BEHIND THE CAMERA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 514, 17 November 1928, Page 23

BEHIND THE CAMERA

eye shot of the great love-scene 'which reveals nothing but the glisten of the hero's hair-oil and the flowers in the lady’s hat, and the picture is called clever. It isn’t, really. Photography may be essential to the films, but the •answer to screen success is not in the negatives. Mr. Asquith’s Mistake Now young Mr. Anthony Asquith has been quoted as having said a reckless thing. “Thex-e is nothing I feel so strongly,” said Mr. Asquith, ‘‘as that the actual plot of a film is of comparatively little importance, and that the treatment | is the main thing.” Far too many I producers are be- | ginning to agree with Mr. Asquith. i Think of a story, double it, take away the story you first thought of and photograph the remainder from the wrong angles. That is the film formula of the up-to-date producer—and it won’t work. What is. Wanted The British public does not flock to see a new picture because it was produced by a genius and photographed by acrobats. It goes because, within a. coxiple of hours, it can assimilate an interesting story which would take a week to digest in book form. It goes, also, because it happens to admire the actors who are interpreting the story. It expects the plot to be made clear by easy, naturalistic productions. There is no future for futurism on the films. * Thousands of pounds are wasted on pseudo-smart subtitles and unnecessary “effects.” The other day I saw a film about flapper life in America. For the first five minutes the screen was occupied by a baffling series of close-ups of dynamos, tram-cars, jazzing female ankles, and Satanic hoofs, spinning stars and perspiring negroes—a sort of universal Black Bottom. We were expected to accept this as necessary atmosphere. Instead, we wriggled in our seats and asked each other testily when the picture was going to begin.