Editing Laurel and Hardy (section)

===Hal Roach===
[[Hal Roach]] recounted how Laurel and Hardy became a team: Hardy was already working for Roach (and others) when Roach hired Laurel, whom he had seen in vaudeville. Laurel had very light blue eyes, and Roach discovered that, due to the technology of film at that time, Laurel's eyes would not photograph properly—blue photographed as white. This problem is apparent in their first silent film together, ''[[The Lucky Dog]]'', where an attempt was made to compensate for the problem by applying heavy makeup to Laurel's eyes. For about a year, Roach had Laurel work at the studio as a writer. Then [[panchromatic film]] was developed; they tested Laurel, and found the problem was solved. Laurel and Hardy were then put together in a film, and they seemed to complement each other. Comedy teams were usually composed of a straight man and a funny man, but these two were both comedians; however, each knew how to play the straight man when the script required it. Roach said, "You could always cut to a close-up of either one, and their reaction was good for another laugh."<ref>[https://nickredfern.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/stan-laurels-eyes/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004021126/https://nickredfern.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/stan-laurels-eyes/|date=October 4, 2018}} Redfern Nick. ''Research into Film''. April 22, quoting from ''The Silent Picture'', issue 6, Spring 1970, p. 4</ref>