Film Spectator (1927-1928)

Page Six THE FILM SPECTATOR July 23, 1927 week trying to discover who had called him, and why. At the end of that time he was given a check for seven hundred dollars and was told the production had been called off. I saw the check. Most of the pictures are so bad after they are edited that retakes are necessary, as well as much title-writing and excessive pawing over, all of which contribute to the excessive cost. All of these abuses have ramifications that spread throughout the organization. A thousand dollars wasted entails as much bookkeeping as a thousand dollars spent wisely. They are abuses which Louis B. Mayer thinks he can cure by retaining in office the people responsible for them, and by asking everyone on the lot to stop, look and listen. He will tell you that in making pictures waste can not be avoided. And in that he is absolutely wrong. If he were qualified for the position he holds "he would know it is wrong. Also, if he were qualified for his position there would be no waste. ♦ * ♦ With Apologies to Bebe and Wally PRESUMING that I am right in pointing out the various ways in which Mayer’s organization ruthlessly squanders money, let us see if we can devise a practical remedy. I am a little diffident in approaching the task now that Bebe Daniels and Wally Beery have entered the lists as picture economists, but in the hope that I can get my plan to the public before they have cured all the ills that afflict the screen, I will go ahead, and hope Bebe will pardon my impetuosity. John Colton is on the Metro pay-roll. He is a great dramatist, and it is a safe presumption that he can write good screen material. On the pay-roll also are men and women skilled in writing continuity. One of them, whom we will call Bill, works with John. Let us suppose that the lot has been reformed and that production is being handled intelligently. John writes a story for a picture and Bill begins to put it into shape for shooting. Any weaknesses in John’s story crop up in Bill’s continuity. They take all the time they want. They quarrel over this scene and that one, rearrange the sequences and change their characterizations. At last they are satisfied. They have a good script. The director who can handle that kind of story to good advantage is assigned to it. He estimates the footage that every scene will take and discovers that the total will be eight thousand feet. The picture is to be released in seven reels. John, Bill and the director go over the script and finally get it down to the proper footage. A shooting schedule is drawn up, providing for the highest paid actors being killed off first. All salaries start the day the people go to work. The script being perfect in every detail, the director shoots it as written. There’s your cure for all the production ills. John and Bill having had all the time they needed, their script was inspiration-proof when they completed it, consequently there is precious little excessive footage when editing begins. That means quick and economical editing. Every scene being shot as described in the script means that the script titles fit the action, consequently the picture is titled automatically as it is edited. Every scene shot being in the picture means that no money was wasted on building sets that were not used or in employing actors who did not act. Every hour spent in shooting yielded something that reached the screen. John and Bill being masters of their craft eliminated the necessity for supervision. To balance the program of releases a romantic drama was needed and John was instructed to write one. That was the extent of the supervision. At the same time other Johns and Bills, and Jennies and Bessies on the lot were preparing stories for the rest of the releases. They were trained to write directly for the screen, not for the Thalbergs and Rapfs. Just enough directors would be on the pay-roll to keep the program moving. They would not be important, for any man after brief training would be able to direct from a perfect script. Perhaps John’s picture would be a flop. It might not be about a subject that the public liked. But it would have the virtues of being well made and costing about half what its present flops cost Metro. The advantage of my system would be that it would be almost certain to produce a successful picture, whereas by the present supervisor plan the Metro system is almost certain to produce a flop. One of the greatest imbecilities of the Mayer organization is its adherence to the contract player system. There are eight or ten stars whom it would be wise to keep under contract, but every other contract is an individual example of utter idiocy. If Mayer, Thalberg, and Rapf had any qualifications for the jobs they hold they would understand without prompting that the way they run the contract system is both an economic and an artistic blunder. , * * ♦ Perfect Script a Cure for All Ills ONE thing that Lasky, Mayer, Schenck, Laemmle-and the rest of them do not seem to be able to get into their heads is that the story is the only thing that counts. The perfect script suggests its own cast and director. It automatically effects every saving that the producers are striving for. A succession of perfect scripts on the Paramount lot would do its own thinning out of the pay-roll, for it would reveal those who are of no value to production. I have a high regard for Ben Schulberg’s picture ability. With him to keep the program balanced, and a staff of thoroughly trained and tested writers Paramount could be turning out twice as good pictures for half as much money as it is spending now. Bernie Fineman, Lloyd Sheldon, and Bennie Zeidman now stand in the way of either economy or art in Paramount pictures. It is inconceivable to me how Lasky can figure that people without creative brains can make any contribution to a creative art. Perhaps Bebe and Wally will be able to show him how he can save some money by refraining from painting a wheelbarrow or by using the exposed insides of in-coming envelopes for inter-office communicating, but he never will effect any saving that counts until he forgets all about saving and gives all his thoughts to the manner in which a picture should be produced. The better the picture, the greater profits it will earn. The screen industry is in the fortunate position of making a product that is perfect only in the degree that the right amount of money is spent on it. Building sets that do not reach' the screen means that the script could not have been perfect, for you can not take a piece out of perfection and have perfection left. Therefore the right amount of money means the amount a perfect script calls for, and you can not be either economical or extravagant with