Business screen magazine (1938)

Tliaiik You Mr. Kelley , 7 . NORTH RWE" ^'^ '°r, 7* Street, „ ^ Ur Chri3t6nseint Dear ur* Dear i^ • " «douBTINC. THOI^I^S „atl^i> an* ^"^^ Producing effective commercial pictures is a highly specialized art. Lei us place our facilities and technical skill at your service when you consider talking motion pictures. WEST COAST SOUND STUDIOS, Inc. 510-22 West Fifty-Sevenlh Street New York Circle 7-2062 N. Y. Nat. Sales Rap: SCREEN BROADCAST CORPORATION tor IN DU STRIAL PRODUCERS We SUPPLY on rental all or any equipment necessary to make a Feature — Short or Commercial. SOUND — SILENT — COLOR — SLOW MOTION • Latest Mitchell Cameras • Blimps — Dollys — Accessories • Latest Type Lighting Equipment • Variable Area Location Sound Truck • Portable Recording Equipment • Single System News Reel Type Cameras • Moviola Editing Equipment SALES SERVICE RENTALS EXCLVSIVE EASTERN REPRESENTATIVES MITCHELL CAMERA CORPORATION MOTION PICTURE CAMERA SUPPLY, Inc. 723 Seventh Ave. Phone BRYanl 9-7754 New York, N Y. Cable — CINECAMERA BUSINESS FILMS ABROAD {Continued from Page 24) story of the journey of the night express to Scotland — and how letters are sorted en route. Railway communications, cable laying, the printing of stamps — all come within the (I.P.O., and in North Sea — the wireless and telephonic communication system with ships at sea provides a fine example of a little known branch of the work of London's G.P.O. Direct advertisement is not needed. Indirect publicity, if one can so regard it, provides the foundation for most of the G.P.O. 's material. The Strand P^ilm Company must also be mentioned. Recently, it has made a series of Zoo films, original and imaginative, for general release, and simultaneously, a fine group of shorts dealing with air travel. One has to remember that the object of such films is achieved if a percentage of audiences becomes "airconscious" — direct advertisement being entirely unnecessary. Very few people are likely to be induced to buy an aeroplane after seeing a film on aerial matters — hence such material finds a legitimate place in a cinema programme. EXHIBITIONS IMPETUS TO PRODUCTION Exhibitions have provided an additional impetus for non-theatrical production. Last year's great Gla.sgow Exhibition prompted the formation of the Scottish Films Committee, organized by John Grierson, and the result was the production of about six fine shorts depicting contrasting phases of Scottish life — sport, industry, fishing, and so on, made by different firms selected by the Committee. In addition, a small, but efficient company in Glasgow, Scottish Films Productions (1928) Limited, produced two powerful films on Steel. These, with the above mentioned Scottish shorts, were exhibited at the Glasgow Exhibition throughout the summer of 19.S8, and have since been acquired by renters in London for cinema release. Scotland is an almost untapped source of material, and the future will see it being projected in short films which should possess world appeal. "Children at Sc/iool" a docnmentary film on modern school construction was sponsored by the British Gas Industry. Similarly, the forthcoming New York Fair provides an important opportunity for Britain to show her documentary progress, and already a continuous programme of her best films has been arranged. These will include many of the above mentioned subjects, and also a selection of the famous Secrets of Lije series, made by Gaumont Briti-sh Instructional. I am naturally not referring here to feature films to be shown at the Fair, but confining my remarks to nonfictional material. Group Three. The short direct advertisement film, the distribution of which is paid for by the advertisers, has advanced in many ways, particularly in technical quality. Technicolor has been introduced in a number of instances, and the results have been first class. Gaumont Screen Services, which concentrates upon this class of film, embarked on colour last year, in a novel way. They made a short film boosting cigarettes, half in black and white, and half in colour. The former being .scenes as seen through the eyes of an artist's dog — dogs being colour blind — and the latter being the same scenes, as seen by the artist himself. The contrast was extraordinary — the black and white photography seeming much more drab than it really was, when immediately preceded or followed by colour. That broadly covers the activities of the three main groups of non-theatrical film-makers. Each reveals how advertisement, in varying degrees of directness is expressed via the screen, and the only remaining objective of non-theatrical producers is to increase the number of "film-conscious" business people. At the moment, despite the large number of understanding commercial groups, there are many more who can think of no other form of advertisement than the direct, crude appeal to the public, urging it to Buy this, or LIse that commodity. They cannot understand why this type of message should not be included in legitimate cinema programmes, and they have not reached the stage of knowing the value and power of the indirect appeal. PROGRESS EQUAL IN SEVERAL FIELDS Thus, the lengthy sponsored road-showing film makes progress outside the cinema; the sponsored documentary containing only indirect messages penetrates into general release with growing success, whilst the little advertisement film wriggles into as many theatres as its sponsors can afford to pay for. By far the most valuable form of publicity is, I feel, the perfectly made docimientary which does reach the cinema public, for when an audience is assembled to receive entertainment, it is in its most receptive mood. That summarizes Britain's business screen activities up to the moment, and I am confident that, irrespective of the fate of the feature producing concerns here, that the non-theatrical field will make even more progress during the spring and summer of 1939. 26