The motion picture projectionist (Oct 1927-Sept 1928)

12 The Motion Picture Projectionist September, 1928 As The Editor Sees It N, f^And Now Television It will be a long time OW it's Television. There is nothing to worry about. before television is a commercial possibility. First, it has to be perfected. Second, it has to be produced cheaply enough to place it within the means of the average buyer. It is still crude, experimental and, at its present stage, very costly. It will take several years before the laboratories release it for general circulation. It is hard to forecast what effect it will have on the motion picture industry, as a business, when television is finally a commercial achievement. How will it effect the Projectionist? So many factors will ultimately play a part in the merchandising of this new freak of the air, that all prophecies are not worth the paper they are printed on. But one thing is certain : Against television will be arrayed the whole weight of the motion picture industry: exhibitors, producers, distributors, Projectionists, studios, and the whole complicated machinery and personnel of the financial world now back of the motion picture industry as is. Anything that may tend to keep people away from the theatre, threatens the millions of dollars now invested in theatres, studios, contracts with players, real estate, etc. It strikes at the very roots of the business built up at so great an expense of money, genius, and tireless effort. It threatens the many millions of dollars represented in stock-holdings among all classes of people. It will, therefore, not be readily tolerated. If Now, that small word may be the immovable wall against which television may butt its head and break its back as a commerical product. w, ^ The Question of Product HO will make the pictures for television films? Will they transmit film made professionally for theatres or will they act out the stories before the television camera for immediate transmission? If the former, what film company will be so foolish as to ruin its own business by allowing its films to be televised ? If the latter, where will they get the players now under contract to the film companies for years, the players the public loves and wants to see, to act before their televisor ? The problem of the 16 mm. film was somewhat similar in its final application to the public. There are literally hundreds of thousands of amateur motion picture cameras and projectors now in use and there are complete libraries of 16 mm. feature film. Yet, amateur motion picture activities have made hardfy a dent in the tough armor of the motion picture business. In its best form — and this is true also of television in its best form — it cannot compare with the luxury of a soft seat in a modern movie house, the organ and orchestral music where it is provided, the sound orchestration in others, and the pleasure of looking, in complete relaxation, at a large screen with life-size figures moving across it, with light and shadow playing in and out in the most artistic and realistic manner. w, •J Radio and 'Sound' Analogy ^ Movies' Superior Quality HEN sound was first introduced, the industry was skeptical about its usefulness, but it at once assumed a belligerent and antagonistic attitude toward it. That was an attitude of defense, until the new element was tried, and perfected, not as enemy, but as an assisting arm of the motion picture industry. As that was proven, it was accepted. With radio, the industry assumed a similar attitude. It was at first thought it would keep people away from the theatre, particularly on rainy days. Radio was a real problem, but fortunately it took its proper place in the home, not as a fullfilment of all desires for entertainment, but much as bridge game does, as a filler-in between the actual urge for a movie. Radio has not affected movie receipts to any considerable degree. But television offers a real problem. If pictures can be sent through the air and thrown on a screen in your home — feature, comedy, news reel and all — on a set that can be bought at the price of a radio set today, it may mean that thousands or millions of these television sets may be installed in millions of homes and then, perhaps, people may stay away from the theatre. X. ^i OR can these compare with the industry in the quality of the productions which it shows nightly in the theatres from coast to coast. It will be a long, long time before anything, not formally presented in a professional moving picture theatre, can compare with those vast panoramic photoplays of moving drama and comedy, produced on a large and lavish scale and presented with the equipment of a modern projection room. Television is a splendid thing for the imagination to feed on. As a laboratory achievement it tantalizes and prods the mind to visualize the more wonderful things still unknown but sure to come. But as a commercial product — it is so far off as to defy any classification and to mock any prophecy. So why worry?