Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1919)

Production of Motion Pictures On Business Basis HERE— Not Coming By Martin J. Quigley LOS ANGELES, NOV. 22 LOS ANGELES today, as the major producing center of the world, discloses a wealth of information of great interest and concern to exhibitors. Behind the vast artistic advance in motion pictures which is evident upon the screen there has been a truly wonderful advance in studio administration and all else that pertains strictly to the physical production of pictures. In pleasing contrast with the glib assertions of the uninformed, there is to be found in leading studios of the West Coast an efficiency in administration that would be a credit to a very much older industry and one which does not have to contend constantly with the manifold difficulties that face the maker of an art product such as a motion picture. Generally throughout the trade studio methods have long been the butt of facetious comment. To a supposed lack of business efficiency has been attributed vast wastes and extravagances. Studios have been credited with being the spendthrifts of the industry, passing on huge, unreasonable burdens to be shouldered by exhibitors in increased film rentals. An unbiased survey of California producing activities discloses that, regardless of what might have been the practices of an earlier day in the industry, the methods now widely in force are a great tribute to the executives who have developed them. To an extraordinary degree the money now being spent on motion picture production is actually carried forward into screen value. Every effort has been made in the direction of reducing to a minimum the gamble of picture-making. Pictures generally are coming to be the product of an organization and not an individual. This is making for a greater uniformity of merit and is eliminating through the conference of many viewpoints the many possible errors in judgment, inconsistencies and inaccuracies that are costly in money and in screen value. Just about the only factor in the present cost of pictures that does not show concretely upon the screen is the occasionally excessive time that is consumed in the actual production. Because of the extensive resources required in players' personnel, staff, equipment, etc., every additional hour runs up appreciably the cost of production. This is a factor that will always have to be contended with and just what is a reasonable length of time for the making of a certain scene, up to some common-sense limit, will remain a matter for debate. With a competent director, even these delays cannot be classed as wastes and extravagances although they entail a large additional cost. It is the nature of the busness that a creditable product is only yielded through the painstaking and expensive process of carefully making and re-making every scene and situation that finds a place in the finished production. Mr. George Loane Tucker is said to have exposed in excess of one hundred and eighty thousand feet of negative and consumed many months in the making of "The Miracle Man." Beyond question, had Mr. Tucker been fixed to a comparatively short time limit, his picture would not have been the masterpiece that he eventually made it. * * * Every exhibitor is cognizant of and profits daily through the greatly improved standard of entertainment in motion pictures. But of almost equal significance is a fact that exhibitors generally are not aware of: That behind this artistic advance corresponding progress has been made in studio efficiency. An important consideration in this connection is that if this proper administration was not present, rentals would have long since topped the present schedules. It is none too early for exhibitors to realize that upon the screens of their theatres they are receiving an average product that is of tremendous value for the price paid. No good purpose is served in the prattle too frequently heard that the exhibitor, through the scale of rentals he is required to pay, is a victim of extravagance, wastes and loose methods that are alleged to prevail in studios. , An exhibitor may be no more willing to meet higher rentals when he awakes to a realization of studio and production conditions as they actually exist today — but he can do so more intelligently. 49