Al-Ahram: A Diwan of contemporary life (573)

Making movies

An Al-Ahram editor took readers on a behind the scenes tour of how motion picture films were made. While the articles did not necessary make for glamorous reading, they nevertheless provided an informative how-to movie guide, writes Professor Yunan Labib Rizk

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Charlie Chaplin

Al-Ahram 's "Cinema and Entertainment" page, inaugurated in 1933, focussed primarily on the latest news of films and film stars. However, it proved so popular that two years later it embarked on a new endeavour, which was to offer a series of "courses" for readers on what it called the "seventh art".

The instructor was the page editor, Zakariya El-Sherbini, who delivered seven lectures on "how to become a scenographer". They all appeared in May 1935.

El-Sherbini was a self-confessed cinema fanatic. He relates that he and his two best friends at school, Hassan Ezzat and Alfred Samika, had been so obsessed with the art that they had set their hearts on moving to Hollywood. The first two fulfilled their dreams. Ezzat found a job in the arts department at Paramount Pictures and Samika, too, "as readers know", found work in the capital of film. As for El-Sherbini, he writes: "Fortune decreed that I remain here and write on the cinema, transmitting to my fellow countrymen the essence of this great art as developed by its practitioners in the West."

In his first lesson, "How to become a scenographer" El-Sherbini introduced readers to "the sciences and techniques that must be studied, in accordance with the curricula of American and European universities and institutes". He adds, "The editor has published this information in Arabic for the first time, as a service to fans and practitioners of the cinema in Egypt."

Before proceeding, a brief word is necessary on El- Sherbini's term "scenography". One suspects that the page editor was merely looking for an abbreviated form of the cumbersome cinematography. Whether or not he was aware that scenography pertains to the painting of scenes and the production of Greek drama is anyone's guess.

In any event, El-Sherbini opens with a discussion of teamwork, the prime ingredient for cinematic production. "The making of moving pictures requires an enormous level of cooperation among all the individuals involved," he writes. But he adds: "Such cooperation is impossible unless each of those involved has a thorough knowledge and considerable expertise in his particular art or profession."

He grouped these arts or professions, as studied in the cinema academies, into three categories. The first, "administrative activities," includes production director, technical director, promotion and scenarist. The first of these is in charge of the business aspects of the film, packaging it as a commercial project and overseeing the drafting and signing of the various contracts for all involved. The second supervises selection of the film, casting, selection of locations and other technical aspects related to the production of the film itself. In addition to expertise in the arts of advertisement, the person responsible for promoting the film had to be innovative and "an expert in the subtleties of human psychology". The scenarist had to be literarily erudite but also "capable of distinguishing between the demands of the scenario versus a novel that is intended for reading or a play that is produced on the stage".

The second category included actors, costume designers, set designers and makeup artists. According to El-Sherbini, professional actors had to have more than just latent talent; they had to have studied the general arts of the cinema, acting for the screen as well as the art of makeup, or "maquillage", as he called it using the French term. Costume design was "a very important field of employment in the cinema industry". For those interested in engaging in this field, good draftsmanship skills were not enough. "They must also study the history of dress and the influence of morals and customs on its development and diversification throughout history." A similar blend of artistic and scholastic talents was necessary for the "décorateur", who "requires vast artistic erudition as well as an in-depth knowledge of the history of art, especially those arts immediately connected with his work". The primary function of the "décorateur", whom he henceforth referred to as the scenery architect, was to design miniature scale models of the sets required by a particular project and then, after his designs were approved, to supervise their construction in actual size. The function of the "maquilleur" or makeup artist was to "prepare the faces of the actors to enable them to perform the various characters they are assigned to play". He adds, "Generally, cinema companies turn to cosmetics institutes and theatre companies for the business of making up their actors for the parts they are required to play. However, some studios prefer to have a makeup staff of their own."

The camera man, sound recorder, the projectionist and the "electricity supervisor" made up the third category of the team involved in producing a film. The first, who "keeps his lens trained on the actors wherever they go", filmed the various scenes and then processed the film. The second job, which at the time of this lecture series had only recently come into the picture with the invention of "talking pictures", was self-explanatory, as was the job of the projectionist. The "electricity supervisor", on the other hand, was charged with a number of tasks involving electrical equipment, notably supervising the lighting and installation, inspecting and maintaining the mechanical, electrical and audio equipment in the studio.

From the foregoing general overview of the various professions involved in the film industry Al-Ahram 's "Cinema and Entertainment" editor delves into the details of production. Indeed, the title of his second lecture, "The general art of cinema", is deceptive, as one imagines that much of the flood of technical information he provides would have been above the heads of the average reader of 20 May 1935. Therefore, to spare our contemporary lay readers a similar exposure to data overload, we will merely recap the 24 headings of the topics he covered, apart from a few exceptions that we felt might not interest the reader.

El-Sherbini opens his second article with a brief definition of the cinema as a media for the dissemination of information followed by a brief survey of the history of the development of the motion picture camera, pausing at length on the inventions by the Lumière brothers. He proceeds through discussions of optics, the properties of light waves, refraction and the functions of various types of lenses, then the properties of different types of film and the processes of development. This led to an attempt to answer the question, "What is the modern cinegraphic apparatus?" Through a dissection of the camera, El-Sherbini treated at length the impact of such factors as shooting angle, lens strength, aperture and depth of focus on the composition of the frame.

