The scene lasted only a few seconds, so
that little opportunity was given the spectator to see how it was
worked, but the effect of the brief scene was very convincing.
In scores of feature productions models or miniatures of various kinds
have been resorted to to obtain startling or novel effects, and have
saved the outlay of thousands of dollars in the production of certain
pictures. Double photography, or superimposure, is a ready ally when
the director wants to get an effect showing a specially arranged
fictitious scene played against a real and frequently well-known
background, as in the North River scene just described. In the same
picture, "The Eagle's Eye," the Whartons, who produced it, displayed a
new feature in photography--a genuine photographic device rather than
a trick--in what they described as "the triple iris"--three diaphragms
opening at once and disclosing the heads of Boy-Ed, Von Papen and Dr.
Albert, and then fading and showing a scene in which these three
characters were seen grouped in conversation.
Another effect which might, perhaps, be classed as a trick was used in
the Mary Pickford feature, "Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley." It was in
reality merely a clever scene intended to take the place of a leader,
while being also an improvement on a leader because of the fact that
to almost everyone in the audience it instantly "put over" the idea
back of the action at that point of the story.
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