Kinematograph year book (1944)

178 The Kinematograph Year Book. In addition to the officially sponsored presentations, the C.W.S., the Workers' Film Association and other political municipalities and industrial organisations rely on films as their most effective medium of education and propaganda. At Manchester, for example, the City Council is considering the production of an ambitious subject dealing with every phase of the corporation's activities. BUILDING AND DESIGN. IT is not difficult to infer from various statements from Government and other official sources that there will be little new building of kinemas for three or five years after the war unless it can be proved that a kinema is essential, as in the newly created satellite towns. Nevertheless, there are optimistic exhibitors in some districts who have already been granted options on sites, but, with the above proviso, there is very little hope that the priority of domestic dwellings will be waived. Many damaged kinemas have already been able to effect restoration within the annual £100 limit or under special licence as regards absolute essentials ; these facilities are likely to be increased so that more extensive repairs, redecoration and renewals may be undertaken. Nor are the authorities likely to object to replacement of destroyed premises provided there is a proved public need and that the work will not interfere with any scheme of town planning. This latter point will be of great importance ; already in towns which contemplate a " civic centre " existing kinemas have been earmarked for demolition, and, although most schemes of this kind do include a kinema, if hardship and injustice is not to be caused, the nature as well as the amount of compensation must be carefully considered. In some areas exhibitors have participated in tentative discussions on planning, but there is need of a comprehensive policy upon which negotiations with local authorities may be based. The problem is one upon which exhibitors themselves differ greatly. One school, fearing the reopening of the redundancy issue, suggests the treatment of kinema licences along lines adopted in regard to public-houses, an attitude which should hardly commend itself to the independent who reflects on the growth of the tied-house policy in the Licensing Trade. National control may well be a corollaiy of the necessary peace time restrictions on sites, building facilities and supplies, but it is hardly a policy to be courted. It is clear, however, that in the future there will be little room for haphazard decisions either as regards siting or planning. Future kinemas may well be accorded exclusive rights when civic centres, building estates and satellite towns are planned, but they will certainly have to conform to some general plan in respect of design and materials. It has, indeed, been suggested that all projects should be examined by the Fine Arts Commission or some specially appointed authority if mistakes of the past are not to be repeated. When Lord Wimborne spoke on this matter in the House of Lords, he cited "Leicester Square, dominated as it is by the black monster, the Odeon Theatre, is even uglier than ever before." The type of kinema likely to be favoured after the war has been discussed by exhibitors and architects. Most civic authorities, discussing future housing plans as a matter of course, include a kinema among proposed amenities, and both they and many theatre owners contemplate a wider application of the community centre policy. ' ' The Suburban Theatre, according to Harry Weedon, F.R.I.B.A. and Partners, will become more social centres, with small but liberal auditoria, restaurants, bars, club-rooms etc." This does not apply to the central picture theatres, the sites of which will be too costly for such emphasis on social amenities, but will be the possible principle upon which kinemas on new building sites and post-war satellite towns will develop. Standards of construction may be radically changed. Messrs. Weedon foresee the use of simple light steel frames in mild or high tensile steel, forming the structural skeleton in which the weather-protecting and