. Moving pictures : how they are made and worked. illusion. Another class of picture which causes considerable specu-lation as to how it is contrived is that in which all naturalaction becomes reversed. Horses, cabs, omnibuses, motor-cars, and cycles run backwards, pedestrians walk back-wards, and smoke, instead of escaping from a chimney,appears to flow into it. Everything is topsy-turvy : thelaws of gravitation appear to be defied. This novelresult is produced by reversal of action. The actionmay be photographed in the natural forward manner, but 2l6 MOVING PICTURES CHAP. when the film is pl
. Moving pictures : how they are made and worked. illusion. Another class of picture which causes considerable specu-lation as to how it is contrived is that in which all naturalaction becomes reversed. Horses, cabs, omnibuses, motor-cars, and cycles run backwards, pedestrians walk back-wards, and smoke, instead of escaping from a chimney,appears to flow into it. Everything is topsy-turvy : thelaws of gravitation appear to be defied. This novelresult is produced by reversal of action. The actionmay be photographed in the natural forward manner, but 2l6 MOVING PICTURES CHAP. when the film is placed in the projector, the last picturetaken by the camera is shown first, and consequently allmovement becomes reversed. Obviously the task could be simplified if the travel ofthe film were reversed through the camera during exposure,but in ordinary circumstances this would involverotating the handle in the reverse direction, and causeunsteadiness in the picture. However, the camera manu-facturer has solved this problem. When a reversed motion. Fig. 17—The Empire Trick Camera. It can be turned upside down while the film can be driven bothforwards and backwards. is required, the camera may be inverted upon its tripod,both top and bottom faces having facilities for screwingto the turn-table. When the camera is set upside down,the handle is rotated in the natural forward manner, butas the film is travelling backwards past the lens all move-ment is reversed. By this means the necessity to run thefilm backwards through the projector is avoided. It is noteven necessary to turn the camera upside down manufacturers provide a second driving spindle, on XIX TRICK PICTURES 217 to which the handle is slipped and rotated in the usualmanner, the film being caused to travel backwards throughreverse gearing. Some astonishing and highly ingenious pictures can beobtained in this manner. For the purposes of illustratingthe subject I have taken one of the most simple depicts
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