Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

28 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS same specific gravity as real snow flakes and consequently the very same floating effect. They were scattered from three different boxes arranged at regular distances from the camera. In each box the shavings were of graded sizes, those nearest the camera being smallest and so on, the effect being that all appeared of the same size in the picture. The cost of the flakes was $55. Immense Night Sky Scene Another innovation in the Sebastopol scene was a night sky scene 105 feet wide by 85 feet high. This is the largest of its kind ever used. Not a scrap of painted scenery was used in the picture. Every ornament was real. The pillars in the Westminster Abbey scene cost $1,000 to make. The gun at Ladysmith cost one hundred and fifty dollars. Mr. Barker is most insistent upon his policy of realistic settings—in all pictures. He burns his settings once they are used. They are valueless afterward, he claims. "Every show should stand upon its own bottom," to use his phrase. The film itself, which is about 7,000 feet long, is divided into four reels, three long and one short. Part One shows the Queen from her accession to the throne to her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Gotha. It opens with death of King William. Then the Princess is notified that she is to be England's Queen. Coronation scenes follow in great detail and of great historical accuracy and value. Scenes are shown of the celebration all over the British Empire. The Queen and Prince Albert are betrothed. She indicates her choice by presenting him with a flower at a public dance. Albert, at a loss as to what to do with the posy, takes a knife, skewers a hole in his lapel and inserts the flower. This was the first boutonniere and the first buttonhole in the lapel of a man's coat, a custom which endures to this day. In Part Two are shown many scenes concerning the Crimean War, the siege of Sebastopol, the death of the Prince Consort, the mourning for him and other items of interest such as the delivery of the first letter with an adhesive stamp, the sending of the first transAtlantic cablegram by the Queen, of President Lincoln, and Charles Dickens in his study, with the characters he created visualized through very fine double exposure. Incidentally the reception of the cablegram by Lincoln is the only disappointing scene in the whole production. Lincoln, himself, falls far below the popular conception of him in this country. Of Great Educational Value In Part Three were shown many Indian scenes and historic events. The marriage of Prince Edward, which the Queen did not sanction by her presence, being one of the interesting events. Part Four, the short reel, shows the last days and death of the Queen. The close is a bust of the Queen, at the base of which persons of all classes lay their tributes to the good Victoria. "Sixty Years a Queen" shows a master hand in every element of production. As an educational picture it has no equal. It should have a large audience in this country for this reason alone and for its inherent excellence. In Canada it should prove, for patriotic interest, the most popular picture ever shown there. W. A. J. THE MOTION PICTURE IN GREECE THE motion picture, so popular in the Orient, has not yet enjoyed in Greece the same success that it has had in Turkey and Egypt. Very badly exploited since its inception about six years ago, it does not yet possess a single establishment specially adapted for its performance according to a bulletin issued by the French Chamber of Commerce in Greece. These performances are given here and there all over the country, in summer the theatres being without roofs, which are hurriedly and badly transformed into winter theatres when the season changes. The public, spoiled during the summer by free open-air performances, becomes difficult to please, and, in order to make up programs, which their patrons demand shall be changed daily, exhibitors are obliged to mix with their new films a very large quantity of old films which bring discredit upon the theatres. Latterly, however, some of the big manufacturing firms have opened agencies in Greece. These are tending to better the conditions, and, by limiting programs to new films only, will finish by giving the motion picture new scope, which promises well for its future. $ $ ■ ' % FRENCH films are by far the most popular, although American films are not despised. Public taste is more especially drawn towards tragic plays, highly colored melodramas, stories of the police and criminals, and also "comics." There being no actual sale for films, hiring business only is done. The films are supplied by the big Paris houses which have an agency at Athens. The total import of films is more than 984,000 feet (300,000 metres) a year, but films only circulate for a short while in the country, and are returned immediately after they have been used. In spite of this, duty has to be paid, and is not returnable when the goods leave the country again, as is the case in Egypt. Films, new or old without distinction, are assessed by weight at the Customs: 5 francs 80 centimes, the oke (1,252 grammes), while the toll fees and other formalities bring the charge to about centimes the metre (about one cent per 3 feet). Besides this, toll is exacted upon the films at each town they enter. * * * UNFORTUNATELY the manner in which the toll fees, and also the harbor dues, are levied in Greece, left as they are to the judgment of agents who have no properly established basis to act upon, very much augments the expenses of exhibitors, and, in consequence, does much to retard the spread of the motion picture in the rural districts. A Corfu business man, for instance, taking his programs to Athens, pays an amount equal to nearly 50 per cent of the hiring charges in fees and duties. The sale of projectors and general apparatus is as small as that of films. When an outfit is imported, the duty of 5 francs 80 centimes per oke is sometimes levied on the projector alone, and sometimes on the complete outfit. Thus, the amount of duty one pays ' on material worth 800 francs may be anything from 100 to 400 francs (from $20 to $80) according to the humor in which the assessor of duty may be on the day of entry. Most of the big towns have electricity. In others, generating sets supply the curcent. THERE exists one firm of film manufacturers in Greece — the "Fabrisque Panhellenique de films S. Leonce," at Athens. Up to now, it is true, this firm has produced only topical and scenic pictures, but it announces its intention of issuing in the near future some spectacular plays, which should certainly be successful in view of the natural beauties and historical monuments which abound in the land. Altogether, although Greece has not yet progressed very far in the motion picture field, one can foresee that the spirit of imitation which dominates the Greeks, and their love of everything connected with the theatre, will bring about a rapid extension and development of the picture industry in their country.