Business screen magazine (1938)

SUPERMAN. .continued from page 29 gence IQ were given to a cross section of a theatrical audience and a commercial audience, the latter would rate so far above the theatrical a comparison could hardly be drawn.) The same audience that sees a Commercial Picture compares it immediately with a theatrical production seen some time before and is quick to lose interest if the Commercial picture is in any way under the quality of theatrical films If you take the "Boy Meets Girl" element away from theatrical entertainment films you will find left a prologue of title and an interesting fadeout . . . and very little to tie the introduction and end together. All this is not meant to be critical of the creators of those amazing, stupendous and colossal Hollywood dramas but is intended to draw attention to the sharp differences between lommercial screen writing and theatrical writing. In most cases Hollywood theatrical writers are given free access to Old Man Dollar Bill as long as something can be produced that can burn a patron's celluloid collar to cinders. But Commercial Screen Writers burn the midnight oil figuring out how to squeeze the client's appropriation dollar until the eagle screams! A boy nuiy meet a girl in the commercial picture but if he does, you can bet your tin-type one is selling something to the other or is in the process of selling the sponsor's product to someone else. A Commercial Writer has an enormous job when compared to theatrical motion picture writers. If you recall the screen credits given in many theatrical films you will remember that listed were: The original author of the story. The adapter of the author's story for the screen. The continuity and the dialogue writers. It is particularly significant that the Commercial Screen Writer has to not only act as each of the four mentioned but in a number of instances works on the shooting set to aid in the direction of the picture. This is interesting because a writer in Hollywood takes his life in his own hands when he even gets close to a set. The director usually experiments with the script to a point where it is hardly recognizable by the writer. The Commercial Screen Writer makes sure that every word and action is made exactly as the client okayed it. The director on a commercial set interprets the writing but doesn't dare change it. Before we go much further let's define a "staff" — Creative or otherwise. Webster tells us that a "staff" represents a body of assistants serving to carry into effect the plans of a superintendent or manager. Let's change the words "superintendent or manager" to client and we find we have a situation that is vitally important to any business contemplating the addition of Sound Pictures to an advertising campaign. The point cannot be too strongly made that one man is not a writing staff. He is either good in one branch or the other. Pioneer Producers assembled over the years staffs with Specialists in every line of industry. New men are added to growing staffs and the older members grow to be a part of the industry. Big business annually spends billions for tlu best brains it can hire. Specialized Brains! To accomplish their objectives, then, producers have to secure the equivalent in their staffs or a better quality of specialized brains for every industry they serve. Frequently when an executive decides that a Sound Picture is indicated in one of his training or marketing programs he will simply call for "bids" among a random group of "producers" and automatically select the lowest bid! Indeed it is known that one great manufacturer for a long time insisted on buying Sound Slide Filni> through his Purehasi/tg Department! This frequent lack of analysis has cost ii number of otherwise cautious executives many thousands of dollars: dollars that could havibeen saved by a thorough understanding of the medium and by insistence on the criterion uf Specialization when selecting a Producer. It is literally true that only a Specialist can produce good Sound Pictures; only a Specialist with broad experience and tremendous resources, both physical and financial, can possibly hope to fulfill all the obligations of creating in this complicated new medium. Time was when anyone with a camera, a typewriter and plenty of brass felt qualified to be a Sound Picture Producer. The phenomenal success of long established pioneers raised a veritable swarm of these pseudo "producers." In past years too many hundreds of such flyby-night enterprises were born, fluttered about {Continued on the next page) 20 of the 43 COOPERATING SPONSORS reaching CONSUMER AUDIENCES with their motion pictures through our GUARANTEED CIRCULATION The American Brass Company Armour & Company Baketite Corporation Crane Company E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company General Foods Corporation General Motors Corporation Great A & P Tea Company Greyhound Lines Johns-Manville The Kolynos Company Metropolitan Life Insurance Company National Lead Company The Pennzoil Company Standard Oil Company of N. J. United States Rubber Products Co., Inc. United Slates Steel Corporation Western Electric Company Weyerhaeuser Sales Company Wilson Sporting Goods Co. WRITE FOR FOLDER DESCRIBING OUR COOPERATIVE SERVICE MOTION PICTURE BUREAU National Council of the YMCA's 347 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. 19 So. LaSalle St., Chicago, Illinois WHAT ABOUT THE RAILROADS.' 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