To repeat, double exposure (to use the simplest term for this camera
trick) has made possible the writing of many stories for the screen
which a few years ago would have been rejected because of the
inability of the company to procure two people similar enough in
appearance successfully to portray the "doubles." No author with a
really fine idea for a dual-character story need hesitate to offer it
to the film companies today. But there is still enough additional
trouble attached to the production of this kind of story to justify
the editors in rejecting everything but the very best in the way of
plots.
_16. Features_
The most surprising thing, when one looks back and considers the
single-reel stories of a few years ago, is that a complete, logically
told story could ever have been produced in one thousand feet of film,
part of which was consumed by sub-titles and inserts. Of course, the
sub-titles and inserts _helped_ to tell the story in those days, just
as they do now, but even so, the comparatively small amount of footage
allowed to each picture seems even less than it actually was in the
light of the five- to eight-thousand feet and more to which we expect
feature pictures to run today.
The fact remains, however, that for several years one-reel pictures
were the rule; and a still more important fact, considered from the
standpoint of the writer, is that many--a great many--of the stories
that were then confined to one thousand feet of film were far better
_stories_, if not quite so pleasing as _pictures_, than many that are
now being put out in lengths of five-thousand feet or more and labeled
as features.
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