camera to eliminate through a corre- amount of film without ex- To an attachment of his pecially constructed for the he fastened so that the film would not proceed in the rogular order but would go backward. dinl could tell just how action would the lens of all light sponding and ran posing it camera e crank trick his By his he Covyright, 1918. by Public Ledger Co. ——— there goes one of the Kaiser’s battleships—but, used {n the picture. One of them was a workman who had both his legs cut off above the and the other actor, who was made up-and dressed to resemble him, was, of course, com- plete with his full number of lower limbs. The real actor was the drunken workman in the picture up to the point where the accident occurs. The motor was run up to just the point where one of the wheels ap- pears to touch his Then' the camera stopped and after the actor’s position had heen marked in the road the limbless double took h place and a pair of property legs placed next to his stump. Then the taking of the picture proceeded to show the automobile pass over the man’s legs, cutting them off. After the double reached first for one of the severed limbs and then for the other and apparently replaced them the camera was again stopped and the actor resumed his place in the road. Tt was the latter who arose, apparently uninjured by the accident, and proceeded on his way. kind of trick pic- caused a laugh or, as it might be, omething in reverse ation, one of them man jumping from the tree top. Of course such \ feat is amazing and. of course, it is impossible. Yet it shown on the screen and this is how it was ac- complished: knees front legs. was One of the early tures that alway showed actor, object Tor red a an an doing action. illus: ground to a was “To make the jumping picture the man crawled to the top of a tree and the camera was focused on him. The ways smiled serenely and did his duty s snappily as he could. At length came the day when ceived his first lesson in bayonet work. e The soldiers had never seen so marked and so ludicrous a contrast as that afforded by the spectacle of this ten- der youth wielding a barbarous bayo- net. ‘ou, there! Yowve got to get mad- der than that!” stormed the instruoto wagging a finger at Curls. “Growl; sha " teeth: get vicious and show Fritz you mean busine Sec?” Curls, tendrils spiraling about his ears, was a sight for pity as he stood in the stretched-forward p tion of “long point.” He began to look miserably out of place As time better ac- quainted with the bayonet, handling it swiftly, cleverly and with more steadi- ness of nerve. Yef the bawlsd him out. how much he v vou his passed > grew instructor Because, no matter impr gentle, timid appearance belied his dexterity. “Say, Get flerce with that thrust or you will double-time over to that tree and back,” hawled the in- structor, almost crushing Curls. *I tell you once more, yvou've got to get mad! you! 'These hard-boiled corrections served their purpose, however pitiless they seemed to the pupil or fruitless to the instructor, for Curls took more pains to get every movement just right than to look fighting mad. He acquired a certain amount of facility, but all the while it was being overshadowed by the appalling look of feminine help- lessness in his face. This discouraged little—enough to blind him to liis growing efliciency in the art. But the hardest blow of all w major’s decree that all cropped to one inch. Take off your hats!” he com- manded from his mounted position in front of his battalion on inspection morning. His keen eye swept from man to man, resting suddeniy with a piercing beam on Curls “That man over there wearing curls et those things cut of! right after this formation,” ordered ti:e officer. “Where did you get the idea th was a dolls’ parade?” The embarrassed boy hcard mirth escaping on all while here and there a whispered and repeated “It's sounded off. But they realized they were now in the army. The treasured relics of his child- hood ordered cut off! The physical charms he was known by! It was like a flag losing its colors or a dog his master or a bird her song. him a the heads be a dirty shame! many feet of film he had run forward without exposure, and this he esti- mated to be enough to cover the action that was to take place. “At word from the director the man in the tree rose and sprang clear from the limbs, landing on the ground, the camera meanwhile recording his movements. The film that recorded his feat xte run lackward instead of the crank gear especially made for such work, rined. When it came time to show this to the audi- ce the first frame that met their eyes was the last one taken, the one showing him striking the ground. As a result to them he seemed to be ac- complishing the startling feat of standing still and jumping to the top as exy of a tree. ‘What is known to the profession as the fade-in and fade-out, or when a fig- curses! it’s only a toy in a tub of H2 o-0-0-0! ure is slowly brought in out like a ghost, is accomplished by four different methods. The most commonly used is the simple one of closing or opening the diaphragms over the lens, which gradually decreases or increases the amount of light admitted to the camera. Where one scene fades into another of an entirely different character the method usually employed is what Is known as the dissolve. The effect is secured by slowly fading out on the scene and then covering the lens so that no light will enter, and then turning the film back to where the scene began to fade. The