He then proceeds to "location". Most films at the time were still shot in studios which were far more complicated complexes than readers would have imagined. In addition to the production studio, which had to meet certain lighting and acoustical specifications, there were the dressing rooms, administrative offices, set design workshops, technical production rooms and countless other rooms and offices. Indeed, so exhaustive was El-Sherbini's description of this complex that he did not omit mention of the bathrooms and washing facilities.

The remainder of the second article was dedicated to several sets of general observations. Some concerned such issues as the organisation of the studio, set designing, methods of directing a film and dividing a scenario into shooting sequences. Other observations pertained to the length of feature films, the types of movie houses and questions of distribution and sales. Yet a third set of observations dealt with recent technological developments since the introduction of sound.

In 1935, the most recent innovation was the introduction of colour. El-Sherbini discusses the first foray into this domain, La Cucaracha, by one of America's cinema magnates. The same producer was planning four colour films for the following year, one of which was Mickey Sharp, at the cost of 11 million francs, whereas in black and white the same film would cost a mere 2.5 million francs.

Filmmakers at the time were also experimenting in 3-D cinematography. To produce this effect, El-Sherbini explains, the same scene is shot from two different angles, with one camera using a red filtre, the other green. "When the film is screened, audiences don glasses, one lens of which is green and the other red, enabling each eye to receive only the images that were shot in the colour of the lens in front of it. When the images received by the right and left eyes respectively are superimposed, they create the impression of a real-life or three-dimensional subject."

The final section of this lecture was devoted to the release of feature length sound films to the public, a topic that covered such issues as marketing and distribution contracts, subtitles, promotional campaigns, and the design and equipment of movie houses.

In his third instalment, El-Sherbini homes in on a single subject: "the art of the scenario". This was a very different art to that of fiction or play writing, and was thus governed by a different set of demands and restrictions regarding plot and its time frame, the number of characters and their psychological makeup, the method or style of portraying them, choice and design of location, and the manipulation of elements of surprise, suspense, denouement and ending.

The film critic distinguishes between three basic kinds of scenarios: drama, comedy and documentary. The first attempted to portray reality and came in genres such as moral and historical drama, and mystery and adventure. Comedy, too, could be subdivided into several genres, among which were satire, parody, vaudeville and farce. Nevertheless, regardless of which genre or blend of genres comedies fell into, they depended on two basic factors: the comic situation and the ability of the actor to make audiences laugh. Documentaries, too, could cover a broad spectrum, from news to scientific subjects, and from commercial ventures to geographic explorations, and they could target audiences ranging from the general public to the schoolroom.

Returning to drama, El-Sherbini addresses some of the problems a scenarist might encounter when transforming a novel into a film. Although he stipulates some restrictions, primarily related to the medium of film and its duration, he generally gives the scenarist a free hand, his maxim in this being that the narrative should "conform to the spirit of the original work". He adds that once the scenarist has produced the narrative for a film, he must produce a synopsis and transform the narrative into a working scenario subdivided into numbered scenes.

In the era of sound, an additional problem presented itself to the scenarist. El-Sherbini alerts readers to the difference between the voice track and the sound track and discusses the many additions that had to be made to the former in order to produce the latter. He then draws this lecture to a close with a discussion of what he terms the "modern method of dividing scenarios for sound films for shooting", and how this affects handling the scripts of plays produced for the screens, the adaptation of novels and the treatment of dialogue.

The fourth in the series of lectures was on "décor", or what he alternatively called "set construction". Practitioners of this art had to be thoroughly familiar with "all issues and processes pertaining to the crafts and workshops related to the production of cinegraphic scenes". Aspiring set designers, therefore, had to study a full range of subjects, such as how to build a set construction workshop, the type of craftsmen and tools and machinery needed, how to organise the construction of a set, the staging of props and the perspective necessary for creating a three-dimensional impression.

When working on a particular production, the set designer should take time to study the history of the period in which the film takes place, specifically the style of architecture and furnishings of that period. Such knowledge enables him to reproduce such architectural features as roofing, chimneys, windows and other such details that are so important to creating the overall impression of the period.

Beyond their academic qualifications, the set designers had to be something of a jack of all trades, as they had to be engaged with everything involved in transforming their designs to reality on the set. They had to supervise the construction of supports and platforms, the mounting of backdrops, the assembly of other elements of the scenery, and the processes of painting and adding other decorative elements. This, in turn, required a familiarity with the materials and tools of the trades of carpentry, upholstery and painting, as well as with the running of the workshops of these crafts.

The "Cinema and Entertainment" page editor took this opportunity to praise the efforts of Lito Baruch who was charged with setting up the facilities of Studio Misr, which was then currently under construction. Baruch had "visited the major studios in Europe and after studying their setup down to the minutest detail he took the best that each had to offer and combined these features in the Egyptian studio".

