WHY
MOVING PICTURES?
Man has
always been an artist. Among the earliest records of man we find drawings on
the walls of caves.
As man
became more sophisticated, and as the struggle for life became less all-engrossing,
man began to carve in wood and to paint on the walls of buildings. Then, when
he gained control over the elements and had more leisure, man began to express
his ideas and celebrate life in the design of his buildings and their
furnishings, to sing of life in ballads and sagas, to carve his visions of life
and of man in marble and to paint them on canvas.
Art became
part of man's worship; he built temples, carved and painted images and
composed prayers and hymns to the worship of God. And to the religious man the
celebration of man was also worship of God, for he believed man to be made in
the image of God.
Today man
has special problems and special opportunities in life and in art which arise
from the structure and character of our society. Ancient man lived close to
nature, and we see that closeness to nature reflected in his art. The drawings
on the caves are of living creatures, and the females are always pregnant. Man
had great reverence for life, and celebrated life and the life force in his
art. Also, man had more direct and personal control over the things he made. He
could express his own personality and his own feelings, ideas and visions not
only in poetry and painting but even in the clothes he made and the tools he
fashioned.
Now life is
more mechanized; man does not live so close to nature, and things are made by
many specialists rather than by one artist or artisan. It is very difficult for
one man to stamp his personality on things, and to express his own vision in
them.
Man himself is in danger of being mechanized through living in such a
mechanized society. He must fight for his humanity and for his unique personality.
The arts should help man to maintain his uniqueness of personality. The arts
should help man to maintain his uniqueness of personality by showing him a true
vision of man and of life.
There is a danger
that mechanization and loss of the personal control of work may lead to
the mechanization of the arts themselves, and then they would not serve man's
real need. The arts could be used to manipulate man rather than to enrich him.
But this need not happen if the people keep control of the people's arts.
While
mechanization and group production do present a problem for the creative
artists, they have made possible, on the other hand, a new art form in which a
team of creative artists can produce, a work of art.
The
Moving Picture is
not only an art form in itself, in as much as it can recreate a human
experience, project a true image of man and give him insight into life; but, it
actually combines all the arts to form one artistic vision. In the moving
picture the poet (script writer), the architect (set designer), the painter and
sculptor (cameraman), the dancer (actor), the musician (composer and director
of the background music) work together to make one artistic statement. This
new art has required the development of another artist, an artist peculiar to
the modern world, the moving picture director.
The director must see that all
these artists work in harmony to interpret the vision created by the writer;
and it is he who finally stamps his personality onto the work of art.
In addition
to the traditional artists who collaborate on a making picture, many artisans,
some of whom have developed their skills to the state of artistry, help to make
a moving picture: Makeup artists, film cutters and sound engineers, script
supervisors, carpenters and painters, property men, costume designers, colour
consultants, film printers and developers, and a host of other technicians.
There may be as many as ninety technicians on a movie set, filming a scene with
two actors. All these technicians must work toward one end, to project one
unified artistic vision.
Another art
peculiar to this medium is that of the film editor. Since scenes in a moving
picture are shot out of logical story sequence for economic reasons, and the
same scene may be shot many times and from many angles, the film editor must
construct the final work from many pieces. He will choose the angle which is
most effective for a particular scene, trim scenes so that they do not drag and
slow the pace of the picture.
In
television, which is very similar to moving pictures, each show must be timed
to the exact minute and second; the editor must time the film without taking
the clarity and Unity out of the story. The film editor is actually an
extension of the art of the writer and the director; and many of the outstanding directors have
perfected their art through experience as film editors before achieving the
position of director.
Someone
must organize this team of specialists into a team. That is the function of the
producer. In some cases the producer works independently. He will then choose a
script in which he believes, engage a director and actors and technicians,
allow them to use their creative gifts to make the picture, and then sell the
final product to exhibitors, or release it through one of the major studios.
In other
cases a major studio will produce the picture, the story of which is chosen by
the studio executives and then assigned for production to a producer on the staff. Some directors
attain so much prestige that they actually function as producer-directors of
their films, e.g. John Huston, Fred Zinneman, George Stevens. Some directors write, produce and direct their own
pictures, e.g., Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa. These pictures generally have a
unity and integrity far above the usual product.
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| Kurosawa |
Even the
so-called low budget moving picture costs a considerable amount of money to
produce; so there must be a business man involved in the production. The
producer is the business man of the team. He must obtain the production money.
Few individuals have enough money to finance a major moving picture production.
The money is invested by a corporation, borrowed from a bank or supplied by a
major studio. This method of financing brings about problems for the producer
and the artists. Since the moving picture industry is a business as well as an
art, the business men may try to impose their will over the artistic men for
business reasons. One of the functions of the producer is to defend the
artistic integrity of the creative people from Interference by the business
people, This is often very difficult to do. The producer will sometimes have to
compromise, and this is a real detriment to realizing the artistic ideals of
the moving picture. This problem is most severe in commercial television,
where the final decision may be made by someone who is primarily concerned
with selling a product through the medium, rather than perfecting an artistic
achievement in the medium.
Because so
many people can influence the final product, it is essential that each
specialist be free to function in his own field and that no one invade
another's field. While each is dependent on the other team members, still other
people can sabotage their efforts. An actor or the director can misinterpret
the writer's dialog or characterization; the camera may miss the gesture of the
actor; the editor may cut out his best scene or play it off another actor. If
the cameraman wants to Invade the writer's area or the actor wants to take over
in the director's realm, or even if the script supervisor fails to correct a
wrong line of dialogue or fails to record a scene, the picture could fail. Each
person involved must give himself to the idea of the picture as a whole and to
the director's interpretation. The producer must keep the team working in
unison.
In spite of
the pitfalls of production, the teams often work in perfect harmony. When they
do, films which enrich us are the happy result. We will take up the
contributions of various artists and technicians in more detail. We must
emphasize here, however, the key element in realizing the potential for good
of the moving picture:
