Popular Science Monthly 



Vol. 89 

 No. « 



239 Fourth Ave., New York 



August, 1916 



$1.50 

 Annually 



Catastrophes by the Foot 



To paraphrase the word.s of a well- 

 known humorist, there is motion- 

 picture realism and, on the other 

 hand, there is motion-picture realism. 

 There is cinema realism which consists 

 mainly in cheap and uncon\incins illu- 

 sions. Into this class falls llie director who 

 substitutes a miniature dreadnought in 

 a batiuub for the real article, or the 

 director who mounts his camera on a 

 rolling i:)latform, this de\'ice giving to 

 the steady deck of a ship the appearance 

 of rolling and tossing. On the other hand 

 there is the director who will command 

 his pla\-crs to leap real precipices on 

 horseback. He is the 

 same director who t, 

 will sink a com 

 p a n y of 



a stretch of nailed-down scenery on a 

 floating dry-dock. This type of director 

 is the man who is giving the public its 

 most shivery thrills. 



Sinking a "set" on a floating dry-dock 

 has been done more than once. In fact, 

 it is a favorite trick. A stateroom of a 

 ship is built of wood strips, painted can- 

 vas and a porthole. It is erected on the 

 platform of a floating dry-dock and the 

 camera adjusted. The action, dramat- 

 ically speaking, starts. The sea-cocks 

 of the dock are opened and it gradually 

 sinks. Water creeps up — the ship is 

 sinking! The cameraman cranks, the 

 actors go through all of the 

 pantomimics necessary 

 to convey the 

 alarming infor- 

 ion that 

 he ship is 



Would you care to be a motion-picture operator or a motion -picture actor, after this? Would 

 you look brazenly out of the picture and care naught for the opinion of the man on the wharf? 



163 



