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NON-THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES 451
specializing in the production of "Industrials." And by "Industrials" we can include, rather roughly, films of these types: Factory Films — showing manufacturing processes; Sales Films — visualizing selling points of commodities, or services, as shown to prospective customers; Medical Films — made for individuals as well as Medical Colleges, etc.; Progress Reports — Motion Picture records of important happenings in civic affairs; Social Films — films that are made up for private purposes, or for annual dinners, etc.
So you see, an Industrial Film organization today has to be equipped to take all kinds of Motion Pictures under every conceivable condition, and while the theatrical man has to please his director only, quite often in this business we have to satisfy a committee of fifteen or more. The very life of our business depends on selling the "Ideas." Talk to the average man even slightly interested in movies, and he will invariably say: "Why don't you sell So-and-So a movie, they can use one." Easy enough to say so — but the industrial firms that are alive and kicking today are the ones who have been able to sell their "Ideas." That's all there is to it.
You can start an industrial firm yourself. No coupons to be detached — no books to read — no courses to take. All you have to have are a few Bell & Howell's, a complete laboratory, a few Cameramen (who have been making movies long before 16 mm. became popular) — a nice suite of offices, exceptional salesmen, strong financial backing — brains, knowledge (acquired through experience only) , and pep, personality and perseverance. Get all this — build yourself a reputation in your community — and just as soon as you start to make money after years and years of missionary work, sound enters — and you've got to start all over again.
However, sound, if anything, will help the industrial film business. It will take just a bit for the necessary readjustment, but before long sound film (for industrial and educational purposes only) will be made for far less than the approximate $5 per foot price now — and portable projection units will cost much less, be more perfect, and be easier to handle than they are at present. In the meantime, the production of industrial silents is going on just the same. There are a few sound industrials in circulation today. The number is gradually increasing and every industrial firm has already made necessary contacts for sound films. This, notwithstanding the fact that recently all the major companies definitely established industrial departments. I'm not old. I've only been in this business about ten years, but in that time I've seen them come and go — and the only ones who always remain are the old established ones who don't try to grab too much, but are satisfied to gradually build their business by efficiently contacting and persistently working all available potential clients within an approximate area of several hundred miles from their laboratory. The firm, with headquarters in one city, cannot consistently and successfully compete with organizations 1000 miles away who have the necessary personal contacts that are vital in any worthwhile Industrial firm.
Educational Motion Pictures include about fifty per cent, of all