Kinematograph year book (1944)

Film Exhibition and Kinema Technique, 175 Some £351,728 was paid over to charities in 1942 /43 by kinemas enjoying Sunday opening, and £18,512, representing 5 per cent, of the takings, was paid over to the Cinematograph Fund. In computing the amount of the levy, every district assumes its own basis, which may be ^d. or £d. a seat, a fiat 12 \ per cent., a block sum divided among the kinemas in a town or a purely nominal contribution. The imposition of the contribution is often accompanied by a demand for the submission of trading accounts, which in the majority of instances has been acceded to. In some areas the contribution has been fixed at such a high figure (Beckenham asked for 75 per cent.) that licences on those terms have been rejected as quite uneconomic. An additional grouse on this charity payment is that a relatively few councils permit the Trade's own charity — the C.T.B.F. — to benefit. Some requests for participation have been ignored, and others — in Surrey, for instance — have been rejected on the grounds that it is a national and not a local charitable object. Only some 60 areas, including L.C.C., make grants to the fund. THE SUB-STANDARD FILM. The future of the sub-standard film, which in pre-war years was never regarded as a competitor, of the 35-mm. subject, is now attracting the serious attention of exhibitors owing to its useful performance, within limitations, during these war years, not only in the training and propaganda fields but also in an ever increasing degree in entertaining troops, war workers, and dispersed civilian communities. The present widespread use of sub-standard is no longer confined to smallish halls ; audiences nowadays may number anything up to the thousand mark, with a screen picture of the size, illumination, and sound reproduction which, even under generally unsatisfactory conditions, bears comparison with many standard gauge presentations . There must be some thousands of projectors in use in this country and abroad. There is a similar vogue in America, where installations number about 30,000, and these equipments are not serviced solely with propaganda and educational subjects but also with sub-standard gauge prints of current features in monochrome and in Technicolor reduction from 35-mm. originals. The chief of the U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce sees the continuance of this type of film and expansion of its use in theatres built especially for the exclusive exhibition of 16 mm., as well as the adaptation, in small communities, of older ones for the purpose. In this country similar progress may well be anticipated. Libraries, both of official departments and private and commercial organisations, have expanded amazingly, and the confidence with which the potentialities of sub-standard is regarded is shown by the recent establishment by a new company of film hire facilities in key towns. It is this situation which is causing concern to the Trade, which recognises the future improvements in the 16 mm. film — fine grain emulsions and improved sound will enable equivalent sound and picture quality to be obtained with considerable economy and would, under those circumstances prove a serious competitor to the standard film. In certain continental countries the 17.5 mm. film is already used in the kinema, and there should be a wide market for the smaller equipment in the Dominions and Colonies, where great distances separate communities ; the work already being done by the Colonial film unit among native populations could be extended, providing suitable films, both sound and silent, are available. These uses of sub-standard are accepted by exhibitors, whose criticisms are purely actuated by the fear that it may invade purely theatrical fields in this country after the cessation of hostilities. They see the only obstacle in the way of such competition in the necessity on the part of the renters to issue their films in two standards in order to acquire a problematic and hardly economic extra market. But the danger exists, and there may be some producers who will avail themselves of the sub-standard outlet. Proposals for setting up 16-mm. production units need not be seriously entertained