Motography (Jul - Dec 1915)

470 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XIV, No. 10. By the time motion pictures are as perfect as professional baseball, a similar spirit of team work and co-operation between a director and his assistants, each of whom is an authority and a specialist in his own particular line, will have been worked out. Already one can see it coming on the horizon, for D. W. Griffith announces with pride that he was assisted in getting realism into his battle scenes by West Point officers, that the reproduction of the theater in which Lincoln was assassinated was the result of weeks of study and research, and Thomas H. Ince boldly proclaims that Melville Ellis, an international authority on dress, has been engaged to superintend the costuming of his future productions, or that Lee Bartholomew, a camera expert, has been employed purely in an advisory capacity for the purpose of better acquainting both directors and camera men with many of the seemingly insignificant mistakes the camera is likely to register. The result of team work and co-operation between real experts in their line and producers of the prominence of Griffith and Ince is sure to show on the screen and cannot but uplift the silent drama to a still higher plane. Film direction is a long ways from being a "one-man" job and the time is rapidly coming when not one or two manufacturers, but the industry as a whole is going to realize it. Then, and then only, will perfect pictures result, pictures that will be classics of their kind, that will go on and on for generations. THE COURAGE OF ITS CONVICTIONS THE money that is invested in the motion picture business today is real money. Manufacturers who were fortunate enough to get into the game early were able to take the money for their present extensive plants out of the business itself as it grew. Those who came in later took the money out of other lines of business and diverted it to their purposes. They were able to do this because the picture business is a good business. The lay observer seems prone to regard the picture business as an investment of the speculative class with considerable risk offset by a promise of high returns. The fallacy of this view must soon become apparent to those who, interested only in the financial phase of the industry, observe the use to which money invested is put. Speculative industries do not invest large sums in real estate and plant. We have in mind the recent purchase by the Famous Players Film Company of a very large tract of land in upper Manhattan with a tax valuation of over $160,000, and the avowed purpose of the company to improve its holdings to a value of approximately a million dollars. The details of this transaction are set forth on another page and need not be repeated here. Its significance to the trade lies not in the publicity and praise accruing to the Famous Players, which concern needs no boosting, but in the feeling of substantiality and permanency which it and its like must establish in the minds of business men in all lines of effort. Manhattan as an administrative center is ideal. As a producing center it is expensive. To buy into it demands solidity and faith in the future. It is needless to point out that the concern mentioned in the transaction has demonstrated those characteristics with a force that should leave its impression on those of a more timorous and conservative turn of mind. A few manufacturers in this industry are building not just for next week, but for a hundred years. JUSi ^yytjryfTfl Isn't it funny that the dopesters and press agents of nearly every film concern sooner or later get the editor bug into their bonnets and blossom forth with a little paper devoted solely to the product of their particular film company, while most of the editors think a press agent's life must be one sweet song and wonder how they find time to spend all their money and how blissful it must be to. have nothing' to edit. The latest to bust into the limelight with a paper all his own is our old friend Bennie Zeidman, who last week released Vol. 1, No. 1, of Fine Arts Films Press News, a breezy little sheet, crammed with news of the Griffith studios. Hats off to you, Bennie. It's a regular sheet. An item in the very first column interested us mightily. It's the one about Madame Filbert, the erstwhile Parisian modiste, who "has been engaged permanently for the Fine Arts Films studios." Now if we were so inclined we might laboriously whittle out a wheeze of some sort relative to the Madame being a new kind of "nut," but such humor being far beneath us, we'll leave that for others. THANKS, LLOYD. We wish to express our appreciation of the testimonial to the worth of the Coward Art Scollege which has gained some publicity in an eastern paper. The public acknowledgement that it "produced results" sufficient to warrant a large endowment by one of its first pupils is gratifying and we are tempted to get out a special de luxe edition of our igi6 catalogue, with new views of the campus and a page in five colors devoted to a reproduction of the "testimonial." From the Strand Cafe at Venice, California, we have received a postal of a beautiful girl sent by Kenneth O'Hara, B. Banard and Mabel Condon. Thanks, folks, it stopped us for more than a "moment." We wish we could actually be there long enough to "have one" with each of you, likewise with the girlie who extends the invite to "meet her at the Strand." Speaking of postals, reminds us that a remarkable four-color view of Hayward Mack crossing the Great Salt Lake came to hand since our last issue went to press. We fear the climate is already having its effect on Mack, however, since on the postal he looks nearly as much like a lath as we ourselves. Hurry back, Mack, before you disappear entirely. OUR BURG. George "Universal" Stevenson, who used to be a native of Our Village and has more recently lived in the blooming British isles, is back to see the folks and has many interesting stories to tell about the war and its effect upon the London fillim market. Welcome home Geo. Wisht you could stay longer. . Carl Ray, well known in Our Burg, is expected back for a brief visit with the home folks in the near future. . , . Benj. Tuddel, what recently arrived in Our Burg, got homesick for Mpls on Mon. of this wk. and hiked hack for another look at Minnehaha Falls before settling down in our midst. Never mind, Ben, we'll soon make you to home here. . r . The hardworked Censor Board of this Village had a brief vacash on Mon. on acct. the mullatto holiday in the Village Hall. Dave Griffith and his swell fillum show moved on Sun. from one of our Village Opry Houses to another deeper in the loop. The well known and ever pop. Frank Bushman visited the old folks on Thurs. of last wk., he being as much admired as ever at the Opry House where he entertained. Our associate ed John Garrett is getting to be one of these here speed maniacs and joy riders, he having went to Elgin on Sun. in a benzine buggy. Watch out, John, or the auto salesman will get you. We don't know what he keeps in it, but Phil Solomon has a mighty peculiar combination to the upper right hand drawer of his desk. German war secrets couldn't be guarded any closer. Eh, Phil? N. G. C.