The international photographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

These "Minute Movies," as they are called, running only 80 seconds in screen time, are produced with an eye on the popularity of such famed screen cartoon characters as Porkie Pig and Donald Duck. National advertisers like Kraft's Malted Milk, Swifts Brookfield Butter and Kelloggs Rice Krispies use this new medium. The character of Goldie, the Shell Oil Company droplet, was created for a "Minute Movie" series, and Goldie's amazing adventures are depicted in animation in full-color Technicolor. The "Minute Movies" are seen in theatres throughout America. Distribution of business films is assured by means of nation-wide distributing facilities, comparable to standard theatre booking routine. With most present day sales and advertising films being reproduced on the small, safety stock of 16 millimeter, and with the improved manufacture of 16 millimeter sound on film projectors which are readily set up in schools, recreation rooms and auditoriums, a business film sponsor has at his command a potent means for a sales campaign or for instruction. In widely separated territories, at ever increasing frequency, movie presentations are being made to dealers, clubs, societies and company conferences. As Norman Blackburn pointed out, a business film is seen and heard by two to five million persons a year! Each Warner Theatre To Have Library of Screen A Library of the Screen, with branches in its 500 theatres throughout the country, is to be established by Warner Bros, next fall, it was announced by J. L. Warner, vice president of the film company. All the facilities and resources of the new nation-wide institution will be available to the public without charge. Each library will be stocked with material of direct application to the screen. It will contain novels and historical works already produced and yet to be produced by Warners and other studios, as well as texts and histories dealing with Hollywood and the making of motion pictures. The libraries also will feature volumes of still photographs from famous Hollywood productions, including rare stills of many films of early nickelodeon days. The albums of photographs will not be available for lending but interested fans will be able to examine the valuable collections at the libraries. All branches of the Library of the Screen will make substantially the same material available to the public. In addition to works already filmed, the libraries will be augmented from time to time as literary works are purchased for transcription to the screen. A Cameraman Turns to NatjonaI cJeFense worU In the July issue of the "International Photographer," Rella, in his column "They Say," casually remarks that Bill Draper in his spare time is supervising a machine shop on defense work. It should be added that in the time he does not have to spare, he sleeps, or tries to. Possibly a few remarks about this spare-time job might serve to make other cameramen more contented with their lot. Somewhere between Hollywood and Los Angeles is an imaginary line, the crossing of which places one in an entirely different world. The people talk a different language. The struggle for existence is on a much more serious plane. Needless to say, it is somewhat of a shock to suddenly find oneself on the other side of the line. The transposition was semi-involuntary. A gentleman who had at one time spent several years in developing what I called an invention of mine, brought to me a glowing account of the available business and a request that my partner and I buy for him a bankrupt machine shop. It looked like a possible place when I might call at intervals to pick up certain profits to augment my motion picture salary. Knowing absolutely nothing about that business I reasoned that I would be of no particular value to the shop and could carry on with my picture work. This might have been the procedure had not everything turned out to be exactly the opposite of what was expected. To begin with, our plans called for a brief announcement to the effect that we were ready to accept work, after which we were to step back so as to not be trampled in the rush. We made the announcement but the rush failed to materialize. After a few weeks I decided to conduct a personal investigation to determine whether or not peace had been declared and the general public not informed. The great volume of work coming from the aircraft companies was nowhere to be seen. It appears that they were in a typical moving picture slump. Shops that had been contracted for in busier times were standing idle. This interval of time gave me an opportunity to analyze this new world that I was in. Reluctantly I realized that many a move in the business world was motivated by greed. Honesty seemed only remotely expected. Conversations were pointless as no one believed what the other fellow said. It was just Europe on a small scale. The next few weeks demonstrated that the Marquis of Queensbury rules, to protect yourself at all times, are not confined By William V. Draper to a sporting world as in business it is assumed that you are "doing as you are being done." Strangely enough, after your business gets into motion, this condition seems to fade away as dealing with legitimate houses goes to the other extreme. The weeks that were spent in wondering where, if ever, business was coming from parallels the struggle for a chance in Hollywood, but has this different twist at the end. What you have thought in your hours of desperation would be a solution to your problem becomes a bigger problem than the struggle to keep the doors open. An influx of work immediately requires large purchases of material and the hiring of a large staff of men. Almost overnight the payroll jumped from nothing to over $1000 a week. And the excuse for not going back to pictures, which had been the necessity of getting things started, was supplemented by the necessity of digging up money for the payroll, which in turn was supplemented by the necessity of sticking around to see that you did not lose your shirt. What the next excuse will be is still a mystery, but I have no doubt it will be a better one than any of the preceding ones. The outstanding difference between these two worlds is the tempo at which men work. Everyone expects and knows that he must work every minute. In the four months that I have operated the shop I don't suppose that the time the collective men have spent without a job to do would total one-half a day As a matter of fact, if a toolmaker finds himself short of work, he will voluntarily lay himself off. It may be that loafing is done in larger institutions but it certainly isn't the practice in a small shop. The top pay for these men is less than that of an assistant cameraman. This will give you something of an idea of what they are called upon to do. An airplane that may be sixty feet long would have its efficiency impaired if it did not conform to its design within limits of a relatively few thousanths of an inch over its entire length. For this reason all of its thousands of parts must be held almost perfect. Inasmuch as the parts themselves are a product of the tooling, the tolerance allowed is practically nil. Once in the dim distant past I was very rude to an assistant director who asked me to expedite things by running out of the camera line with the slate. Now, since seeing how men work in other fields, I have decided that some day when I have some spare time in which I am not supervising national defense, I am going to look that assistant director up and humbly apolo International Photographer for September, 1941 27