Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

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X 1d==p EDrTODlAUS The Teacher at the Film Exchange x/? A WELL-KNOWN instructor in a college of the Middle West recently wrote a letter to the editor of this magazine complaining against his treatment at certain film exchanges where he had called to rent reels. Upon his first call he was treated discourteously. On his second call he felt that he had been insulted. It was more than apparent that the exchange "did not want his business." This man is the principal of a big high school. He has bought and operates a standard moving picture projector of the kind found in our best theaters. He is an experienced operator. His audiences vary between 200 and 700 people. He is, to all intents and purposes, an "exhibitor" — with money to spend ; he asked for no favors beyond the privilege of examining a certain photodrarria which he believed, from the title, might augment a course in literary study then being conducted in his school. The gentleman at the exchange said he "didn't have time to bother with schools." He treated the instructor as an interloper — as an unwelcome visitor. Happily for the institutions who are buying projectors, exchanges conducted on this narrow-minded basis are not the rule. With that ignorance that permeates so many branches of this most wonderful industry, there are exchange men as there are producers, who are sound asleep to the fact that the institution's money is as good as that of the theater man. But their ranks are being thinned out. With thousands of firstclass projectors installed in churches and schools from coast to coast, the film producers are beginning to realize that these machines call for films and that there is many a welcome dollar waiting for those who are enterprising enough to make a play for the patronage. Reel and Slide magazine has taken upon itself the introduction of the institution to the exchange man as a good customer. This customer has needs unlike those of the commercial theater man. But, because they are unlike is no indication that they are more difficult to fill. On the contrary, they are more easily fulfilled. The educator asks very little of the producer or the exchange man. He does not object to the length of time the film has been on the market. He knows or cares nothing about "first runs." He merely feels it incumbent upon himself to judge the productions he rents by certain ethical standards, which, after all, is the main reason why he finds himself renting films at all. Producers and exchange men who find subjects of an instructive nature upon their shelves certainly will not maintain that the theater demand for this kind of pictures is so great that the schools cannot hope to be served. Certainly the school is ready to pay a price as high at least as that of the small theater man, who often falls into the "dollar a reel" class because he persistently refuses to exhibit a wholesome program and flagrantly flouts public taste and public morals. There seems to be in some quarters a deep-rooted 3 prejudice against serving anybody but the exhibitor with a glittering theater front and a red and yellow poster on his wall. Anybody else gets scant courtesy. Perhaps all this would be vastly different if the distributors of moving picture films took the trouble to find out how many thousands of projectors are being sold to institutions and had vision and business acumen enough to know that moving picture machines can only be used for a single purpose — showing pictures. Perhaps if they realized that thousands of reels with literary value or with instructional or clean entertainment features, which long ago took in the last dollar the theater man was willing to give, could enter upon a new period of earning power in the institutions of the country, the lot of the film-using instructor would be easier. Reel and Slide magazine feels that its duty to its readers is only half done until it creates an attitude of co-operation between the producer, the middleman and the school. Measures have been taken to accomplish this purpose. The readers of this magazine represent a large source of revenue for any film company with suitable subjects, willing to make some honest effort to study their wants. True, at the present time, the institutional field is and can only be supplementary to the main business of supplying the commercial theater. But no one will claim that the film industry today is in a position to turn real business away from its doors. It is simply ignorance, inefficiency and neglect that maintains this preposterous condition. We earnestly request that readers notify the editorial department of Reel and Slide when they experience gross inattention on the part of the middleman from whom they endeavor to rent films. We should also like to know of exchange men who appreciate school and church business and who are ready to give the instructor a fair opportunity to rent the pictures he desires. Standards of Censorship IN this number appears the first installment of a detailed description of the standards of practice of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. This body passes on practically every production released in the United States. Its members have striven for better pictures. Its standards are the result of many years of actual censorship. They offer an excellent gauge for the minister or teacher who finds himself called upon to select films that will have no harmful influence. In printing this series of articles, we believe that we are putting a most valuable document before our readers. It will give them a practical and intelligent guide to the pictures and will enable them to judge and reason without prejudice, but with safety to their sense of responsibility.