Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

14 REEL and SLIDE n Screen Advertising Not Limited to Tlieaters Gradually Learning Value Any Types of Merchandise of Films That Instruct By E. J. Clary AN Eastern film producer recently sent out several thousand letters, together with a costly circular, suggesting to various advertising managers that they film their plant, product or property. The writer was present when an analysis of returns was made. The most impressive fact outstanding was the reiteration of this phrase : "While we believe in the power of the moving picture to place a commodity before the public, we do not see any pictorial qualities in our particular line that would lend themselves to filming." In varied phraseology, this statement was made by a score of those who replied. Going further, we found among these queries the following lines of activity: Brooms Candy Pig iron Tractors Pianos Nursery Land Motorcycle Cough drops Construction There were others. All Lines Have Been Filmed There is scarcely a line of business tabulated above which has not already been filmed with success. But the incident goes to show the lack of power on the part of a great many advertising men to understand the scope of the screen and its ability to visualize any kind of human activity. Herein lies its greatest power — its versatility. In approaching any business for the purposes of the camera man, it is necessary to discover what part of it is the most interesting to the consumer. Then we know that that is the phase to make our pictures of. How we bring in the advertising elements depend upon our ingenuity and our restraint. But I doubt whether there is any line of business in the world that cannot be filmed with success, providing an expert and experienced moving picture producer is called in to do the job. And it is quite as true that the inexperienced cannot see the possibilities of filming his own business because it is all so obvious and matter of fact to him that he cannot detach himself sufficiently to get the broad aspect necessary for camera work. Now, as a matter of fact, these writers all, no doubt, were working so closely to their business that they could not conceive the outsider's viewpoint. They absolutely lacked the dramatic instinct, the "human interest" element, the imusual, pictorially, in what appeared to them a dusty mill or factory. Of course, the best way to "sell" these prospects would be to enter their office some fine morning, after mail time, and open up a projector, say "look," and throw a film on the screen depicting a competitor's broom factory, or piano shop, or cough drop factory and let nature take its course. The chances are that all of these gentlemen would be "filming" their own factories on their mind's eye before the first five hundred feet were run off ! He Must Imagine It First And that's it with pictures. Before an advertiser can be "sold" on the screen he must have a little advance, sample moving picture running through his mind; in other words he has got to be made to see it, to imagine it, before he realizes what it means and what it will do for his business. Every line of business can be dramatized. It is true that very often such advertising must be of the indirect variety. But indirect advertising has proved to be a profitable investment in other mediums. And the screen has many advantages which make up for its sometimes indirect qualities. Every important firm today, doing a national business, is learning the fact that it owes something to the community. It feels that its returns depend upon the health, welfare and goodwill of great numbers of people who can buy its products. (The International Harvester Company considers "the soil its capital," and to "help the farmer conserve the soil is to protect this capital.") Consequently, these big firms have engaged in welfare work in their districts, have done much to increase the lot of their employes ; but the moving picture screen offers them a chance to go beyond this point to the consumer himself. The big firm may work along the same lines as the big university, maintaining an extension department. There is something to film in every industrial plant that the people should know and would like to see and know about. Martin Johns'on By Martin Johnson (Producer of the Martin Johnson South Sea Island Cannibal Fihns, Now Being Featured in the Leading Theaters) Out of a total of 50,000 feet of negative made in the South Sea Islands, we have selected 7,000 feet for the use of the commercial theaters. This 7,000 feet is the "cream" of the negative, and the titles for it have been written with popular appeal by a well-known New York writer who first and all has endeavored to make the titles entertaining. But this is the commercial phase of our venture in the South Seas among the cannibals. Of the other footage, we anticipate securing as much more film suitable for educational purposes and for special exhibition before selected audiences of students and educators who are interested in the subject of life and customs. But I do not feel that I yet have exactly what I want for the educator. I am planning another trip to the last stronghold of the man eaters, and I shall make several thousand feet of film which will be first and all instructive and capable of being used by the pedagog in his most serious efforts to enlighten the youthful mind. These short subjects will be rented, eventually, for schools having projectors, and the titling will be done and the editing accomplished by a competent and qualified professor of a leading university. However, I do not wish to create the impression that our first 7,000-foot feature picture is not educational in tone. It is. It is actually an educational film ; but in order to secure a broad appeal — one that would get the attention and hold the general public, we have been compelled to handle it more lightly than would be the case were the reels intended for serious class room work. One thing I should like to point out to the readers of Reel AND Slide Magazine. Our biggest theaters, organized on a commercial basis, and exhibiting moving pictures for profit alone, have eagerly seized upon the cannibal pictures as a feature at extra prices. To me there is something significant in this fact. It indicates an awakening on the part of the theater man to the truth that the public will take instruction with their entertainment, if it is offered to them ; it is an indication that the theater is gradually entering the sphere of influence of the lyceum platform, the school room, social center and public library. But the commercial theater demands something that will bring patrons to its door. If pictures with instructional value will do this, the theater man is willing. He has accepted the short subject against the earnest and most insistent advice of leaders in the industry who believed that the public would not accept a film which "preached" or informed or which lacked the continuity and "story interest" of the screen melodrama. If the cannibal reels are successful in paving the way for more productions of this type, I shall be happy indeed; and all indications point that way now. Illinois Defense Council Co-operates in Big Series of Pictorial Lectures in Chicago THROUGH co-operation arranged between the speakers' bureau of the Illinois State Council of Defense and the management of The Chicago Daily News free lectures, courses in this popular system of public entertainment and instruction in the coming fall and winter seasons will be devoted to auxiliary service, illuminating the needs of this nation and the world at large resulting from conditions rising out of the great world conflict. Many able speakers will appear on the lecture platforrn in the courses that have been arranged for various residence neighborhoods of Chicago. The meetings will be held in the assembly rooms of twenty-four public school buildings rented for this purpose by The Daily News from the Chicago Board of Education. Economic, military and ethical aspects of national life will be discussed, illustrated with stereopticon sHdes and films.