Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1921)

March, 1921 MOVING PICTURE AGE 15 How Our Church Uses Moving Pictures V. Financing the Church Picture Program Plans which have been used successfully by various churches in buying the projector and other equipment and handling the expenses of the programs By Rev. Roy L. Smith Pastor, Simpson Methodist Church, Minneapolis, Minn. THE problem of financing the picture programs of the church involves two fundamental policies of church administration : first, the relation of the church to socialized amusements, and, second, the financial policy of the institution. I cannot discuss the financing of the moving picture program without stating my convictions on these other two questions. The instinct to play is universal. Every man must make play out of his work or it becomes drudgery. Modern machinery and industrial developments have robbed thousands of workers of all opportunity to invest their day's work with the play element. All imagination is gone. A man who employs more than three thousand girls recently said, "the most of the girls who work for me live for the sake of the time from seven-thirty in the evening until eleven o'clock at night." The evening hours have become the great playtime of the millions of American workers. Sundays are their holidays. Outside of work hours they are seeking the adventure that their work has denied them. They are seeking play. The man who can invent play and satisfy the quest for adventure will find that the crowd will follow him a long way and pay him well for his pains. The economic forces and the social conditions of modern life have conspired, therefore, to put the play life of America into the hands of those who accept the trust for pay. The result is that we are being played to but we are not learning to play for ourselves. Tens of thousands of men will sit in the bleechers and watch eighteen men play. The Yale bowl seats fifty thousand men who watch twenty-two college athletes contend in play. Millions of Americans sit every night watching the actors on American screens play. We are playing by proxy. Great character forces are developed through normal play. "Play is the work of childhood." As people learn to play fairly, they learn to work honestly. Therefore the church is in a position to render a great service to the community life as it revives the interest in, and develops the ability to play. It requires as much initiative and executive ability to organize play as to organize work. That is why there are so few play leaders. The religious instinct, prostituted to profit, becomes the meanest sort of exploitation. The play instinct, prostituted to profits, becomes vicious. The church has directed the religious instinct until it has redeemed a civilization. Through the redemption of the play instinct, under the spirit of Christianity, it can bring about a new social conscience. But if the church looks upon the universal love of play and desire for entertainment as only the means of disguising its financial interests, it Some of the Questions Asked and Answered Why should the church supply amusement? How far can church amusements be commer cialized? What will projection equipment cost? How can the equipment be financed? How will we get projectionists? What will films cost? How can the program be financed? has been untrue to its trust. Too frequently has the church capitalized the love for play in the interest of the new carpet or organ. Because people wanted entertainment we have gone into the amusement business (excusing ourselves on the grounds that we were furnishing "clean entertainment") and paid our church expenses out of the profits. I am convinced that such a policy is ruinous to the church and detrimental to the best interests of the community. Let the church go into the entertainment business for the sake of the service it can render and be satisfied when the actual cost of the service is met by the income. A shortsighted 'financial policy has been the millstone that has dragged the heart out of many a church. Instead of laying plans on the basis of the known need of a community, we have planned our activities on the basis of the funds available to finance them. Because of this attitude the use of pictures has been considered a luxury because it has represented an expenditure that could be eliminated. If pictures were to be used, the decision has been made because we thought they would "pay." Of course the average church budget is carrying as heavy a load as it dares and there are no funds for useless luxuries. But if a thing is worth doing, it is worth financing. If it is not worth financing in a businesslike fashion, it is not worth the doing. In studying the financial problem there are two chief questions : first, what does it cost to install projection apparatus, and second, what does it cost to operate? Churches have had a wide variety of experiences in both these matters. The first question involves the type of machine to be used, the building in which the machine is to be installed, and the ordinances of the city in which we propose to operate. There are three general types of machines. The small portable machines range in price from $200 to $275. The semi-portable machines can be installed for $225 to $325. The high-powered, regulation theatrical projectors range from $400 to $600, depending upon the make and the size. The most churches have been installing the smaller machines but of late more are taking the work more seriously and putting in the best equipment that the market offers. I think it is a serious mistake to adopt plans for a new church and omit some arrangement that will permit of the use of projection apparatus. Perhaps the church is not yet ready to go into the use of pictures but its building should be so planned as to make the work feasible when the time comes. In old buildings it is sometimes difficult to make provisions for a standard equipment because of the archi