This time, however, we see it on the screen in
a way that merely _suggests_ the butler kneeling outside the closed
door. On the screen appears a large key-hole, and within its limits
the scene between the brothers is acted.
The effect thus produced is termed a "mask." Ordinarily the lens of a
moving picture camera is masked by a metal plate, rectangular in
shape, one inch wide by three-quarters of an inch high. The use of
this mask prevents the light from spreading up or down the film as it
is being exposed. As explained in Chapter III, each of the sixteen
tiny pictures that make up a foot of film is termed a "frame," and,
the camera being masked as described, the light is permitted to act
upon only one frame at a time. But within this limit of one inch by
three-quarters of an inch another mask may be used, cut in any form
that the producer may desire. It may be a key-hole mask, as in the
foregoing example; it may be simply circular, to suggest that the
scene is viewed through a telescope; or a mask with hair-line bars,
which will suggest that you are looking through a window. We examined
a script a short while ago in which a travelling salesman for an
optical goods house amused himself in the interval before train time
by watching through a pair of binoculars the street below and the
buildings opposite his hotel window.
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