“Back to your place then, please,” answers the director if he maintains his diplomacy and poise and retains his anger.
Another extra will have too much makeup on. The director must know how makeup photographs, what its effects are with people of various complexions and under certain lights.
The extra will resent being sent back to the dressing room and told to alter his face. It is a reflection on his ability. Another case where diplomacy is demanded.
And so finally the director gets everything working smoothly. He gains the confidence of the star and the leading man. He shows the extras that he knows his business and is perfectly able to look out for it, without their assistance.
The only trouble is that just about at this point the director has finished the picture.
Chapter IV
THE METHOD OF WILLIAM DE MILLE
Facts regarding the manner in which the majority of pictures are made.—The new order of producing pictures “in continuity” with some interesting remarks on the subject from William C. De Mille, director of “Lulu Bett” and “The Lost Romance”
Chapter IV
One of the most highly publicized tasks which fall to the lot of the director, highly publicized because of its mere freakishness, is the routine which decrees that he must often begin “shooting” his picture in the middle or at the end of his story, or at any intermediate point except the very first scene. Press agents delight in harping on this fact, calling attention to the mental agility of the director in being able to jump from love scene to angry outburst, omitting intervening action in the jump and coming back to it at a later date.
This is due to the fact, as has just been stated, that all scenes taking place in the same set or exterior location must, for economy's and convenience's sake, be photographed at once or rather successively.