Business screen magazine (1946)

VflCUUIDflTE THE LICENSING OF SERVH KS 305 EAST 45th STREET NEW YORK. N. Y. t I WHO WILL SUPPLY THf/R CUSTOMERS THE INCOMPARABLE FAMOUS NO-EN FILM TREATMENT NO-EN GIVES TROUBLE-FREE PROJECTION TO LOOP AND CARTRIDGE LOADED FILMS. NO-EN INSURES SMOOTH, UNINTERRUPTED SHOWINGS AND EXTENDS THE LIFE OF THE PRINTS. VACUUMATE CORP. 427 W. 42nd ST.. NEW YORK. N. Y. NO-EN ALSO AVAILABLE AT A-V CORPORATION 2518 No. Blvd.. HOUSTON, TEXAS ASSOCIATED SCREEN INDUSTRIES 200 Northcliff Ave.. MONTREAL, CAN. COLORMAX CORPORATION 1105 Truman Road. KANSAS CITY, MO. GEORGE W. COLBURN LABS, INC. 164 No. Wacker Drive, CHICAGO, ILL. FILMLINE PRODUCTIONS 1467 Tamarind Ave., LOS ANGELES, CAL. SUPER 8 CITY, INC 1905 Fairview Ave.. N.E. WASHINGTON, D.C. XICOM INC. RFD #1, Sterling Forest, TUXEDO, N.Y. PARADOX continued industry . . . just for openers . . . PARADOX: A company interviews seven writers for a prospective film and finally selects one because of his creative originality. At the first script meeting they tell him exactly how they want him to write the picture. PARADOX: Warned in advance that not one penny over $50,000 is available for production, a producer submits a competitive proposal for a film. Three weeks later he finally receives a "sorry" letter in which he learns that the winning producer was awarded the film because he suggested the picture include Arthur Godfrey, Barbara Streisand. Bob Hope, and the Smothers Brothers . . . talent costs to be borne by the client. PARADOX: A company's president goes to Brasilia under an assumed name, the treasurer is subpoenaed by Congress, the stock drops thirty points in one day, a proxy fight is announced in the Wall Street Journal, so they call you in to suggest a good approach for a new corporate image movie. PARADOX: At nine o'clock in the morning you hire a new production assistant ... a brilliant 22 year old with straight 'A's and a brand new diploma in Filmmaking from a leading University. At three p.m. he comes in and asks you. "What's a B-Wind?" PARADOX: You have seven cameramen covering the Indy 500. A spectacular 1 1 car accident occurs right in front of one of them . . . while he's changing magazines. PARADOX: A company's sales start to go into a slump. The first action they take is to reduce the budget for producing and distributing films that help their sales. PARADOX: The sun shines brightly for the circle 124 on reader service card 24 first three days of a production while you're doing the interiors in a rented studio, and on the fourth day when you move onto location for the exteriors, it starts to rain for the first time in seven weeks. PARADOX: Our clients have a great deal of information to communicate, but very few people in our audience want to hear about it. PARADOX: You sit around for three weeks without a really good job in the house, then two come in on the same day, both for delivery at meetings on December 10th. All these situations fit the definition of paradox . . . contradictory to common sense, and yet absolutely true. In fact, they are probably so true that it may be painful to reflect upon them, and perhaps we will have to take refuge in a violation of Rule Number One, originally stated by Gretchen Gustafson. I think the reason our industry is so beset by these paradoxes is that the industry itself is something of a paradox. We are always at some crossroads . . . where entertainment meets education . . . where art meets industry . . . where technology meets marketing . . . where culture meets accounting . . . and where people meet ideas. This is the sort of subject matter which will form the contents of these columns in the months to come, and in closing this first column I'd like to pose a paradox, which I myself have been avoiding. PARADOX: Why does a writer who hates to work on Sundays, and who has one script deadline on Tuesday morning and another on Thursday at 2:30 p.m., spend Sunday afternoon writing a new monthly column? I think I know the answer to that one, however. One of the most basic of all drives which motivates a man te become a writer in the first place is deep respect for the value of personal communication with his professional peers. That is the objective I hope to achieve in these pages in issues to come. BUSINESS SCREEN