sections of a film more pictorial by introducing decorative drawings or paintings around the words, and even by introducing miniature motion pictures. Decorations in motion, however, are not to be recommended, because they distract attention from the words of the title, as has been illustrated in the discussion of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," on page 46, and because they do not readily compose with those words to form a single picture. It is, in fact, as inartistic to "vision in" motion pictures on the background of a title as to "vision in" words on the background of a motion picture. In either case you really get two pictures within one frame.
Fixed decorations around a title may fill a pictorial need in unifying the portions of the film which have been cut apart by the insert. They may bridge the gap with a continuity of tone or line or shape, and may by their meaning preserve the dramatic mood of the photoplay. But here, too, caution must be observed lest the decorations draw attention away from the words or fail to compose well with the pictorial character of those words.
The problem of words on the screen does not seem very near a solution. There will doubtless be a great deal of juggling with titles before some magician comes who can "vanish" them completely from the fabric of a photoplay. Already photoplays such as "The Old Swimmin' Hole," directed by Joseph De Grasse and "The Journey's End," directed by Hugo Ballin, have been successfully produced without subtitles. Some day, we hope, the wordless picture play will no longer be a novelty.
Another factor, which has already become troublesome, is the reproduction of color in the motion pic-
