Business screen magazine (1961)

Gas Helps to Make This a 'Wonderful Age!" Consolidated Natural Gas System Has a Tuneful Ne« Picture to Prove Its Point Sponsor: Consolidated Natural Gas System. Title: This Wonderful Age, 28 min.. color. produced by MPO Productions. Y-^ Taking a picture of something you can't see can be a tricky kind of business — like making a movie about natural gas. But it can be done — as exemplified by this pretty and tuneful new film which is as gay as a kitchen full of teen-agers — cooking with gas. When Consolidated"s Motion Picture Committee, under Chairman John S. McElwain. came to MPO to talk about making a film they had a library of facts to be included in it. And yet they didn't want the usual kind of nuts and bolts and pontifical pre.xies of some industrial films — they wanted something different and "off-beat". The result is a film that gives its viewers hundreds of facts about natural gas and a whale of a good time learning them. Its Musical Background is Memorable An original score by Sol Kaplan and lyrics by Joe March provide a sound track that vibrates with the rhythmic beat of New Orleans jazz and the slow swing of old spirituals and folk ballads. Much of the full color location photography is used with an off-screen singing narrative. Featured narrator is pretty actress and vocalist Louise O'Brien. Blues singer Rosette LeNoir sings a show-stopper blues number about an old lamplighter. Viewers will be surprised by the vast number of facts that are easily picked up during the film, facts that cover every aspect of the industry from its tax structure to the technical operation of a compressor station. And above all — the film makes us aware of the important part played by natural gas in helping to make the H'underful Age we live in. Shown are the everyday uses of natural gas. in kitchens and heating — and in industry. too. This Picture Could .\lso Ser\e Others Consolidated Natural Gas System is formed by five separate companies which serve all or parts of Ohio. Western Pennsylvania. West Virginia and Upper New York state. The film, while covering this area in general, could easily be adapted to be useful to marketing situations of many other natural gas companies. Top credits on the film go to MPO staff people Marvin Rothenberg. producer-director: Lewis Jacobs, associate producer: and Tonv Brooke, cinematographer. g^ The Interchangeable Fihnakers ••> Marvin Rothenberg. a leading producer-director of TV commercials for many years, returned to the industrial film field for this picture and enjoyed the project greatly. He pointed out recently that people in the often-separated industrial field and the commercial field have talents which should be used interchaneeably more often. Right now. such MPO "long-film" specialists as Victor Solow and the Lerner-Ritter team are working on commercials, while other MPO commercials people are getting and welcoming public relations and industrial film assignments. Rothenberg believes that there will be even more of this in the future. Commercials are gelling to be more and more "documentary" and industrial films, he thinks, are seeking the slickness and modernity of the up-to-date prize-winning commercials. ^ USING OLD-TIME MOVIE TECH\|( This Ma.sonite Film Hclj Salesmen Build the Ord«{] "The Incredible Shrinking House'"] Sponsor; The Masonite Corporation, Title: The Incredible Shrinking Hinisel min. b&w and color, produced by Hollj Wegman Productions. -'- A major producer of building materials Chicago-based Masonite Corporation has ' ed to the screen media from time to time most recent motion picture. The Incrci Shrinking House, is a noteworthy 22-mi subject that was originally intended to introduce dealer salesmen lo the broad a cations of the company's hardboard line. Because it also has a lot of consumer peal. The Shrinking House will also short! viewed in a new 1 3 '/i -minute television sion in which sales pointers have been emphasized. Behind all this is the fascin. background of technique employed by the ducer. Holland-Wegman. to develop botl "Shrinking House " idea and to build audi interest. Stylized Action of the Early Cinema The old ""silent-movie"' techniques were 1 ally utilized as the story introduces n( weds. John and Mary, as they come out o period of wedded bliss and begin their ,tk family. .Mthough they appear in modern ^ <i all their actions are in the stylized. di\i:::ii cliches of the early cinema. Sub-titles ,irc -cJ in the florid style of the period. As the family grows larger, their walK ^lil4 to closet proportions. Action is speeded u « the screen to the kaleidoscopic pace ot stone comedy. Piano background music ^: -from "hearts and flowers " to a frantic "cl theme. The problems, arguments and drair of John and .Mary are finally climaxed trip to their lumber dealer, who inti them to versatile Masonite panels. At this point, scenes dissolve from blacl white to color and the audience (as wi the players) is treated to a demonstratk all the uses and applications of the pi John and Mary begin to remodel their ""sh John and Mary find the walls of their house closing in os their family grows . problems kept growing, too! 38 Business Screen M\c\ s: