Year book of motion pictures (1925)

Carl Laemmle AN OPTIMIST Predicting is a dangerous business. It is no wonder that prophets have such a bad name in their own home towns. But predicting what is going to happen in a forthcoming moving picture year is getting easier because it is founded on more facts which are understood by the people who make the pictures. One of the great underlying factors in the prosperity of the moving picture business is the prosperity of the people of the United States and, in fact, of the world. When people are prosperous, the moving picture business is prosperous. The same law does not obtain altogether in regard to foreign countries, and competition is becoming keener and keener in a numlier of these countries every year. In my recent rtip abroad I made a careful analysis of working conditions as they respect moving pictures, and it is my prediction that the United States will see more moving pictures of a superior character made by foreign director and in foreign studios this year than ever before. These pictures will be welcome. In the arts this country still has a great deal to learn from the old countries. We have learned a great deal already and this knowledge we are sending back in constantly better pictures. If the first determining factor in the prosperity of moving pictures is the prosperity of the country itself, the second is the betterment of the product which the moving picture companies are turning out. I have made it my business to keep as thoroughly fn touch with the sentiments of this country about pictures — others as well as Universal's — as possible. Through this as well as personal observation I know that other producers' pictures are reaching a higher standard as well as. Universal's. These better pictures are also raising the average of critical taste on the part of movie goers and this in itself is one of the most encouraging factors in the moving pictures. An appreciation of this fact determined me to make more pictures of this quality and importance last year. I found it paid. For the coming year I am going to make even more of them and I have taken every possible precaution in the matter of stories, directors, casts and technical forces to insure these pictures being of superior quality. I have no fear for the future of moving pictures for the coming year. I know that the demand is there, and that the company that has the best pictures will have the opportunity of a life time next year, with political problems, both here and abroad ,very largely settled ; with business, big and little, confident of its market and of financial stability. I predict an extremely prosperous season for moving picture producers and for moving picture exhibitors. And this prosperity will be reflected first in the moving picture theater itself. 1925 THE YEAR FOR INDEPENDENTS In my estimation, the outstanding event that presages genuine progress for 1925 is Mr. Joseph Schenck's acceptance of the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors for United Artists. Here is a union of independent, creative and artistic brains that should serve the highest interest of all links in this industry's chain. To the independent Samuel Goldwyn producer, who is the life blood and pace maker in the industry, this amalgamation affords a new fountain of inspiration. Greater independent production offers incentive and stimulation for producer and artist and definitely assures exhibitors of worth while product. 1925 will be the year for Independents! THERE IS A LIMIT The outlook for the coming year from, within the industry is no different to my mind from what it has been for the past two or three years. The prosperity of the business depends upon good pictures, the cost to all concerned to be such that all branches of the industry can make money, and I am wondering just how much further we can go and have all branches of Harry M. Crandall the industry make money. The production end seems to be running wilder this year than ever before, and regardless of how good the picture may be, there still is a limit to what can be done in the box-office, and this does not mean only the boxoffice in the big towns and first-run houses, but the box-office in the little towns must be considered. After all, where will the exhibitor get off if the star pictures and the big special productions do take more money into the box-office, if the rental charge for them is such that he makes less money than he would on just a good picture. That time as fast approaching, and when it arrives the stars are going to suffer, because the exhibitor just will not use them, and a star can only be made popular by being shown on the different screens of the country. The general outlook for the coming year can be expected to continue. Photo copyright by Harris & Ewing PICTURES MUST "GET SOMEWHERE" The releases of 1924 have Sut borne out my predicion that the biggest successes of the year would je "theme" photoplays itories that discuss somehing more basic, more undamental than a mere ■eppermint girl and buterscotch boy romance. I believe that 1925 will >ut show an extension of this tendency, aided by the constant development of Cecil B. De Mille clever technical aids for the enhancing of dramatic effects. During the last year we found producers attempting stories that previously they could not have done, save for the new inventions and processes which are constantly making our art more vividly pictorial. As for myself, without such inventions, such processes, I could not have secured the "kick" of the Red Sea opening in "The Ten Commandments^' or the after death sequence in "Feet of Clay." Both of these effects made it possible to tack a whiplash on the end of a simple, dramatic theme. Both of these stories were romantic, were written to be entertaining, but when boiled down there was one single sentence each which carried home a direct message to thousands. My own experience has been but illustrative of a condition which has been driven home to others with equal force. The public will no longer take productions that merely tell a story. They must have "meat." They must get somewhere. They must add something to the sum total of human intelligence and understanding. They must do all this, and at the same time be entertaining. It is a large order but it is one producers must fill who wish to operate at the highest plane of efficiency. 365