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Page 23
SA /E YOUR
CASH
... if you like
YOU MAY
STILL ENJOY
these NOW.
Any or all of these money
saving luxuries will give
vour family happiness
and comfort all the year
'round.
An y or all of them may be
ught now without down
P yment—conserve your cash
you wish for other needs.
Payments of any sort need
made this month or the
ext. Begin the convenient,
iodest payments with your
ebruary gas bill.
> TLANTA^AS light
COK^NY
The Southern Israelite
Out of the Inkwell
(Continued from page 11)
Guiterman, if not that of Virgil. They
are actually the only original and artistic
creations in American movieland.
The desk at which our chief animator
works is equipped with an opaque glass
top illuminated from beneath by means
of an ordinary electric lamp, to facilitate
tracing. As he must chart the slightest
modification of the subject’s position and
facial expression, he may have to sketch
hundreds of drawings for that one scene.
Of course not all the sketches must be
complete in themselves. If no other part
of Bimbo s body is to change position, but
his arm (paw) the drawing describing
the ensuing action will consist only of the
new position of that member. The same
procedure is followed in other instances
of slight modifications in posture. In por
traying a scene the artist must not only
depict the stage “business” but must cre
ate it with the skill of a movie director.
Furthermore, he must “dress” his charac
ters in strict accordance with prevailing
etiquette. He must beautify the heroine,
“uglify” the villain, and in general invest
them with the elementary as well as the
more subtle shades of character compati
ble with their roles.
When the pencil sketches are finished
they are passed on to any one of twenty-
five “inkers”, who trace them onto trans
parent celluloid in India ink. From this
department the pictures are brought to
the “color men”, whose function it is to
shade the drawings, giving them thick
ness, or a third dimension. Having gone
through this last stage of the process the
cartoons are now ready for the camera.
In the meantime a "background” artist
has been at work on settings for the vari
ous scenes, which are the only immobile
part of the animated cartoons.
Upon receiving the many drawings
making up the “talkartoon” the camera
man arranges, superimposes, and com
bines the sketches according to a written
list of numbers corresponding to the num
ber each cartoon bears. Three or four
celluloid sheets are clipped together on
top of the paper representing the back
ground and inserted in a space on a table
directly above which a motion picture
camera has been suspended. A switch is
turned. The wheels of the photograph
machine turn rustily. The face and lips
of the young man manipulating the cam
era are a ghastly green and purple in the
light of the violet-ray lamps. Sketches
depicting minuately the progress of the
action follow. The illusion of mobility is
being produced.
This is the bare framework of the
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modus of'emndi of an animated-cartoon
factory. I he technical problems indi
vidual stories present, the difficulty of
timing “action”, and the lesser pitfalls
in the path of a cartoon-animator would
be too lengthy to discuss here.
Besides, the personality, career, and
character of Max Fleischer arc far more
interesting. Interesting because they re
veal a man of a consistently paradoxical
make-up. From early youth his mind has
been a battlefield for the eternal con
flict between the abstract and the con
crete. \\ hen he came to the Brooklyn
l'.agle, a youngster of fifteen, to draw
cartoons for their comic and editorial
sections, his superiors immediately recog
nized in him a remarkable faculty for
“ideas”. His colleagues sought his advice,
looking upon him as an idea source. Six
years later he became art editor of the
Popular Science Monthly, and here he
found his true metier, for lie had always
desired to capture in pictorial form the
fugitive remnants of theoretical specula
tion. The subject of animated cartoons
attracted his analytical mind, resulting
in six patents which very shortly after
pushed him into the motion picture busi
ness.
“I had the instinct for art; the busi
ness instinct had to be knocked into me,”
Mr. Fleischer, sitting in front of a desk
in the most conventional executive pos
ture, remarked, when the writer mum
bled something about the gulf that ex
ists between art and business.
Business—and ever since he entered the
cartoon field he has been in business—
has taken up most of his time. It will,
he said, probably keep him saddled to
his studio for the next twenty years.
Then he will retire, leave the studio to
his three brothers—who are associated
with him—go off to a quiet studio and
paint, not with pen and ink. Bimbo will
be relegated to limbo, Fleischer said.
“I’ll do some futuristic painting, imagi
native painting.”
* * *
A unique industry, it has unique ad
vantages. Consider the average motion
picture producer’s problems. Consider
that he must pay exorbitant salaries to
explosive stars. Consider that his direc
tor must ever be on the hunt for types.
Consider that he must at various times
build luxurious settings. Your cartoon
animator faces no such disturbing diffi
culties. The most beautiful cat, dog, will
work for him in any story, under any
conditions, and at all times respond to
his beck and call. No uncalled-for fit of
temperament can delay production sched
ules. No star will strike for higher
wages. None of that. All is harmony,
co-operation, fidelity, etc., here. All is
in the inkwell—which may cost only
twenty-five cents.
THE SPIRIT
OF
I THE SEASON
PROMPTS
US TO
EXTEND
TO YOU
Heartiest
(Greetings
Appreciative of the
part your friendship
and good will
have played in our
progress, we thank
you and extend our
cordial wishes for
your happiness and
prosperity.
Standard
Radio
Shop
Stromberg-Carlson
Exclusively
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helfrich candy company
Manufacturers — “JOHNNY S CANDIES
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Jackson 3174