Carson smiles wearily. Registers: “Black Jack got me. He was going to
put them together to cover up the robbery. I gave all I had, boys.
That’s all; I’m going now. She is waiting for me over there.” Slight
flutter, scene fades.
IX
PICTURE-PRODUCING BY AMATEURS
Motion pictures have become so intimate a part of our life that
it is only natural to see amateur theatrical societies and other
organizations becoming interested to the point of staging their own
productions.
To the amateur the ideal manner of staging a motion picture is,
of course, to handle every detail of the production within the
organization, merely going outside to rent a camera, purchase film
stock, and finally for the factory work of developing and printing
the film. The pleasure of “doing everything yourself” is almost too
great to be resisted, but if a successful production is to be assured
it is wise to call on professional help in other branches. Unless
the organization has within its ranks a photographer of more than
ordinary ability, who is willing to spend some time and money in
preliminary study of the motion-picture camera, and in wasting film
in experimentation, it is necessary that a professional camera-man
be engaged. Again, were the organization to decide to dispense with
the services of a professional photographer it might be necessary to
purchase a camera--at prices ranging from two hundred and fifty dollars
upward--since it would probably be difficult to find a company willing
to intrust one of its cameras on rental to an amateur.
Should the organization be willing to go a step further in seeking the
aid of professionals, the services of a capable motion-picture director
would go a long way toward the betterment of the final production. We
believe it possible for an amateur with the dramatic sense, following
the director’s method of work as outlined in this book, to stage a
satisfactory picture without the services of a professional director.
But this would depend largely on the quality of the co-operation
extended by the camera-man.
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.
For the director himself the methods of work have been outlined in
a preceding chapter. First, in collaboration with his assistants, a
“scene plot” is laid out; that is, a list of the locations needed,
and the number of the scenes in which they will be used. Similarly a
“property” list is made out. Let him also determine, as we have shown
the professional director doing, the order in which he will stage
his scenes. A convenient plan now is to have the complete scenario
typewritten, each scene on a separate sheet of paper, and placed
in a loose-leaf binding in the order decided upon for production.
The director will find that this makes it much easier to study the
individual scenes thoroughly, to so “visualize” them as to secure their
full possibilities.
In taking the scenes, let the director remember one particular point:
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, before the camera is turned an inch. Once
the camera starts to “grind” you are using film, and if everything is
not perfect you are either wasting money on scenes that will have to be
retaken, or else you are weakening the picture should the faults be
overlooked. In rehearsing, the director must not only assure himself
that the players are capably interpreting the emotions called for
by the story, but he must also see that there is no danger of their
stepping outside the lines of the camera’s vision in the excitement of
the action after photography has started. Experience with two or three
scenes will show the director that this happens more often than would
seem possible. Before the final word of approval is given the players
must go through their parts as though they were “second nature,” for
the camera registers everything, and the look to the side-lines, the
glance at the director for instructions that would go by unnoticed on
the stage, will be caught by the camera and cannot be erased except by
taking the scene over again.
After a rehearsal or two the camera-man will time the scene for the
director so that he can tell how much film it will use, and if it is
not in agreement with the estimate allowed in the scenario, make the
necessary changes. The camera-man will lay out the boundary-lines
of the stage for you and advise you on the distance from the camera
to station the players. This will vary according to the number
of characters in the scene and size of the stage required for the
particular bit of action. For ordinary scenes it is wise not to allow
the players to be farther than fifteen feet from the camera, and
frequently for a tense bit of action in which a few players are seen
they should be brought up to the ten-foot line. In acting the players
should move a trifle slower, more deliberately, than they ordinarily
would.
The length of your scenes is limited by the film capacity of the
camera, usually two hundred feet. This would mean a scene of about
three minutes’ duration, but you should be sparing in your use of
scenes even approaching this length, as it does not require many
of them to eat up an entire picture. If it should be necessary in
developing the story to use a very long scene, see if some means of
variation cannot be introduced by showing some bit of action in the
story transpiring at some other point. Three minutes seem very short to
the layman, but if you will time some of the scenes in the next picture
you see you will find that very few run even a fourth that length.
If you do not happen to be near one of the large film-producing centers
where there are plenty of laboratories, your camera-man may be relied
on for advice in locating a plant to develop and print the film. It
will be wise for the director to make the journey to the film plant and
view the picture and assemble it there.
For showing to the organization’s members and friends a local theater
may be secured; or else, should it be decided to use the clubhouse, a
projection-machine can be rented and an operator engaged. Reference to
the telephone-book of the nearest large city will give you the names
of many accessory companies providing machines and operators for such
engagements. It will probably be necessary, to comply with the local
fire-department rules, to rent a portable asbestos booth. Rules vary,
but you are apt to save considerable eleventh-hour trouble if you get
in touch with the local fire and building departments before attempting
to show the picture.
A parting word as to the time of the year to stage your picture. This
will vary in some parts of the country of course, but in general it may
be said that the spring and summer are the ideal times. Not only are
conditions for exterior work not pleasant in the fall and winter, but a
light snow-fall which you would imagine would only delay the picture a
day may easily hold it up for many more until all the snow is off the
ground, for otherwise you face the danger of showing scenes supposed to
happen on the same day with snow on the ground in one view and none in
sight in another.
THE END
* * * * *
Transcriber’s note
Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized where appropriate.
Other spelling has also been retained as originally published except
for the change below.
Page 91: “hpotographed without” “photographed without”