Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1921)

1150 Motion Picture News ProducerExhibitor Combination self of a consistent quantity and quality of any product is to encourage the manufacturers of that product to produce it at a profit to themselves. The only way a manufacturer can assure himself of a consistent revenue is to make that product as well as he possibly can and then sell it to the retailer at a price so low, in proportion to the quality, that the latter can sell it again at a profit to himself. But the quality of the goods must be high enough to sell itself over again. That is the big problem in every industry today, and in the motion picture business as well — TO MAKE THE VERY HIGHEST POSSIBLE QUALITY AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE SELLING PRICE. Exhibitors Have Advantages should all realize that the most ^ ' effective way to develop the industry to its largest capacity is to maintain a broad open field of endeavor in its every branch. The exhibitors now enjoy the advantage of having the choice of several well-established feature programs from which they can select any range of subjects suitable to their individual requirements. Also because these producing firms are well established they are in a position to produce pictures far ahead of release date, giving the exhibitor an added advantage in being able to arrange his bookings far in advance, and therefore avail himself of a careful selection of subjects. The producers, in feeling that they have all the exhibitors in the country as prospective customers, are encouraged to make greater efforts and expend bigger sums for their productions and equipment. On the other hand, the exhibitors, in keeping all their lines open, have the choice of all the productions on the market. In this manner the business opportunities of both factors are unrestricted and permissible of any possible expansion. The moment the exhibitors limit the market of producers, or the producers limit the buying opportunities of the exhibitor, the business is retarded and its growth is stunted. The retailer of every other business examines all the samples of the product in which he is dealing, and selects the best. The exhibitor is the retailer of the picture industry, and should follow the same merchandising principle of examining all the samples and selecting the best for his requirements. Why build barriers about your own business — why limit your own field — why (Continued from preceding page) There are psychological influences which impair the efficiency of the exhibitor who produces or the producer who exhibits. The exhibitor judges human nature in the aggregate by the comparatively small number of people who visit his theatre. Very often there are sectional differences of opinion. We see the manifestation of this principle in poUtics, and with plays and novels. The exhibitor-producer is apt to read the nation's amusement desires by the box-office receipts in one type of theatre — for the small exhibitor can have no interest in a producing company. A Difficult Art TT seems amazing to me that while the producer has always appreciated the intricate groups of knowledge necessary to an exhibitor for the successful carrying on of his business — comprising a mastery of architectural values, the importance of fight effects and other mechanical matters, not to mention a knowledge of exploitation and the public at large — the exhibitor has always underestimated the importance of the units and the specialized knowledge and experience that go into the making of a successful producing concern. Producing motion pictures is a specific and difficult art. It calls for organization and development along many new avenues of thought ; it requires a capable scenario department for the selection of material and for the preparation of it, when it is secured, to the needs of the stars and in accordance with the desires of the public ; for a staff of directors that can take that material and transfuse life and reality into it, for a list of players, all of whom represent dramatic ability, but each of whom nmst possess a certain individuality to invest the whole scheme of their work with variety (one of the most essential factors in continuously pleasing the public). All this means organization and constant improvement. It means years of experience. I can safely say that it required six years of constant effort and unending labor to bring the organization of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation to the stage of efficiency it has now reached, and it will take twice as long to duplicate this record, for the reason that the raw materials, both physical and personal, were at our disposal with which to fashion this machine, in a greater degree than they could now be available to any other unit in the industry, existent or future. create your own competition? [ADVERTISEMENT BY FAMOUS PLAYERS-I.ASKT CORP.] Specialization Essential tJ AVE all the producers and distributors adhered to the important principle of specialization in their chosen fields? If they had, the following could never have been possible. A certain star attains great eminence and a powerful public following. She is worth a hnndrjd times the salary of an equally famous stage Btar, because of the peculiar mechanism of the photoplay which permits her to crowd a hundred theatres simultaneously instead of only one. She has a contract, which eventually expires. The producer with whom she has been identified for years, who has proudly and gladly watched her progress and has assisted that progress as much as possible, wishes to renew that contract, with a substantial addition as a tribute to her augmented popularity and greater abUity— gained under the excellent producing conditions with which he has surrounded her. A group of exhibitors joined on a cooperative basis oflFers her a bigger sum. The producer cannot ignore his invesunent in that star, his efforts of years, his associates and their interests— he is compelled to offer still more for the contract which he could have obtained without the cotmter-o£fer for far less. Who Pays? The Exhibitor! npHE producer wishes to pay this star, as he does every other star, in accordance with her box-office value. He wishes her to have all the money that can be derived from the theatres, provided there remains a profit for the exhibitors. He knows that as a basic principle of human nature, the money she receives for her services, the greater incentive she will have for more devoted effort. But he does not wish to pay her a sum based upon inflated box-offici values, even if they are inflated by the exhibitors themselves through their producing competition, because it creates an artificial and unhealthy condition for the whole industrj-, including the producer, the exhibitor, and even the star in question. This situation, in which retailers deliberately and systematically arrange to pay more for the product they have to buy than they woidd normally have to pay, has no parallel in the annals of business, and is unequalled in any other industry in the world. The exhibitors are not only creating their own competition by contesting the plans and policies of established producing companies, but they are directly paying the cost of this competition in the form of higher rentals And the worst of it is that the cost of this de structive and futile practise is paid not alone bj the few exhibitors responsible for the condition but by every other exhibitor in the coantry. Cer tain exliibitors who feel that they can pay lei._ for pictures by joining together in affiliation of exhibitors are right in one part of their theory — they will pay less for pictures — but they will get poorer pictures. If all the exhibitors paying $50 a day decide they will pay no more than $25 a day, they will get pictures just half as good as those they are receiving today. Can't yon see that this result must follow?