The Deceiving Motion Picture 



By Albert Marple 



IT might be said that "Deception" is 

 the middle name of the motion pic- 

 ture business. By this I mean that 

 the majority of the most startling effects 

 obtained are secured through deceptive 

 methods. For instance, anyone who sees 

 the heroine of a photoplay jump from 

 the roof of a ten-story building may be 

 sure that the fall effect is secured by 

 unreal and ungenuine means. Then, too, 

 if the actor appears to spring to a bridge 

 from the stream below, or to roll, when 

 confined within a barrel, uphill, it is easy 

 to believe that those effects have been 

 faked. 



However, there are numerous effects 

 that are thrown upon the motion picture 

 screen which completely deceive the eye 

 and convey the impression that they are 

 genuine. There is no reason why those 

 incidents could not have taken place just 

 as they are projected upon the screen, 

 and it is accordingly natural to accept 

 them as real ; although if the truth were 

 known the ingenuity involved in produc- 

 ing them would "be much admired. 



Then, again, some of the effects that 

 are flashed upon the curtain are generally 

 taken to be faked, while the truth is that 

 those particular scenes were acted out 

 in exactly the same manner as they ap- 

 pear before the audience. For instance, 

 there is an incident in "Birth of a Nation" 



the multi-reel film now being ex- 

 hibited in several cities of the United 

 States to big audiences which many will 

 not believe is truly acted out. In one 

 of the skirmishes an actor is seen to fall 

 from the balcony in front of one of the 

 residences to the ground, a distance of 

 about twenty feet. The fall is done so 

 recklessly that the general verdict of an 

 audience is that a dummy has been em- 

 ployed. But in reality the feat was per- 

 formed by a live actor who has a reputa- 

 tion of having fallen five miles during 

 the past three years. Falling is his busi- 

 ness and he seems to thrive on the severe 

 jolts he receives. 



For the greater part the faking done 

 in motion picture producing is executed 

 along the mechanical line, that is to say, 

 the mechanical apparatus one sees in pic- 

 tures is often unreal as is also most of 

 the machinery. To illustrate the point, 

 one of the accompanying illustrations 

 shows a long and wide canvas strip on 

 which clouds have been painted. The 

 strip is so mounted that it can be un- 

 wound from one of the supporting rolls 

 on to the other. This device was used 

 for a scene depicting an aeroplane in 

 flight. The clouds realistically flashed by 

 the machine and to all appearances the 

 aviator impressed the audience as being 

 actually engaged in a flight through the 



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