The Cine Technician (1939)

vz T H E C INE-TECHNICI A N June-July, 193 Pictures, praising the work of its A.C.T. crew ? With one exception, every technician, including the director, on "The High Command," was British. Mr. Chevalier mentions sound engineers. Can he name a single technically outstanding British production whose sound has been recorded by a non-British technician ? There is not a foreign sound recordist at Denham, Pinewood, Shepherds Bush, Ealing, Elstree, Beaconsfield, Wembley, Islington, Shepperton, Teddington or elsewhere. Where are they ? Laboratory men are also mentioned. Perhaps Mr. Chevalier might care to ask Harry Stradling for a comment on British laboratory technicians. "They are excellent" was his comment in the April issue of The Cine-Technician. Mr. Chevalier says British technicians can work in other countries. Can they ? Can he negotiate the necessary employment contracts ? If so, there are dozens waiting for such an opportunity, including many who, for example, have proved their prowess by work with Alfred Hitchcock, Herbert Wilcox, Alexander Korda (a British subject, Mr. Chevalier), and other leading British producers. I agree that we cannot produce highly-skilled specialists out of the hat. But neither do we, Mr. Chevalier, talk out of our hat. I do not quite see how a walk round any British studio proves your point, whatever it may be. An empty floor proves very little, except that the millions of pounds sunk (an appropriate word) into the industry and spent on "international stars" and "top-rate" technicians, is not a very good advertisement for whatever you mean it to advertise. Mr. Chevalier says the time has arrived when we who earn our livelihood in British studios should face up to the facts. Is it not also the time when those who are qualified, but denied the right to earn their livelihood, should also face up to the facts ? Over a third of the British technicians are unemployed. Many of this number have records for technical quality of work which compare favourably with any other technician, whatever his nationality. Let us not underrate our own technicians while claiming art to be international. All A.C.T. asks is for an important British industry to be regarded in proper perspective. We are not opposed to foreign technicians as such. We greatly appreciate the service some of them have rendered the British industry. But we also know that others have done work which could equally well have been done by a British subject. Let us remember that every foreign technician is not ipso facto an "ace." Equally, every British technician is not incompetent. All we ask is that British technicians be employed when they are available to do a particular job. The present is obviously such a time, except as far as those persons who may happen to be in a class of their own. Whether he be a Lee Garmes, a George Perinal, a Vincent Korda, a Fred Young, a Bernard Knowles, or an L. P. Williams, we are proud to have them in our industry. But, even here, we plead for it to be equally easy for the latter to work abroad as for the former to work in England. On the grounds, if you like, Mr. Chevalier, that art is international. A.C.T. is not opposed to foreign "aces," provided they are "aces," as long as there are no equally expert British technicians available. All we plead for is that employment be given to British technicians, provided (I) they are available, and (2) they are competent to do the job. Who can call this policy unreasonable ? Our two contributors, Mr. Fairbairn and "Flicker," now take up the theme with their comments on the p< need for training for, and control of entrance into, film production . While not committing the Association to every word of theirs, we may point out that this need for training and apprenticeship has been a point, at any rate of discussion, in A.C.T 's policy for three years now ; and we are shortly hoping to achieve results through collaboration with public bodies : — MR. FAIRBAIRN says — Members of the audience, you have read about the rapid and romantic rise of the British film industry. You may also have read at a later date sad cases of studios shutting down, and it seems hard to reconcile the two statements. Actually the first is what Americans might call "boloney." If, on the strength of our rapid and romantic rise, the Clark Gables, William Powells, Greta Garbos and Ginger Rogers were barred from our screens to make way for the counter British attractions, what would you do ? As an irritant, the subject would vie with the weather. Here is a modern fable. There are two men, A and B. A lives in the United States and B lives in England. A, after many years' work, builds up a prosperous business and sells his wares, not only in his own country, which he can adequately supply, but in foreign countries as well. The manufacture of these wares requires skill and experience, and A is careful to have all but a negligible amount of the skill and experience at his disposal. Once upon a time, in the pioneering days of the business, A and B worked almost level-pegging. Circumstances arose which seriously handicapped B and allowed A to outstrip him. A forged ahead whilst B slid back into obscurity. Years pass, and B, who buys A's wares and knows he reaps a good profit into the bargain, decides to rebuild his workshops and make the same thing himself. An admirable spirit. B is in such a hurry to get to work that he does not ponder over A's formidable experience in a business where experience is of paramount importance. He gathers together the odds and ends which have not been garnered by A, together with a few more who have left A because A found someone better, and enthusiastically begins to copy A. The fact that he has the cream of the brains working for him does not deter B. He goes merrily ahead. Then he takes some of the articles he has succeeded in manufacturing and tries to sell them in A's home territory. Some people call it optimism. Others use a different word. B comes sadly home again and says it is not fair that he should buy A's goods while A refuses to buy his. It is still true that if a man makes a better mousetrap than his neighbour, people will make a beaten track to his door, but if he makes a decidedly worse mousetrap, wild horses or super-salesmen won't bring them there. Not that A and B make mouse-traps. They don't. A makes films in America, and B makes films in Britain. When a producer here sets out to make a picture with the hope "1 selling in a foreign market he should bear in mind that lie is not doing it to fill a demand, or even as a favour (Hollywood can make enough pictures to fill most cinemas week after week, and keep it up indefinitely), but will have to meet competition on a grand scale. Just now the British industry is going through a bad time. Quite a number of film technicians searching for work will tell you that. The general feeling is that it will pick up again in a lew months. 1 sincerely hope it will.