A-B-C of Motion Pictures by Robert E. Welsh

The camera's eye may roam the world for subjects; its range equals that of the newspaper or magazine. The stage and literature, travel, science, news and advertising, all are open to the motion picture. The photoplay, presenting a visualized story, is the most popular form, for the public heeds quickest the call of entertainment. But serious students of the motion picture believe that, in time, its purely amusement features will be dwarfed by the development along lines that may be roughly grouped under the heading "educational."

Even to-day the news pictorial is one of the most interesting and profitable of motion-picture subjects. Five of the picture companies have representatives stationed all over the globe, gathering material for these "animated newspapers," while there are scores of small companies covering limited territories with a direct appeal to local picture theaters. The news pictorial camera-man must be as alert as his stepbrother, the reporter, for the competition is every bit as keen as that in the newspaper field, and a victory over a rival just as great cause for elation. But the photographer must be "on the spot" while his news is happening, so that his work is much more difficult and his field limited. Furthermore, the camera-man's news must, either by its importance or its human interest, have an appeal to the entire country, and the ideal piece of "news-film" is that which may also be used abroad. Especially disastrous fires, which can often be photographed while they are happening, the effects of train wrecks or other accidents, personages prominent in the news of the day, all these are grist for the camera-man's mill. Parades are the bane of the pictorial editor's life, for he knows that lengthy views are not of great interest, yet he is often forced to use them because of the scarcity of views of real news events. Occasionally the editor of the news pictorial will create his own news by having a daredevil perform some unusual feat.