Minutes of evidence taken before the Departmental Committee on Cinematograph Films (1936)

112 COMMITTEE ON CINEMATOGRAPH FILMS 30 June, 1936.] Mr. S. Rowson. [Continued. the colour film, though the rewards in this case are less certain. A few years ago the trade was greatly concerned with the threatened advent of the so-called " wide film," which would have meant a complete revolution in every department of the studio, the processing laboratories, the projection room — in short a universal scrapping of all instruments and gauges throughout every department of the trade and their replacement by others. Many millions of dollars had been spent on research and if the Wall Street crash had not intervened it is believed the results would have been launched on a trade powerless to resist. New cameras, new recorders, new emulsions, new light sources, new trick processes, each adding improvements either in cost or results, make their daily appearance in the trade. Nearly all of these originate in American laboratories, excited to activity by the magnificent reward the film industry can pay for any adopted innovation. 20. So far my analysis of American conditions points to an overwhelming superioi-ity of advantages of the American over the British film production industry. It would nevertheless be wrong to assume that the relative advantages could not be reduced and conditions introduced which would tend to equalise the commercial elements entering into the making of pictures in both countries. In the main the advantages, nowadays, are not " inherited " but " acquired " characteristics. The advantage of a superb and reliable climate which was of such enormous value in former days when " exteriors " shot in the open air formed an essential and a large proportion of every picture has been extinguished, in very large measure, by the wonderful development of technical and trick processes in recent years. There is no real reason, for example, why a scene represented to take place in front of the Taj Mahal should not be done as realistically in a British as in a Hollywood studio. In both cases it would be practically indistinguishable, except to an expert, from a scene that might have been taken on actual location. Practically all the important advantages enjoyed by American producers to which I have referred at length are the result of the relative sizes of the markets for which the two industries cater. For more than 10 years, during which time I have given continuous and consistent study to this problem, I have contended that British pictures could never compete with American pictures unless the markets available to each of them are equal. 21 . It is no answer to say that, at the present time, this condition is satisfied. It may be theoretically true but. in fact, at no time during the last twenty years has it been actually true. It is certainly no answer that during the last year or two one or two exceptional British pictures have been freely received and earned satisfactory revenues in America and that this fact proves, therefore, that British films have only themselves to blame if they have not been good enough, generally, for the American market. Not all American made pictures are good ones, and yet practically every American picture is released here, and is forced by highpower salesmanship and skilled organisation to accumulate revenues for their owners. The resistance of the American distributors who are really only the sales departments of the major producing companies which also own most of the key theatres in the country, opposes an almost insuperable barrier to productions which could in any way compete for public favour with the output of their own studios. This resistance is of such a nature that in spite of the much larger American market a really first-class British picture which has succeeded in " crashing " into the market would return much less money to the British producer than many much inferior American pictures return from the British market. Unless an output of a British company's pictures has tin same certainty of distribution and exhibition in America as the output of any American company's pictures has to be released in Great Britain, the handicap against the British pictures is an impossible one. Attention must, therefore, be directed to the possibility of satisfying this fundamental requirement. I recall that in 1926 an offer was then made by the British trade, with the acknowledged approval of the Board of Trade, for a reciprocity arrangement whereby American companies would undertake to release in America one British picture to every 15 or 20 American pictures released in this market. That offer was turned down contemptuously, and +he Films Act of 1927 was the immediate result. 22. The experience of another ten year-, strengthened on the one hand by the changes wrought by " talkies '' and the improvement in technical material and personnel, convinces me that a solution of the problem by equalisation of markets is even more deserving of investigation than ever before. Access to American market means, of course, access to the theatres; access to the theatres means, in the first place, access to the "affiliated" houses; and access to the " affiliated " houses is only possible if the distributor organisations affiliated to these houses are as interested in the sale of a number of British pictures as they are for their own affiliated producer pictures. If. by legislation, or otherwise a scheme framed on these principles could be enforced on the companies releasing American pictures in this market, the result would be of enormous advantage to the Empire as well as to the British industry. I suggest that attention be given once again to this proposal. The conditions precedent to the negotiation of a treaty do exist. In the important value of this market we have something to give or withhold which is regarded as essential to the continued production of American pictures on their present scale. 23. Besides the world market, the subject of the foregoing analysis, there is the purely domestic market, for which films are and can be profitably made without expectation of any return from abroad, except possibly on occasion from other parts of the Empire. These are necessarily of much more modest cost and, at the present time, represent the maior part, measured by length, of the entire output. The number of " long " British films registered for renters' quota in 1934-5 was 189. Eleven of these were produced outside Great Britain and in other parts of the Empire. The balance of 178 films included 100 registered by the American companies, leaving 78 for the number acquired by British companies. Out of the first group of 100 pictures about 14 were intended for the world market, and most of these were exported to America earning in the majority of cases a small contribution only for the ultimate benefit of the British producer. Of the second group of 78 pictures, about 30 may have earned some revenue from foreign markets and possibly about 10 showed a credit balance on exploitation in America. It appears, therefore, that excluding " quota quickies " about 50 to 60 picture were made without any designs on the foreign market. The average cost of this group of pictures must have been £15,000— £20,000— say, £900,000. These pictures aim to attract British audiences by the exploitation of an artiste whose name is unknown elsewhere, or by dealing with a background or subject whose appeal is limited to the British public. It is found that such subjects, though less spectacular and without the dazzling finish of certain American pictures costing several times as much, are often able to return a profit-showing in the home market alone. This class of picture is rendered possible by protection based on the quota principle, and would probably be unable to survive any protection-system which compelled them to compete on equal terms For dates with the pictures coming from abroad. 24. My views on the success of the present Act iu encouraging the establishment and growth of a film producing industry in this country have been frequently made public and, I believe, are well