Motion Picture News (Nov-Dec 1918)

3502 Motion Picture News War Is On Over the Quinn Letter (Continued from page 3497) I could not direct a picture if my life was at stake, but it seems to me that there are many producers making pictures today who just a year ago were not known to the business. How do they learn to really produce so quick? What school did they attend? I met a friend of mine a few weeks ago who, when I asked him what he was doing, said he was producing pictures for such and such a company, and I know to my certain knowledge, that he never saw one made until eighteen months ago. There is no doubt but that seven-tenths of the features on the market today, could be culled down one reel out of every five, and many of the big features more. Our company sees many features, which we always do before buying, and half of them could be cut fully a reel less. Still, I want to say that the state rights market today offers better service to the number produced, than any other branch of the business. WHY? Because they know that they have no positive guaranteed market for their films, and they must be good, otherwise, how can we who think we know a good one, be expected to buy it. That is one reason why I have always contended that the open market was the safest way to buy. Regarding stars' salaries, I would say that there has been much money paid to stars who had spent months between pictures, but at the same time, even Uncle Sam don't hire mail carriers by the trip, he hires them by the year, and when we go to paying stars' salaries by the picture, I think it will bring about more waste than ever. The right way is to get them at the right salary ; and that will be hard to do when one firm with plenty of money wants that star. Regarding the using of two journals for advertising, I would say just this : We know there are two legitimate papers through which to advertise; but does any other industry as large as this one confine itself to so many trade journals? Does the automobile industry confine itself to two papers? We must conserve, but at the same time, let's not get autocratic and ask and demand that free speech be stopped. Let them do all advertising they want to in as many journals as they want to, but if the exhibitor hasn't got sense enough to know how far to go, then he is not worthy of being in business for himself. If any exchanges are trying to be autocratic in their business dealings, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, then let us, if possible, enlighten the exhibitors where we can. But I have found some that only will learn through experience, which is the dearest school of all. But by no means let us say that the industry can only advertise in two papers, for that sounds too much like the once happy fool of Germany, the Kaiser. We don't buy features for the stars, as is testified by " The Whip," " Raffles" " The Warrior," " The Stin Alarm," " Stolen Orders," and Berlin Via America," and I believe that these pictures have made exhibitors about as much money as any pictures on the market, no matter how or where they come from. First, we buy for story and action, and of course if stars there be in them, so much the better, but the story and direction should come first. I have found very few exhibitors that really use publicity in the right way. There is too much publicity on most pictures, and I only know of ten exhibitors in the South that have used the right methods of advertising pictures. Which also goes to show that there is much wasted in the way of letters, circulars, and certain publications that do not do an exhjbitor one dollar's worth of good. Brother Quinn is right in most of his arguments, and if this thing keeps up, I would like to submit a table some time in the near future, which will show a saving of over two million a year to the industry, just in needless advertising alone. Respectfully, NAT. L.' ROYSTER, Sales Manager, Special Features Company, Knoxville, Tenn. " The Story in the Picture Is What Counts " Editor, MOTION PICTURE NEWS: With every point covered thoroughly, briefly and convincingly, as has been done by Mr. Quinn, it seems almost useless to answer the challenge of the NEWS and enter into a discussion of the matters treated. There are so many ramifications to the problems confronting the exhibitor today, so many topics of discussion, that it is difficult to pick upon one which is of more importance than another. There is, however, a key log to this jam, which, if found, will set free the timber of the industry, to continue on its way to the quiet waters of Success. To my mind, this key log is the STORY, upheld by good delineation of character and capable direction. It seems to have been forgotten, alike by producer, director and star, that the true motion picture is not of necessity a play, wherein one character predominates, but a visualized narrative depicting in natural sequence events in the lives of two or more characters of nearly equal importance. As such its construction should be governed by the rules which apply to narration and not by the whim of director or actor. The successful pictures o fthe past year have been those which have contained an appealing story, stars having been of secondary importance. By the clever interpretation of the parts assigned them, stars have been made by these great productions. How many productions have been made by the stars? Another point which has been overlooked is cleanliness. Can anyone point out a successful picture of the past year which was based upon sex lure, suggestiveness or morbidness? No. The really great pictures have been clean, every one of them, clean and uplifting. Yet the market is flooded with the productions, the stories of which would make any self respecting exhibitor blush with shame were he compelled to stand before his audience and tell them. Try it sometime, Mr. Manager. Then sit down and cancel every last picture on your program the story of which you cannot detail fully to your wife, your family or your friends, without feeling ashamed. By doing this you will strike the first blow at that key log which is holding us back. What are the successful magazines of today? The ones which are clean and wholesome, the ones which