Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1918)

HAS THE QUALITY CIBCUlAnON OF THE TRADe| Volume 18. No. 14 October 5, 1918 War! War! Lay Aside Your Film Business and Consider Your Film Industry LAST week, and the week before, we published two editorials of so grave a character that they seemed to us to be little short of explosive. They stated a situation no less alarming than this: a great industry teetering on a fence as to its essentiality in war times; an industry faced with a plain edict from the government that priorities necessary to its operation will only be issued when it has proved its ability to conserve its resources — in strict accord with other industries and with the cold, relentless military needs of a nation at war. These stipulations from the government are only such as should prevail in time of peace; in other words they — or at least the major stipulations — would, if adopted, insure the industry a sane, solid, prosperous future. In time of peace we might expect no such action from the industry — and by the industry we mean primarily the makers and distributors of pictures. We might not expect them to unite and curtail production and reduce the needless extravagance of distribution. We would deem it utterly impossible in ordinary times for all of them to sit around a table and name a conservation commission to put their industry in economic order. But — we did believe that the war situation put the matter in a totally new and different light. They — the manufacturers and distributors — must know that the government, from dire and solemn necessity, is laying firm hands today upon every unit of man power and jealously guarding every pound of coal, every dollar of bank credit and every ounce of chemicals needed in war work. Other industries are abreast of the situation; some under government administration, some under government control, some having swung their entire plants and resources into war work, some having hastened to adopt conservations which they knew would sooner or later be forced upon them. So we felt that an urgent statement of so pressing and inevitable a situation would bring an immediate response. It did not. We felt that we had thrown a bomb. But evidently this industry, in peace or war alike, is bomb proof. "Wolf! Wolf!" has been cried too much, perhaps. Even War! War! has now no effect. Suppose we give a dispassionate analysis of the situation in New York as we find it today, after having pre sented the facts, in person, to a number of producers and distributors. There is a general appreciation of the full gravity of the outlook: but coupled with this is an equal feeling of helplessness or hesitation, or hopelessness, or utter selfishness. The man who has curtailed production says the problem is the other fellow's, not his. The man who has tried to merge distribution says he has done his duty and the other fellow is to blame. The short-sided or selfish man is scheming how he can twist the day's situation to his own advantage. The undercurrent of the whole layout brings sharply to the surface the two great and fatal weaknesses of the film business today; first its impulse to do business for the day only, and with no thought of the future ; secondly, its preference for gambling as against the use of sane business thought and action. A sorry attitude for the nation's fifth industry and first medium of expression! You admit, gentlemen, that what your country now asks of you, in the way of conserving your resources, is only what your best business judgment tells you is best for your industry and best for your business in the long run. You admit that what your country now asks of you in the way of conserving your use of men and materials is best in your country's best interests. Yet do you admit helplessness? We are not merely scolding. This is not merely an editorial feature. The gravity of the situation is utterly beyond all this. We are simply presenting a case. We are asking you to think — to lay aside mentally your film business and consider your film industry. This industry must be made essential. To make it essential, production must be curtailed and distribution wants eliminated. In order to do this — to make all join hands in conservation, there must be power, power to untie the helplessness that now exists. That power must be wielded intelligently, and with a keen, a practical, a sympathetic knowledge of the intricate machinery of the business — and a broad vision as to its future status. Where is that power coming from? What provision will you now make to see that it is a sympathetic, practical, intelligent power? (Editorials Continued on next page) HUKUiUUIUIIlUlllltlinlllHnHBI iiuuniimiiMiiiiJimwinniimum iiaiiiuiiiiiiuiiiiiuiuuiiiuiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiimniiiiiinDiiuimnininnuiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiii