Business screen magazine (1946)

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IMA — Theatre Equipment Supply Manufacturers' Association — tells its "Why Go to a Movie" story with a prerecorded twolector overlapping screen show. It's portable, less expensive and more unique than a film. It's multi-media at its simplest. ;hing clearly defined objectives. hir industriul theatre needs practi lers who are at least as well skilled heir counterparts in the legitimate jtre. if they are to carry off their successfully. Repeat performances / not occur week after week, but m ^.-crtainly do occur year after year. ; successful producer must bring audience and his clients back to industrial theatre from one year he next, if he is to remain in busi .. He can succeed by cultivating a itivity for his multi-media tools and ising them properly. ie must know just how much is ugh and what proportions of infor lion to blend with entertainment for h of the many occasions he is asked ill. Ie is somewhat like an adroit harder, knowing the precise moment en the dry vermouth being added the vodka magically transforms the ^ture into something much greater n the sum of its parts. Knowing t when the message and medium ;in to compete for attention helps ikeep the techniques used — visual, ^•bal, and aural — within certain limi of acceptance which in turn depid upon the audience, the occasion, 11 the surroundings. jrere are two examples to suggest the H spectrum within which the multiit dia producer operates. !a projection screen that probably lids the world's record for overall je — one hundred and fifty feet in nglh — was specified for a recent projim given by a corporate executive. Iie audience, about 1()00 executives, ■re to gather at a luncheon meeting 'the Executives Club of Chicago. The jcasion required a visual program to jpport a major company executive, arch/April. 1972 one that would properly support his 30+ minute talk. The room measured 190 by 50 feet. The audience faced the dias which was parallel to the 190 foot wall. Because of the unusual width of the room, at least two screens — one at either end of the room — would be needed for acceptable visibility. However, by covering the wall behind the head table with a single 150-foot long screen the visual program could be duplicated both left and right of the speaker (in content if not exactly picture for picture). In this way, only the half of the screen that could be comfortably viewed would need to tell the whole story. In addition the speaker could be spotlighted within the center screen, becoming a dominant part of his visualized story. Slides, film, and sound were blended with 29 projectors to yield a highly memorable mix of message with medium. Overdone? Not according to those who attended. Others may feel differently, but there are some who feel that Beethoven's 9th is overdone, too. At the other end of the spectrum, a program in point: a trade association representing the motion picture field needed to tell its own story through a medium other than film. The prior year's program used film. Something different was wanted. There was a further need for this program to travel and be available to association representatives who would give the program under conditions far from ideal — hotel rooms of varied sizes and facilities over the country. Slides seemed to be the answer. The visual solution was a conventional two-projector program with a unique twist. By giving slides a wide two-to-one ratio a pair of projected u images could be overlapped to create the impression of three tandem square screens. The additional advantage of overlapping images on the center screen was available for novel effects. A pre-recorded ' J " sound track added dramatic dimension. The final product was a dual slide projector and tape program that told the association story simply with a high degree of effectiveness. Severe restrictions by multi-media standards. However, a broad exposure to country-wide audiences bore out the soundness of this simple format. In this instance, the answer to "how much is enough" became "very little is enough." In sum, virtually any medium can overwhelm a story. A current Volkswagen commercial pictures their advertising manager looking for a singing commercial to extol the features of his product. The song and lyrics plugger (he couldn't possibly be a producer) in final desperation tells his client, "l.issen, ten 'tousand canaries whistling "Blueboid of Happiness" couldn't help you." The commercial strikes a telling blow for the value of understatement, particularly where the product's virtue is itself understatement. This is an effective matching of the medium to the message, and it may well be the key we seek. Perhaps we'd do well to listen to one more bit of advice from our 300 year old communications consultant: "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action: with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature." Inspiring words — supported, of course, by staging, music, sound effects, actors, costumes, and poetry. Ah sweet multi-media, not always modest child of nature! Q 21