pecial outdoor stage
overlooking the sea, or a beautiful garden or landscape, on which to
build a certain interior setting planned to have that outlook. Indeed,
today, the artificial background for any interior having windows or
open doors is unusual. In Jacksonville, Florida, and other southern
cities, as well as in California, the outdoor stage is the most used.
The outdoor stage is especially useful in taking, let us say, a scene
showing the interior of a house supposedly during a heavy storm, with
the rain beating against the windows and being dashed in at the door
when it is opened. On the exterior stage, such a scene can be taken at
almost any hour of the day, and with the screens to dim and diffuse
the rays of the sun, and the skillful use of an ordinary hose in the
hands of the property-man or assistant director, a very realistic
storm scene can be secured. Many extremely realistic rainstorm effects
can also be arranged for exterior scenes, and as for lightning--sheet,
forked, or any other variety--it is one of the easiest things to
"get" imaginable. The mere scratching of the negative film with a pin,
throughout the number of frames covering the flash of the lightning,
the scratching, of course, being in the shape the lightning is to
take, makes it possible to have thrillingly natural stabs of fork and
chain lightning just where it is needed in any scene. You need never
hesitate to call for a lightning storm if your story warrants one at a
certain point.

A practical point in favor of the outdoor stages is that there is a
tremendous saving in the company's bill for lighting. Besides the
cost, the outdoor "interiors" are as satisfactory in every way as
those made beneath the artificial lights.

It is unnecessary to point out to anyone who has visited the picture
theatres that outdoor scenes taken at night are now as common as
exteriors photographed at mid-day. Everything from camp-fire effects
to night battle-scenes has been accomplished with wonderful results.
Interior effects of firelight, moonlight, candle-light, etc, are
easily procured, and are usually most convincing and sometimes
exceedingly beautiful, when taken in conjunction with the setting.

_4. Rehearsals of Scenes_

Different studios have different rules for preventing so much as the
possibility of there being some fault with the photography when a
certain scene is "done." In some studios the rule is to take every
scene at least twice, or ev