V
THE FACTORY
The average amateur photographer, who has made a practice of developing and printing his own photographs, will find little of interest in a description of the stages through which the film passes in a motion-picture factory. It is essentially the same process that he follows, though, naturally, on a much larger scale and making use of all the mechanical appliances possible. The variations in the chemical formulas used are those which the studious amateur’s own judgment would dictate to him were he working under conditions similar to those of the motion-picture photographer.
His day’s work completed, the camera-man takes his negative film, which is contained in the take-up box of the camera to protect it from the light, to the factory. The film taken from the camera now faces thefollowing steps: the development, washing, and, finally, fixing, thus producing a “negative” from which the “positive” prints used for exhibition purposes are to be made. The development of the negative takes place, of course, in a “dark room,” that is, dark in the photographic sense, the sole illumination being that of lamps providing a pure red light. The negative strips are wound spirally about pins on a rectangular rack, thus making it possible to wet the entire surface of the film simultaneously and equally when the rack is submerged in the developing solution.
Metal and hydroquinine are the chemical agents most active in the developing solution most commonly used, soda sulphite, soda carbonate, potassium, metabisulphite, and water completing the formula. But even for standard work there are varieties of developing-baths, while to handle film taken under out-of-the-ordinary conditions still further changes are made. It is in his ability to meet varying circumstances that the factory executive shows his mettle. Test developments may be made on a few inches of film to indicate the exact process to be followed. The washing of the film, and its submersion in the “fixing”-bath are the next items, alsofamiliar to the ordinary photographer. The “fixing”—that is, submersion in a solution of sodium hyposulphite—renders the negative immune to the light, after which it is once more washed, this time to remove the “hypo” of the fixing-bath. The negative may now be treated with a diluted solution of glycerine, which renders it soft and pliable, for there is much wear in store for this negative.
We have seen previously how each scene taken during the day was numbered to aid the producer in assembling the picture in the proper order. The negative strips are now assembled in a complete strip and viewed by the executives of the company before the first positive print is made. This initial inspection will, like as not, show that some of the scenes must be retaken, either because of poor photography or for some other reason not noticed by the director at the time the original scene was taken. “Retakes” are, naturally, not popular with the men who pay the bills, though they are often due to natural causes beyond the power of the director or camera-man to forestall. As picture producers always take a good deal more film than will be used in the subject shown later in the theaters, this viewingof the negative will also aid in bringing the picture down to the required size and in deciding on the printed inserts needed, though it is also probable that a good deal of cutting, reassembling, titling, and so on, will be done after the first positive print is made.
The negative approved, we are now ready to print the positives. On the negative, as the amateur photographer will know, the light conditions were reversed from the normal. That is, the portions of the film which we would expect to appear white, such as a snow-covered walk, were black, while the dark portions, a railroad train, for example, appeared white. This is the principle explaining the method of printing positives. The negative is superimposed on the positive film stock and light allowed to stream through. Naturally the image on the negative obstructs light in proportion to its density. Our snow-bank, let us say, being black on the negative, will allow no light to pass through and that portion of the positive stock under it will not be exposed. The near-by train, appearing white on the negative, offers no obstruction to the light, and here the positive is strongly exposed. When the positive is later developed it takes on adeposit of silver in equal proportion to the strength of the exposure, the snow-bank taking little, while a heavy deposit of silver clings to that part of the film showing the railroad train, which received so much exposure to the light. Thus the positive print brings the light conditions back to normal again, the train appears dark, the snow white, and the other objects in the scene shaded in ratio to the amount of light they allowed to penetrate through the negative to the positive stock.
In practice positive printing is done by a machine using for its essential principles the shutter and feeding devices that we have seen in the motion-picture camera. Negative and positive stock are perforated alike, and when superimposed the perforations fall in alignment. The film-feeding device of the printer engages in these perforations just as we saw it do in the camera, only in this case it is moving the negative and positive film along simultaneously. What would be the lens in the camera is here the place where the light is allowed to pass through. Once more the shutter serves its purpose of shutting off the light while the required length of film for one small picture is shifted into place. As in the camera, care is taken thatthe light strikes no portion of the film but the three-quarter-inch strip that is being exposed. The action of a printer is practically automatic, but the human touch is evident in determining the brilliancy of the light, its distance from the film, and the speed at which the printer will be run, all points determined by the condition of the negative.
