“PINOCCHIO”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1940, Page 9

“PINOCCHIO”

DISNEY'S SECOND FEATURE FILM

After two years of painstaking labour. Walt Disney has just about completed his second full-length feature production, "Pinocchio." ihe wellknown story of the little wooden puppet who walks and talks, and whose

nose, every time he tells a lie. grows until the lie is as plain as the nose on his face. This picture was planned for a Christmas release throughout lhe I world, but Disney, after seeing the first lough cut of the film, scrapped several I hundred feet that just didn’t reach the i high standard he demands, and rei drew and reshot the sequences so that i there can be no flaw or weak spot in i the entire picture when it is released. ' No producer in Hollywood takes so much trouble over a picture as Disney j does. Whether it be a 700 ft. short, or | feature-length film, he demands the i nearest thing to perfection possible I from his staff as well as himself. I Almost Bankrupt Over "Snow White.” I Disney almost went "broke” making | "Snow White." Perhaps it would be i more correct to say that he did go I "broke." because before that classic I was completed he had poured all the j money he had into it, and mortgaged | everything he had to bring it io the I screen. Just before he finished the ! picture, his financial resources petered out, mid he had nothing more to I mortgage, and was unable to borrow any more from the usual sources. Hollywood thought he was crazy, and turned a deaf car to his pleadings for money with which to finish the film. Ho was urged to shoot a finish to the } picture and release it as it was. But

Disney refused. He had planned a masterpiece, and he would stand or fall by it. The making of Disney's second fea-t:ire-length picture. “Pinocchio." was different. "Snow White" poured profits into the studio, and Walt Disney I had bis own money to play with. And i lie poured most of his resources into | hie making of this one as well as stari ting the ground work on two more I which will be seen in a year or two. He even hired Leopold Stokowski and his Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra to record background music for his next two pictures at a cost that would have staggered most studios. But Disney does not do things by halves. He demands the best at all times, and therein lies his success as an artistic producer. A Marionette Comes to Life. You probably think of Pinocchio as la spindly little wooden marionette, but I Disney had other ideas, and after ; weeks: of thought, and hundreds of I ideas from his stall'. Disney created I him as a cute, chubby little boy. Gep- ■ petto, the old wood-carver, who creaI ted the marionette in the story startled out as a rotund, jovial old man at I the "Dr. Kildare" pictures, with Lew I Ayres and Lionel Barrymore, have al--1 ready, witii only two productions, established themselves with audiences.

Disney’s, but was finally changed to a stooped, quaint, fanciful old man. Jimmy Cricket. Pinocchio's conscience, started out as an ant. but will reach ihe screen as a humanised cricket, gay. spry, and singer of several songs. Unlike the story. Jiminy will not die in the screen version, but goes throughout as a ycung-in-heart creature, keeping Pinocchio on the straight and narrow.

These changes in character were not made in a day or two, but wore the result of months of careful thought and hundreds of sketches. Disney may create his own stars on the sketch board, but he takes far more care with them than other studios do in selecting their human stars.

About 468.000 Drawings. About 468,000 drawing's will be seen on the screen, but this huge number does not include the thousands of preliminary drawings, story sketches, atmosphere sketches, layouts, character models, and stage settings. Nor do they include the thousands of drawings Disney rejected as not being quite up tc standard.

The production of a full-length animated picture follows the elemental short subject pattern, a short subject being basically comparable to one sequence of a full-length production. Because of this, a feature may have as many as six directors, with each directorial unit responsible for the making of several sequences.

The plot sequences are laid out in a series of coloured pencil action sketches on a huge board. After Disney approves of the plot, the musicians, layout men. background artists, and animators are called in to find out what the picture requires of them.

The animators, however, do not begin work until the background layouts have been finished and the dialogue, music, and sound effects recorded. The animator must watch the layout scenes carefully so that he will not have the characters walking through furniture, walls or frees. Alter the dialogue is recorded, it is turned over to the cutting department, where it is analysed, and a chart prepared, which shows, in terms of single frames el' film, the length of each word, the intervals between words, vowel and consonant sounds, inhalations, and exhalations. The animator draws from this pattern.

The Animators’ Job. If the character says. “Hello," for instance, and the cutting department has indicated this word takes eight I frames of film, the animator must produce eight, drawings in sequence in which the lips of the character form the word, plus whatever bodily, accent may have been decided upon by Disney. Other sound effects are handled the same way. j Animators have assistants who help them develop the action. While the animator draws the most difficult points of action, his assistants follow through to the end of the action of the character. The drawings then pass to “in-betweeners.” They do the small finely-graded changes, completing the action. The animators work on illuminated drawing boards, so that after each drawing has been completed, a second piece of paper can be placed ot\ top of it and the new drawing varied just enough to make the movements smooth and natural-looking. The completed series of action drawings is then photographed and inspected by Disney in his own projection room. More Than 2,000 Colours. Approved drawings are sent to the inking and painting department, where 200 girls transfer these drawings to sheets of transparent celluloid and outline the characters with pen and ink. Other girls apply the chosen colours of paint to the reverse side of the celluloids so that the inked outlines will show. Paints used by Disney are ground and mixed in. the studio's paint laboratory from special formulae. and the colours and shades of paints and inks total over 2.000. Finished celluloids are sent to the camera department, where each celluloid is placed over the correct background. drawn separately, and photographed. Celluloids can be photographed to produce 15 feet of film an hour. There is an average of four drawings to a celluloid "set-up.” which, when photographed, constitutes one frame of film. There are 16 frames of film to a foot. Film runs through your theatre projector at the rate of 1)0 feet a minute, which gives you some idea how much work goes into a fulllength animated picture.