If I were going to school with some new arrival who was sure to be something of a leader, and who was going to have a lot to do with me, and influence me, and whom I might influence in a measure in return, you better believe that the sooner I became really acquainted with him, and liked him, and really knew his weaknesses and disliked them—why, the better it would be for both of us. That is the way it is with this great new arrival—the motion-picture industry. It is a sort of big newcomer at the school, and we are going to see a lot of it, and be influenced a lot by it, and possibly influence it a bit ourselves, sooner or later. It is worth while to get better acquainted with it as soon as possible. That is why I’ve taken you along on this all-forenoon ramble, as it were, through some of the paths of picture-making. And having gone so far, when next you watch a photoplay, you can think of how many people, doing so many different things, had to take part in the making of that picture, and how many problems they had; and how perhaps they had to stand around, day after day, waiting for the sun to come from behind a cloud at just the right time. And you can notice the clothes the actors wear, and the other properties, and wonder how much of a job the property man had keeping them all straight, and how good he was on his job. And if the film is an unusually good one, and everybody seems to have pulled together particularly well, you can praise it all the more; and if it’s poor, you can analyze it, and perhaps decide where the trouble, or part of it, lies. Then, taken all in all, you’ll know motion pictures a little better, and be more interested in them, and like them better, and find they’re a little more useful to you, while you’re a little closer to the point where you’ll be useful to them. [Illustration: _Courtesy W. W. Hodkinson Corporation._ WHERE SCENIC BEAUTY IS REQUIRED. This scene was taken in Western Montana by a New York company. The way the heroine is handling the rod in this picture betrays the fact she is an actress instead of an expert.] [Illustration: _Courtesy W. W. Hodkinson Corporation._ A PROPOSAL ON A MOUNTAIN TOP. To secure this picture the cameras were carried up to a height of nearly ten thousand feet on horseback. Two cameras were taken to minimize the risk of having to take the hard trip again and make the scene over.] CHAPTER VI PIONEER DAYS OF THE MOVIES To understand the movies, and why so many of them are no better than they are, and why and when and how they are improving, we have to know something about motion-picture beginnings. And to understand the beginnings of the movies in the country, in the days when the new experiment began to grow to the proportions of a real industry, we can turn to California.