Business screen magazine (1959)

66nnin; Two Most important -I rules about writing business films are: do not be a writer, and do not make movies/' This paradoxical advice opens an unusually complete and comprehensible chapter on the requisites for successful business-tilm writing in a new book. TV and Screen Writing, published by the University of California Press. Author of the chapter is Charles (Cap) Palmer, who as executive producer of Parthenon PicturesHollywood has written more than a score of successful films for business sponsors, among them And Then There Were Four (for Socony-Mobil). A Hotel is Born (for Hilton Hotels), The Next Ten (for Kaiser Aluminum), and Man With a Thousand Hands (for International Harvester). Find Story in Material Explaining the apparent contradiction in his opening statement, Mr. Palmer points out that "in the (business film) field, you do not or should not — make movies: you make tools. Then too. you seldom write a 'story,' in the sense of invention; you find the story in true life material." Before getting down to the actual mechanics of business-film writing, the author presents some background material on the field and the audiences served by it. He points out that, while business pictures may be varied in type, they are all "hits" in the sense that, if his budgeting is competent, the producer knows in advance that he will take in more money than he spends. Although business films are ordered and paid for by a company much in the same manner as they would arrange for the preparation of an advertising brochure, few of today's productions are blatantly advertising. Mr. Palmer points out; many of them have nothing at all to do with product promotion. Examples of Useful Films He cites as examples Outside That Envelope, which demonstrates the benefits under the Connecticut General's group insurance program; And Then There Were Four, Socony-Mobil's films on highway safely; Kaiser's The Next Ten, telling the story of a company and the men who built it into importance in one short decade; and Man With a Thou.sand Hands, in which International Harvester shows another company's huge construction project in order to show their own crawler Are You Making Movies or Toohy J\ Practical Louk at Business Film Scripts Recommended Sponsor Reading: "TV and Screen Writing" tractors, and in which the IH name is never once mentioned. "At present, because many sponsors realize that the public is persuaded more by facts than by pressures, even the forthright product-selling pictures are likely to be honestly informative and useful to their particular target audiences," he writes. As to the size of the audience field for business films, Mr. Palmer points out that one non-theatrical film distributor has a mailing list of more than 150,000 groups that regularly show 16mm pictures. "Audiences for 16mm pictures include 28,000 service clubs, women's clubs, farm organizations, fraternal orders, conventions, libraries, and miscellaneous adult groups; 6,000 industrial plants run films for employees in regular lunch-time showings; 23,000 high schools, 17,000 primary schools, and 2,000 colleges and universities have at least one projector; LS,000 church groups schedule week-night showings, and use many nonreligious, informative pictures; 1,500 small communities are reached in the summer by road-show operators, with 400 persons in the average audience. Why buy the Cow when you only need a quart? Smart Pros rent their equipment from CECO* Why invest a lot, of money for expensive photORraphie equipment for whicli you may have (mly limited use? Do what the top Pros do rent your camcra.s. lighting, .sound recording and editing ce]uipment from CECO's vast stocks. ICverything is delivered to you "better than new" — because everything is checked out for perfect performance before it goes out on rental. You save (m t.ixes, too. Ask us about rental-lease arrangements. Cameras 16mm & ,)5mm— Sound (Single or Double System)— Silent Hi-Speed Lenses Wide angle— Zoom— Telephoto—Anaitiorphic Sound EQuiptncnt Magnetic— Optical Grip Equipment Parallels Gobocs— Other Grip accessories Dollies Crab -Western— Portable -Panoram Cranes 'CECO Trademark of Camera Equipment CO Lighting Arcs-lncandescents— Spots— Floods— Dimmers —Reflectors— All Ligtiting Accessories Generators Portable— Truck Mounted Editing Equipment Moviolas -Viewers— Splicers— Rewinders Projection Equipment 16mm & 35mm -Sound & Silent— SlideContinuous Television Closed Circuit TV rRANK C ZUCKER (^flni€Rfl €(^uipm€nT (o.jnc. DepI, S 315 West 43rd St, New York 36, N.Y. • JUdson 6-1420 "Certain sponsored films c broad interest may show in som 10,000 movie theaters. Increas ingly important is the public-sei vice sustaining time on TV, serveby well-organized distributors. / general interest film like Hilton'' A Hotel Is Born may be shown a; much as 300 times a year on th(, approximately 400 TV station: that regularly use sponsored film: to fill out their programming. 19-Million Plus Viewers "In its first five years And Titer, Thei e Were Four showed to 6,000,000 persons in 50,000 nontheatrical bookings, as well as to 8,600,000 people in 12,000 theaters, 1.300,000 in rural road shows, 3,000,000 in sponsor-arranged meetings, and an undetermined number through the 1.000^ extra prints sold or loaned, and an undetermined number of watchers of the 715 free showings on TV. "The over-all cost per viewer of ,$00,009 compares well with any other mass medium, and this bought a half-hour's concentrated attention instead of a glance at a page. Although the film is five years old all prints are solidly booked, and it will continue being shown for several more years. Medium Worthy of Effort "The point is that business films have become important in the film field and in the national community, and are worth the devoted attention of any writer or film maker." Because they have to work for a living, non-theatrical films have a common blood factor, the author declares — all of them are purpose pictures. All came into existence because someone wanted someone else to think or feel or decide difl'erently about something. In short, they are "message" pictures. "Surprisingly, to theatrical-film makers, this is all right with audiences— in fact, it is what they want." Mr. Palmer writes. "This does not mean that we are addressing strange and difTerent people— the psychology of viewing is difTerent. "The same man who sits in a theater one night and resents a 'message" may sit with his wife in P.T.A. meeting the following night and be equally resentful if the documentary on geriatrics is embellished with extraneous "entertainment'. It has been said that no studio ever went bankrupt by underestimating the bad taste of the .American public. The fac 48 BUSINESS SCREEN MAGAZINE