Kinematograph year book (1944)

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Film Exhibition and Kinema Technique. 165 for the formation of a statistical department, was allied to the suggestion of the Board of Trade that a " kinema audience survey " should be carried out. The idea, which emanated from the British Institute of Public Opinion, was rejected by the C.E.A. as being inopportune during hostilities. Apart from the cost (first of a series of surveys would cost about £10,000) any useful data obtained would in war-time be based on abnormal and unrecurrent conditions. The experience of the war has indicated the likelihood of new demands being made upon the Industry, not only in its sphere as a major contributor to national entertainment and well-being but also far-reaching changes and innovations which are possible within the framework of the Industry and also in respect of its own technical requirements. C. P. Metcalfe contends that unless the various sections of the Trade get together it is conceivable that the Industry may suffer rationalisation or nationalisation. As a result of an appeal by C.E.A. interests, Hugh Dalton, President of the Board of Trade, dealt in Parliament with the question of renting companies' film hire terms. He said he knew that renters, both British and American, required certain exhibitors, when booking cheaper films on what are known as flat rates, also to book films of better quality on what are known as percentage rates. The only restrictions on conditional sales of which he was aware were those contained in the provisions of Section 9 of the Goods and Services (Price Control) Act, 1941, and the Food (Conditions of Sale) Order, 1940. He was advised that these provisions did not extend to the hire of kinematograph films, and he hoped that the difficulty might be settled by mutual agreement between the parties concerned. Although there is no censorship of newsreels, official quarters view with disfavour the introduction of politics. This attitude was announced in October by E. Thurtle, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information. In journalism there was always an opportunity to make a reply to polemics, but in newsreels there was not. Little space has been reserved for our usual review of technical developments. Truth to tell, the year has been barren of new equipment, a situation only to be expected ; but while our projectionists are keeping aged and often worn-out mechanisms turning over and the sound boys, often with totally inadequate supplies of spares and /or replacements, are making the reproducer do its stuff. We are anticipating, however, many interesting developments which have been evolved by the Trade duiing five years of war. The application of the arts and the sciences to the kinema has been responsible for the remarkable advancement of the Industry, but its progress must be ascribed more than anything else to electrical science in particular, and there is little doubt that the post-war kinema will profit still more enormously when the discoveries and inventions can be applied to the benefit of mankind. It is to be expected that much benefit will be derived after the war from the present uses of a great number of manufacturing processes, particuarly those in the more highly specialised departments of kinematography and television, electronics and optics, which are so important to the complex activities of the modern showman. • JACK ROE (Cinema Supplies) LTD. • ^ For Reliable Service ^ | Century and Simplex Repairs 1 I 40a, BUXTON ROAD, LUTON Phone: LUTON 922 j ^ ^ ^ ^ _ -» „ ^