A-B-C of motion pictures

by Robert E. Welsh

Let us proceed in this chapter on the assumption that you have decided to engage a professional camera-man, but you are going to place your trust for all other details on your own members.

The cost—that is the first question the amateur asks, and, naturally, the one that must be settled before any organization will embark on such a venture as the staging of a motion picture. We have told you in a preceding chapter that the film-producing companies calculate the cost of the average picture at one dollar per foot. With the amateur organization conditions are of course different, and this estimate furnishes no basis of comparison. In enumerating the items of expense to the amateur we must first consider the cost of film stock. This is about three and three-quarters cents per foot; positive film is a trifle higher than negative, but this figure may be taken as an average. It must be understood that there is always more film stock used than the length of the finished production would indicate. We will say that you intend to produce a three-reel picture, running approximately three thousand feet and providing three-quarters of an hour of entertainment. About four thousand feet of film would be used—a moderate estimate—allowing one thousand feet for film spoiled or omitted from the picture in the final assembling to improve the continuity and clarity of the story. The raw stock for the negative and positive prints would therefore cost three hundred dollars.

Then there would be the expense of developing the negative and printing the positive, which, including the printed inserts, would be about six cents per foot. The cost of our three-reel film, with one thousand feet allowed for waste, would now be two hundred and forty dollars, plus the cost of the raw stock, or five hundred and forty dollars. These calculations are based on the average market prices, though slight variations must of course be expected.

With the matter of film and printing settled, we take up expenses that cannot be so definitely decided. Under ordinary conditions the staging of a three-reel picture by amateurs should require about four weeks, somewhat longer than the professional would take, but not as long as the amateurs will require, unless the members are determined to work hard and use every available moment of sunshine until the picture is completed. Our estimate of four weeks is based on the understanding that the amateurs will be ready to start work at nine o’clock in the morning and, with the exception of a little over an hour for lunch, work until five o’clock. The salary of a photographer, supplying his own camera, would be between one hundred and one hundred and fifty dollars per week. The cost of our production now jumps from five hundred and forty dollars to ten hundred and forty dollars, figuring the camera-man’s salary at one hundred and twenty-five dollars per week. If it should be decided to engage a director the organization will be able to find capable men at salaries starting at the two-hundred-dollar level.

The salaries of players and the expense of purchasing a story do not enter into our calculations here. The matter of costuming is one that should not trouble the amateur either, for his story should be written so as to make the lightest of demands in this regard. The members of the organization should also be able to secure the necessary permission for the use of all exterior settings without paying for the privilege, as the film-manufacturing concerns must often do. It is also possible for the author of the story to so construct it that no interior settings are necessary, thus obviating the expense of engaging a studio or else of paying for portable lights to be used in the actual interiors mentioned in the story. The advantages offered by the locality in which the story is to be pictured will determine the decision to be made on these points. There is another point to consider; only organizations located near film-producing centers will be able to rent studios without the expense of transportation for the company.

On the story depends in great measure the success or failure of an amateur effort at screen production. While the principal idea, the plot, may be the work of one man, the work of production should not begin until every point in it has been threshed out by the combined wisdom of all the members of the committee in charge of the production. Test each bit of the action to see that it can be done with your facilities; don’t attempt an elaborate story and then be forced to rewrite it after the work of production has started. That means time lost—for which you are paying salaries—and a weakened production. Construct a story, as has been said above, that uses exterior scenes almost entirely. See that the locations are convenient; it does not require many journeys from one end of the town to the other to eat up valuable time. Don’t hesitate to use the same setting more than once. The points enumerated here would appear to be only “common sense,” yet it is our experience with the efforts of amateur photoplaywrights that they invariably lift the check-reins from their imaginations, allow the story to wander up hill and down dale, and seem to make a special effort to have each bit of action take place in an entirely new location.

If the organization holds within its membership-lists some players of more than ordinary ability it might be possible to successfully stage an ambitious drama. For productions of this type the light comedy form is, however, best suited. The rôles, being more natural, are better handled by the players, while at the showing of the picture the audience, instead of being in the seriously critical frame of mind induced by a drama, is receptive and ready to overlook minor faults. The exaggerated melodrama is probably the greatest favorite with amateurs.

Remember the words of advice in a preceding chapter about limiting the number of principal characters, and avoid the danger of confusing the audience by having too many important rôles. This is a matter for delicate handling in amateur productions where many members will be found to feel that they should not be slighted. It is of value in increasing the interest to include in the picture at least one or two scenes in which all the members of the organization have an opportunity to be photographed. A lawn fête, political meeting, or any such affair may be the justification for their appearing in the picture. But see that some action of value in the unfolding of your story happens in this scene, for it must appear natural, and not as if it were dragged in by the collar.

Give to the man you name “director” supreme charge after the story has been approved by the committee and the work of production is about to start. Except perhaps for evening conferences to decide on the next day’s plan of work the time has now arrived to place entire command in the hands of one man. Let him decide the order in which the scenes are to be taken, issue the “calls” for the players needed each day, rehearse the scenes, and give the final word when he deems it time to photograph the scene. The director should not be a person who is to play a part in the picture, unless it is to appear in one of the scenes we have mentioned which will allow the entire membership to be seen.

The director should have two assistants, a “location” man and a “property” man. The “location-man’s” task is to seek the various spots that will be used as settings and to make the necessary arrangements with the owners for their use on the date set. The “property-man” must see that all the necessary paraphernalia, such as carriages, swords, letters, or any article needed in the different scenes, is on hand and ready for use when the director calls. Both these aides must work from two to three days in advance of the director, so that there will be no annoying delays because a certain spot cannot be used on the day desired, or because a table and chair needed in one of the scenes is not at hand. These assistants, or others appointed, should also watch the staging of the scenes, with especial care for the minor details that might escape the eye of the director who is sufficiently burdened in seeking to interpret the story. The assistants, for example, will make notes of the clothes worn by the players in the different scenes, so that, a week later, when scenes are being taken that in the story are supposed to happen on the same day, there will be no absurd mistakes. Unless careful notes are made of these matters it is easy to slip and show us, when the picture is exhibited, a character starting out on an auto ride with a soft hat, Norfolk coat, and soft-collared shirt, only to arrive at his destination wearing a golfing-cap, severely cut business jacket, and immaculate in a stiff linen collar. In the case of female characters, with their more extensive wardrobes and innate desire for change, this danger of ridiculous errors is magnified. The lot of the director’s assistants will not be an easy one.