new scene is now photographed on that part of the film already exposed on the first one. . Those pictures in which one actor enacts two parts, and at times ap- r goes F Modern Daniel suavely greets thd man-eater, knowing full well the wicked lion has been' tamed from a botile Corporal Curls, Bayoneter—They Thought Him“Too Gentle to Fight,” But The company’s barber said, *Cuirls, out of luck,” and hegged him to have some one else do the job, but begged in feeling. no doubt, as vou're vain, zuillotine exccutioner feels while cutting off the head of his best friend. But, surprising to himself and all the camp, the close-clipped buck pri- vate recovered in almosi no time. He had the fortunate faculty of chamel- coning to ever-changing conditions. Hence his joining the army scon after war was declared. “Where are they, Curls?” a bar- racks pal asked, meaning the coils of hair. “Oh, in the trash can, I guess,” was the unconcerned reply Curls made. “I'll do much better at bayonet drill with bristles on my head to make me look mad, don’t you think?” And so it did help. The instructor and his class saw.at once a remark- le improvement in the bayonet work of—well, they still called him Curls To them it seemed no; 2t he threw himself into the business with more vim, pep, snap and real ferocity. His appearance thet of a maniac doing a welltrained man's work— clever thrusts, flendish fencing, quick withdrawals of the blade from the dummy representing a Hun. “Men, you see Curls goes at the dummy as it he thought it were a Gierman coming at him,” commented the instructor, beginning to like the he formerly scolded so severely. “Now men who can't get guts 1to your movements, Jjust watch. Curls, stick Fritz for us.” Curls, his ears more noticeable than before, his body and limbs aler. and his jaw set, came t> tho “on guard” was boy you “points” Fritz position, launched into the and butt strokes and attacked from various vantages. “Ugh!” shuddered one chap with a heavy jaw, large muscles and other seeming indications of nerve, courage, guts. 1 made the big fellow actually nervou realistic was Time passed and Curls grew higher and higher in the estimation of both officers men. And just before going overseas he was made a cor- poral. and his ad- besides the “Corporal Curls!” saluted mirers warmly. In fact, raudevillian who sang rags nightly before thousands of close-clipped Khaki-clads, Curls enjoyed more pop- ularity than any one else in camp. Officers, who were not supposed to relax into intimacy Wwith their in- feriors in rank, suppreiied Kindly smiles 1:hind the salutes they turned him. 7 re- weeks later, when the. had nis popularity reached sited by furloughing soldiers. When was Corporal Curls coming with them? was the question the French girls asked the Americans. Some of them sent him their pictures, one of whom was a beautiful singer of local fame who played a banjo- mandolin. She was fascinated by the description of Curls given her by the Jad’s admirers, and made them prom- ise to bring Yim along the mnext time. Inevitat.,. Curls was to accompany them on their next furlough. A few got overseas, various towns ‘e appesved an obataclsl Curls, known for the Jocks that gave him his name, was not the origin.l Curls described to the French women. He must have his curls again! And would he have them? Really it was not right, they reasoned, to call him by that name and not allow him to wear his curls. So they got together and besought their commander — a all he could prince of a man—to do to get Curls through military channels permission to grow back his locks. “Would you do it, Curls?” a sergeant asked, afraid he would not have them back. His face lit up with a faraway, wist- ful expression. He didn't answer at once, but contemplated the possibility —and the common sense—of wearing tendrils again. “If you sergeant, 0. said so.” “You will make me vain and silly waved Cur as he went off down the aisle to his bunk for a rest and fur- continued the ‘em—the C. want ‘em.” ou can have pears to come in contact with him self, are accomplished by the use of what are known as masks. These are of two kinds, those inside the camera and those outside. /s of motion pictures the film was exposed twice. For in- stance, a picture showing a dozing man dreaming of scenes of his child- hood would be taken in this manner. Unobserved by the spectators, the fire- place in the picture was one on tral background, with a wide cither to the right or left of the dozing Often the backsround was hang- velvet. The film once ex- posed\with the sleeper in his chair. The film was then reversed a second with scenes supposed to be taking place in his mind appearing the neutral background. Later, with the coming of improved methods, a mask was used to part of the field so that the sleeper alone would appear. The rest of the background was concealed by the mask, and as a vesult left unexposed. By taking out the mask and turning back the film a could exposed on the background. In the early da neu- space man. ing time, on obscure new seene be protected Masks for been explained When you see an actor in the picture take up his binoculars and look through them at a distant object, and are immediately after shown ap- parently what he sees through the glasses, the effect of the binoculars is obtalned by means of a mask cut to resemble the openings in a fieldglass. Much the same sort of thing is done when you are shown a view through a keyhole. It is all in the which the picture to the opening through is