A-B-C of motion pictures

by Robert E. Welsh

The picture producer may now decide to tint some portions of his film and to tone others. Tinting is nothing more than giving the film a bath of dye; toning is a chemical process by which the dark portions of a picture are intensified and given certain color tones, while the high lights are not affected. Though photography at night is now attempted very frequently, tinting is the means more commonly employed to give the impression of action taking place at night. Toning does not appear so artificial as tinting, since it does not affect the high lights, and an artistic director may easily arrange his scene so that the coloring appears natural on those parts that are affected. The toning of film is accomplished by placing it in chemicals which affect the silver deposits on the surface, permanently changing its color. Where there is no silver deposit, as, for instance, in the snow-bank we have so often mentioned, there would be no change. The process of fixing follows.

It might be well to explain here the usual method of photographing subtitles and other explanatory reading-matter in a picture. This is done by means of an ordinary camera using glass plates, which points downward at the subtitle, which is in white letters on a black background. What is known as a “plate-printer” is then used to put this impression on the positive motion-picture film. In this process the transparent negative of the subtitle secured on the glass plate is placed in a cabinet between a condenser lens and a smaller projecting lens. Before this small lens there is a film-gate, the positive film being fed into it in the same manner that we have seen employed in the camera and the positive-printer for ordinary work. Thus when the light passes through the condenser and the negative of the subtitle, the small lens casts a reduced image of it on the small bit of positive film passing before the gate. In ordinary printing of motion-picture film negative and positive are superimposed and passed before a light; in this case the image cast by the small lens takes the place of the negative film, but the principle is the same.

The factories of motion-picture plants must be as delicately handled as any piece of intricate machinery. The temperatures of the various rooms, and also of the chemical baths used in the different processes, must be kept constant at certain points. Dust must be conspicuous by its absence, for the slightest particle of foreign matter may scratch and otherwise harm valuable film. The water used in the factory is an important item, and in cases where the regular supply has been shown to be inferior by chemical analysis, picture companies have often gone to the expense of drilling artesian wells to secure a pure supply. This was one of the moves made at a factory near Philadelphia, which boasts of its ability to turn out six million feet of positive film each week. Though most motion pictures made in the United States are produced in California, practically all of the factory work is done in the East. This is largely due to the fact that New York is the distributing point and business center. Not all of the companies known for their film productions have developing and printing plants. Many of the factories do the mechanical work for numerous other firms. In addition there are scores of companies doing only factory work and staging no pictures of their own.

The picture is now all but ready for the market. Most of the directors take part in the assembling stage when the film is cut to its proper length, the subtitles inserted, and the finishing touches applied that make the picture ready to meet the eyes of the outside world. This is indeed one of the most important stages in the making of a picture, for here the work of the best of directors may easily be unalterably ruined, or, perhaps, a poorly staged picture made into a passable or even good one.

It is an impossibility for a director in staging a picture to photograph just the amount of film that will be required for the production that is offered to the public. In the first place, even the most experienced of picture-men cannot hope to accurately estimate the amount of film that will be needed to portray certain actions; and secondly, a director will often find, when he has his players working before the camera, that a certain scene is worthy of more space than originally planned for in the script. So that, even after throwing out the scenes that were spoiled for one reason or other, there is still some paring to be done before the picture is cut to the length that the film editor thinks the subject worth and the business office says is most likely to be profitable. Commercial reasons still demand, for instance, that pictures consist of a certain number of full reels, each containing approximately one thousand feet. If the film editor finds that his picture is at its best at five thousand three hundred feet he faces the unwelcome task of cutting three hundred more feet, though each scene now in the picture may appear to him essential. Natural-length pictures, which would run the exact length demanded by the story, with the remainder of the reel, if necessary, filled out with an appropriate short picture, are frequently seen, and their advocates are many. But they are not in strong favor commercially.

VI

THE BUSINESS SIDE

The business organization of the motion-picture field can find no counterpart in any other line of commercial activity. In some of its aspects it is akin to the theatrical world, in others it resembles publishing, but there are many points distinctly unique. The commercial organization is an evolution peculiarly adapted to picture conditions, and it is still in a state of transition, continuous and even more radical than that evident in the producing methods.

In its most interesting feature the system used in the United States resembles the newspaper syndicate, through which an article is published simultaneously all over the country in dozens of newspapers. In this case the article is supplied to the different newspapers in advance, with the statement that it is “released” on a certain date; that is, the newspaper may publish it on and after that particular date, but not before. This explains the surprise of the young man who travels away from home for the first time when he finds that the newspapers of the city he is visiting carry many of the special features he reads in the papers at his home city, and that they publish the articles simultaneously. In a similar manner motion pictures are shipped far in advance to the exchanges, the local distributing agents. A certain “release” date has been chosen, and on that day the picture is shown for the first time in theaters throughout the country. New York, in the heart of the film world, thus boasts of no advantage over the city a thousand miles away. The use of the word “release” in this connection is similar to that in the newspaper syndicate field, which explains a point that invariably proves confusing to the layman seeking information in filmland.

We are told in the chapter dealing with the history of the motion picture of the formation of the first large distributing organization. The system followed by this combination will give an idea of the method employed by the older organizations in handling the short pictures that make up the bulk of the film output. In forming the combination a group of pioneer picture manufacturers bound themselves together to release their product to the theater-owners through the one channel. Exchanges are located in the principal cities of the country and the distributing organization purchases from the manufacturer the number of positive prints of each picture needed to supply these exchanges. A manufacturer’s popularity with the exhibitors and the public is shown, of course, by the number of positive prints that the distributor must purchase from him to meet the demand. These manufacturers profited both by the sale of their prints and, through their direct interest in the distributor, from the earnings of the latter. There are two other large distributing agents organized along the lines of the pioneer to handle the output of other manufacturers. In the one the union between producer and distributor is not as close as that of the pioneer, while in the other producer and distributor are practically identical.