Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1953)

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It takes you through the studio, describing everybody from manager to stagehand; describes the "how-to" of station equipment and special effects; gives you practical information on writers and actors, on budget and cost control, on conceiving all kinds of programs, tlie place i)i advertising agencies, networks and packages. Here is everything you need and ought to know about America's fastest growing industry — whether you're professional, small station owner, or student. -MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 383 Madison Avenue, New York 1 7, N.Y. Please send me copy(ies) of PRODUCING AND DIRECTING FOR TELEVISION at $3.95 each. If not completely satisfied I will return the book within 5 days and my money will be refunded. I enclose □ check □ money order Name Address City Zone State TV NEWS FILM COVERS THE WORLD (Continued from Page 109) three to five minutes after they were snapped. After being broadcast, the films go to the NBC-TV Film Library, where more than 15 million feet of film are stored in 22 vaults, with reels classified into 2,200 main subjects and no less than 14,750 individual topics. Viewers see the results of the NBC news film operations on such network shows as Camel News Caravan each weekday evening and Today each weekday morning. In addition, they appear on news programs telecast by the more than 50 TV station subscribers to NBC's TV Daily News Service and Weekend Review. The daily service comprises about 10 minutes of film, divided into story sections so that stations can easily insert local news and commercials or delete unwanted portions. A script goes with each DNS film shipment, with timing carefully and precisely marked, so that if desired the station can put it on the air immediately upon receipt. Scale of Charges The Weekend Review is a quarter-hour program comprising the top news film reports of the week. As is true of most film programming, NBC's news film service is sold to stations, which need not be affiliates of the NBC-TV network, on a sliding scale, based on the number of sets which can receive the station's transmissions. Air time for a typical news item on a news telecast runs from one to two minutes, or from 90 to 180 feet of finished 35mm film, Mr. Allen said, although he noted that there are many exceptions to this rule of thumb. Program format is a factor, with Camel News Caravan generally using more footage than Today, for instance. Despite its present magnitude, NBC's news film operation is only eight years old. It began as Tele Newsreel on Aug. 5, 1945, with two cameramen and was renamed NBC Television Newsreel on Sept. 2 of that year. This was at the time of V-I Day which marked the end of World War II and the new TV service was inaugurated in part to supply a substitute to the weekly TV program of war news film which for more than a year previously had been furnished by cameramen of the armed forces. Sy Aonet was the first NBC-TV news cameraman, joining the staff following his discharge from the Army Signal Corps. From that small beginning, NBC's news film operation expanded with television and like American TV itself, got its real impetus when an advertiser (R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.) began sponsorship of a daily news telecast for which NBC agreed to provide the material. Today, NBC-TV News Film functions as part of the network's public affairs department under the supervision of Davidson Taylor, director of public affairs, and William R. McAndrew, manager of news and special events. Joe Meyers, who manages NBC's central news desk, and Bill Garden, manager of special projects, are also con cerned with this operation, among othej duties. Len Allen, however, is the man directly responsible for keeping the news film source — staff and string cameramen-correspondent' and foreign newsreel companies — working smoothly to produce the film footage fron which the final products, TV news program ^ evolve. It is he who sees that the right storv gets the right emphasis, who builds background footage for possible use in emergency news coverage, who attempts tc satisfy a seemingly insatiable demand foi more and still more TV news features and documentaries. Preceding the Coronation, when internetwork rivalry hit a new intensity that called for each news crew's utmost secrecy about its plans, NBC developed a code which still is proving useful. Recently, Frank Bourgholtzer, Paris correspondent, who was in Rabat, French Morocco, to cover the imminent ouster of the Sultan, avoided censorship problems by notifying the New York NBC news desk that an "arrow" was heading for London with some "astral," which was correctly interpreted as word that an Air Force jet was carrying (unoflRcially) a batch of hot rush film from Rabat to London. Romney Wheeler, NBC London office i manager, was alerted, and he sent another NBC newsman, Ed Neuman, to as close as possible to the field where the jet was to land, some three hours by car from London. Mr. Neuman flew up in an English rainstorm, got the film, flew back and was met by Mr. Wheeler with the usual mailing tags, custom clearances, etc., getting the film onto the fastest Pan American flight to New York. The Moroccan crisis pictures reached NBC's New York film labs less than 22 hours after they were taken in Rabat. 'NO'-BUDGET FILM COMMERCIALS (Continued from Page 108) the first hour of actual shooting. After the! first hour, we have an hourly rate charge of $10. Film stock is charged for at the rate of 10 cents per foot, including processing. Our standard charge for special editing is $10 per hour regardless of whether we shoot the film or if it is furnished from another source. We used 350 feet of film on the used car job and spent about two hours editing the processed film to the client's specifications. Therefore, the cost to the' advertiser was $105. There was sufficient usable footage for six commercials of 30 to 60 seconds duration, the length depending on how much a particular car was plugged. The cost of each spot was about $17.50. Naturally, the same basis of computing cost per spot could not be applied to every advertiser. The used car dealer's spots were extremely inexpensive because the job itself ROMANCE OF JULIA DALTON LIVE SHOW AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL OR NATIONAL BINGO GIVE-AWAY Film Series available for national or regional sponsorship. First time on the air. For information please write DALTON FILM COMPANY 813 Daniel BIdg., 3rd and Boston Ave. Tulsa 3, Oklahoma Page 110 • September 14, 1953 Broadcasting • Telecasting