Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/52

 Dolls Become Screen Idols

��They never get stage fright and they don't talk back

HARASSED motion picture di- rectors may be relieved to know that there are stars who will do exactly what they are told to do without complaining. These quiet, obedient actors are dolls. Yes, dolls have not been able to resist the lure of the screen.

They are just the ordinary, little dolls such as any child would like to have for playthings. A special stage and scenery is constructed for them. They are out through the poses which make up a real drama. The work is tedious and requires any amount of time. The dolls are posed and a picture is taken. Then they are moved a fraction of an inch to a different position and posed again. The camera takes an- other picture. When the work is finally done, the dolls appear to move across the stage with all the rapidity and ease of motion of real actors.

The plays which they act in are not meant to appeal only to children. The dramas are well thought out and clever enough to interest any motion picture specta- tor. But as the work of posing them is so very slow, a scenario played by dolls is, in sonie ways, more difficult to put on than one played by human beings. It often takes several weeks to make a short play. For ex- ample, if a scenario called for a real actor to throw his arms about the leading lady, the actor would be able to go through the motions in one or two .seconds. This would be recorded on one or two feet of film which would com- prise from twenty-four to thirty-two pictures.

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Here we have a kitchen romance acted by dolls. The cook is em- braced by her sailor sweetheart much to the horror of the butler

thirty minutes, even at fast work; for the doll actor can be moved only a fraction of an inch at a time. The director must under- stand just how to make his toy actors move in a realistic manner. In other words, he must have studied and been a keen observer of human motions. When we see a man step up on a chair, the step is taken in one swift movement. If a motion picture doll steps up on a chair, this step requires a whole series of movements. The doll is posed ready to step up. It is then suspended by an invisible wire and raised until ready to transfer its weight to the chair. All this must be done in such a manner that the simple act is executed smoothly and naturally.

The director's work with dolls and the re- sults he accomplishes are somewhat similar to the "animated sculpture" which first appeared .several months ago. In this novelty plastic clay figures took the place of dolls.

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