American Cinematographer, Volume 2 Number 15

              LOYALTY PROGRESS  ART 
THE MEN WHO MAKE MOTION PICTURE:S
Copyrighted, 1921, by the AMERICAN SOCIETY of CINEMATOGRAPHERS.
VOL. 2, NO. 15 LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA, JULY 22, 1921 TEN CENTS A COPY
AT THE THEATRES
WEEK OF JULY 18
 ALHAMBRA - "Jim, the Pen- man." Photographed by T. L.
 Griffith and Harry Stradling.
CALIFORNIA The Ten Dollar
Raise." Photographed by
Tony Gaudio, member of A.
S. C.
CL UNE' S BROADWAY-
"Moonlight and Honeysuckle"
Photographed by Faxon M.
Dean, member of A. S. C.
GARRICK-"Lessons in Love."
Photographed by 0 I i v e r
Marsh.
GRAUMAN'S - "The Bronze
Bell." Photographed by
George Barnes, member of A.
S. C.
GRAUMAN'S RIALTO - "The
Whistle." Photographed by
Joe August, member of A. S.
C.
HOLLYWOOD - Monday -
"Don't Neglect Your Wife."
Tuesday and Wednesday -
"Puppets of Fate." Photo-graphed
by John Arnold,
member of A. S. C.
Thursday, Friday and Satur-day-"
Thru the Back Door."
Photographed by Charles G.
Rosher, member of A. S. C.
Sunday - ' , H ear t sAl' e
Trumps.' Photographed by
John F. Seitz, member of A.
S. C.
KINEMA-"Bob Hampton of
Placer." Photographed by
David Kesson and Jacques
Bizuel.
MILLER'S-"Proxies." , Photo-graphed
by Harold Wenstrom.
MISSION-"The Four Horse-men
of the Apocalypse,"
Photographed by John F.
Seitz, member of A. S. C.
NEW APOLLO - Monday -
"Thru the Back Door." Photo-graphed
by Charles G. Rosh-er,
member of A. S. C,
Tuesday - "The Passion
Flower." Photographed by
Roy Hunt.
Wednesday and Thursday-
"Man, Woman, Marriage."
Photographed by H. Lyman
Broening, member of A. S. C.
Friday-"Ducks and Drakes."
~ Saturday - "The Snob."
.. Photographed by A I f l' e d
Gilks.
Sunday-"Pecks Bad Boy."
Photographed by A I f red
Gilks.
NEW SYMPHONY-"A Dan-gerous
Pastime."
PANTAGES (7th and Hill)-
"Penny of the Top Hill Trail"
SUPERB A - "The Beautiful
Gambler." Photographed by
George Barnes, member of A.
S. C.
TALLY'S -"The Man Who."
Photographed by Arthur Mar-tinelli.
WINDSOR - Monday - "The
Last of the Mohicans." Photo-graphed
by Charles Van En-ger.
Tuesday-"Trust Your Wife"
PHOTOGRAPHY AND
MOTION PICTURES
By John Leezer
"Ah! Wad some power the giftie
gte us
To see oorsels as Ithers see us!"
A lens in a crank-propelled
mechanism which allows of six-teen
separate exposures to each
foot of sensitive film one and
one-half inches wide and four
hundred feet long, is a rather
simple contribution withal, yet
Mr. Burns' great desire is
gratified. Gratified thru the
medium of photography.
The quality of photography
produced by the different studios
varies almost as the number of
studios. When we say photog-raphy
we mean not alone the
efforts of the photographer, but
those of the laboratory force as
well. If the photographer has
made some artistic lightings
with the proper exposure, it is
only fair that the laboratory
people should give a correspond-ing
print. Therefore where the
photographer does not do his
own developing and printing,
the closest co-operation should
exist between himself and the
one who does it for him.
Pictures are made up of light
end shade; so is life. A true
portrayal of life uponthe screen
so far as the photography is
concerned can always be artistic
no matter what phase of life is
depicted. The lighting and com-position
of that which goes to
make up the set determines
whether the picture will be ar-tistic
or not. The action may
interfere somewhat with the
composition, but not often. The
lighting in a great cathedral, of
course, would differ consider-ably
from that of a modern
dance hall. Likewise the light-ing
in my lady's boudoir would
hardly be the same as in her
maid's apartment in the attic.
Nor would we light the hunter's
cabin as we would the private
office of the bank president.
The mission of the photog-rapher,
his great mission, is the
true portrayal of every scene in
the story. So true a portrayal
that everyone who sees the pic-ture
will forget that photog-raphy
has really been the me-dium
thru which the story has
been revealed. It will all be so
realistic that for the time being
he sees the different characters
as living flesh and blood.
