How Are Moving Pictures Made?
To begin at the beginning, we must start with the negative stock,
or film on which the pictures are taken. This material is very much
like the films you buy for the ordinary snap-shot camera, slightly
heavier and of more durable quality, to stand the wear and tear of
passing through the picture camera and the projecting machine used in
exhibition. This film is 1³⁄₈ inches wide and comes in rolls of 200
feet in length. This negative stock has to be carefully perforated,
making the holes necessary to conduct the film by aid of sprockets
through the camera and the projectoscope. To still further understand
this explanation, see illustrations of the negative stock. Having
prepared the film in the dark room, we can load the camera in the dark
room and proceed to take the picture.
In taking an industrial or travelogue picture, after the camera is
in readiness, is not so much of an undertaking as taking a picture
of a drama or comedy, wherein a plot and players are concerned. The
travelogue or industrial pictures are simply photography, with the
additional manipulation of panoraming or turning the camera, which
requires an expert knowledge, acquired from experience and years of
study. There is a distinction and a big difference between the ordinary
photographer and the moving picture photographer, who is generally
known as a “camera-man.” A photographer, therefore, though of vast
experience, cannot step into a “camera-man’s” place and expect to “make
good.” The latter has to depend entirely upon his special experience
and judgment as to light and distance, focusing and general physical
conditions of the moving-picture camera, which is affected by static
and other electrical peculiarities of the atmosphere, to be avoided
by him. These, and many other points, are convincing evidence that
the moving-picture camera is entirely different from an ordinary
photographic camera. A moving-picture camera and tripod weigh from
fifty to one hundred pounds. There are two styles of cameras, one
which takes a single film and one which takes two films at once,
and each lens of the double camera must be equally well focused and
every feature to be depicted must be brought within the focus, which
generally occupies a radius of 8 feet in width by 10 feet in height.
[Illustration: SCENES FROM “OFFICER KATE.”]
[Illustration: RAW NEGATIVE STOCK. PERFORATED NEGATIVE STOCK.