the public can buy with the assurance that all the family may read, not the ones which have to be concealed from certain members of the household. The example of the publisher is one which the producer may emulate. Let the latter profit by the experience of the former. Aside from cleanliness, which is the first asset, the picture must have the elements of simplicity and plausibility. The picture caters to all classes — the rich, the poor, the educated, the ignorant — and must be so presented so that the masses may understand. All minds do not work rapidly, do not grasp the intricate details of complicated plot. A picture readily understood is appreciated ; one hazy and uncertain, even though upheld by a great star, is fcranded poor." Plausibility, although of the utmost importance, seems to have been relegated to the scrap heap by the majority of producers, if we are to judge by their offerings. One of many examples of the lack of plausibility in pictures is here given. The setting of this particular picture was in California in the days of the first gold rush. In the course of the story a means must be provided for the escape of an outlaw from the hands of the Vigilantees. In the early part of the story a doll has been purchased from a peddler by the outlaw and presented to a young girl who is living with him. The doll is of the wax variety, with movable arms and legs and almost as large as the girl herself and dressed as a modern society lady, hat and all. Just how dolls of this very fashionable varietycame to be in the mining camps of California in the days of '49 is not explained. Aside from this lack of discernment on the part of the director, further incongruities are offered. When, in the last reel, the outlaw, who is made a hero, is about to pay the penalty for his misdeeds, the girl rushes forward, holding in her hands the doll's clothes, which the guillible Vigilantees immediately accept as the garments of a future member of society, illegitimate though it might be. For the sake of the presumably soon-to-be mother, and without any further investigation, this band of rough men, in the bigness of their hearts, let the outlaw go. This was a habit they had in those days. Upon visiting their former prisoner's cabin they find a 1917 model doll's body, denuded of garments, thereby discovering that they had been cleverly gulled by a supposedto-be-ignorant girl. Without further details it can readily be seen how utterly improbable, not to say vulgar, the situation is. By a little application of brains, a perfectly logical, clean, wholesome conclusion could have been given. It might be surprising to learn that this picture, instead of being a cheap production was the high-priced Artcraft offering, " A Romance of the Redwoods," the director Cecil De Mille ad the star Mary Pickford. And this is but one of many. There are other elements which go to make up a real picture — originality, climax, interest — but space forbids a discussion of them. It may be difficult to get all these six elements into a picture, but an analysis of the successful offerings of the year will show each and every one of them. Not only in the best pictures, but in every popular book on the market are they to be found, for they are the elements with which the author constructs his story. Get these elements in the picture and you have Saw His Soldier Son in Hearst-Pathe Film George P. Ahner, president of Duparquet, Huot and Moneuse Co., No. 110 West 22d street, New York, proudly displays at his Flatbush home a two-star service flag, for both of his boys are actively in the service of Uncle Sam — George Werner Ahner, 24, 305th Infantry, 77th Division, Headquarters Company, and R W. Ahner, 22, with the 104th Machine Guns. The Ahner family, accompanied by Louis H. Huot, vice-president of the concern of which Mr. Ahner is the head, went to a theatre on Nostrand avenue, Flatbush, where Hearst-Pathe News, No. 93, was being shown. The American pictures were grouped under the head of " With the Stars and Stripes Over There.'" The picture showed a husky, well set up collection of youngsters who looked capable of undertaking and carrying through the severest of tasks. Among them was one particularly aimiable and smiling face. " That is my boy — that is his smile," said Mr. Ahner. M. Kashin Augments His Board of Review So interesting have been the results of the Special Board of Review inaugurated by M. Kashin, at the Broadway theatre, New York, that he has extended it to include the class in scenario writing of the Y, M. C. A. The earlier group of reviewers comprised the class in scenario composition of Columbia University. They attend each week. Criticisms written by the members concerning the various productions shown there, are engaging the interest of big producers. A. G. Stolde Takes Charge of Omaha Strand A. G. Stolde, former manager of the Strand theatre at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been engaged to manage the Strand theatre of Omaha, one of the A. H. Blank enterprises. He was a printer at Waterloo, la., several years ago and broke into the picture business at Vinton, la., with a small theatre there. He later became manager of the Strand at Cedar Rapids, a town of some 50,000 people, and the natives were said to have been kept on tiptoes there with his stunts. the quality for which Mr. Quinn longs and which Mr. Williams claims are paid to publishers of books to secure. These elements are to be found in every good scenario offered to the producer, for the scenario writer is trained to use them. Unfortunately, the accepted scenarios are seldom used as submitted, being changed to suit the stars and the whims of directors, thereby losing part or all of the elements which are their life. Let us then look to the story in the picture. By so doing we may encourage authors to better efforts, thereby getting away from the necessity of presenting books, good and bad, in visualized form. By so doing we may persuade producers to present the scenario as written, thus preserving the delicate gradation of story from opening to climax. By so doing we may be able to eliminate some of the " rotteness " mentioned by Mr. Quinn. IRIS THEATRE. Pacific Grove, Calif. Nov. 24, 1918.