A BIG TASK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 589, 15 February 1929, Page 15

A BIG TASK

“EDITING” MOTION PICTURES The titling and the editir g of .% motion picture contributes almost as much to the quality of the finished product as does the actual filming itself. Much more film is consumed than id eventually seen on the screen. In one sequence of “The Patriot.” Emil Jar - nings’s latest Paramount production, 15 cameras were in use at the same time, filming the scene from all conceivable angles. Luring the editing, the director selected those angles that seemed to him most effective in the ; telling of the story. Another Paraj mount production. The Weeding March,” which in its completed form j occupies 10,000 feet of photographic • film, was cut from over 40,0430 feet of I original negative. The use of that large quantity of material is necessary i in order to secure the best results When the film leaves the studio, it |is a disjointed mass of scenes, from i which the film editor will eventually build his completed picture. tHiring the filming of the picture, eacli of the scenes are numbered, and correspond, j with numbers on the scenario. Filin | sequences are rarely filmed chronologically. but according to the convenience of the set-builders and others. To make a motion picture any other way would involve the waste of time oVj money. The titling of a motion picture it* another important branch of the film • art. Concise and witty titling is what* Is expected by the average motion pieturegroer. Various title writers have different* methods of working. Some work on the sets where the picture ;S in production. They jot down their ide;.s and construct rough titles. They always attend the * rushes”—that is. the screening of the previous day's work—and gradually build their titles into shape.