The Film Daily (1924)

THE iday, September 14, 1924 17 low to Show Them •pinions of the Important Producers and Distributors Relative to Projecting Shorts JULIUS STERN, Century Comees: The question of what constitutes fair critical showing of short subjects • pecially comedies, has been seted in my mind for some time. I ive always maintained that to disner the true entertaining value of ich a picture it must be shown to a :gular audience in a regular movie ouse in order to find the real region it will have. Projection room audiences never ■act to a comedy the same way a lal audience does. This fact I have arned through actual experience lined in an effort to determine just hat the relative values were of the vo showings. Whenever I am in Dubt about a picture I always make y decision after a regular audience lowing. Regular theater audiences consist the first place of the people who ake it possible for us to continue oducing comedies. They are the 'ople for whom we produce. Why en should anyone else be the judge to the entertainment value of the eductions? Regular audiences are ady to be amused. They are in a cod which brings out the reaction tended by those making the picture, msequently a better idea of what c picture will do when released is be obtained. Of course it is necsary to have the film reviewed in projection room in order to detect clinical faults and censorable sciences, but a comprehensive idea of e real entertainment value of a ■medy production, by all means atch it with a regular audience and ATCH THAT AUDIENCE. WANTS AUDIENCE E. W. HAMMONS, Educational: is our most emphatic opinion that e most difificult subject in the world judge in a projection room is a medy. We believe that it is es ntial that a comedy should be dged in a theater, before a regu audience. I personally have seen is demonstrated a great many times the most emphatic way. NEEDS AUDIENCE REACTION H. F. TURRILL, Arrow Film: 'e feel most emphatically that no hibitor or anyone one else for that atter can get the proper reaction 3m a comedy in the projection om. Whether the audience reaction is cessary or not the exhibitor himIf cannot properly determine the lue of a comedy excepting under eater conditions. "COLD" SHOWINGS HURTFUL F. C. QUIMBY, Universal: A Id projection room and a viewing a picture without any of the reptive atmosphere which any the;r in operation presents is extreme ly unfair to any moving picture but particularly to a short subject. Short subjects are just like vaudeville. If they don't get you in the first two minutes, you're not "got." If you're not in the frame of mind to become interested in that time, you probably never will be really interested in it. Whereas an audience, put into the mood to enjoy itself not only would greatly appreciate such a subject but would give an exhibitor or anyone interested in the valuation of such a subject, like a critic or a producer or one who is studying such subjects for their actual or relative value, a much higher impression of its value than if he saw it, as we say. "cold." I know that a great many exhibitors feel that they are capable of judging pictures merely on their own opinion and that they feel that they are able to estimate this audience quantity. But on the other hand, every exhibitor has had the experience of having comedies which he thought were poor go over very big with audiences not only in his own theater but in other theaters. It might be a difficult thing to work out a selling plan whereby short subjects could not be sold or viewed by exhibitors on their audience value. However, if such a plan could be worked out I am confident that it would result in much better balanced and more interesting programs for exhibitors and more attention being paid to these short subjects, which audiences appreciate almost as much as the feature. NOT A FAIR TEST JOE BRANDT, C. B. C.: "My experience with the showing of short subjects in projection rooms is that it is not a fair test as to the audience value. During the time that we produced the Hall Room Boy Comedies, this was demonstrated in several instances where exhibitors had looked at the comedies in _ the projection room of the exchange and their opinion of the subject shown did not measure up to what they considered the necessary comedy standard. These same exhibitors ran the comedies in their theaters and were surprised to note the effect on the audience and the number of laughs that were in the comedies that they themselves had not anticipated. In my opinion, the exhibitor is very seldom in the proper frame of mind when he goes into the projection room to view the picture and in spite of his honest attempt to get the audience reflex on the picture, his personal ideas as to the merit of the pictures, seem to predominate. I believe that the best way to test the value of any short subject is to have it screened before an audience to get the audience reaction. WANTS AUDIENCE TEST EDWIN M. FADMAN, Red Seal I believe I can do no better than to quote from my own experience in connection with some of our own short subjects notably, the Out-ofthc-Inkwells and the Animated Hair Cartoons. Where one has a series of (Continued on Page 20) DEVELOPING A TERRITORY BY W. W. ANDERSON, MANAGER, ' PATHE EXCHANGE, ATLANTA