animated and
prepared dialogue with the same spirit and animation as on the regular
stage. Before setting out on the preparation of a picture, the book is
first written--known in the business as a scenario--giving a complete
statement as to the scenery, drops and background, and the sequence of
events, divided into scenes as in an ordinary play. These are placed in
the hands of a "producer," corresponding to a stage-director, generally
an actor or theatrical man of experience, with a highly developed
dramatic instinct. The various actors are selected, parts are assigned,
and the scene-painters are set to work on the production of the
desired scenery. Before the photographing of a scene, a long series of
rehearsals takes place, the incidents being gone over and over again
until the actors are "letter perfect." So persistent are the producers
in the matter of rehearsals and the refining and elaboration of
details, that frequently a picture that may be actually photographed and
reproduced in fifteen minutes, may require two or three weeks for its
production. After the rehearsal of a scene has advanced sufficiently
to suit the critical requirements of the producer, the camera man is
in requisition, and he is consulted as to lighting so as to produce the
required photographic effect. Preferably, of course, sunlight is used
whenever possible, hence the glass studios; but on dark days, and when
night-work is necessary, artificial light of enormous candle-power
is used, either mercury arcs or ordinary arc lights of great size and
number.

Under all conditions the light is properly screened and diffused to suit
the critical eye of the camera man. All being in readiness, the actual
picture is taken, the actors going through their rehearsed parts, the
producer standing out of the range of the camera, and with a megaphone
to his lips yelling out his instructions, imprecations, and approval,
and the camera man grinding at the crank of the camera and securing the
pictures at the rate of twenty or more per second, making a faithful
and permanent record of every movement and every change of facial
expression. At the end of the scene the negative is developed in the
ordinary way, and is then ready for use in the printing of the positives
for sale. When a further scene in the play takes place in the same
setting, and without regard to its position in the plot, it is taken
up, rehearsed, and photographed in the same way, and afterward all