Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 121, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1903 — MOVING PICTURES. [ARTICLE]

MOVING PICTURES.

DUCED UPON THE FILMS. Tke Amo*>t oJ^Moveme JT Be b*|o fWfw tures,” Bald an expert operator in that lifie to a New Orleans Times-Democrat reporter.,.“is .the generally prodmreMa to the time they occupy iwhlleKoffi nejackeen. ,Wiat fsAfowo aMTW mlm** is Qo stet long. It Is used almost entirely f o|r domic scenes, trick pictures ’ and other effects, that are got up in the studios of the experts who make them a' specialty, i isteri thefitei* goer hta ■den them, and I will venture the assertion that the averafefe’man will declare they take at least three or four xuinutes in passing before the eye. Aji B<#eUff less than xtjejnuftwe. *Tou can easily figure it .out folTrourself.. The qrdlgary 50 foot-film of the kind to VMM I 1 J ft the reprowMg nMcMnrWrthe rate of 16 pkM tures to the second. Each picture ia| makes the 16 measure exactly one. fort, to.edgejt Jp btherkvortis/ the fllm Wi®*!*/*** *• feet, sOi Sdcorias. l What gites it the effect of; taking up, so much more time is the! Immense lot of action that Is usually' crowded into the brief period it is in, view. # fitil the moving picture was inrentea < 'I don’t think anybody haxC the least Idea how much could be done' ■in -SO -secetids. <-Tt enough to turn around in, yet when the experts began to study its possibilities they found it was ample for hundreds of little pictorial comedies that have sine? delighted all over the worlds <l'- I 1 i “It is entirely a iqattef cjf Rehearsal. A subject is 'selected, generally calling for from three to four people, and svery detall of the ‘business* or action is carefully worked but ip advance. Suppose, for that a comic burglary- is the topic. The business, in skeleton, might run something like this: 'Old gentleman dozing in parlor; enter burglar; old gentleman awakes; burglar hides; enter policeman, searches the room, collars old gent; they fight and roll on the floor while burglar tuddenly and jleaps out of the window That doesn’t sound particularly side splitting, but in the hands of intelligent comedians it can be made really very funy. The all essential thing is to crowd it into 50 seconds, and to that end each bit of action is carefully timed and made to fit into each other bit like so many well geared cogwheels. The old gentleman’s startled yawn, the burglar’s glance around the room and every step, movement and gesture from beginning to end is calculated with the utmost nicety, and at last after dozens 1 of rehearsals the actols attempted befdrelbe recording machine. If everybody is lucky, it goes through on schedule time, but the slightest hitch Is fatal, and if one occurs the film is spoiled,* add they must try all over again. JNo wonder it seems Impossible to future spectators that so much could transpire in 50 seconds. “But some of 4be- most telling effects in composition pictures.” continued the operator, “have been the result of accident and were entirely unpremeditated. That was the case with a film that I had a hand in preparing and that afterward made a tremendous hit and proved to be one of the best sellers ever put on tbq market. In getting up the picture our principal purpose was to introduce a large and very intelligent bulldog I owned at the time, and we sketched out a simple little scene in which a tramp steals a pie from a kitchen window, is pursued by the dog and Is last seen trying to scale the back fence with the animal hanging to his coattails. “The training of the dog was the main trouble, but I finally taught him to lay hold of anything red, and we sowed a big piece of flannel as a mark to the back of our tramp’s coat Red photographs black, so it couldn’t be seen in the pictures, and after a good many rehearsals the dog learned to dash out at exactly the right moment and nail the marauder, whose cue was then to rush for the fence and consume the remaining time in making an apparently desperate effort to scramble over the top. At last we got everything all ready, gave the word and started the record machine to tak4 the picture.’ “Immediately the little comedy began. The tramp appeared, around stealthily, saw thevple, hooked ♦ It and was having a feast when out sprang the bulldog and seized him by the coattails. He thereupon sprinted to the fence and was about to carry out the rest of the programme when, to pur consternation, the boards gave way, - and be came down bang on top of the dog.. The fllm bad abput ten seconds to. run,, ami It was occupied in recording Otoe of the liveliest that ever happened. There was no hippodrome about IL Both parties were out for ! blood. When the fence fell, the bull- , dog bad promptly transferred himself from the tramp’s coattail to the tramp’s calf, while that unfortunate person snatched up a broomstick apd tried to nrt >inl lotaa over and pot about 50 times as much action and , animation in the last ten seconds as 4 had been crowded into the preceding ’ 40. We finally pulled them apart, and ’ it was nob until the negative was * that we realized what la prize we < had accidentally secured. That ear- 4 nest and Impromptu wind ,up basxffii- 1 vuised audiences all ovef CCrfintadma 1 and made fully av l ™ 4 * * hit in Eo- | rope as ltdld at home?*