Films Facts and Forecasts (1927)

2 FILMS: FACTS AND FORECASTS on record," via newspaper reporters in Savoy Hotel suites, that they just love this little old London-town, but that the fog sure is terrible. Well, of course, there is something more in filmmaking and film-showing than that. The present century and the film are about the same age, and there i s certainly no mechanical invention that has ever made more rapid strides in twrenty-seven years than the film. The half has not been told of its potential wronders — sound films, television films, wireless films, perfect colour films, stereoscopic films, non-inflammable films, modifications in the projection of films, which today have to be jerked sixteen times a second through the beam of light in order to create the illusion of movement on the screen — all such developments have or will come, and the field for experiment and invention is immense. Every film-man in Hollywood, Paris, Berlin or London will tell you that daily, hourly, changes are taking place in the direction of the acting ; the writing of scenario, story, treatment and sub-titles; the choice of material and musical accompaniment ; the planning of picture-theatres; and the modes of world-wide distribution of the pictures. The whole film-universe is in a perpetual state of flux, and, no doubt before this book is printed, much of it will be out of date. There are no less self-satisfied people in the world than film-folk. The commercial urge is so powerful and the competition of rivals so keen, that they cannot stand still a moment. As a result, they do not permit themselves enough quiet thinking and patient meditation. They rush into production and turn out miles of immature film, which brings the whole thing — industry, art, business, call it what you will — into disrepute. What, I believe, the industry needs most,