It is extremely unlikely that this work will be made use of by anyone who has not visited the picture theatres often enough to have seen ten times as many camera tricks, special effects, and examples of the use of different technical devices as are herein described.  But if you are taking up photoplay writing without having seen many photoplays on the screen, you are but half equipped, notwithstanding all the help you may receive through text-books and trade-journal articles.  In other words, we urge upon you the wisdom of keeping in mind that the real finishing school for screen writers is the picture theatre itself.

15.  Dual-Character Double Exposures

Undoubtedly, the gradual perfecting of the double exposure (superimposure) device in motion-picture making has made possible the screening of innumerable good stories which would otherwise have been almost impossible of production.  When only a few years ago the Vitagraph Company made their very creditable production of Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities,” the two leading male characters, Sidney Carton and Charles Darnley, were played by two different actors—­the final action of the plot turning on the fact that these two were “doubles,” for this fact makes possible Sidney Carton’s supreme sacrifice for his friend and the woman he loves.  There was a fairly close facial resemblance between the two actors who played these parts—­enough, with the aid of the wigs they wore and other make-up, to make the picture convincing.  Today, no director would think of putting on such a picture with two different actors in the dual roles of Carton and Darnley.  When, in 1917, the Dickens classic was released as a William Fox feature, William Farnum played both roles, and some really remarkable results were obtained in scenes where both characters were present at the same time.  Almost everyone has seen pictures containing examples of the possibilities offered by double exposure in making pictures of this nature.

In the first place, when two characters are supposed to be “doubles,” it is certainly more convincing to have one player portray both roles.  Again, any additional trouble that is attached to making pictures of this kind, on account of the double exposures involved, is confined to those scenes in which both characters are present in the scene at the same time, and even then the difficulty is minimized by the use of close-ups.

For example, to show Carton in one scene where Darnley is not present is simply to take an ordinary scene in an ordinary way.  Then, suppose you wish to show Carton seated in a chair at one side of the room while Darnley leaning against the table at the other side of the room talks with him.  In pictures of this kind the director frequently uses more close-ups than usual merely to avoid the necessity of making double exposures, in connection with which the greatest trouble is always the keeping track—­by counting, for instance—­of the moves of