Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1918-Jan 1919)

(pPS2J,eSufiE When the Boys Come Marching Home (Continued from page 94) is known as "Big Business." in what They are now and have been for some time past instituting big business methods in the conduct of their affairs. The scarr city of really competent men'for directors, camera-men, technical workers, and scenario writers became so serious a short while ago, that the powers that be in the Motion Picture industry decided to turn to what "Big Business" has long ago found necessary. That is, to seek out good men and develop them. To choose them not for any knowledge of the stage, nor for any particular technical knowledge, but for the possession of peculiar talents and abilities which go to make the acquisition of Motion Picture knowledge easier. What the Motion Picture business wants is young men with energy, ambition, creative ability, and a strong inherent desire to work and. work, as one executive puts it, "like hell." With these attributes as a basis a good Motion Picture man, just as a good railrpad man or a good steel man, can be made. Naturally such young men want to know what the' Motion Picture industry offers. There is a fascination about the Motion Picture business which I do not think any other industry offers at this time. Perhaps that is because it is so new and that there is always something for even the veteran to learn, while to the beginner it seems that every moment he comes upon some new angle of the game. In all my business experience, I have never come across such a group of workers as I have encountered in the picture business. Hardly a man that doesn't work fourteen hours a day, and the secret is that it is not work to them, but in reality play. Financially, I think for the young man the Motion Picture offers opportunities unequaled in any of the other great industries. In my own branch, that of direction, the salaries range from $10,030 to $50,000 a year, and men like Griffith, DeMille and Sennett exceed even the latter figure. The salary of an assistant director ranges from $50 to $100 a week. A camera-man may make anywhere from $100 to $200 a week. Laboratory workers earn from $50 to $100 a week. Scenario writers can command from $100 to $300 a week. Technical men, art directors, business office workers and publicity men range from $100 to $200 a week. Now that the magnates have finally decided to go out and search for promising candidates for their industry, the progress will be, of course, much simplified. Personally, it took me a period of some seven years to work up from the position of property boy to the one 1 now hold, that of director. Previous to entering the Motion Picture business I had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the studio. I had been engaged in so prosaic a business as that of public utilities, specializing in the collection of gas and electricity bills. After a number of years in Grand Rapids, my home town, the family came to Los Angeles and I had decided to enter some business in that city. I happened to be out at the old New York Motion Picture Company, which was located at that time in the Santa Monica mountains, and after a conversation with Fred Balshoefer, now president of the Yorke Metro Company, decided that there was indeed, as lie had stated, a good future in store for fv the films. I was engaged as property (no A6£ man, and held .this position for several months. The experience has proven invaluable to me in my later work. I was then given a chance as assistant cameraman and began the study of Motion Picture photography which I have found most fascinating, and upon which I am still engaged. In a short while I became a camera-man and remained such for several years until I was made an assistant director. .About this time I saw that if I were to make the next step, which was to become a director, I would have to have some knowledge of dramatic technique. Accordingly by watching many of the famous actors, who were then turning their attentions toward the cinema for the first time, I picked up a great deal. I supplemented this with talks with former stage directors, and a great amount of study. Consequently when Thomas H. Ince gave me an opportunity of directing a picture, I was very well equipped, having worked in every branch of the production end of the business. I feel that what little success I have had is due to the fact that I started at the bottom and learnt the picture business and not the legitimate stage business. Directors who come to the pictures from the stage have a great deal to unlearn, and for that reason, I believe the directors of the future will be developed right in the picture business and not recruited from the stage as has been the case heretofore. Another thing I have found of great help is my business experience. Many an otherwise competent director has been unsuccessful because he has not considered the business end of his production. When a director is intrusted with a script, he must realize that in his hands is a valuable property. Delay means thousands of dollars and the allowing of artistic ambitions to run wild means many thousands more. A Motion Picture after all is like any other manufactured property; it is made for so much and sells for so much. Naturally, a director who turns out a product costing far above any possible selling price, is not popular. I certainly hope my friend, as well as many of his companions, will give the picture business favorable consideration as I am sure it is quite capable of paying the price necessary fully to compensate men with brains, energy, ambition, and a fixed purpose in life. Across the Silversheet (Continued from page 81) the sun," we thought there was nothing that could possibly be new about "Uncle Tom's Cabin," for it had not only been done on the stage thousands of times, but had also been put into pictures. Which only goes to show that we do not always know — evarything. (This being duly impressed on our mind also last month, when we discovered ourself quoted as saving Ibsen had no philosophy. We know better than that, and we do hope no one took the printed mistake seriously.) But to continue. Paramount did find something new under the sun about "Uncle Tom's Cabin." They had Marguerite Clark double for Little Eva and Topsy. Never has this been done before to our knowledge. Aside from which there is little added value in the production. a successful adventure (metro) Many people speak about the star system being on the wane. Sometimes I tremble. to think of what a picture would be without a star. This, "A Successful Adventure," is a case in point. Were it not for May Allison, her beauty and the clever little way she has of getting the comedy touches over, this picture would reach only the dead-level of monotony. The story of a Southern girl who goes North to play maid to her uncle in order to reconcile him with her father, and incidentally saves — ah, yes, his 'codebook from society thieves, is frankly hackneyed. It is in the quaint comedy situations that it is saved from the frightful offense of being boring. And it is May Allison that does the saving. Metro should be correspondingly grateful. Harry Hilliard made a pleasant hero. "back to the woods" (goldwyn) They say a rolling stone gathers no moss, but the story. of this latest picture of the Normand has rolled thru so many movies it must be hoary with age. Yet it has several clever twists and a corking fine leading-man in its favor. The leading-man being Herbert Rawlinson, and when you see him stride thru the woods you will wonder that Mabel let him get away from her even for one moment. You see, Mabel found him in the woods, where she was masquerading as a schoolmarm. Also he was masquerading as a hunter, while in reality he was an author seeking new material for his new novel. Mabel gave it to him a-plenty. The subtitles were altogether too long and numerous. "less than kin" (paramount) Wally Reid has a great deal of excite ment in this, his latest picture. He takes the part of a young American who is exiled from home on account of a false charge of murder. In Honduras he meets a man who is his precise double and conveniently shuffles off this earthly coil. Whereupon Wally takes possession of his "papers," including some very interesting photographs of young Reid taken when he was a youngster, and equally interesting ones of Ann Little. Our hero returns to New York in the dead man's shoes, only to discover how mighty uncomfortable another person's boots can be, for he runs into all the results of the other man's past. There were several points about this production which could have been improved. The fire scene is not timed as well as it might be, and the dirt which Wally accumulates on his handsome countenance while rescuing Ann is placed in entirely different spots when he appears in the interior. Outside of this and the perpetual showing of Ann Little's child photograph, you will find this a snappy little surprise party. "the kid is clever" (fox) For the sake of George Walsh, who holds a position all his very own in pictures, one cannot help wishing that Mr. Fox would procure some better stories for him than this. ' There is no better athlete on the whole silversheet than George Walsh, and he should be given greater opportunities to display his powers than this provides him with. Supposed to be the effort of a cook-director to make a feature film, with George Walsh as the star, Walsh gets across the few really comic situations there are.The subtitles are obviously funny and help the whole.