Motography (Jan-Jun 1913)

220 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. IX, No. 7 motion picture trade in many ways. It helps it to permanent establishment, converts its enemies, reassures its doubters, confuses its reformers, spreads its popularity and helps to standardize its operations. But even that is no reason for demanding paid advertising from the manufacturer. The function of the newspaper is not to serve any particular coterie of business men, but to serve the public at large. The newspaper publisher today demands tribute from the motion picture trade because he can do so without protest ; in serving moving picture news to the public he has little or no direct competition. But presently, in each community large enough to support two or more newspapers, one of them will see a way to gain friends and increase circulation by printing that same motion picture news on its merits, as baseball news is printed. When that happens, the competing papers must fall into line. And happen it will, before very long, from the very nature of the popular interest in the subject. The legitimate advertising prospect for the local newspaper is the picture theater itself. We believe the exhibitor should advertise to his own local public — and he can do that only by patronizing the newspapers. Even in the big cities, where suburban theaters would be paying for much waste circulation if they advertised in the larger papers, small "neighborhood" weeklies are frequently found that afford splendid mediums. So much of a field has the newspaper in film advertising. But the national film manufacturer the local paper cannot reasonably expect to get. THE POWER OF PICTURES. THERE is much food for thought in the recently published account of the resignation of the Rev. W. H. Jones, pastor of the First Reformed church of Valley Stream, L. I., after seeing a moving picture based on a biblical story. In explaining his resignation Rev. Jones is alleged to have said "I realized that I was wasting my time, for I had before me living characters whose actions, as they unfolded their sublime story, were far more potent than anything I could say in the pulpit. A religious subject, thus tactfully and reverently treated, in my opinion, will do more to advance the cause of religion and to uplift humanity than a thousand eloquent preachers ever can hope to accomplish by their oratory." Despite the music and magic of the human voice, the fact remains that the verbal language of mankind is only the primer of expression. The eye is the great interpreter of external and visual things. The automatic communication of the eye's observation to the mind represents the only absolute description in the power or possession of the human faculties. The mirror can describe an article more perfectly than the most comprehensive language can indicate in words — and the eye is the human mirror. One recalls that pictures are the oldest means of communication known to man — that pictures were the first primative agencies for the transference and transfusion of .thought, and still remain the most graphic method of expressing the conceptions of the mind and the imagination. What language is to the human voice the photograph is to the illustrative power of the picture. A succession of pictures is the most vivid description of a train of thoughts. The motion picture is therefore a continuous series of thought illustrations, direct, lucid, graphic, vivid. It is the mirror of the incidents and emotions it portrays — a moving train of thoughts. Take for instance a film story in which an attempt is made to teach a moral — a film wherein the good characters are rewarded and the bad ones punished — and most of those which get past the censor board are more or less variations of that theme. That sort of thing in a book would simply digust or irritate the average boy, but when he sees the actual deed and the ultimate reward before his very eyes the effect is different ; he cannot escape the impression that here is actual life and that right doing is an admirable thing. It is not only easy but quite natural to believe, therefore, that the motion picture is to become one of the most powerful agencies ever employed not only in the work of the church but in every line of endeavor, and this conclusion is being reached, slowly but surely, by not only the prominent leaders in religion and social uplift, but also by captains of industry, and broadminded thinkers interested in human welfare. NEW USE FOR MOTION PICTURES. Moving pictures are being put to new use, which will result in the saving of life and limb. Professor Munsterburg of Harvard is responsible for what is known as the cinematograph nerve test, which it is said will reduce motor car accidents in the United States to a minimum. The professor's theory is that no young man ought to become a chauffeur if his tests indicate that he would not be quick enough to stop his car if a child ran out in the roadway in front of the wheels, says the New Orleans Picayune. In the test for chauffeurs at Harvard the subject is placed in a motor car in a hall equipped for this purpose. He is seated at the wheel of the machine, which is jacked up so that all the machinery is movable while the car remains stationary. The experiments are conducted in a darkened room. In front of the cars is a white wall, on which moving pictures of great size are shown. They are immediately before the student's eyes. The student is then told to act as he would in real life if he saw any one of the things happen that appear on the screen. Although he knows that the car is not actually running, the fact that he is under a test puts the student on edge and makes him behave approximately as he would under ordinary circumstances. A child is first shown on the screen with startling realism, tottering across the road in front of the car. The chauffeur is, of course, expected to handle his car without an instant's loss of time, just as he would have to do if the emergency rose in real life. This is the most important test to which the students are subjected by the Harvard system. BELOIT COLLEGE ADOPTS PICTURES Beloit (Wis.) College will be the first educational institution of its kind in the United States to enlist the aid of the moving picture theaters to advance the cause of education. Arrangements have been concluded with local film houses to have them grant the college the right to show an educational film of some sort each Saturday afternoon and evening. Dean George L. Collie, who recently returned from a trip around the world, will appear while the pictures are being shown and will lecture on them. Many of the scenes that will be shown will be of various strange countries, many of which Dean Collie has visited. It is expected to make a special price for high school children in order to influence as many as possible to attend. The plan is only one step in the college's extension campaign.