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Jan., 1930] SOUND PICTURES IN EUROPE 17
film center to produce the English version of the picture with the the continental producers present, with whom arrangements for cooperation are to be made. When the English version is completed the first of these producers will bring over his native stars and make the talking version for that country. He in turn will be followed by another continental producer, and so on. In this way talkies for France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and other continental nations will be made. By using the same story, sets, costumes, etc., and with each of these continental producers paying his share of the expenditure, it is felt that the cost of production of the first version will be from 30 to 40 per cent lower than for a picture made for Great Britain and Empire distribution only; and at the same time the continental versions will have been produced at correspondingly lower costs.
Sound Equipment. — The number of British sound reproducing apparatuses at present on the market are too numerous to mention. Several of them have proven their interchangeability with American sound pictures, but opinion of those in the trade is that they do not have the quality of tonal reproduction credited to our American devices. Prices for the various English made synchronizers range anywhere from 195 to 3000 pounds.
FRANCE
The development of sound film in France has been at a standstill owing to the protracted delay in settling the regulations for the administration of the French Film Control Decree for the film release season 1929-30. Coupled with the decision of American distributors to withhold contracts for the 1929-30 product in view of the uncertainty of the number of films which could be imported into the country under the terms of the new French film regulations, the leading American sound film equipment manufacturers, last March, ceased making contracts for the delivery of either recording systems or reproducing apparatus.
Demand for Sound Picture Apparatus. — The fundamental demand expressed by the theater goers themselves has already forced three of the Boulevard first-run theaters to install sound equipment. Concerning the potential demand for this equipment, however, it is safe to predict that it will be several years before there will be as many sound installations in France as there are in the United States at present, in proportion to the population or to the number of theaters. The majority of French exhibitors are either too conserva