Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

Page Fourteen April 30, 1938 the same except Metro’s present ability to cover the ground adequately, and intelligently read the amount of material necessary to discover enough stories for its sixty odd feature production program. Calibre of Readers . . . /T IS a notorious fact that many reading departments, even at this date, resemble more a concubinage than a reading force of intelligent and trained people. Those unfortunates whose faces and legs have little to commend them for camera purposes are relegated to the reading departments by promising producers, directors and executives. The reading department is jokingly referred to as the “Girl Friend Department.” The implication is, of course, that reading and the selection of proper material requires little brains. Readers receive anywhere from $25 to $75 a week, the salary depending upon their physical rather than mental attainments. It seems a little off balance to consider that $100,000 year producers are satisfied that $25 a week underlings are sifting and sorting nascent screen material. The very lowness of salary presupposes workers of inferior talents. A man working for $50 a week reading and selecting material will not be happy in the knowledge that his taste and judgment are the channels through which $500,000 or $1,000,000 are presently to flow. Reader Honesty . . . NDER the present set-up every practical reader is an incipient author. It is only natural that he should be envious of the writer whose script he is reading and who will get, if he, the reader, so deems, $3500 for his story. To the reader such a price represents a whole year’s salary or more. Why not, therefore, increase his personal income by writing at home himself? And since ideas — good ideas — are always at a premium, what is there to prevent the reader from rejecting Love In the Rockies as unsuitable for motion picture production, but keeping for himself and for his future literary efforts the best in that story? Outside Readers a Problem . . . HERE was a time during the heyday of prosperity that outside readers received from Metro as much as six dollars for a single review. A 10% cut brought this down to $5.40, which price now prevails. Universal pays the all-industry low of three dollars per review. The conclusions to be gleaned from these facts are almost too obvious to mention. An outside reader has to be good to be working. But his goodness depends on his speed as well as his judgment. An outside reader, for all the inside readers may think of him, is human and must live. And a man or woman must earn at least $25 a week to live decently. This means he must have read from five to eight books in one week in order to earn enough to eat. The mechanics of writing a report necessitates his making from four to seven copies (depending on the company) of three separate items. First, a one-page synopsis of the script. Second, at least ten pages of plot in some detail. Third, a half-page of critical judgment as to the merits of the work as motion picture material. Speed and Neatness . . . KO goads its readers into preparing long synopses by offering awards. For synopses of fifteen typewritten pages or over the reading fee is increased another few dollars. A late reading department head of Metro, Mrs. Lewton, used to insist, as her secretary would tell outside readers, not so much on context as on neatness. And many a script with erasure marks were slapped back for retyping. Neatness should be a essential part of any synopsis presentation, but not the extreme here mentioned. The outside reader, as mentioned, hurries to complete as many assignments as possible. His work is only intermittent at best. The necessary care each script deserves is not possible in the conveyor-belt spirit that pervades every reading department. God and the Printed Word . . . /T IS a notorious fact that reading department heads as well as readers have an unexplicable anathema for typewritten scripts. Without further investigation a script presented in this form is hardly suitable. The printed word, the prejudgment of another editor or publisher, is like the word of God to many reading heads. Typed scripts are relegated to the outsider, for the most part, whereas the printed word is the special province of the more fortunate insider. No doubt readability has much to do with this state of affairs. Nevertheless, the difference in spirit with which the two kinds of presentations are met is an ample indication of the business brains of the people who are hired. Literary Shakedown . . . LL these evidences of blundering stupidity are as nothing compared to the nefarious system which permits reading heads to have more than a literary interest in the scripts presented them. It is well known by agents as well as authors that a number of reading department heads insist on a cut of everything that is sold. What this does to the search for quality scripts, the search for motion picture material, the resultant waste and loss of money as well as good available material, is obvious. Recently, a script that sold for $60,000 netted the author all of $14,000. Outstretched palms that reached from New York to Hollywood and back had glue on them. The interchange of department heads, not infrequent, suggests the magic circle in which these executives move. It seems to be a genial fraternity of people who make the rounds, year in and year out, between North Hollywood, Hollywood and Culver City, in the merry, merry maypole that costs the studios millions. RECIPE FOR SUCCESS SOME day we are going to have a producing organization which will become spectacularly successful by doing all the obvious things present producing organizations are leaving undone.