Costumes played a major part in determining the success or failure of a film, Al-Ahram 's cinema critic states in his opening to lecture five. "For this reason, cinema companies hire top experts in the art of costume design and manufacture." As was the case with set designers, artists who wished to become costume designers had to study the history of dress, the factors that stimulated various evolutions and changes in costumes over time and the manufacture of different types of clothing. He further alerts aspiring costume designers to the differences between costume design for the stage and costume design for film.

When working on a particular project, costume designers would begin by studying the script, after which they would produce sketches or mockups of the costumes for the various characters. In so doing, however, they had to work in close coordination with the film's artistic director to ensure that the costumes were appropriate to the particular characters in the film and also in coordination with the scenery coordinator to ensure the desired consistency in the overall physical composition of the scenes.

Also, as was the case with set designers, in their particular art costume designers had to be familiar with the various types of dress common to the country and the historical period in which the film was set. In addition, they had to be familiar with different types of fabrics, as well as with the other details of costume such as shoes, jewellery, head gear, and other accessories.

El-Sherbini picked up on one area in which costume design differed from most of the other arts involved in the production of a film, which was its spillover into the fashion industry. If a costume designer succeeded in creating a costume or style that appealed to audiences, this could reap massive returns for both himself and his studio, once his creation caught on and was reproduced for the mass market.

Lecture six was the shortest in the series, perhaps because it dealt with an art that was already well established in Egypt: acting. Actors who wanted to establish a reputation for themselves in the world of the cinema had to consistently hone their skills of facial expression, use of gesture, elocution, modulation of voice "and other such skills that are the film actor's stock-in-trade".

As El-Sherbini perhaps realised that his audience was aware of this fact, he sufficed in this lesson to provide a list of advice to students of acting. The first, of course, was that natural talent alone was not sufficient to produce a star. Other pointers focussed on the art of suppressing one's own personality and assuming that of a character, the relationship between the actor and the studio, the arts specific to a comedian versus a dramatic actor and the moral codes to which all actors should seek to adhere.

Another issue he addressed in this section was the problem of typecasting, which restricted an actor in the development and diversification of his skills. The most notorious instance was that of Charlie Chaplin who after decades of starring in comedies, wanted to play a dramatic role, specifically the lead in a film on Napoleon Bonaparte. Unfortunately, he realised that audiences had so come to identify him with the melancholic, ill-starred, down-at-heel buffoon he played on screen that "we would chuckle, indeed roar with laughter, if we saw him in a dramatic role, which is why he decided to abandon this project".

The seventh and last in the lecture series was on the art of makeup. Essential to both the stage and screen, makeup should not only be studied by those entering this specialisation but also by actors, in view of the fact that this was an important part of how to prepare themselves for their role.

As he did in his other lectures, El-Sherbini subdivided this into sections, of which there were 10, the first and second covering such subjects as light and shade, the blending of colours, the lines and contours of the face and how to accentuate or deaccentuate various features of the face. He also explored various anatomical features of the face such as the contours and muscles of the eyes, forehead, nose and mouth.

Like the other arts involved in the theatre, makeup too had a lengthy history, as old as the theatre itself. It began with Greek drama, underwent various developments in the Roman era and then the Middle Ages and culminated in the modern epoch. It also had certain set tools of the trade, even if these too evolved over time: the mirror, assorted pastes and powders, and the brushes, pencils and puffs to apply them. Nor did the author omit instructions for removing makeup.

El-Sherbini delves into such detail in this section that at first glance one imagines that he might have lost the attention of his readers. Nevertheless, as one proceeds one gradually becomes absorbed in the specifics of dealing with different sizes of faces, varying ages, different nationalities and ethnic groups, hair type and mustaches and beards. The study of wrinkles, alone, seemed a specialisation in its own right, for El-Sherbini proceeds at length on the differentiation between wrinkles associated with age versus those associated with temperament, how they vary according to the fleshiness of the face, and how they are affected by the shape of specific features such as the shape of the eyes, mouth or jaw line. A second specialisation entailed makeup for particular types of complexion. Readers may have been surprised to have learned that this entailed more than the mixing of colours to reproduce the skin tones of "Red Indians", for example. There was an entire sub-art of makeup to produce the pallor of the deathly ill, the contorted features of the mentally demented, not to mention blind eyes, scars, wounds and other physical defects. Dealing with hair, too, had its own lore and rules and regulations. Hairstyles differed not only according to nationality, but also according to historical period. The same applied to beards and mustaches, which simultaneously had an important impact on the character of the face.

As complex as the art of makeup was, El-Sherbini assures readers that Europe and the West had many specialised schools. These furnished their students with the necessary equipment as well as colour illustrations giving step-by- step instructions on how to create the features of different types of characters and personalities.

One trusts that Al-Ahram 's "Cinema and Entertainment" page editor congratulated himself for having furnished his readers with such a comprehensive introduction to the art of the cinema. It is difficult, however, to determine whether he had prepared them sufficiently for the era of colour film which was then just in its infancy. As for 3-D cinema, it is just as well that he limited it to mere passing mention, for even 70 years later interest in technical developments in this domain is marginal at best.