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BREAKING INTO
THE MOVIES
[Illustration: CASTING THE PICTURE
This is a typical scene in a casting director's office. Mr. Emerson and
Miss Loos, with their stenographer, are studying the faces of the
applicants. When a type exactly suited to the story is found, she is
sent direct to the studio to begin work.]
BREAKING INTO
THE MOVIES
_by_
JOHN EMERSON
_and_
ANITA LOOS
_Authors of "How To Write Photoplays"_
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Illustration]
PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1921, by
THE JAMES A. McCANN COMPANY
All Rights Reserved
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II WHAT THE JOBS ARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
III ACTING FOR THE SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
IV WOULD YOU FILM WELL? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
V MAKE-UP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
VI HOW TO DRESS FOR A PICTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
VII MOVIE MANNERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
VIII READING YOUR PART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
IX INSIDE THE BRAIN OF A MOVIE STAR . . . . . . . . . 33
X SALARIES IN THE MOVIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
XI SCENARIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
XII HOW OTHERS HAVE DONE IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
XIII AMATEUR MOVIE MAKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO PART II . . . . . . . . . . . 53
RED HOT ROMANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
ILLUSTRATIONS
CASTING THE PICTURE FRONTISPIECE
FACING PAGE
ROUGING THE LIPS FOR THE CAMERA . . . . . . . . . . . 17
MAKING UP THE EYES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
GLUEING ON A CRÊPE MUSTACHE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
REHEARSING THE COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
TESTING MAKE-UP AND EXPRESSION . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
MAKING A "CLOSE-UP" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
BREAKING INTO
THE MOVIES
Breaking Into the Movies
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Were the average man suddenly called upon to assemble all the women in
his town who looked like Mary Pickford, he might find himself at a loss
as to how to commence. In fact, he might even doubt that there were
sufficient persons answering this description to warrant such a
campaign.
We know a way to get them all together on twenty-four hours' notice.
Just insert a small advertisement in the local newspaper, reading:
"Wanted for the movies--a girl who looks like Mary Pickford--apply at
such-and-such a studio to-morrow morning."
We guarantee that not only will every woman who looks like Mary Pickford
be on the spot at sunrise, but that a large preponderance of the entire
female population will drop in during the morning. For it is a puzzling
but indisputable fact that everybody wants to break into the movies.
The curious part of it all is that the movies really need these people.
On the one hand are countless men and women besieging the studio doors
in the hope of starting a career in any one of a thousand capacities,
from actress to scenario writer, from director to cameraman. There are
people with plots, people with inventions, people with new ideas of
every conceivable variety, all clamoring for admission. And, on the
other hand, there are the men who manage the movies sending out all
manner of exhortations, appeals and supplications to just such people to
come and work in their studios. They drown each other's voices, the one
calling for new talent and new types, the many for a chance to
demonstrate that they are just the talent and types that are so in
demand.
This economic paradox, this passing in the night of Demand and Supply,
has come about through a general misconception of everything concerned
with the movies.
The first to be in the wrong were the producers. They built up an
industry which, in its early days, was vitally dependent upon individual
personalities. A picture, according to their views, was made or unmade
by a single star or director or writer, and very naturally they were
loath to entrust the fate of a hundred thousand dollar investment to
untried hands. While on the one hand they realized the pressing need for
new blood in their industry, they were, nevertheless, very wary of being
the first to welcome the newcomer. Producers preferred to pay twenty
times the price to experienced professionals, no matter how mediocre
their work might have been in the past, than to take a chance on a
promising beginner. The business side of the movies, has, in the past,
been nothing more nor less than a tremendous gamble wherein the men who
had staked their fortunes on a single photoplay walked about in fear of
their very shadows--desiring new ideas, yet afraid to risk testing them,
calling for new artists yet fearing to give them the opportunity to
break in. The very nature of the industry was responsible for this
situation and, to a large extent, it is a condition which still prevails
in a majority of the smaller studios. The greatest obstacle which every
beginner must surmount is the one which first confronts him--the
privilege of doing his first picture--the first chance.
The larger companies, however, in the last year or so have awakened to
the fact that by excluding beginners they have themselves raised the
cost of motion picture production many times. They have found themselves
with a very limited number of stars and directors and writers and
technical men to choose from, all of whom, for this very reason, could
demand enormous salaries. One by one these companies are instituting
various systems for the encouragement of embryo talent. Now, if ever, is
the time to break into the movies.
But much more to blame for the general mix-up in the movies are the
beginners themselves. In the majority of cases they state in loud,
penetrating accents that they desire to break into the movies, here and
now; but when questioned as to the exact capacity in which they desire
to accomplish this ambition, they appear to be a bit hazy. Anything with
a large salary and short hours will do, they say. The organization of
the business and the sordid details connected with the various highly
specialized jobs in the studios concern them not at all. They let it go
with an unqualified statement that they want to break in the worst
way--and generally they do.
Now making movies is not child's play. It is a profession--or rather a
combination of professions--which takes time and thought and study.
True, there are fortunes to be made for those who will seriously enter
this field and study their work as they would study for any other
profession. But unfortunately, most of those who head towards the cinema
studios do not take time to learn the facts about the industry. They do
not look over the multitude of different highly specialized positions
which the movies offer and ask themselves for which one they are best
suited. They just plunge in, so intent upon making money at the moment
that they give no thought at all to the future.
Therefore, in writing this series, we shall start with an old saw--a
warning to amateurs to look before they leap. No industry in the world
presents so many angles, varying from technical work in the studio, to
the complexities of high finance. If you really wish to break into the
movies, go to the studios and see for yourself what you are fitted for.
Perhaps you think you are an actor, and are really a first rate
scenarioist. Perhaps you have an ambition to plan scenery, and instead
find that your forte lies in the business office. Men who started as
cameramen are now directors. Men who started as directors have ended as
highly successful advertising managers. So there you are. You pay your
money--and--if you are wise--you take your choice.