Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1942)

32 MOTION PICTURE HERALD August 22, 1942 WPB FREEZES FILM STOCKS; TOP USE AT 1941 LEVELS Is Effective August 20th; Requires Authorization to Obtain Raw Stock The War Production Board in Washington on Wednesday froze all use of raw film stock by the motion picture industry, in an order No. L-178, issued at Washington by Donald M. Nelson director. It prohibited the transfer of all motion picture film in the hands of manufacturers, effective at midnight Thursday, August 20th. It required that producers and all other users of 35 mm film apply to the WPB for authority to acquire unexposed raw stock. Film consumption will be stabilized at 1941 levels under the directive. It immediately will limit the producers of theatrical motion pictures to the aggregate level ■ of 1941 film consumption "for the time being," Harold D. Hopper, chief of the motion picture section, declared. Raw stock for commercial advertising motion pictures was completely banned. Government motion pictures and special propaganda subjects which have received the approval of Lowell Mellett, chief of the Bureau of Motion Pictures of the Office of War Information, will receive all the footage they require. The WPB order does not apply to Army or Navy motion picture activities, which will continue to have unrestricted priority over all other users. Armed Services Get Priority The main purpose of the order, it was said, is to enable the armed services to obtain all the film they need. It was issued after the manufacturers of raw stock had shown that they could not meet military requirements and full commercial demands as well. The order provided as follows : Beginning at 11:59 P. M., August 20th, and continuing for 90 days thereafter no person may transfer any unexposed 35 mm film (except that packaged for still cameras) without specific authority from the director general of operations of the War Production Board. Every person, except the Army or Navy, must file with the WPB within 15 days after issuance of the order a statement on the linear feet and type of 35 mm film in stock on the effective date of the order. Mr. Hopper gave assurance that the motion picture industry will continue to receive film with which to produce pictures and make the prints. "For the present, at least, the producers will not be permitted to use more film than they did in 1941, and will be expected to use less under the conservation plan now in effect," Mr. Hopper said. "Further discussion of the allocation of film under the order will be held at a meeting of the industry's advisory committee on August 25th." Fewer prints are seen as an inevitable result. Also it is probable that many of the studios will drop at least a few "program" pictures from the schedules to save footage for better grade pictures which are likely to secure longer playing times. The WPB directive limiting the use of increasingly scarce cellulose nitrate motion picture film stocks set only an overall ceiling on the amount of film which the entertainment EXHIBITORS TO MEET WITH WPB Christopher Dunphy, head of the Amusments Section of the Consumers Division of the War Production Board, was to meet at Washington with the Motion Picture and Speaking Stage Advisory Committee Thursday. It was understood Mr. Dunphy would tell the committee that none of the materials needed for theatre operation are available in anywhere near normal quantities, with a serious situation in projection apparatus containing copper, rubber and steel. The group, representing exhibitors before the WPB, was expected also to discuss priority limitations of theatre supplies and theatre salvage collections. screen may use. Proration of this total footage, based on the industry's consumption in 1941, among the major producing companies in Hollywood is to be left to the industry. The industry conservation committee, composed of studio and distribution representatives, is to meet on Tuesday, August 25th, at Washington with Harold D. Hopper, head of the motion picture section of the War Production Board. He is the ex-officio chairman. The committee will work out the details for applying and enforcing the film curtailment order. Each company will be required to file detailed and frequent schedules of current consumption and estimates of future needs. The producers film conservation committee was summoned to a special session in Hollywood on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the application of the WPB order. Mr. Hopper explained that 35 mm film for still cameras is not covered by the order because raw materials for the manufacture of amateur film already have been controlled under the production requirements plan. Amateur Order Due Shortly A WPB order affecting film for amateurs will be issued shortly. While no film will be available for commercial advertising pictures, the WPB section chief said, "factual and morale films now being made by, or for, various Government departments when approved by Lowell Mellett will be given sufficient film to handle the subjects properly." It was considered likely that the voluntary rationing formula submitted by the industry to the WPB on August 3d would form the basis for division of the approximately 780,000,000 feet of film per year which will be available on the basis of 1941 averages. The voluntary plan called for cuts by individual companies of from 10 to 24 per cent of their 1942 film volume. Last year, for 1941-42 season product, it is estimated that the industry used 960,000,000 feet of 35 mm stock. The 1941 ceiling would pare 180,000,000 feet from this figure, leaving about 780,000,000 available for 1942-43 pictures. . The restriction on commercial advertising films is expected virtually to shut down the large industry which has made these pictures for exhibition both in theatres and for special industrial customers. Only industrial films used for training war workers, such as those being produced by General Motors, and several other war production firms are given to chance to survive. It was not clear on Wednesday if the advertising film ban would also be interpreted as applying to motion picture advertising trailers. Objections Seen To Sponable Plan Skepticism, and a multitude of objections from New York projection and Hollywood studio authorities, follows the announcement, last week, in New York, that consideration was being given by the distributors to the so-called "Sponable" method of saving film. The method, named after I. E. Sponable, technical expert of Twentieth Century-Fox Movietone News, which was worked out in the company's Coast laboratory, and imparted in a few details to distributors and some projection men, in the New York home office of Fox last week, would reduce the height of motion picture frames from a ratio of approximately 3 to 4, to a ratio of 5 to 8, narrow the separation between frames, and reduce the number of film sprocket teeth perforations from the present four per frame, to three per frame. In this way, it is hoped to have three frames per nine sprocket holes, compared to the present two frames per eight. The narrowing of the frame separation, which now accounts for approximately one-tenth of the film area, would save about 25 per cent in film. Mechanical Problems Are Anticipated New York projection authorities see mechanical difficulties in the plan. They feel the amount of metal necessary for conversion of cameras, projectors, and laboratory printers, would be more difficult to obtain and more objectionable than other film saving methods; and that the burden of conversion would fall upon the exhibitor. Thursday evening, at the Hotel Pennsylvania, in New York, the projection practice committee of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Eastern section, was to meet for discussion of the Sponable plan, and announcement of its opinion. Although it has been indicated that a feature of the plan would be manufacture of sprockets, idlers, film guide shoes, and tracks, and apertures, all of which would have to be changed in the projector, doubt was cast upon ability of one or all projector manufacturers, to obtain priorities for the metal needed. Mr. Sponable, who arrived in Hollywood Monday from New York to demonstrate his system to production executives and to the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said it would save 500,000,000 feet of film annually. Harold Hopper, head of the War Production Board's film division, said 80 tons of steel would be needed for the projector, printer, and camera parts corollary to adoption of the system. He added, however, that the WPB had told the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America this amount would be made available if requested.