(Selig)DRYING-ROOM IN THE FACTORY—THE FILM IS WOUND ON THE LARGE DRUMS
(Selig)DRYING-ROOM IN THE FACTORY—THE FILM IS WOUND ON THE LARGE DRUMS
(Selig)
(Selig)
The developing of positive film is a process much similar to that we have just described for the negative film. The chemicals used in the formulas are much the same, though the proportions vary. As positive film is less sensitive to light than negative, the developing need not be done in a dark room, though even here daylight, or the “yellow” light of the common electric bulb, is not permissible. To the eye positive and negative film appear much alike, and, in truth, they differ only slightly to render them more adaptable to their different uses. The drying of both positive and negative film, following the various operations, is accomplished by means of large drums, on which hundreds of feet may be wound.
The picture producer may now decide to tint some portions of his film and to tone others. Tinting is nothing more than givingthe film a bath of dye; toning is a chemical process by which the dark portions of a picture are intensified and given certain color tones, while the high lights are not affected. Though photography at night is now attempted very frequently, tinting is the means more commonly employed to give the impression of action taking place at night. Toning does not appear so artificial as tinting, since it does not affect the high lights, and an artistic director may easily arrange his scene so that the coloring appears natural on those parts that are affected. The toning of film is accomplished by placing it in chemicals which affect the silver deposits on the surface, permanently changing its color. Where there is no silver deposit, as, for instance, in the snow-bank we have so often mentioned, there would be no change. The process of fixing follows.
It might be well to explain here the usual method of photographing subtitles and other explanatory reading-matter in a picture. This is done by means of an ordinary camera using glass plates, which points downward at the subtitle, which is in white letters on a black background. What is known as a “plate-printer” is then used to put this impression on the positive motion-picture film.In this process the transparent negative of the subtitle secured on the glass plate is placed in a cabinet between a condenser lens and a smaller projecting lens. Before this small lens there is a film-gate, the positive film being fed into it in the same manner that we have seen employed in the camera and the positive-printer for ordinary work. Thus when the light passes through the condenser and the negative of the subtitle, the small lens casts a reduced image of it on the small bit of positive film passing before the gate. In ordinary printing of motion-picture film negative and positive are superimposed and passed before a light; in this case the image cast by the small lens takes the place of the negative film, but the principle is the same.
The factories of motion-picture plants must be as delicately handled as any piece of intricate machinery. The temperatures of the various rooms, and also of the chemical baths used in the different processes, must be kept constant at certain points. Dust must be conspicuous by its absence, for the slightest particle of foreign matter may scratch and otherwise harm valuable film. The water used in the factory is an important item, and in cases where the regular supply has beenshown to be inferior by chemical analysis, picture companies have often gone to the expense of drilling artesian wells to secure a pure supply. This was one of the moves made at a factory near Philadelphia, which boasts of its ability to turn out six million feet of positive film each week. Though most motion pictures made in the United States are produced in California, practically all of the factory work is done in the East. This is largely due to the fact that New York is the distributing point and business center. Not all of the companies known for their film productions have developing and printing plants. Many of the factories do the mechanical work for numerous other firms. In addition there are scores of companies doing only factory work and staging no pictures of their own.
The picture is now all but ready for the market. Most of the directors take part in the assembling stage when the film is cut to its proper length, the subtitles inserted, and the finishing touches applied that make the picture ready to meet the eyes of the outside world. This is indeed one of the most important stages in the making of a picture, for here the work of the best of directors may easily be unalterably ruined, or, perhaps,a poorly staged picture made into a passable or even good one.
It is an impossibility for a director in staging a picture to photograph just the amount of film that will be required for the production that is offered to the public. In the first place, even the most experienced of picture-men cannot hope to accurately estimate the amount of film that will be needed to portray certain actions; and secondly, a director will often find, when he has his players working before the camera, that a certain scene is worthy of more space than originally planned for in the script. So that, even after throwing out the scenes that were spoiled for one reason or other, there is still some paring to be done before the picture is cut to the length that the film editor thinks the subject worth and the business office says is most likely to be profitable. Commercial reasons still demand, for instance, that pictures consist of a certain number of full reels, each containing approximately one thousand feet. If the film editor finds that his picture is at its best at five thousand three hundred feet he faces the unwelcome task of cutting three hundred more feet, though each scene now in the picture may appear to him essential. Natural-length pictures,which would run the exact length demanded by the story, with the remainder of the reel, if necessary, filled out with an appropriate short picture, are frequently seen, and their advocates are many. But they are not in strong favor commercially.