International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1939)

position of sets, choice of materials and costumes, to the broad planning and preparation of a picture by wiring a color score after the manner in which the musical score is written. As evidence of the increased colormindedness throughout the industry, Technicolor had contracts for the ten months beginning March, 1929, covering the photography and delivery of prints of the footage equivalent of approximately 17 feature-length productions. This required a doubling of the Hollywood capacity, which was accomplished in August, 1929. For 1930 Technicolor had closed contracts for 36 feature-length productions which would call for some 12,000,000 linear feet of negative to be sensitized, photographed and developed during that year in the Hollywood plant, and a print capacity of approximately 60,000,000 feet. • Rush Impairs Quality During this boom period of 1929 and 1930, more work was undertaken than could be handled satisfactorily. The producers pressed us to the degree that cameras operated day and night. Laboratory crews worked three eight-hour shifts. Hundreds of new men were hastily trained to do work which properly required years of training. Many pictures were made which I counselled against, and all in the face of the fact that to book a picture in our crowded schedules called for a deposit of $25,000. At one time we had $1,600,000 of such cash payments. In Warner's Wax Museum and Goldwyn's Whoopee the Technicolor twocomponent process may have reached the ultimate that is possible with two components. By reason of the fact in Technicolor of complete separation of the soundtrack technic from the picture technic, the necessity (as in black-and-white procedure) of compromise between the sound and picture quality is avoided and relatively better sound-track should result. My greatest anxiety at the time was that there might be thrust upon the public productions which would be very crude in color composition and unfaithful in color reproduction. Our own color control department was doing everything possible to consult with and advise directors, authors, art directors, wardrobe heads, paint departments, and others in the studio, and this department was being expanded as fast as practicable. But there was more involved than questions of composition and design. There were the limitations of the process. As early as May 29, 1929, I reported to our directors: "The fact that we have signed this large volume of business on the basis of our present twocolor process has not altered, in my opinion, the fact that the quality of this two-color output is not sufficiently good to meet with universal approval, and hence cannot be regarded as ulti Odoriferous Films (Not Hollywood product, either) A fragrant film, producing 4,000 different smells which are distributed through what are called "smell aerials," was shown for the first time in Berne, Switzerland, according to the N. Y. Herald Tribune. If, for instance, a bunch of roses is shown on the screen the perfume of fresh roses begins to fill the theatre. The odor changes automatically according to what is being shown on the screen. The device was invented by two Swiss engineers. [Ed.'s Note: Foregoing is interesting but positively not new. One William Featherstone was granted a U. S. patent on same scheme about ten years ago. Anyhow, idea palpably has too many disagreeable potentialities.] mate. I feel confident that the shortcomings of our two-color process will be aided by the fact that they are combined with voice, and particularly by the fact that the work includes so many girl and music type productions. . . . Also, this combination will offer a very considerable novelty angle for a time which is always important in the amusement world. Gradually, however, I believe the public will come to realize that these two-color pictures do not represent an ultimate natural color process. Consequently I feel urgently that our drive to put our process on a three-color basis as soon as possible should not in the least be abated because of our success in getting business on the two-color basis. This threecolor work is moving ahead and involves a very considerable research department in Hollywood . . ." This premature rush to color was doomed to failure if for no other reason because the Technicolor process was then a two-color process. In the last analysis we are creating and selling entertainment. The play is the thing. You cannot make a poor story good by sound, by color, or by any other device or embellishment. But you can make a good story better. Broadway has a terrible struggle each season to find good stories or plays for a dozen successes. Hollywood is trying to find over five hundred. They don't exist. The industry needs all the help it can get, all the showmanship it can summon — it needed sound; it needs color. But color must be good enough and cheap enough. The old two-component Technicolor was neither — hence it failed, but it was a necessary step to present-day Technicolor. During the rush to color, Technicolor had not only its own shortcomings to contend with but also a surfeit of poor stories that were to be saved by color, and a monotony of musicals more or less on the same formula. An injustice was no doubt done Technicolor by causing it thus to be identified so largely with musical and period productions. I counselled at the time that producers were no doubt losing an opportunity in not taking advantage of the fact that color can be used to intensify dramatic effect and bring out the best points of personalities, advantages which have been later used with striking effectiveness. • Extensive Research Work During the years 1929 and 1930 Technicolor appropriated over $3,000,000 for plants, equipment, and research work, which increased its plant capacity from one million to six million feet of two-component prints a month. At the same time that it had been building those plants and training personnel to operate them, it had been filling its orders. Such conditions were not conducive to the highest quality product, even if the orders had been normal. The fact that this rush was largely forced upon Technicolor by the producers wouldn't help in the slightest degree with the exhibitor or the audience, even if they knew of it. And executives who were glad to try to work it out with us gradually over a period of time, were suddenly confronted with the necessity for drastic curtailment of their own budgets because of a sharp drop in motion picture theatre attendance. At the peak of the rush Technicolor had 1200 men employed with a payroll of approximately $250,000 per month, whereas by the middle of 1931 these had dropped to 230 men and approximately $70,000. In the middle of 1931 picture production in Hollywood was at an extremely low ebb, and the last week in July is said to have been the worst week for theatre receipts in fifteen years. During 1931 the base price of Technicolor prints was reduced from 8% to 7 cents per foot. But Technicolor had persisted in its research and development work so that by May, 1932, it had completed the building of its first three-component camera and had one unit of its plant equipped to handle a moderate amount of three-color printing. The difference between this three-component process and the previous two-component process was truly extraordinary. Not only was the accuracy of tone and color reproduction greatly improved, but definition was markedly better. • Disney Color Cartoons However, we could not offer the three-component product to one customer without offering it to all, which required many more cameras, and the conversion of much of our plant. To allow time for this and to prove the process beyond any doubt, we sought first to try it out in the cartoon field. But no cartoonist would have it. We were told cartoons were good enough in black and white, and that of all departments of production, cartoons could least afford the added expense. Finally Walt Disney tried it as an 18 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST