NEW YORK CHICAGO BROOKLYN

Copyright 1922

by

FALK PUBLISHING CO., INC.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

CONTENTS

The Great and the Less Great[8]
The Picture Sense[20]
Preparation for Production[29]
The Method of William De Mille[37]
Cecil De Mille Also Speaks[47]
When Acting Ability Helps[57]
Rex Ingram on “Atmosphere”[61]
Mainly About D. W. Griffith[70]
Mountains and Molehills[82]
Some of the Arts of Slapstick Comedy[90]
Other Tricks Up Directors' Sleeves[100]
Some Words from Frank Borzage[110]
What Tempo Means in Directing[120]
“Overshooting”—and the serial[126]
The Method of Thomas H. Ince[135]
Directors Schooled by Ince[146]
Who Creates a Picture[152]
Music in Picture Production[161]
Just Suppose[165]
“Stealing” an Exterior[176]
The Importance of the Art Director[183]
Directorial Conventions[189]
Ernst Lubitsch: German Director[195]
Joe May: German Director[205]
Illustrating the Use of Detail[213]
Marshall Neilan Summarizes[219]
“Best Directed” Pictures[229]

PREFACE

The observations on the art of directing motion pictures included in this book are not by any means intended as lessons for the layman with ambitions pointing him toward this goal. To teach the craft through the printed page is as impossible of accomplishment as instructing a steeple-jack in his trade through correspondence school. “A director must be born, not made.” This old adage, adapted to our present situation, is of a necessity partially false, inasmuch as at the time of the present day directors' initial birthdays there was no such thing as motion picture production. Still it is true in a sense. Because to direct for the screen requires a personality and an ability, blending so many elements of generalship and technique that to studiously acquire them is next to an impossibility.

Be that as it may, the motion picture of today is developing its own directors. It has reached out to all businesses and arts and drafted men who are now headed for top positions in the ranks of directorial artists. Besides it offers the most humble of the studio staff the opportunity to rise to the top.