beheld. When the actor apparently shakes hands with his double, which he also enacts, the effect is obtained by an- other kind of mask. This is one placed over one-half of the lens. A spot has been previously arranged where the actual handclasp is to take place. Such a place may be over a book on @ table or directly under a chandelfer. The actor who Is to play both parts advances to the spot where the handshake is to take place and extends his hand. On the part of the stage obscured by the mask another performer stands, who extends a hand and joins the actor, while the two hands move up and down in mantal greeting. The actor shows, the other performer is hidden by the mask. As the hands move up and down the pho- tographer counts the number of sec- onds. At the count 1 the hands de- scend to a distance determined at re- hearsals; at 2 they o up; at 3 they Zo down again, and at 4 they unclasp and separate. The film is turned back and the mask shifted to the other side of the lens area. The actor again makes an entrance and extends his hand over the book or under the chandelier, as the case may be, but as the handshake as has inside. work de such outs are, and inside maslk, represent the cuts which view ther meditation on those very neces- sary 1ocks. v of looking at it, Curls was of a hariu- One w vain; but his vanity less and quite pardonable species. Al- though he had long since gotten over the loss of the curls, and had become accustomed to looking like the other men, still he did not object very much to wearing the ornaments of old again, because the men wanted him to. So to please them he grew girlish in looks once more. The barber delighted in washing and drying and tonicking the curls; sug- »ples, odd twists and cute hanging positions. So that, up at the front a few months later, Curls had some of the looks of William Penn, or John Bunyan, or Poet Milton! And now that he had back his locks he felt his old time pride in them. He was really “Curls” now. Again—especially in the fight—he seemed Iludicrously out of place; a banner of some humility society would have looked more fitting in his hands than the wicked bayonet. Yes, he was an apparently harmless creature as he carried among the fighting rough-necks, but those who knew him had often said he would do a man’s double bit when the test came. Only the enemy would be deceived. Another Joan of Arc, would think. What a savory victim for ravishing vandals and beer-sotted Saracens. After a was gested new ri on while the fighting grew too intense for any one to keep an cye on Curls. KEvery man was for him-. self. Only now and then his shadowy form, with his curls flying from be- neath his helmet, was sil- houette a: he lunged at after seen in Hun Pas already taken place he merely pre- tends that going through the usual form of greeting. He moves his hand up and down and frames the words, but must move his hand exactly as the performer shielded by the mask has done. Projected successfully, the 'actor, much to the my ation of the spec- tators, seems to advance from two sides of the scene at the same time and stop in the middle to shake hands with himself with all the enthusiasm of two long-separated friends. There are innumerable tricks of the trade which are unveiled in Mr. Croy’s book. He shows how those Venetian scenes in Douglass Fairbanks's play, “Reaching for the Moon,” were ac- tually taken in Los Angeles; how a scene in Darkest Africa was taken in a nearby New Jersey countryside; how a scene at the foot of the great Pyra- mia was made by the property man and set up in a sandy stretch of ground. Those claborate Grecian ex- teriors shown in “Thais” all had to be constructed—streets, temples, as well he is he as the gorgeous interiors Many of the daredevil episodes in the pictures are not really so danger- ous as they appear. Thus when An- nette Kellermann goes over a waterfall unseen by the spectators she is held in place all the time by means of a rope. When those battling legions are brought to the edge of the ramparts in some of the big scenes and seem to be thrown to their death they really fall but a few feet, being caught in a strong net, from which they hastily scamper away to permit of more de- fenders falling off the castle walls. When pictures introducing wild ani- mals are shown, a great deal of the been eliminated by the producers by the simple method of drugging the beasts. The lion, which apparently fells a man and then lays a paw over his prostrate form, is really so weak that he is incapable of doing anything harm, and it requires some skill to keep him from falling asleep. When the dashing hunter enters the jungle to shoot a tiger or a leopard the scene is usually so arranged that the animal, usually a trained one, is held in place by his trainer, who is out of sight, and at the smoke from the hunter)s gun the trainer quickly U danger has pulls the animal down and out of sight in the tall jungle grass. To the spec- tators the beast has been slain, but tigers and even leopards are too costly to be shot off in this manner. The making of the comic cartoons i8 another mystery to the spectator whe is a movie fan. It requires the draw- ing of an innumerable quantity of pic- tures, in which the cardboard come- dians are shown in various parts of each action. When projected the effect is perfect, and the little jerky movements which are occasioned by the failure to get each figure exactly like the last drawing only adds to the ludicrous effect. When these comics were first attempted