Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/913

 Hazards of Motion-Picture Acting: Real and Faked

��By E. T. Kevser

��SOME people maintain that a camera will not lie. They are correct. A camera shows exactly what happens; but if you place the wrong construction upon what you find in the picture that is entirely your own fault.

If, in a screen comedy, an automobile proceeds casually to ascend the front of a skyscraper, don't miss the remainder of the reel by rushing to the box office to enquire the make of the machine. Perhaps it has not such a very good hill- climbing record after all. Had you watched the filming of that particular scene you would have observed that a representation of the skyscraper's front elevation reposed flat on the floor and that the automobile traveled over it in the usual manner, while, above it, and with lens pointed downward, the motion- picture camera was recording the fact.

A most wonder- ful exhibition of athletic prowess, as evidenced by a swimmer's ability to jump from the water to a spring- board ten feet above, was pro- duced by the simple method of having the aquatic Sam- son run backward along the board and jumpofi^backwards. Then the film was run through the pro- jecting machine re- versed, presenting indisputable evi- dence that the fly- ing fish of the trop- ics had found a human rival.

Speaking of jumping, have you noticed the effort- less manner in which comedy char-

���Helen Gibson playing the leading role in a breathlessly exciting railroad drama

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��acters lightly vault to the top of a wall which would have baffled the crack pole- vaulter of your old college team? The actor is photographed while making a short jump from the ground. The cameraman ceases grinding while the jumper ascends the wall via a ladder, placed out of range of the lens. Then the actor jumps down. The second "take" is reversed and joined to the first, there- by showing the superiority of knowledge to training.

But it is not in comedy alone that the ingenuity of the cameraman and of the cutter is. show^n. Nellie, the little daughter of the engineer, wearied by a long day's quest of the elusive buttercup, goes to sleep on the railroad track, with her downy cheek pressed close to a fish- plate. Papa, driver of the crack flier, with the Limited in tow. rounds a curve and sees with hor- ror his angel in the path of the iron monster. To stop the train is impossi- ble. Must Nellie die! Perish the thought. With an agility bespeaking long practice in sav- ing little Nellies, papa climbs for- ward on his engine, reaches the cow- catcher and, just as its cruel bulk is about to crush out the fair young life, leans over and tri- umphantly raises his child in his strong right hand and out of harm's wa>'.

Before complain- ing to the S. P. C. C. of the reckless manner in which children's lives are

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