Business screen magazine (1946)

industry news . . continued (AVI), to form a new subsidiary, TeleMation East, Inc., with offices in three East Coast cities. Offices will be located in Washington, D.C., Cambridge, Mass., and Norwalk, Conn. District manager of the new firm is Joseph S. Bottali, formerly manager of indirect sales for Phihps Broadcast Equipment Corp. in New Jersey and eastern regional manager for International Video Corp., Washington, D.C. New Look at Credit in Penney's Filmstrip 'Credit: A Consitmer Resource,' a thought-provoking eight-minute, color-and-sound filmstrip produced by Cinemakcrs, Inc., will be distributed to schools by J. C. Penney this fall. Using an unusual technique that combines collage with live photography, the strip examines attitudes and aspects of all types of buy now, pay later arrangements, from service credit and charge accounts to cash loans and installment purchases. Cinemakers producer Carol Hale says the filmstrip's treatment was tailored carefully to its audience: "Our assignment was to communicate effectively with young people; we had to deal with a complex, often bewildering, subject in a way that would both inform and stimulate. We felt it was important to avoid out of-date approaches that would bore today's teen-agers." "The visual technique we decided on," Mrs. Hale explained, "lends itself to special effects impossible with art or photography alone. We combined it with a lively sound track — not just a narrator, but a variety of voices and 'characters' with differing viewpoints, plus mood-making background music." Instead of spelling out every tedious detail of the subject covered, 'Credit' does as much asking as telling, and is a three-part affair with planned breaks at crucial points. "We expect," says Mrs. Hale, "that instructor-led discussion will take place at these breaks and at the very end — which is, by the way, not a statement but a question. This way, students will be encouraged to relate the information to their own problems, situations, and attitudes." The filmstrip, created for Penney's Education and Consumer Relations program, is available to home-economics teachers and other educators through the firm's 1700 stores, as part of a "kit" that includes a synchronized 33-1/3 r.p.m. record plus commentary in booklet form. These are accompanied by a teacher's guide and "case histories" for classroom exploration, prepared by the Penney staff of home economists. r. t^^' ■^ _p=?s \ 1rr4S --* V .oiac f— iU ■pfMKi 1** m ^ ■ Technicolor Pan &Scan; Low Cost Film Conversion A new low cost system of converting motion picture film from its standard 1.85 to 1 or 2.35 to 1 aspect ratios to videotape using the standard TV ratio of 1.33 to 1 has been announced by Joseph E. Bluth, vice president and general manager of the Vidtronics Division of Technicolor. Inc. The new process, which has been designated as the Technicolor Pan and Scan System, becames operational immediately at Vidtronics headquarters in Hollywood. Technicolor's new system reduces present costs, according to Bluth, by as much as 50 per cent. In addition, he said, by eliminating film processing procedures hitherto required for conversion, delivery can be made within 48 hours. It formerly took weeks to secure a converted print. The new Technicolor camera system produces the highest network quality achievable today. Bluth also noted that Technicolor's Pan and Scan is of great significance in the video cassette field. Pan and Scan, he said, is fast, inexpensive, and the only electronic technique now available by which film material can be adapted for videotape cassettes, and can be used in all known cassette systems, including the CBS-EVR, RCA Selectavision and Sony systems. Technicolor's Pan and Scan eliminates all film laboratory work by using an electro-optical system which reduces a film editor's "shot sheet" to a small length of punched, coded computer-type tape. This tape is then fed to the system, which has seven pan positions. The videotape is made as the film print rolls and the time required is the film's actual running time. needs of the expanding advertising industry in Chicago. The physical reorganization of VPI Services follows the same pattern that has proved so effective in New York, bringing the Electrographic Corporation commercial film and videotape services under one common management, on a national basis. These are Sarra (production). Astro (laboratory) and VPI Services (editorial, optical, print). Bill Newton, president of Sarra, is executive director of the new Midwest management group, which now includes Dick Bowen, Paul Hedburn. Frank Romolo, Bob Shipley and Bernie Nierman. Frame from "Credit" filmstrip shows similarities and contrasts between two extenders of credit, the friendly neighborhood grocer and the giant, computer oriented corporation. Collage-plus-photography technique is' used throughout. VPI Opens New Chicago Post Production Service VPI has restructured its Chicago post-production services and consolidated them in a single line setup called VPI Services, according to Sheldon Satin, president of VPI and chief executive officer of the Electrographic Corporation's film and videotape division. This new facility at 444 North Wabash covers over 20,000 square feet and houses the latest in color commercial finishing equipment, tailored to meet the Multi-Screen Show Tells Classified Ad Story One of the highlights at the June 50th Anniversary convention of ANCAM (the Association of Newspapers Classified Advertising Managers) was a multi-screen presentation made jointly by AT&T and the Bureau of Advertising. Produced by Ken Saco Associates, Inc., of New York, the 24-minute AT&T segment documented what six leading newspapers in the U.S. and Canada are doing right, in their classified advertising operations. An audience of some 300 classified ad managers applauded the "authentic feel and sound" of the presentation, as it told its story with the pictures — and words — of real people in working situations. "How does an outstanding classified ad department operate? How is it organized, and administered? What sales techniques does it use? What qualifications are set for its people? How are they trained? What equipment do they use, and how do they use it?" To get working answers to such questions, director Curtis Lowey, writer Richard Bruner, and photographer Ken Ambrose — with AT&T's Marketing Press Representative Joseph Lullo — went to Billings, Montana; Fort Worth, Texas; Goldsboro, North Carolina; Miami, Florida; White Plains, New York; and Kitchener, Canada. They interviewed and photographed classified ad managers and their departments, in newspapers ranging in size from 17,000 in circulation to 500,000. All had one thing in common: a successful, profitable operation. The end result was a sound 42 BUSINESS SCREEN