Business screen magazine (1938)

THE FAMILIAR QUERY: Films on My Budget? THE ANSWER: Plus-Results Prove Value! "We Think talking pictures are a first-rate medium but they cost too much". This remark is commonly heard in selling circles, and for that matter in business circles generallyIt is the attitude of a large percentage of advertising men and Sales Managers, and the viewpoint prevails pretty generally in the agency field. The fact is lost sight of that there are certain things which no other medium but the talking picture screen can do in the field of communication, education and selling so that the question presented really is : is the achievement of this objective worth what it costs? For instance: talking pictures will demonstrate in motion and sound, heavy machinery at points far distant from where it is made or operated. No other medium can do that. The value of such a privilege may be cheap at any price. On the other hand, a folder or circular will provide a passable demonstration of a fountain pen at verjsmall cost, and for such a purpose a picture may be too costly. Only the motion picture will permit an executive to talk to his organization in a hundred or more places at one time, and if it is of sufficient value to have him do so. the cost of the movie itself is beside the point. It is true that top quality talking movies cost anywhere from $.5,000 a reel and up. that theater circulation costs money, that prints in quantities must be bought and that projection equipment must be bought or rented to roadshow the picture if that method is adopted. M the outset, let it be said that today an acceptable talking picture can be produced for any budget within reason that the user wishes to spend. Length is not the determining factor of cost. Compromise in the interests of economy is easy, and usually safe depending upon the individual situation. Heavy expenditure doesn't always assure an effectual result on the screen in commercial pictures, and circulation can cost from nothing to five dollars a head or more. A given script can be filmed for $.50,000 and the same script filmed for much less. It all depends upon how much the user is willing to invest, and how much the job tlie picture has to do warrants. * Too man)' buyers of commercial talkies consider the initial cost of the negative rather than what it is worth to get across the message effectively and satisfactorily and in a manner that produces results. It is difficult to make direct comparisons between talking pictures and other mediums as to results and the cost of results. While this may be done in the case of commodities advertised on the picture theater screen where tests in regions are tied in with check-ups on dealers' shelves before and after the projection program. This figure has been as low as .0426 per hearer-looker including negative and print costs and distribution. Few national advertising mediums deliver readers at so low a figure. Then, too. the hundred per cent concentration assured plus the vividness of the illuminated screen, musical accompaniment, motion plus sound comprise factors that must enter into any cost reckoning. In the field of dealer education — that is, road-showing a feature commercial talkie nationally — one leading corporation in the automotive field considers 48 cents per audience member — service station owners and helpers — a bargain. Always considering the greater effectiveness of the talking picture over most mediums conunonly used for this purpose, namely, talks, lectures, printed booklets and so on. Many talkies of the commercial-induslrial-informational type with advertising subordinated, are reaching hearer-lookers at a cost to the owner of a fraction of a cent each. Distribution is through non-theatrical booking agencies and college visual education channels wherein the owner of the picture merely supplies prints or copies. ♦ In considering the cost of the talking picture luedium to do a job of sales making or sales training, it is a fact that an exact cost per man reached can be arrived at before even the scripts are written. Such pictures invariably are projected and promoted in regional meetings by the owner's field men or those of his jobber. The cost factors are immediately at hand, the expenses of the entire undertaking can be pre-determined in advance, the probable attendance calculated, and the cost divided accordingly giving the per head rate. These elements in a typical show of this kind are; lal Negative cost lb) Print cost (cl Hall rental (if any I Id) Refreshments lej Door prizes I if any) (f) Promotion matter (g) Time of men holding shows (h) Rental or projector purchase Having arrived at the cost per head, the prospectixe user of the screen asks himself the question: is it worth that much to get the message across effectively and efficiently? If he thinks it is. the question of talking picture cost becomes a secondary proposition, and the enterprise is on a common-sense basis. There is little gamble in getting what is sought at the price per estimated. Large users of talking pictures for dealer and salesman education are getting as much as 98 per cent of their dealers and other interested people into their talking picture shows. The percentage is lower in such lines as drugs and groceries because of the fact that the dealer's natural interest in a single item or group of items among the hundreds on his shelves is not sufficiently keen to warrant the time spent looking at a movie relating thereto. Looking, for the moment, at the bare question : do movies cost too much? few business executives unacquainted with the cost factors in talking picture production can judge this matter soundly. To make such a claim is as logical as to say that "houses cost too much". A house with three bathrooms naturally costs more than a house with one. A house with an electric kitchen costs more tlian a house with none. Yet, either house can be lived in comfortably. It is much the same with pictures. If the producer is compelled to travel camera crews to fifteen widely scattered cities to shoot that many plants for inclusion in the owner's production, it will cost more than if all factory shots are made in one place. And. often, the one place offers every necessary scene to make an acceptalile final result on the screen. A given picture story with very simple studio sets may cost $20,000 while the same story with more complete and elaborate sets will cost $50,000 or even more. The addition of a big name to a business picture cast alone can double the cost of filming it. The fact is that all these items are under the control of the picture buyer. He can even establish a price per head for getting his result, whatever it may be. and then budget a picture so that it will deliver the result for that price. Consequently, to say that "pictures cost too much" is a statement that always must be qualified. It is better business to forget the cost of the picture and its showing entirely and decide what it is worth to get the story over effectively to the people for whom the story is intended. The cost of any medium is high or low depending upon what the value of the result is to the buyer. Always considering relative effectiveness, the cost of getting over a message to salesmen or the public via the talking picture screen is usually considerably below most of the competing mediums. In the case of sales training, it is nearly always lower than are correspondence courses. It is seldom so high as a good manual, with the tremendous advantage of 100 per rent attention that pictures always get. Editor's Note: Since the problem of the cost is one of the outstanding questions preceding extensive use of the film medium, an entire series of articles is planned, of which the above is an introductory "first" on this important subject. 99