Quote:
Originally Posted by Buccaneer
I'm a little confused about the Mary Pickford roles. She plays a child - was it trick photography? If she also played the mother, was split screens used?
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Back then, they way they did effects along these lines was through double/multiple exposure of the film. They would film the actor doing one thing, rewind the film, and then rerecord over the film.
I found this on imdb's site:
- In scene in which Little Lord Fauntleroy meets Dearest (both parts being played by Mary Pickford) the kiss-on-the-cheek cut took 15 hours to film and lasts 3 seconds on-screen due to the complexity of the multiple exposures. To ensure stability between takes, the camera used by cinematographer Charles Rosher was weighted down to the tune of close to a ton.
As for when she was on screen with other actors, a lot of the time, it was close enough to only see from the waist up. I'd imagine that she was standing on a lower platform than everyone else. Just speculation though, since the DVD didn't have a "Making Of" featurette on the DVD.