Motion Picture News (Jan - Mar 1914)

THE MOTION PICTURE NEW S 35 Directory of Players and Directors THE EXHIBITORS' AND MANUFACTURERS' REFERENCE GUIDE IN ADVERTISING PLAYERS AND DIRECTORS FRITZI BRUNETTE Playing Leads in Victor Films Universal Film Mfg. Co. Carl Laemmle, Pres. KING BAGGOTT Directing and Playing Leads in Imp Productions IRVING CUMMINGS Now Playing Leads in Universal Films JULIUS STERN Manager Imp Studio Universal Film Mfg. Co. Carl Laemmle, Pres. EARL METCALFE Lubin Films Second Season ETHEL GRANDON Imp Productions "Universal Program" FRANK POWELL Producing Patheplays BERT ANGELES f^Hi DIRECTOR Address care of Screen Club, 165 West 47th Street, New York. ^Hi £ PICTURES OR FILLUMS? CHOOSE ONE ROUND the word "picture" there hovers something agreeable, though quite indefinable. Unconsciously one attaches certain impressions to certain words. The word "picture" conveys to the subconscious part of the thinking apparatus an impression of the beautiful, the artistic, the. pleasing to the eye, the carefully designed and executed — in short, the worth while. No such atmosphere attaches itself to word "film." Say "film" and you get the subconscious impression of a long, inanimate strip of celluloid, something to be bought and sold by the running length, a commercial thing, in no way artistic or beautiful. That may be why a wide gulf is bound to separate motion pictures from films and the persons who make or deal in motion pictures from those who make or deal in films. :|t * # \ MOTION picture should be what its name im-*"* plies — a picture in motion. A film is a film and ever shall be. Never the twain shall meet. The seers of the motion picture industry seem agreed that the day is bound to come when a motion picture will be valued for its artistic worth and pretentiousness, not for its footage. Then the motion picture will come to its own. There will no more films be made. Pictures will be produced. Happy then will be the manufacturer who lias been turning out PICTURES, not films, for sometime, and whose record as a producer of pictures in motion shall have been will established. FROM this premise it is an easy step to the conclusion that right now is the time for manufacturers to turn from films to pictures so that they may be prepared when Utopia arrives and motion pictures are sold by the subject. It must be all too clear by this time that the whole object of this message is to strike a blow for better and more artistic pictures. Arthur John Brisbane, who receives an unbelievably large income for writing editorials with a "punch" (and many words in capital letters) once turned his mind upon motion pictures. "After motion pictures — what?" he queried. Then he answered his own question by saying "More and better pictures." HE'S right. Ail agree on that. But it is no use to agitate if better pictures aren't forthcoming. Increasing demand will bring more pictures but they must be better also. It's all very fine — this writing for the uplift of the industry. Uplift articles look nice in print and all that, but often they are disregarded because they are felt to be impractical and visionary. But a plea for better pictures is decidedly practical. The firms who are making the most money now are those who are making the best pictures. The field is wide open for the exhibitor. He can pick and choose. He naturally chooses the best. So the firm which makes the best pictures will reach the highest degree of success. If only one person takes a tip from these last few lines, then this labor has not been in vain. Between pictures and films you must choose one — choose pictures, and— DO IT NOW! < \. D. P.