"Are you going to play parts here?" asked Miss Dixon, with the freemasonry of the theater, speaking without being introduced.

"Oh, no!" replied Ruth, quickly. "We just came to see my father."

"Maybe they think they're too good for the movies," sneered Pearl Pennington, but only Russ heard her, and he glanced at her sharply.

"All ready for 'A Turn of the Card' now!" called Mr. Pertell, as Mr.

DeVere came out of his dressing room. "Is your camera all ready, Russ?" for Russ had obtained a place with the film company, and had given up his position in the little moving picture theatre.

"All ready," was the answer. "I've got a thousand-foot reel in."

"Well, I don't want this particular scene to run more than eighty feet. Got to save most of the film for the bigger scenes. Now, watch yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. This is going to be one of our best yet, or I'm mistaken. Pop--where's Pop?"

"Here I am. What is it?"

"Get me a big armchair. I want Mr. DeVere to be sitting in that when the adventuress comes in. Miss Pennington, you're the adventuress, and I wish you'd look the part more."

"I'm doing the best I can."

"Well, fix your hair a little differently--a little more fluffy, you know--I don't know what you call it."

"Oh, that's easily remedied," she laughed. "I'm ready now," and with dexterous use of a side-comb she produced the desired result.

"Got that chair, Pop?" called the manager.

"Yep. Just as soon as I fix that fence for the rural scene."

"Yah! Py gracious, ve got t' haf our fence or dot love scene mit der evening-glory flowers vill be terrible!" insisted Mr. Switzer.

"All ready, now!" Mr. Pertell said, as the chair was placed in what was to represent a parlor. Mr. DeVere took his seat, and the action of the drama began. Ruth and Alice looked on with interest.

CHAPTER XII

THE PHOTO DRAMA

Mr. DeVere was an excellent actor. In his time he had played many parts, so the necessary action, or "business," as it is called, was not hard for him. He had learned readily what was expected of him, and though it seemed rather odd to make his gestures, his exits and entrances before nothing more than the eye of a camera, he soon had become accustomed to it after the days of rehearsal. And the great point was that he did not have to use his voice. Or, at the most, when some vital part of the little play called for speaking, he had only to whisper to give the "cue" to the others.

The plot was not a very complicated one, telling the story of a wealthy young fellow (played by Paul Ardite) the son of a wealthy banker, (Mr. DeVere) getting into bad company, and how he was saved by the influence of a good girl.

The "card" in question, was a visiting card, which seemed to compromise the young man, but the "turn" of it cleared him.

To save time, different scenes had already been set up in various parts of the big studio, and to these scenes--mere sections of rooms or offices--the actors moved.

With them moved Russ Dalwood, who was "filming" this particular play.

He placed his little box-machine, on its tripod, before each scene, and used as many feet of film to get the succeeding pictures as Mr.

Pertell thought was necessary.

I presume all my readers have seen moving pictures many times, and perhaps many of you know how they are made. But at the risk of repeating what is already known I will give just a little description of how the work is done.

In the first place there has to be a play to be "filmed," or taken.

It may be a parlor drama an outdoor scene--anything from a burning building to a flood. With the play decided on, the actors and actresses for the different parts are selected and carefully rehea.r.s.ed. This is necessary as the camera is instantaneous and one false move or gestures may spoil the film.

Next comes the selection of the location for the various scenes.

Indoor ones are comparatively easy, for the scenic artist can build almost anything. But to get the proper outdoor setting is not so easy, and often moving picture companies go many miles to get just the proper scenery for a background.

So careful are some managers that they will send to California, or to the Holy Land, in order that their actors may have the proper historical surroundings. This costs many thousands of dollars, so it can be seen how important it is to get the film right at first.

There are two main parts to the moving picture business--the taking of the pictures and later the projection, or showing, of them on a white screen in some theatre.

For this two different machines are needed. The first is a camera, similar in the main principle to the same camera with which you may have taken snapshots. But there is a difference. Where you take one picture in a second, the moving picture camera takes sixteen. That is the uniform rate maintained, though there may be exceptions. And in your camera you take a picture on a short strip of celluloid film, or on a gla.s.s plate, but in the moving picture machine the pictures are taken on a narrow strip of celluloid film perhaps a thousand feet long.

The camera consists of a narrow box. On one side is a handle, and there is a lens that can be adjusted or focused. Inside is varied machinery, but I will not tire you with a description of it.

Sufficient to say that there are two wheels, or reels. On one--the upper--is wound the unexposed film. One end of this film is fastened to the empty, or lower, reel. The film is pa.s.sed back of lens, which is fitted with a shutter that opens and closes at the rate of sixteen times a second.

Turning a handle on the outside of the camera operates it. So that when the scene is ready to be photographed the actors, whether men or animals, begin to move. The handle turns, and the unexposed film is wound from one reel to the other, inside the camera, pa.s.sing behind the lens, so that the picture falls on it in a flash, just as you take one snapshot. But, as I have said, the moving picture camera takes snapshot after snapshot--sixteen a second--until many thousands are taken, so that when the pictures are shown afterward they give the effect of continuous motion.

The film is moved forward by means of toothed sprocket wheels inside the camera, the shutter opening and closing automatically.

When the reel of film has all been exposed, it is taken to the dark room, and there developed, just as a small roll from your camera would be. This film is called the negative. From it any number of positives can be made, all depending on the popularity of the subject.

To make positives, the negative film is laid on another strip of sensitive celluloid of the same size. The two films are placed in a suitable machine, and then set in front of a bright light. The two films are then moved along so as to print each of the thousands of pictures previously taken.

The positive film is then developed, "fixed" to prevent it from fading, and it is then ready for the projecting machine. This latter is like the old-fashioned stereopticon, and by means of suitable lenses, and a brilliant light, the small pictures, hardly more than an inch square, are so magnified that they appear life-size on the screen.

That, in brief, is how moving pictures are made and shown, but it tells nothing of the hard work involved, on the part of operators, and actors and actresses. Often the performers risk their lives to make a "snappy" film, and many accidents have occurred where daring men and women took parts with wild beasts in the cast, or dared serious injury by long jumps.

Ruth and Alice watched their father enact his role. He did it well, and the girls were gratified to hear Mr. Pertell say from time to time:

"Good! That's the way to do it! Oh, that's great!"

The play was not a long one, but if it had taken three times the half-hour it consumed Ruth and Alice would not have been weary.

The last scene had been "filmed" by Russ, who was getting ready to take his camera to the dark room for development, when there came a crash from where Mr. Switzer was going through a love scene with Miss Dixon.

"Look out!" someone called.

There was a sound as of rending, splintering wood.

"Oh!" screamed Miss Dixon.

"Py gracious goodness!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Switzer. "I am caught fast!"

"Oh, what has happened?" gasped Ruth, clinging to Alice.

"It sounded like an explosion!" the latter answered.