FilmIndia (1939)

FOR THE TECHNICIANS Gsseciatie n |l|yjenacing clouds of war Khreaten the industry and if we lire to save it from an inevitable Iind an early death we must rally Bound and forget our mutual differences and devise a common emedy. But there must be no trace of .elfish motives actuating us, leither any disregard of the other vorker nor the feeling of everyone or himself and no one for every>ody. It is that personal aspect of ?o-ordmation, which did not egitimately fall within the scope of mr last article, it may not even be •xactly denned as Co-ordination, >ut call it what you will, what we nean is the sacrifice of all peronal ends, a policy of one for all ind all for one. It is this, that nust come forward and help us to ight the menace that threatens »ur livelihoods today. >OAP MANUFACTURE AND FILM WORK It is surprising therefore that the rery first steps suggested towards oeeting this contingency happened o be a reduction of salaries of workers. Of course such a suggesion could hardly have been exacted to be unanimous, but it has lelped to reveal the mentality of ome of us placed in more or less esponsible positions of control in he industry. In such a gathering »f men purporting to call themelves the leaders of the industry, here must necessarily be at least few whosa clearer vision and Teater insight can carry them beond the mere prcblems in hand, ind it is gratifying to note that it /as one of these that put forward dissenting note and pointed out le fallacy of the remedy. We have persistently been drivng it home to thos3 whese business it is to control such affairs, through the medium of our puliation, the Association's quarterly iulletin, that the only possible conomy lies in the control of our roduction tima schedules. A normal motion picture prnuction in India averages from 603 By The Editor ;| Qine Technicians to 700 shots and calculating on an average of 15 shots per working day the shooting time schedule should not exceed 45 days. If we add to this another five days for contingencies we have a maximum of 50 days for the production of any major film. When we come to realise that the average number of days taken today for even a mediocre production is close to 70. we will have an idea of the enormous loss to which the producer is put. A studio's expenses average approximately Rs. 1000 per day and 20 days means Rs. 20,000 per production, an amount even a fraction of which can never be saved by salary reductions. Exactly why there should be these delays? For it is scarcely fair to assume that these are deliberate wastes on time of the part of the workers. Speaking on behalf of our community it would be idle to boast that the Technician is on duty 15 minutes before any other member of the unit is present on the set, and it is always more than half an hour every day that he is on the sat packing away his things after every one has left. The Director too, is mostly on a contract job, or if he is not, there are invariably other attractions such as bonus, etc., that impells him to be on duty in time, and he is as eager if not more than anybody else to finish his work quickly. What then are the reasons? KEEP THE SCRIPT READY This is not the first time when we have been compelled to stress the importance of not only a complete but proper script before the start of actual production. Today in India it is the Director whose job it is to see that he has it and to insist upon it. If he does not do so he is wantonly throwing away the money his producer has entrusted him with. For he must know what and when ha is to work, his artistes and technicians must be told their duties and be given time for preparation and co-ordination, there must, in short, be no (a thinking on the floor, all that, must be ready and complete. Every artiste must know his lines, every technician his set up, there must be no delays in preparation. There must only be time for execution on the set, and then only can we hope for a shorter time schedule. But this can enly be when the script in addition to all dialogues and songs with their tunes, has a complete description of each scene — sketches of costumes and settings with all details prepared in perfect co-ordination with the different departments concerned, a separate list of process, montage or other shots, and all other information required by the production department. Only whsn all this is complete can a shooting schedule be prepared possibly with regard to the availability of the important artistes, and then and then only must production be taken in hand. We admit all this takes time, but it does not hold up other productions and Is therefore not a fraction so costly of what it would be if wcrk has started as it is now, haphazardly. If we can save the 20 days thrown away today we will have saved 20 per cent of a production's cost making it unnecessary to seek other and possibly doubtful avenues of economy. The Association cf Cine Technicians of India gives its assurance to the leaders of the Industry of its whole-hearted co-operation in this or other measures of economy that they may consider it expedient to adopt, but at the same time it also wishes to emphasize upon t^iem, most emphatically, that this is a time when petty selfish motives even on their part must find no place in such measures. They must do what is good for all and not what a short sighted policy may seem to indicate to them as gcod for themselves alone. The Industry cannot afford to experiment at such a juncture. Let everything we do be for the good cf all, and therein lies our salvation. 39