it required many months for the artist to draw all the parts required, but a year's work of this kind only required ten minutes on the.screen. provements that have been made in the comie, a year's work is now re- duced to a few weeks or even days. Now parts of the picture are printed, such as the background, and the artist only has to show the movements of his characters. Some of these can be repeated in the showing, and this further cuts down the number of actual drawings needed. For goodness sake, there he goes from a high cliff right into the rapids— but he’s only a straw-man with a heart of excelsior! He Knew How to “Carry On” Hun. He was doing the work for which his training had fitted him. He was fighting the world’'s common enemy—the thing he joined the army to do. How {ll-becoming one so gentle! How much sweeter it would be for him were he home with fair ones. And, oh, how nice to behold within touching distance the beautiful singer with whitest hands who fingered melodies from her mandolin! But war is hideous, and Curls pushed on to do his part to end it the sooner. At length there fell a lull, only a few barking guns active way off. On the field where heroes died unnum- bered, where men now lay wounded, dying and dead, some comrades of Curls came to him. His helmet lay half covering his forehead. His bayonet was gone. A comrade, doubt- ing, bent over him. “But this is not:Curls!” he cried, half rising. I “No—not another. “Speak to us; third. “Yes, boys—it's Curls,” explained the sergeant, lifting the helmet. “You see, them Hell-yuns have scalped him any curls!” remarked is it you, Curls?"—a- ™~ A Story of American Grit . SRE is a letter reflecting Amer- ican grit, American wit and that adaptability to ecircumstances strongly contribute to the Tt is from Mclver, which so success of American arms. Lieutenant James Shawe Sales Commissary Unit 812, Quarter- master Corps, to hi uncle, George Francis Kerr, manager of the Hotel Atlantic City. Lieutenant McIver, who is well known in Philadelphia and New York, is an publicity Traymore, honor graduate of Fordham Univer- sity, 1915, a star man on the baseball team and is of old American stock. It was while young Mclver was training as an enlisted man at Spar- tanburg that his aunt, Mrs. Kerr, inaugurated the system whereby thou- sands of boys. at Camp Wadsworth and other camps were provided with free moving-picture shows every day. Here is Lieutenant Mclver's letter: France, Sept. 14, 1918. Finally got here—no excitement on way over outside of a two-day storm, which I didn't appreciate. They had me stationed as lookout officer in the crow’s nest (about eighty feet above the deck), and, believe me, it was some job fighting your way up the rigging in an elghty-mile gale, with the old boat rocking back and forth like a hobbyhorse, especially at 2 or 3 a. m. -—no lights and with waves breaking over the foot of rigging so you had to wait your chance and run for it— and when you went up to yardarm you had to crawl on your belly to keep from blowing overboard, and a trans- port doesn’t stop for passengors after leaving; so, if you go over they throw you a life belt and wave good-by. It nearly had me buffaloed the first time T went up—4 a. m.—pitch Gark and the old scow rocking away. When 1 got half-way up, the rigging one minute would be up against my face and next almost out of reach. It was a case of fight your way up and pray your way down, and I was quite glad to step ashore. Am stationed at so-called rest camp (s0 named by some humorist) in old stone barracks that Napoléon built, so they say, and they look it. It they claimed Moses built 'em it would stiil be believable. However, merely tem- porarily here; will be on my way up to front long before this reachc . you. Have my orders, but can't say any more. French pcople are ver; cour- teous and glad to see Americans. ‘We marched up from the boat with band playing and townspeople turned out to welcome us. Nearly all old men, women and children. The old men doff their hats and quite a few women were waving American flags. A little girl ran out in the street as we came by and gave me a rose, and the street gamins chased alongside and yelled for pennies and cigarcttes, and once when we stopped to rest a gang of little kids corgregated and sang in good Emnglish, “Hail, hail, the zang’s all here, what the hell do we care now?” Weather quite chilly, and I sleep in tent, which, as far as I can determine, seems to be just pitched over a spring, with no board floor or any other kind: and we are glad to get that. How- ever, as they say here, “It’s the frst ten years that are the hardest” and I'm inclined to believe it. Saw my first batch of German prisoners the other day, and I'd take a ckance (after removing glasses) with any three of ’em myself. It's lucky I got to New York and got fixed up on eyes and teeth, or I'd probably never had it done—things move too fast for those detalls here and opportunities lack. Jones refers you to Smith and Smith to Black and Black asks “why in | h—— didn’t Jones do it?” etc. One of the camp officers here used to play ball with the Fordham team on Sun- days and off days away from the college and knew most of my old “buddies.” Wrote grandma a letter while aboard ship.. Did she get it? I have received no mail since I left New York. Am in good health and still have my gang intact. Lots of in- teresting things done, but can’t give them., JAMES 8. McIVER, Second Lieutenant, Q. M. C., Sales Commissary Unit 313, A. B, 7, Through im- (-