MOVING PICTURES 



MOVING PICTURES 



ordinary target for practice work the soldier 

 fires at a moving-picture target, representing, 

 for instance, a man behind cover, aiming di- 

 rectly out of the picture at the real marksman. 

 Finally, in making his shot, the man in the pic- 

 ture exposes himself, and that is the instant 

 when the marksman must shoot. The picture 

 is so managed that it stops automatically when 

 the bullet hits it so that the marksman may 



have a chance to see whether or not he has 

 made an accurate shot. Pictures for this work 

 are usually projected at a little less than or- 

 dinary speed, as a rate of sixteen pictures a 

 second has proved too rapid even for the ex- 

 ceptional marksman. Pictures of hydroplanes, 

 aeroplanes, birds in flight and wild animals, all 

 furnish suitable subjects for these moving tar- 

 gets. 



The Moving Picture Industry 



Moving picture production has gone ahead in 

 fields. There have been the scientists, 

 Europeans for the most part, who have disre- 

 garded the commercial possibilities of the new 



ntion and have bent all their energies to 

 research and investigation, and there have been 

 tin- men, Americans for the most part, who 

 have used it to build up a vast amusement in- 

 dustry. This industry sprang up almost over 

 nipht, a mushroom growth that had achieved 

 immense proportions almost before people were 

 aware. It was in 1897 that Cecil M. Hepworth 



te: "That the kinematograph has con- 

 tributed much to the gayety of nations can 

 hardly be denied, but that it will continue to 

 do so to anything like the same extent for 

 much longer is highly improbable." Hepworth 

 did not know, of course, nor did anyone else, 

 the time would come when more than 

 5,000,000 people would visit moving picture 

 theaters every week; that the total investment 

 in the United States would be estimated at 

 more than $400,000,000, and that this arause- 



t enterprise would give employment to 

 more than half a million people and yet these 

 are considered conservative estimates to-day. 



America leads the world in the production 

 of photoplays. Some wonderful films have 

 been imported from Europe, stupendous pro- 

 ductions like Cabiria (which was .made in 

 I, hut the importation of films has never 

 equaled the exportation, which amounts to ap- 

 proximately $5,000,000 worth every year. In 

 the beginning the plays produced were, for the 

 most part, very crude the results of th 

 periments made by a few expert photographers 

 who had perfected cameras and projecting ma- 



;es and were determined to use them. But 



the photoplay* of recent years at least equal 



lonce anything produced on 



legitimate stage. Quo Vadit, Let Miter- 



ablet, Cabiria, Last Days of Pompeii, Don 



Qw- r and the Pauper, Birth of 



a Nation, The Battle Cry of Peace, CivUita- 



tion; Camille and Queen Elizabeth, with Sarah 

 Bernhardt; Carmtn, with Geraldine Farrar; 

 Teas of the D'Urbcrvillcs, with Mrs. Fiske; and 

 Madame Butterfly, with Mary Pickford, are 

 among the most notable of motion picture pro- 

 duct ions. Many of these films require hun- 

 dreds of scenes and hundreds of actors; 

 represent months of labor and an expenditure 

 of money which is almost unbelievable; and 

 they also represent the genius of the greatest 

 actors and producers the world has ever known. 

 But, in spite of the success with which these 

 productions have m t. tin- hulk of photoplays 

 are still quite mediocre farce and melodrama. 

 Where the Pictures Are Produced. Produc- 

 tion, at first, was decidedly haphazard, 

 studios where the pictures were taken were for 

 the most part old buildings wh tv rents were 

 p. the stage properties were makeshifts, the 

 whole equipment utterly inadequate. Artr 

 lighting had not been attempted. The first 

 Edison studio was a little house on wheels tint 

 was mail n its base so that any 



face could be turned towards the sun. Nowa- 

 days, while it is useless to take pictures out-of- 

 doors unless the day is bright, lights have been 



ritcd which make it a Minj'lr in.it!, r to take 

 pictures in the studios at any time Mercury 

 vapor lamps and, recently, gas-filled tungsten 

 lights will make any stage lighter than day. 

 Portable mercury vapor lamps have mai 

 possible to take pictures in factories and stores 

 and restaurants. Scenes have even been taken 

 m coal mines, hundreds of feet beneath the 

 surface of the earth, and the great tunnels un- 

 Hudson Rivrr, New York, have been 

 filmed. 



Picture-Producing Plants. Florida and Ari- 

 fona, New York and Pennsylvania, New Jersey 

 and Illinois all have imporun pro- 



ducing plant*, hut the great i. 

 center is California Thw is du fact 



that the climate of California, with its almost 

 continuous sunshine, makes it poaftto to take 



