The Motion Picture Director (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

1925 director 7 est to everyone concerned, however remotely, with making, exhibiting or seeing motion pictures. In taking such a step it is only fitting that, with the increased scope of its activity, its greater diversity of interest and its wider range of appeal, we should appear in a wholly new dress, both as to cover and as to make-up of editorial and text pages and to treatment of illustrations. In this seeming metamorphosis in which The DIRECTOR emerges from the classification of official publication of the Motion Picture Directors’ Association to that of an independent, national magazine, its identity has not been lost, nor even submerged. It has been a case of addition rather than of subtraction, and to the directorial phases of the old DIRECTOR have been added features of wider interest and, we hope, of greater value and service to our readers. In planning the new dress of the publication it has seemed only fitting that we should retain visible evidence of that identity which has been so distinctly ours during the past year, and so on the cover of this and subsequent issues will appear portraits of motion picture directors who are making films and film history. In the development of our plans for expansion considerable thought has been given, as there must be in any business enterprise, to the matter of circulation and advertising. In order that we may more genuinely serve our advertisers, the make-up of our pages has been changed from the two-column layout of last year, to a three-column layout. With this reapportionment of space there has been a proportionate reduction in advertising rates and an advertising service department instituted with a view to making The Director more effective as a merchandising medium to our advertisers. With the co-operation of our advertisers it is the purpose of the management to make the advertising pages of The DIRECTOR show windows for the display of merchandise of direct interest and value to our readers. As advertising has become the lifeblood of business activity, so is it vital to the success of a magazine as a business enterprise; and we urge that our readers “window shop” in the pages of The Director and heed the messages of the merchants and business houses there displayed. No magazine belongs to its publishers alone, but to its readers, and, while we may plan and strive to create in The DIRECTOR a magazine in which you will be thoroughly interested and which you will find thoroughly entertaining, we shall succeed only to the extent in which we have your co-operation and support. In no way can you give us this co-operation more effectually than by writing us frankly concerning the magazine, its departments and its editorial content. We of the editorial staff of The Director are sincerely desirous of being of genuine service to our readers. You can help us by writing us frankly about the things you like and the things you don’t like. You can help us, too, by writing us about the pictures you see and about the impressions you receive from those pictures. This interchange of ideas between those who see and those who make motion pictures is always of value and in no way can we be of any greater service both to the industry as a whole and to our readers, than by functioning as the medium for such an exchange of ideas. Undoubtedly there are many matters of a semitechnical nature involved in the making of films concerning which many of our readers, particularly those living at points remote from the center of film production, are interested. Write us about these matters, send us your questions and let us procure the answers from the men and women actively engaged in motion picture production who are best qualified to give first-hand, authoritative information. It may be that there will be some questions touching on matters which are of such a technical nature that detailed answers will not be practical in these columns. When possible these questions will be answered directly to the inquirer rather than through the magazine. Similarly, questions touching on subjects, the answers to which might tend to destroy the illusion created in the presentation of the subject involved, will be answered direct. But there are many questions which may be frankly discussed in the pages of The DIRECTOR without either divulging what may be considered trade secrets or destroying the effect of an illusion by letting you see how the wheels go round, and what makes them go. As we get under way in our second year we are earnestly striving to create a bigger and better magazine in every respect. In this we have been encouraged by the success which has attended our efforts of the past, by the loyal support which has been accorded The Director during the first year of its existence. We like to feel that our magazine — your magazine, in matter of fact — is an integral part of the motion picture industry and represents in every way the highest ideals of that industry. We are imbued with the thought that we, who are, so to speak, on the inside and in close daily contact with the activities and problems of the cinema world, are in a position to be of genuine service to those who make and those who see motion pictures. With your co-operation we shall endeavor to live up to the responsibilities of that position and with each successive issue continue to give you a bigger and better magazine. Salute!