Business screen magazine (1959)

FOUR Audio-Visual experts in the sponsored film field spoke at a special luncheon meeting of the Film Producers Association of New York at the Columbia University Club on December 9th. The four — Fred Beach, AudioVisual Manager. Remington-Rand Corp.; Alden Livingston. Film Manager, Du Pont Co.; William O'Brien, Assistant Advertising Manager, Schering Corp.; and Willis M. Pratt, Jr.. Film Manager. American Telephone cS: Telegraph Co. — spoke on "The Sponsor Looks at the Film Producer" to an audience of about 75 FPA members and guests. Joint Venture of ANA-FPA Nathan Zucker, President of the FPA, and Lowell McElroy, Vice President of the Association of National Advertisers — which cooperated with the FPA in arranging the program — spoke of the desirability of establishing responsible and continuing forums for better client relationships and cited the luncheon meeting as a good step in this direction. Willis Pratt (A.T.&T.) said that although the film medium would always retain an aura of glamor for most people, glamor was the The Spon.sor Looks at the Film Producer >'«'u York I'iliii l'r<Mlii<*i'r>» ll<'ar Vi<'»«4 of lluNineNN A-V Leader most indefensible reason in the world for a corporation to make a motion picture. The problems of business that lilms may help to solve are those of conmiunications, he said. Sponsors would like to have producers give increasing thought to the future growth of the medium, to recognize that by just being filmmakers and not communications experts they are selling themselves short. Too often. Mr. Pratt said, film producers will deliver a can of film and never think about how the film will be put to work, never interest themselves in helping the sponsor with better utilization. In the fields of advertising, merchandising and public relations, producers must upgrade the status of the film as a vital and useful medium in order to compete successfully with print, radio and television. Mr. Pratt said. They must amass more and more statistics to show that films do a successful job in competition with any media. Mr. Pratt said that in the past 14 years he had worked constantly with film producers and had never worked with a more conscientious group of people. He said he was confident that many of the current problems he had mentioned would be solved. Lighter, Simpler Projector Turning to motion picture equipment. Mr. Pratt decried the fact that after all these years of the 16mm sound projector, no one had yet turned out a lightweight, simple, self-threading machine. Efforts to produce projectors with more decibels, more wattage of light, and less wow were all right in their place, but these qualities are not what the field needs as much as a machine that positively willnot battle the nmkest kind of amateur projectionist. William O'Brien (Schering), speaking as an advertising man. said that the sponsor should get the sort of service and advice from a producer that he has come to expect from his advertising agency. Until he gets this he may sometimes regard film as a stepchild — not a real part of the overall ma keting operation that it should b Some means must be devised U the producer to take a much bi; ger part in the client's overall a fairs, Mr. O'Brien said. He mu:; be able to advise the marketing man on the end results that can b' expected — the number of impre;: sions the film will make — its fint impact. Just making pictures t. go into a "film library" has ■; deadening effect on the film me dium. Cites One Producer's Aid Mr. O'Brien had had a recen happy experience in which a proi ducer had helped to prepare marketing campaign for Scherinjj which had been a model of propei' timing and impact. He cited thi; as the type of producer service thai! marketing men can respect anoj should be able to rely upon. Alden Livingston (DuPont): said producers should do some in-, telligent investigation before ap-i proaching a prospective client. It^ is completely unnecessary, he said, to approach a company that has been using films successfully fori three or four decades with a bigji pitch about how good films are.) (CONTINUEDON PAGE 10) BUSINESS SCREEN MAGAZINE