Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1948)

VIDEO'S YEARLY FILM NEEDS SET AT 1825 FEATURES, SMPE HEARS SANTA MONICA, CALIF.— So potent will television’s impact be upon the motion picture industry when video makes its expected shift into high gear that filmdom’s output of celluloid may be required to triple or even quadruple to supply the demand. That large-scale prediction, one of several exhaustive analyses of the televisionfilm relationship, was made by W. W. Watts, vice-president of the Radio Corp. of America, in one of the opening reports at the 63rd semiannual convention of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers at the Santa Monica Ambassador hotel. 1,000 STATIONS AVAILABLE Watts supplied statistics to blueprint his prediction of an enormous increase in Hollywood’s production activity. Under the proposed Federal Commimications Commission revision of television channel allocations, he said, almost 1,000 video stations will be available. If the same pattern is adopted in television as in the AM-FM broadcasting field, about 500 of these outlets will be affiliated with the four major networks — each one of which can be expected to carry two and one-half hours of film material a day. This would require 3,650 hours of film every year. In terms of film measurement. Watts amplified, it would constitute 1,825 two-hour features or 14,600 shorts — plus all of the additional film material the network affiliates and the remaining 500 independents will use. Watts urged industry leaders to undertake experimental production programs designed to determine how television may best be utilized in theatres. He advanced the possibility of separate television theatres or houses showing television in the lounges and pictures inside. “How the motion picture industry fits into the television picture will be determined solely by the industry itself,’’ he said. “Television is here and must be reckoned with.” He reminded that sound added “new dimensions” to silent films and asserted video will “carry the industry to greater heights.” MAY BRING UPHEAVAL From SMPE President Loren Ryder came agreement with Watts that television can cause a greater upheaval in films than did the advent of sound and the pledge that the SMPE will make it its immediate aim to aid in improving television techniques. Ryder pointed out that since the SMPE’s last convention, held in New York, video has grown from a ten-inch home receiver image to a “reality on the motion picture screen.” Sharp criticism of film industry “laxity” in allowing requests for television frequency allocations to lapse was delivered in another report on the video field by Paul J. Larsen, member of the SMPE’s television committee and associate director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Larsen recounted two years of effort by the SMPE to persuade the industry to inaugurate theatre television experiments on video channels reserved by the FCC, and declared that in 1947 the MPAA declined to take definite action. He ex Jane Powell, MGM star, supplied the entertainment at the opening SMPE luncheon. At left is W. W. Watts, vicepresident of the Radio Corp. of America. On the right is Loren L. Ryder, SMPE president. pressed concern that the film industry should permit television to be advanced by other industries without “fully protecting its own interests” and reminded that FCC video channels may still be available if motion picture executives can demonstrate that such frequencies are required for experimentation in the medium. Larsen concluded with a plea for the in Eastman Develops New Safety Films SANTA MONICA — Eastman Kodak Co. has developed a new type of safety film as a substitute for cellulose nitrate film now widely used for professional prints. The new slow-burning film was described before the 63rd semiannual convention of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers at the Ambassador hotel May 17 by Charles R. Fordyce, superintendent of manufacturing experiments at Kodak Park, Rochester, N. Y. Fordyce said EK has been experimenting on the film since 1937. The new film also has been tested commercially. Fordyce said special prints of several feature pictures have been circulated through film exchanges in different parts of the country. Alternate reels of safety and nitrate film were used in each print. Satisfactory quality was obtained in every respect, he declared. Fordyce said the new safety film base offers the following advantages: (1) low shrinkage keeps film free from “buckle” and in-and-out of focus images; (2) it has strength, rigidity and flexibility similar to nitrate film; (3) it has greater resistance to effects of moisture and humidity; (4) projection quality is superior to earlier safety films and is equal to nitrate film in screen steadiness and appearance. dustry to increase its expenditures in support of its engineers and criticized “indifference” on the part of most major companies toward scientific research, not only in television but also in other fields. From another television veteran, Ralph Austrian of the Foote, Cone and Belding advertising agency, came a salient analysis of the effect of television on film attendance habits. Disclosing results of a “sampling” of 415 video set owners in the four major boroughs of New York City, Austrian revealed: 1. Television has had a definite “social impact” on the families interviewed. Threequarters of them reported that they spend more evenings at home now that they have a set. 2. Half of the set owners interviewed reported that they go to the movies less often now that they have bought a television receiver. 3. Most of those who are going to the movies less were formerly “very heavy goers. The movies are losing some customers.” NOVELTY TO WEAR OFF Austrian cautioned that television is still comparatively new and that it is “still too early to judge the reaction of set owners as they become accustomed to this medium.” He added, however, that the survey did not bear out the theory of some that although movie-going may fall off when a set is new, attendance will pick up again as the novelty wears off. Experts from equipment companies, film production units, research institutes and other agencies dispersed technical information on a wide variety of subjects ranging from color photography and magnetic sound recording to theatre loudspeakers, theatre sites, film flicker and audio-visual educational films. President Ryder told the conventioneers the SMPE has established more American Standards Ass’n standards than any other U.S. industry — an important achievement, he declared, because “our world-wide market is dependent upon the existence and the retention of standards under which our product can be played.” He also cited important progress in color and magnetic recording. OTHER CONVENTION SPEAKERS Two important papers on color were delivered. Dr. Ralph M. Evans, color superintendent at Eastman Kodak, Rochester, discussed “Seeing Light and Color” and presented demonstrations designed to show that “what we see depends as much on ourselves and our experiences as on the external reality which the light presents to our eyes.” Prof. Isay Balinkin of the University of Cincinnati discussed “color phenomena” and offered 20 demonstrations. Others who presented papers were James A. Mauer; Thomas Miller, Eastman Kodak; Carl Hittle, RCAVictor; Howard Walls, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Lieut. Charles C. Shirley, of the USN bureau of aeronautics; M. Robert Adams jr. and Herman Schultheis, Telefilm, Inc.; and E. G. Faludi, Toronto town planning consultant. BOXOFFICE :: May 22, 1948 9