Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/399

LEFT MOVING PICTUKES 337 MOVING PICTURES a landscape from a train window passing rapidly along a picket fence. It was the necessity of perfecting a mechanism to accomplish the above re- sults that delayed the present perfection of the moving-picture machine. This has finally been accomplished by means of a wheel, resembling the paddle wheel of a stern-wheel river boat, which catches the films along the edges by means of ratchets, or spikes, catching in holes FOR LATERAt MOVEMENT MOVING-PICTURE CAMERA along the margins of the film. The wheel, revolving by rapid jerks, causes each picture to pause just the desired interval. Sixteen separate pictures are presented during the space of one second. The moving-picture camera is con- structed on a similar principle, the sensi- tized film on which the negatives are made being exposed during the fraction of a second required for an instantane- ous photograph. The rapidity with which this is done may be regulated by the photographer, who, by turning a crank, governs the action of the cam- era. Where slow movement is desired. the mechanism is slowly turned, with the result that fewer pictures are taken to represent a given motion. Where quick action is involved, such as the galloping of a horse or the leaping of a human figure in a dramatic scene, the camera is turned correspondingly faster, so that a greater number of impressions may be registered on the film. In their first appearance in the amuse- ment field, moving pictures represented only such minor phases of action as a passing train, a scene from a cockfight, or the passing of a marching column of troops. As such they became a feature between the acts of a vaudeville show. One of the first in this country to see in the moving-picture invention the pos- sibility of dramatic action was Lubin, of Philadelphia^ who began to take extended series of pictures of scenes involving human emotions, such as the comedy of a fat man being pursued down a street by an ever-increasing mob. These short "one-reel comedies" proved immensely popular, and proved to be the basis for more serious and complicated dramatizas. tions. One of the first "moving-picture studios" was that established by Lubin in his back yard, in Philadelphia, where hired actors went through their "scenes" before the moving-picture camera. Gradu- ally the "reels" were lengthened, and then two and three reels were utilized in portraying one continuous drama of action. Simultaneously the Pathe Freres, in France, were developing the moving- picture drama with a perfection of artistic presentation which was not at- tained in this country for many years. In this country a violent prejudice on the part of the regular members of the dramatic profession proved an obstacle to the development of moving pictures from the purely dramatic point of view. In France this prejudice was not so marked, and first-class actors allowed themselves to be presented on the screen. As a consequence the finer pictures were for a long time imported into this coun- try, the American productions being largely limited to the horseplay comedies. One of the chief factors in changing this situation, and in bringing American moving pictures to the front, has been David W. Griffith, who may be said to have introduced the spectacular picture, produced at tremendous cost, the best example of which is his "Birth of a Nation," in which thousands of actors and supers are employed in creating the scenes of the play. In this remarkable production over two hundred thousand feet of film was used in reproducing the scenes portrayed by the army of actors