The Moving Picture Girls; Or, First Appearances in Photo DramasHope, Laura Lee
General
The Moving Picture Girls; Or, First Appearances in Photo Dramas
Hope, Laura Lee
Girls -- Juvenile fiction; Motion pictures -- Production and direction -- Juvenile fiction
Next comes the selection of the location for the various scenes.
Indoor ones are comparatively easy, for the scenic artist can build
almost anything. But to get the proper outdoor setting is not so
easy, and often moving picture companies go many miles to get just
the proper scenery for a background.
So careful are some managers that they will send to California, or to
the Holy Land, in order that their actors may have the proper
historical surroundings. This costs many thousands of dollars, so it
can be seen how important it is to get the film right at first.
There are two main parts to the moving picture business--the taking
of the pictures and later the projection, or showing, of them on a
white screen in some theatre.
For this two different machines are needed. The first is a camera,
similar in the main principle to the same camera with which you may
have taken snapshots. But there is a difference. Where you take one
picture in a second, the moving picture camera takes sixteen. That is
the uniform rate maintained, though there may be exceptions. And in
your camera you take a picture on a short strip of celluloid film, or
on a glass plate, but in the moving picture machine the pictures are
taken on a narrow strip of celluloid film perhaps a thousand feet
long.
The camera consists of a narrow box. On one side is a handle, and
there is a lens that can be adjusted or focused. Inside is varied
machinery, but I will not tire you with a description of it.
Sufficient to say that there are two wheels, or reels. On one--the
upper--is wound the unexposed film. One end of this film is fastened
to the empty, or lower, reel. The film is passed back of lens, which
is fitted with a shutter that opens and closes at the rate of sixteen
times a second.
Turning a handle on the outside of the camera operates it. So that
when the scene is ready to be photographed the actors, whether men or
animals, begin to move. The handle turns, and the unexposed film is
wound from one reel to the other, inside the camera, passing behind
the lens, so that the picture falls on it in a flash, just as you
take one snapshot. But, as I have said, the moving picture camera
takes snapshot after snapshot--sixteen a second--until many thousands
are taken, so that when the pictures are shown afterward they give
the effect of continuous motion.
The film is moved forward by means of toothed sprocket wheels inside
the camera, the shutter opening and closing automatically.
When the reel of film has all been exposed, it is taken to the dark
room, and there developed, just as a small roll from your camera
would be. This film is called the negative. From it any number of
positives can be made, all depending on the popularity of the
subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account