About two years ago the Southern Enterprises used practically no Two Reel Comedies or Short Subject Novelties. A little later the Southern Enterprises were taken over by the Famous Players-Lasky Corp. Through their keen foresight of what the future meant to them in the picture field. Harold B. Franklin, D'irector of Theaters for the Famous Players-Lasky, and his assistant, Harry Goldberg, last year put into efTect instructions that every theater manager must round out his programs with proper short subject product. Even though these instructions were given, the managers did not realize that the time was ripe to give the short subjects their deserving place on the program. Nor did they then realize whan an important part the short subjects were going to play in their programs. Mr. Franklin realized that these instructions emanating from him could not be brought about over night, but with the cooperation given by the Pathe Branch Managers, who through correspondence and personal visits to the managers, and also through the screening of various subjects from time to time, began to see the results of his untiring efforts, as the Managers slowly but surely began to think kindly of Franklin's idea, as they gave more thought to the selection of their programs, and the reaction was felt almost at once. As an illustration, Howard Kingsmore, Managing Director of the Howard, Atlanta, the south's finest theater, who was selected by Franklin to direct the destinies of this picture palace, and who revolutionized the motion picture presentation in the south, was quick to realize the advantage of proper short subjects, and he personally should be credited, to a great extent, for having made the short subject j)rogram a huge success in the southeast. Many exhibitors outside of the Southern Enterprises circuit have been quick to realize the advantages of the Short Subject product as an asset to their programs. The exhibitors in general are guided to a large extent by what is played in the Howard Theater. In March of this year, Franklin decided to have a convention of District Supervisors and Managers in New York, and one entire day was given over by Franklin discussing how successful his plan regarding short subjects had been. It was very gratifying to Franklin to find the managers and supervisors unanimous in their opinion that the short subjects had been a great success, as the patrons in all of their theaters had commented very flatteringly on the vast improvement in the programs in the Southern Enterprises houses. I believe that the after effect of this convention, and the unanimous approval of his plan by his managers is the main reason why Pathe Short Subjects have been contracted practically one hundred per cent in all of the Southern Enterprises theaters. My statement, saying that "two, years ago practically no short subjects were used," is weird but true, and I feel certain that Franklin will vouch for this, and it is a revelation to picture men in the south, who are naturally in close touch with the motion picture situation to realize that in about 18 months, picture presentation in this section has advanced to the point where it is practically on the same plane as in the north. It has been proven that real "dyed in the wool" serials are not intended only for the smaller and cheaper houses. Today such houses as the Missouri, St. Louis, the Palace, Dallas, and the Newman, Kansas City, are using such high class serials as "THE FORTIETH DOOR," and "INTO THE NET," and it would not surprise the writer to see Managing Director Kingsmore of the Howard, Atlanta, follow suit in the near future. There's a Difference By HARRY LANGDON I suppose I am fortunate in having approached the great American joke from more different angles than fall to the lot of most comedians. My work as a newspaper cartoonist, and the years I spent on the vaudeville stage are invaluable foundations for my screen work. Each of these is hard in its own way. Newspaper comics are hard because you have only four frames in which to tell your comedy. You don't have the elbow room that you have in screen comedies. On the other hand, you can get away with jokes that would be censored as too violent and brutal on the screen. Somehow the public does not think of it as brutal when they see a ton of coal fall on a fat policeman in a comic strip; but they would have you burned alive or something worse if you tried it on the screen. Vaudevflle is sometimes harder and sometimes easier than either of theother two ways of cracking jokes. If you have a good audience it is easier; if you have a cold audience it is harder than anything else in the world. The advantage of vaudeville is that you can change your act to suit each audience. When you have made a picture, there it is. It has to go just the same for Medicine Hat and Broadway. Coming for the first time into screen comedies, a funny man is surprised to find how difficult it is to get stories; you have to have more plot and a more logical and consistent plot than for a high-brow drama. The odd thing about the whole business of being funny is that the public wants to laugh; but it is the hardest thing in the world to make them do it. They don't want to cry; yet they will cry at the slightest provocation.