Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1945)

46 FEBRUARY 1945 WASHINGTON FILM NEWS WILLIAM M. NELSON FILM SHORTAGE The biggest news in Washington — or throughout filmdom, for that matter — is the cut in raw film allocations for the first quarter of 1945. To amateurs, this appears to mean that supplies of 16mm. and 8mm. film will virtually disappear from dealer shelves, and stay absent until sometime in April, at the very best. As you probably know, the amount of film allocated to all film users — military and civilian, still and motion, professional and amateur — is controlled by the War Production Board Photographic Division, headed by Lincoln V. Burrows. It is the difficult job of this division to try to gear film use to the productive capacity of the raw film industry, by taking into account such factors as war necessity and the effects in various quarters of a film cut. Mr. Burrows has the kind of task that is guaranteed to generate headaches, no matter what happens, because it is the kind where it is impossible to keep everybody happy, even part of the time. It was disclosed recently by Mr. Burrows that the amount of film available for all types of picture making, including "stills." will be from five to ten percent less for this quarter than was available in the last three months of 1944. This shortage does not mean that all classes of film users will arbitrarily be cut from five to ten percent each. The cut varies according to the use. Hollywood is being cut comparatively little: the amateur cut. on the other hand, is almost total. Before the war, the civilian consumption of 16mm. film was some sixty five million linear feet every three months; today, it is running at some one million linear feet, and it may very likely not be running at all before long. This quarter, the film industry, meaning Hollywood, will receive some 300,000,000 linear feet of 35mm. film. For military purposes alone. 170.000.000 linear feet of 35mm. film. 142.000.000 linear feet of 16mm. film and 24,000,000 square feet of aero film will be required. Add to this requirement a tremendous increase in the use, both civilian and military, of X-ray film, and you have something of a situation. The first Army and Navy estimates for 16mm. film alone were 8,500,000 feet in excess of the industry's present capacity to produce it. In simple language, there is a film shortage because the demand for film, by those who use it, exceeds the supply. In looking for remedies for the situation, one cannot censure film manufacturers, who are producing to the full limit of the capacity of their machines and limited labor, day and night, to remedy the situation. The only thing to do is to look at what is happening to the film that is being manufactured and is available. In this respect, one thing seems to be happening that is the subject of much controversy, argument and discontent. There are persistent reports from extremely valid sources (who do not wish to be quoted until they assemble all the data on the gathering of which they are now at work) that, for the past year, an increasing amount of film has been, and is continuing to be, lend leased. That this disposal should exist in the face of an acute domestic film shortage that is causing very genuine hardship, loss of income and unemployment in some quarters seems, on the face of it. to be a most peculiar situation. Then, there is the fact that the theatrical motion picture industry is getting the lion's share of the film available. A justification for this division is frequently offered on grounds of pure morale. It is pointed out that theatres are doing an excellent propaganda job of fund raising for various purposes and of bond selling and that Hollywood is performing an inestimable service in shipping prints of its pictures to United States service men all over the world, where they are building morale as nothing else could do. All of this statement is eminently true. It is pointed out, however, that the industry's continuing to serve as many theatres, with pictures as long as, or longer than, they have always been, with the full complement of trailers, "shorts" and newsreels pretty much as they were in peacetime, is not a fundamental prerequisite of the wartime services that the industry is performing. In other words, patriotism and public service by the theatrical movie industry do not demand domestic screen programs of any given length or number. As Americans, we have learned, mildly, to do without many things that we once thought were essential. Who is to argue the relative value, to civilians, of movie entertainments as against sirloin steaks or canned pineapples? What is important to some people may rate very low with others, and it hardly seems likely that the nation's morale would sag perceptibly if screen entertainment were to be cut by an appreciable amount. We are not advocating that this be done; we are simply trying to evaluate an argument currently being used extensively by members of the theatrical movie industry itself. We are examining it from the standpoint of general filmers — of business men, teachers, scientists and — because he is an entirely valid, valuable and patriotic person — of the amateur. There is another argument that we have heard, to the effect that Hollywood is a large scale business, and that many hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of people would be put out of work as the result of a drastic film curtailment. This argument, also, strikes us as questionable. For, with the supply limited, what film Hollywood is getting at the moment is denied to smaller users, and it seems logical to suppose that the total of all the hardships being wrought upon hundreds of small businesses by the film cut is no greater than an equivalent cut would be to the handful of major theatrical producing companies. It seems to us to be a matter of simple arithmetic. Next month, we hope to have more facts regarding the shortage. But one fact that will not be changed is that the amateur camera user can hope for little film for several months. Another that is painfully certain is that non theatrical, commercial producers will have to tighten their belts. Belt tightening, of course, is an old American custom — a custom that people don't mind following when they have all the facts and are sure of the reasons. But there are many persons, in the present situation, who are a long way from knowing all the facts, and, until they get them, the belt tightening is going to be neither silent nor cheerful. TRICKY SHORES Shots of the shores of bodies of water, taken from a vessel, will seldom have the charm that they offer in reality, because the camera will record only a specific sector of the view that the eye encompasses. Often these shots are "busy," but they lack interest otherwise. On the other hand, a very interesting use of the shoreline can be made in a shot of a vessel that moves between it and the ship on which the camera rests. The intermediate ship, if moving counter to the direction of the filmer's, provides a surprising effect of third dimensionality.