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make-up is a great help in keeping the character
uniform throughout the picture. There are times,
however, when we want to leave a character man
without any make-up. Regaiding false hair on the
face: The difficulty I have found and probably
shouldn't mention because it has been taken up by
the Society of Make-up Men, is that most actors
try to use too much hair. They try to put all the
hair they have to make a mustache and the thing
looks artificial. A great deal less hair makes a much
more natural mustache because usually a man hasn't
an awful lot of hair in his mustache and beard, and
lights in a natural beard give light and shade. If
you put a solid mass of hair, crepe or natural, it
doesn't allow for the lights to get into the hair o{
the beard and change the shading. It is almost a
solid clump of hair on the face. It photographs like
it and it looks like it. I am awfully glad to see
Mr. Max Factor bring in this Panchromatic onetone
grease paint, if for no other reason than that
it does away with varied colored make-ups that we
used to have to contend with. Some came with red,
some with blue, some with green make-up' The
same effect can be gotten with a darker or lighter
tone of a brown, or, even if a black pencil were
used, it is not so dificult. Undoubtedly it is sa{er
to use brown. Panchromatic has been too hard in
the tests. Wigs, o{ course, are difficult. I never
like to use a wig if I can help it. It usually photographs
unnaturally with our ordinary film, and with
difficulties of blending wigs and other make-ups
Panchromatic film shows even more' Some of them
have been helped by the softness of our photographv
today. We use diffusers, gauzes, soft lenses and
they all help the make-up man to blend and give a
really artistic and natural effect. Now that I have
spoken in favor of good make-ups and natural makeups,
I want to give one of the things that I have
discovered regarding actors and make-up. I find
that the average public doesn't necessarily appreciate
a really clever character man who makes up
so well that the audiences cannot detect that he has
a make-up on. I think that one of the reasons for
the success of the early pictures that Mr. De Mille
made was the fact that the sets looked like thev were
built and not lived in. I know it was Mr. De
Mille's intention that he should show cost o{ production
at that time. The value of the picture to
the exhibitor depends on what he thinks it costs.
So when he could see a picture that a lot of money
was spent on he would pay a good price; and i{ not
he didn't care to pay as much for the rental of the
film. This applies to the character actor where the
audience can tell that the actor is definitely made up
and is not himself but is portraying a character.
The audience appreciates that character actor and
calls him a great actor when in reality he probably
is not so good. Now that is the truth where the
lower classes of theatre audiences are concerned. I
am not advocating the use of bad make-up to prove
to the audience that the man is portraying a character.
I am merely explaining one of the things
that actually exists. I find that they appreciate
over-acting more than they will appreciate a splendid
performance, simply because they can tell that
the actor is acting and is not really a character
picked up from the streets and brought into the studios,
as a griat many people believed we did, and
as a matter of fact they still believe. However, in
spite of them I am very much in {avor of the makeups
that are so good that we cannot tell them. I
admired the make-up so much in Mr. Jannings' picture,
"The Way of All Flesh," where he grew a
beard and shaved it off. Mr. Westmore takes a
bow for that.
Mn. Wrsrllonp: Not me. It was my twin
brother. He takes it.
N{n. Vorcr: The next portion of the program
will be devoted to sets and costumes. It is my great
pleasure to introduce to you a gentleman who is the
dean of all art directors, Mr. Wilfred Buckland.
Mn. BucrlaNn: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and
Gentlemen: This matter of the color values of
costumes and sets is one that is hard to talk about,
because you see colors instead of talking about them.
In the matter of costumes, those of you who were at
the projection o{ the tests, at the Chamber o{ Commerce
last night, learned a great deal, as I did,
about the color values of materials on the screen.
These tests were taken both by Arc and Mazda
lighting, and he who runs could read the answer.
Panchromatic film with Mazda lighting is giving
us color values on the screen much more naturally
than we have ever had beiore. Now that we are
getting approximately true values of color on the
screen, we must go back to our regular processes of
theatrical production. Costumes will have to conform
to a care{ully arranged color scheme, harmoniz-ed
with the background, as is done in theatrical
production. Now when you come to the matter of the
color values of sets, and the way they will photograph,
that is a matter I have had considerable cxperience
with. It seems so simple, but-I find I
paint a scene a iertain color, it dries out another
color. It photographs another color, and accordinq
to the development and printing of the film, it
screens another color, and probably none of these
changing efiects are what I intended originallv.
Hence, we art directors have worked out certain
color mixtures which we find are safe, and we stick
to them.
Our results are sane' safe and conservative, and,
Iike all sane, safe and conservative things, very tame.
Occasionally I have run away from our regular
formulas, with interesting results. The innovation
which seems most interesting is the use of "pointillage,"
painting in spots or "points." In this techni[.t.,
th" artist does not mix his colors be{ore he
them to the canvas, but puts tinl' spots o{ the
pure "ppli.t
colors he wishes to mix side by side, and at a
dittut-t.. the eye blends them with a purity o{ eflect
never obtained if the pigments were mixed before
they were applied. In experimenting with this
of painting backgrounds I have seemed to
-.ihod get a depth and vibration impossible ge! 19
in any
other way, and I recommend "pointillage" to my
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