Business screen magazine (1946)

the camera eye VIEWPOINT AND COMMENTARY BY O. H. COELLN How Creative IdeaSelling Can Help Build Production Business "Stay in focus on your cliciii or prospect's problciiii and your own will be pretty well solved." was the text of our recent reply to a Midwest producer's "slow-business" lament. His t.ise certainly wasn't terminal, fairly low overhead due to a favorable studio kase. not too many "deadheads" on a modest weekly payroll and. as his principal assets, a fine reputation for carefully-made, re a so n a b I y-p rice d films delivered when promised. But too much attention to Phase I of the Nixon "revised" Ciame Plan irul to stock exchange vibrations had logged his business-getting acumen. In a time when prospective clients in industry needed his services more than ever, when confusion was rife and Ic.ir understanding of lasting princi ks a vital antidote, this producer's problems" took precedence over iliose of his clients and prospects. We spent a little more time on an .ipproach to constructive, business-getiing ideas that may furnish valuable clues for any well-qualified film producer. For instance, during that inevitable "valley" between peaks of aciii.il production, how much time do ou spend analyzing financial and markelmg media for 'ideas that should be put on film?" When did you last set up a solid prospect list of companies, trade groups, etc. in your area and then "matched up" that list with potential titles that could help to solve their problems? We found clues plentiful in a single week's mailbag: "The United States has become the first country in the world to have the inujoriiy of its workers engaged in the production of services rather than goods. . . The service sector, then, would be comprised of wholesale and retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate: government; and the traditional services, including professional, personal, business, and repair services." Weaknesses among companies active in this sector abound: attitude, ehnical skills for repair, guidance to .vinsumers to help avoid costly, often needless calls for service the customer ^ould handle himsjif with a little more product knowledge: all kinds of com paratively inexpensive commumcalii>ns' tools in this presently critical business area would reduce costs and improve relationships. "Alcoholism is the nation's No. 3 health problem, surpassed only by cancer and heart disease. Alcohol addicts number some nine million." With a very sizeable number of A A (and drug) people on payrolls, this is not just a "government" problem but a serious matter for American business. "The new Federal Safety regulations you talked about in a recent Camera Eye column are not really understood within industry'," writes an a-v specialist. And how well do you imderstand this new law and the importance of industrial accident prevention films in thousands of companies? Take the positives: the need and on-coming boom in homebuilding . . . "housing has been depressed for a year and a half but now seems well on the road to recovery." Are contractors, dealers and building tradesmen "up" on your client's product developments? Have you seen those national ads, sponsored by The Flintkote Company, under the general theme of "before you buy one of the millions of houses to be built during the 70's?" Every one of those should be better told on film. This column is too-limited in space for a subject worth a book-length challenge to re-cluiriic your hiisiness-i;eltin,i; hdlteries. Even today's "negatives" such as "suggesting measures for con.serving electrical energy" in keeping with the nation's unparalleled energy demands and seasonal power shortages and our almost total misunderstanding of safety inherent in modern nuclear power plants, are immediate jilni ideas. Stire. the prospective sponsor knows about these problems and may well be aware that something is lacking in getting his ideas across to both workers and publics. It's up to you to ring that bell, carry in a brief outline of a film or a series which a specific client should be thinking about. There's a final, very important ingredient in successful, creative filmidea selling: keep informed about the producer's essential partner: distribution, i.e. getting that film used: Bone up on the national film distribution services, what they can do, what ii costs (often, less than pennies-per-person) to get the medium to intended viewers. Ulilizalion is the key word for your sales vocabulary. For instance: If simple instructional material is to help service or repairmen, why not use one of today's Kmm "personalized projectors?" How much will ten, one hundred or a thousand of these cost? Why ni>t charge the "package" of monthly short films and projectors to dealer advertising or to his service instruction billing? If you're going to help alert the consumer, remember that both commercial and educational television stations are looking for f-eniiinely-uselid consumer guidance films to show on Public Service time. Getting to future home-makers in the schools? They're better-equipped with those thousands of Idmm sound projectors than any other kind of equipment. This is the kind of knowledge vital to successful film selling. Make a file of every scrap of distribution information you can acquire: from Association-Sterling Films, Modern, RHR or whomever — and know what these experienced distribution services can do to help you and your clienis. In the world of the blind, the oneeyed man is king. In the world of today's business, the informed, thoughtful and aggressive producer will help his customer and himself. Eight "Best of Industry" Films to Represent U.S. at Barcelona The United States will field a smaller-than-usual "team" of this country's outstanding 1971 industrial films at the 12th International Industrial Film Festival when that event is held November 2-6 in the Palace of the Nations at Barcelona, Spain. Official U.S. entries by CINE and the National Association continued on pane 22 LI November/December, 1971 21