Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER No. 4 1944 49 R^wa Jiiicas ARE NOW BEING MADE AT mm® m iMa? i?s> in production Land of Promise — in the style ot World of Plenfy. A film about Homes and Housing — written by Woltgang Wilhelm, Miles Malleson and Ara Calder-Marshall. With charts by the Isotype Institute. Music by William Alwyn. Associate-Director: Francis Gysin. Played by: John Mills, Miles Malleson, Herbert Lomas, Marjorie Rhodes, Frederick Allen and Henry Hallett: with Sir Ernest Simon and Father John Groser Worker and War*Fronf series, now in its 1 4th issue, production organiser: Duncan Ross. Editor: Rozanne Hunter consultants to Manchester City Corporation on Civic Films. First treatment now being written by Walter Greenwood Paul Rotha Managing Director Board of Directors Sir John Boyd Orr H. E. Beales Ritchie Calder Norman Champness 17 & 21 SOHO SQUARE LONDON Wl GERRARD 2484-8838 The 'Cinemette" By Richard Delaney 'TVii potentialities of 16mm. film must hearten ■*■ everyone who prefers something more stimulating mentally than the novelette, and has despaired of ever seeing it in any quantity on the screen. In a suggestive article in a recent issue of Documentary News Letter, Arthur Elton writes of the extensive place 16mm. films will have in the post-war cinema. Soon after the war, he says, everyone who can afford to buy a portable typewriter will find a mass-produced film camera within his means. This will result in the appearance of parish magazines, learned periodicals, local papers, minority pamphlets, and all the other commonplaces of literature and free speech. The article, which is entitled "Film Grammar", warns us of the danger of poor production in these films, and suggests as a preventative, courses of film making in schools. Though primarily concerned about technique, Mr. Elton does in passing suggest some of the important uses to which 16mm. film will be put. What we shall see on this gauge and where we shall see it, is a fascinating subject that deserves more detailed consideration. I should like therefore to develop a line of thought engendered by reading "Film Grammar", and predict an innovation which we can look forward to with particular certainty in the cinema of the future. This is the cinemette. (I could equally aptly have called it "little cinema" ; but for euphony and brevity, I prefer "cinemette".) Physically, the cinemette will be like an ordinary cinema, except that it will be much smaller and will be equipped for 16mm. sound projection. In every other way, and above all in what is exhibited, it will differ completely from its commercial parent. What it will resemble most is the learned periodical mentioned in the article quoted above. The programme will consist of short films, each averaging half an hour in length. These will have been selected by the editor-manager from the many contributions sent in by amateur producers. Programmes need not be confined to brand-new work by amateurs. "Penguin New Writing," ostensibly for new writers, always includes in its pages contributions from established authors. There is plenty of fine documentary and cartoon material in existence from which the editor-manager can draw to spice his bill of contents. Accepted films will be paid for, and will be screened daily for a fortnight; and later, as the supply increases, for a week only. Outstanding films" will be listed by a central agency, which will make them available for other cinemettes. Films may also be sent direct to this agency for trade screening. The customary booking would then ensure. Different houses will specialise in different fare. We shall inevitably have exhibitors showing tilms of little or no integrity, either in subject or treatment. This need not discourage us. The literary world is never free from publications at this level ; yet at its best it constitutes an inspiring example to its sister arts, the theatre and the cinema. One editor-manager will become known for the seriousness and catholicity of his selections. His cinemette may become a miniature screen counterpart of Pelican Books. Another may present a movie New Statesman, interpreting and discussing the more complicated of our dealings with one another. We shall see, too, {continued overleaf)