Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

REEL and SLIDE 27 SCENARIO — PRODUCTION ~ DISTRIBUTION FOiOW'S IDEA TWO eastern film concerns are ready to offer natural color films to the advertiser. Both have perfected their processes independently of each other. One process is the result of three years' experiment. To one not familiar with the production end of the film business, the importance of this fact may not be apparent. We have all seen colored films ; they are common. But the color heretofore has been put on with a paint brush, a tedious, costly and unsatisfactory undertaking. The colors thus applied are not natural as nature presents them to the eye. They are garish and unnatural and have no informative value whatever, though they may be pleasing to the eye. Their quality must fluctuate, depending upon the ability and patience of the brush wielder. What has long been sought is a method by which the natural colors as presented by nature could be screened. This, even, has been attained, but the processes have been costly and impractical and special equipment has been necessary in order to run the films — equipment not in the possession of the average operator. Undoubtedly natural color films will be of great value to the producer of dramatic pictures. But ten times greater value will be received by the user of educational and commercial pictures. The advertiser will be able to present his garments, his autos, his soap in natural colors ; the educator will be able to screen flowers and insects, fish and geological formations just as nature presents them to the eye. Many people confuse color films with films that are toned. A reel can easily be put through a bath of aniline dye , and toned any shade desired. But the whole surface of the picture will simply be one color. By the new processes, not only colors themselves but shades of colors will be possible. ONE of the cleverest pieces of screen advertising presented in a long time appeared recently in an issue of the Bray Pictograph, the magazine on the screen. It was put on for the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. It ran about 400 feet. It was entitled, "The Machine That Thinks." The Bray Studios treated this subject with great subtlety. Cartoons were combined with life pictures most effectively. The subject began with a funny cartoon of "Mr. Stonehatchet" trying to keep his accounts on blocks of stone Other primitive methods of calculating were next introduced and finally the adding machine was put through its various stunts. A portrait of Mr. Burroughs, the inventor of the machine, and an explanation of how he happened to get the idea, also are included. It makes first-class entertainment, and shows screen advertising at its best. A GROWING number of big industrial organizations are finding the practice of sending visitors over their property with guides a nuisance. Several of them recently have had films made which serve the same purpose. The National Lamp Works at Cleveland has found this method preferable, especially since their factories have been doing war work. The Curtis Publishing Company has a picture, "How a Magazine Is Made," which serves admirably in this connection. BAUMER FILMS, Inc., New York, have issued a very interesting booklet describting their facilities for giving advertiser widespread foreign circulation on films. The title is, "Put Punch and Speed Into Your Export Message." Among the interesting facts noted in this booklet we find : Distribution is now offered in the following countries : England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Scandinavia, Holland, Greece, Egypt, India, Burmah, Ceylon, Straits Settlements Dutch East Indias, China, Japan, Australia, New Zeland, South Africa, Argentine, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Evuador, Central America, Brazil, Trinidad, Mevico, Cuba, Puetro Rico, Venezula. "This distribution will be made through the World Film Corporation and its accredited foreign agents. The facts that the World Film Corporation is now the distributor of official Government films and that the Government is extremely desirous of broadcasting the American industrial idea in all foreign countries, indicate an altogether satisfactory assurance that your films will be distributed in the best possible manner. "We make no charge for distribution and the only cost involved is that of the the original negative plus a minimum of twenty-five duplicates or positive prints. If you already have negative films and send them to us for inspection, we will make the changes necessary and distribute them in the same way. If you wish distribution in any particular one of the above countries we can arrange this to your satisfaction. We will furnish you with a check-up -for every theater in which your film has been shown. "As in the United States, so in all foreign countries, every community, big or small, has its picture theaters, its large proportion of moving picture devotees. HOW shall the producer of an industrial film subject make his picture interesting to the average audience and at the same time get full returns on his investment in the picture as a medium? The answer to this question concerns every maker of subjects in this class. One of the weakest spots in the motion picture as an exploitation medium heretofore has been the unwillingness of the producer to realize just how much "puff" he can get away with and yet offer a good film. A well-known newspaper man was once asked where and how he managed to find news. "I know," he replied, "that wherever there are people there is news. So, I send my reporters to the place where the most people are found and there he gets what he is after." To a marked degree this applies to the question under discussion here. People are always interesting— things only seldom are. Or, things are interesting only in so far as they concern or have to do with people. It is always advisable to somehow get people into an industrial film in order to take away from the deadliness of the part of the picture which shows things. One of the most successful industrials ever made depended for its interest largely upon a dozen closeups of pretty factory girls. In this film there was ample attention given to the organization and its property. But the closeups of the pretty girl workers, always filmed laughing, were flashed at regular intervals between scenes depicting the activities of the plant. Scarcely any industrial subject is of a kind that does not offer opportunities for human interest, though they may be mere flashes. They be irrelevant to the main idea; but they aid greatly in "getting the film over." E. T. Clary. The American Institute of the City of New York is holding stereopticon lectures in the Engineering Societies' building, 29 West Thirty-ninth street, Manhattan : Edward J. Dotterweich, "Oil Industry in America," January 6; LeRoy Jeffers, "National Wonders and Canada," 23 ; Eli Benedict, "Building the Victory Ships," 20; Frederick S. Webster, "The Marvels of Animal Camouflage." 27, and Branson M. Decou, "Canadian Pacific Alps," Feb. 3.