The Motion Picture Director (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

Veil rr e II, Nmber 4 November, 1925 7/z the Directors Ghair Taxation Without Representation IT is exceedingly doubtful whether the average American realizes how completely motion pictures have become an integral part of the daily life of the nation and it would be interesting to know what would happen if, without warning, there should suddenly be issued a ukase against the theatre, banning motion pictures and kindred entertainment in every city, village and hamlet in the country. Fortunately we are not living in Russia where such things are not only possible, but where such a ukase was actually issued and, for a time at least, all theatrical entertainment of any sort was completely forbidden. And yet it is typical of the American public that only by some such dictatorial assumption of authority or mandatory prohibition of what has been conceived as constituting an item of personal priviledge are the one hundred and ten millions who constitute the American people to be galvanized into action. The “movies” have become accepted so universally that the average American either accepts complacently and as a matter of course the screen entertainment that is offered him, or else rants and raves and threatens to withdraw his patronage when the production doesn’t suit. Has it ever occurred to him that he has a part to play, that upon him devolves some measure of responsibility for the sort of entertainment he receives? And yet one of the most vital questions confronting the motion picture industry today is “What sort of pictures does the public want ?” The whole future of motion pictures depends to a marked degree upon arriving with some degree of accuracy at an answer to that question. At present practically the only source of guidance that the industry has to the type of pictures desired comes from the exhibitor and the distributor. If a picture doesn’t bring the returns that the exhibitor or distributor expects, whether it is the fault of the picture, of the advertising or attributable to economic conditions existing at the time, that production is thoroughly “panned” and the producer turns desperately toward the development of surefire box office angles that will insure box office success for his productions. And he cannot wholly be blamed for that attitude; for the production of motion pictures is a business venture with him. He puts in dollars that more dollars may come out. Every picture produced is a gamble, who can blame him if he seeks to modify the gamble by injecting a sure-thing element? The director, on the other hand, the man who actually makes the picture, is concerned primarily with making a production that will be a credit to his artistry, that will please his patrons and thereby, because he has created satisfied customers for his product, insure for the producer adequate return for the investment made. To the director the question of what the public wants is of paramount importance. He sincerely and earnestly desires to know what kind of pictures will please that he may bend every effort toward shaping and fashioning his work to that end. Because of the power and the magnitude of the industry, and its importance in the every day life of the nation — it is vital to the future development of the industry that the men who are directly responsible for the making of pictures should know from the public just what kind of entertainment that public really wants. Since the signing of the Magna Charta the voice of the people has guided the affairs of English-speaking countries. Independence of the thirteen colonies was established on the premise of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The War of the American Revolution wTas predicated on the principle that “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” Have the American people now foisted upon themselves “taxation” at the box office without representation in the Film Capital of the Nation? The Motion Picture Director has been dedicated to creating a closer understanding between those who make and those who see motion pictures. We believe that the purpose of this magazine can be achieved with no greater effectiveness than by