Film year book (1935)

1934 Activities of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America ^ m The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., of which Will H. Hays is president, is a trade association formed in 1922 and composed of American producers and distributors of motion pictures. It is a source of information on all industry matters. It serves as a co-ordinating agency in industrial relationships. To a public interested in all that concerns motion pictures, it functions as interpreter of problems and policies. The principal office is at 28 West 44th Street, New York City. Other offices are at 5504 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif.; 709 Albee Building, Washington, D. C; 21 Rue de Berri, Paris, France, and 7 Charles Street, London, England. Activities The activities of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., may be divided into these categories: Production Code Administration, Advertising Advisory Council, Public Relations, Foreign, Legal, Theater Service, and Department of Conservation. Production Code Administration Headed by Joseph I. Breen in Los Angeles, the Production Code Administration functions as the interpreter of the Production Code both in relation to stories and to scripts prior to their use in production and after they have taken final shape in photoplay form. The Production Code Administration maintains its principal office in Los Angeles, where the majority of studios are located. However, an office Is also maintained in New York to administer the Production Code for Eastern studios. Realizing the need for self-regulation, the organized industry under the leadership of Will H. Hays, developed a formula which was the first definite codification for self-government. The processes of development based on thirteen years of experience in accumulating precedents of almost all subjects pertaining to motion picture topics led to the creation of the Production Code and the Advertising Code. These codes and the formulae upon which they are based may be termed the organized industry's self-imposed regulations for production and advertising. Consequently, production and advertising are guided by these self-regulations. During 1934 the Production Code Administration has been materially strengthened. It is not only the self-regulatory code to studio executives but also a starting point for thought and discussion in the case of every script in the development of drama promising new factors in entertainment. At four vital points the Production Code serves during the making of a picture: 1. Consideration of the basic story before the final screen adaptation is written and, sometimes, before purchase. In this early stage the plot considered in relation to the Code may offer at once certain obvious points where care will be necessary, or where patently social values will be impaired or preserved, depending upon the manner of treatment. 2. Examination of the script. Here the blueprint of the proposed picture is used in a second check with Code requirements. Danger points and opportunities for social usefulness now stand out in sharp relief. 3. The initial stages of the actual making of a picture. The studio heads, supervisors, directors and others concerned with the making of the picture, meet with the Production Code Administration to evolve and lay suggestions for the specific treatment of sequences that have been agreed upon as involving relation to the Code. 4. Examination of the finished picture to assure that the processes that have gone before have resulted in a product consonant with the Code provisions. The final action by the Production Code Administration is the issuance of a certificate of approval, without which a picture cannot be