Some producers realize the
Photographed by Joe Brother-ton.
Wednesday, Thursday-"Con-rad
in Quest of His Youth."
Photographed by L. Guy Wil-ky,
member of A. S. C.
Friday, Saturday - "Peck's
Bad Boy." Photographed by
Alfred Gilks.
Sunday - "Thru the Back
Door." Photographed by
Charles G. Rosher, member of
A. S. C.
THE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
In these days when all are
searching the times' for the
smallest sign of cheer', 'the fol-lowing
came to us from the
Union Trust Company of Cleve-land,
Ohio. To be sure we realize
that it ;8 one of the duties of
tho banking business to cheer.
This banking house is the
strongest in a wealthy manufac-turing
community, and the sen-timents
expressed are so sen-sible
and clear that we are
moved to pass them on.
Business results from the
production and distribution of
goods, on the one hand, to meet
tho, demand for goods on the
other. Credit, meaning, the
mon-y supply, is the great lubri-cant
to set going anew the ma-chinery
of industry and trade;
and the supply of credit the
world over is gradually but cer-tainly
approaching normal.
World-wide conditions are
acute, but now, as in every sim-ilar
crisis in the past, the world
is finding its cure in the return
to work. The antidote for our
present ills is increased produc-tion,
and a more even balance
between the product of our toil
and the reward which that toil
receives, to the end that the
wage may represent value re-ceived;
and furthermore our
products must be widely dis-tributed
thru well developed
sales methods.
The war brot about a tremen-dous
destruction of property,
goods and capital. It is obvious,
therefore, that the world's re-newed
demand for goods to sup-ply
its current requirements
will. when coupled with the nec-essary
supply of credit now be-ing
made more available, bring
about with inevitable certainty
a wide-spread resumption of
trade and industry.
We believe that this revival
will not be long delayed, and we
look.forward to the future, both
immediate and remote, with the
utmost confidence.
importance of photography
While others do not. A conver-sation
we had with one of them
occurs to us just now. Hie said:
"You fellows call yourselves
photographers, and claim to
have .a heaven born gift where-by
you can judge light. Well,
give me a man who can turn the
crank and read an exposure
meter. That's all that is neces-sary."
And his pictures looked
it. Considering the commercial
exploitation th ru which the in-dustry
has passed, it is a won-der
that more are not of the
same mind. Poor photography
has killed many an otherwise
excellent production, and on the
other hand good photography
has saved many a mediocre pic-ture
from the shelf.
Some photographers light
their sets irrespective of the
action which takes place. Others
(Continued on Page Four)
CHATS ON COMPOSITION
By Joseph A. DUQrrLY
One of the most important
factors in the success of a mo-tion
picture play is the ease
With which an audience can
read and therefore understand,
each of the scenes of the play.
This can' only be accomplished
by a perfect connection between
the scenes, which so smoothly
blend into each other, as to
carry the observer thru the dif-ferent
incidents of the plot and
form a satisfactory whole. The
action should be clearly shown
in all of its details, leaving none
of the essentials to the imagina-tion
of the audience.
The sense.of continuity so im-portant
for the story-telling
quality of a photoplay, might
seem at first, to be purely a
mechanical matter, entirely in
the hands of the scenario or
continuity writer and of the di-rector.
But even a perfect
mechanical construction of the
screen version of a story would
appeal cool and lifeless, if the
artistic conception of the cine-matographer
is not properly
developed.
In other words the mechanical
blending of the scenes of a
photoplay can be emphasized by
the artistic sense of the cinema-tographer.
His knowledge of
the science of composition will
(Continued on Page Two)
APPLAUSE AND THE
MOTION PICTURE
Director Paul Bern is urging
patrons of the moving picture
houses to express their ap-proval
and pleasure by ap-plause.
Some people consider it
small town to applaud motion
pictures, but he assures us that
it is being done in the best
circles, namely, in the Capitol,
Rivoli, Strand and other ciriema
houses of New York City.
Pleasure is a contagious
thing. Because the play is si-lent
is. no reason why the audi-ence
should act like mutes. Why
can we not show our feelings
of satisfaction over a successful
issue in the story by clapping,
even as we laugh when pleased?
The actors do not need the
demonstration, but it may warm
the cockles of the manager's
heart, and let him know just
what we really enjoy.
Two pictures which stand out
particularly in the mind of one
fan are "Black Beauty" and
Whistling Dick," and the reason
was that everyone in the audi-ence
was so excited by the horse
race in the former that they just
had to clap the winner. In the
latter picture it was the hearty
laughter produced by the titles.
It is the memory of the spon-taneous
clapping and the jolly
laugh which made as lasting an
impression as the delightful
pictures.