Now, the principal difference between the regular and the
moving-picture stage is that, in making photoplays, _natural_
exteriors are used, in almost every case. Consequently, landscape and
other exterior drops are almost unknown in moving-picture work. As
actual drops they _are_ unknown; when such painted backgrounds are
used, they are usually painted on canvas or a sort of heavy cardboard,
which is stretched over or tacked to a solid framework. So that even
in making out his working scene-plot diagram, a director finds that
there are many technical terms which he constantly used in his
theatrical work but seldom or never employs in his capacity of
photoplay producer. Nevertheless, he still uses a scene-plot diagram,
drawing it himself on regular printed forms.
As may be gathered from the foregoing, the scene-plot diagram for a
photoplay setting is entirely different from the diagram of the
setting for a scene on the regular stage. The former shows, printed,
the comparative shape and dimensions of the "stage," and gives, in
figures, the depth of the stage and the distance from the camera to
the "working line," below which (toward the camera) an actor must not
step if he wishes his feet, therefore his whole body, to show in the
picture.
To say "the depth of the stage" is to say that the printed diagram is
marked off in a scale of feet from the camera's focus.
Pages:
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232