Cinema Quarterly (1933 - 1934)

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the way to greater beauty and to richer emotional values on the screen. But they must remember that he must walk in the company of those who are not yet able to run. For a man who, by virtue of his work, is in such close contact with the minds of a great mass of the community, there is no greater folly than to imagine that they are satisfied with just bread and circuses. But whatever he does, he must talk to them in their own language, and not in the language of the academy and of the lecture -room. The producer, therefore, must remember that he is responsible to the company that employs him for keeping the balance between the industrial or commercial side of film making and the creative or artistic side. The way of a producer, then, is not easy, and the qualities he must strive after are difficult to attain. The difficult ideal he must set himself is to be as absorbent as a sponge, as indulgent as a father, as hard as steel, and as patient as Job. In an art with unlimited possibilities inspiration may come even from the humblest sources. He can afford to neglect nothing. The material with which he works is not only human but is also artistic. To get the best out of the artist calls for a profound understanding of their psychology. There are times when he must give way, there are more frequent times when he must stand his ground, and he is never free from the necessity of calling upon an infinite resource of patience. 2. THE DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER JOHN GRIERSON Producer to the Empire Marketing Board throughout its career The producer's function is to co-ordinate the more or less worldly intentions of backers with the more or less unworldly intentions of artists. He either finds the money for the artists or the artists for the money: differing in honour according to the direction from which he approaches. Sometimes, if he is ingenious, he carries the reputation among the artists of being an artist himself, and among the backers of being tougher than themselves. Sometimes — this is more frequent — he degenerates into a bully or a sycophant, sent by the money-grubbers to mangle and destroy every decent creative effort whatsoever. Sometimes he more blazingly constitutes himself a racketeer and defence organisation for the artists against the moneygrubbers. At his best he is just a plain pandar, serving art as best 7