Moving Picture News (Jul-Oct 1913)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 9 €arly fall. I feel confident that exhibitors and audiences will be delighted with the 'Robin Hood" production. There is not a false move on the part of the players. They were carefully selected from the best actors and actresses in England. Every character of the legend — ■ Will Scarlet, Maid Marion, Little John, Friar Tuck, Robin Hood — all of them are presented as if 'to the manner born.' The natural color pictures were taken in the famous Sherwood Forest, and will compare with anything in the line of natural scenery that has ever been thrown, on the screen. The interior settings are also reproduced with wonderful efifect, and the throne room scene will make audiences sit up and take notice. The costumes of the period are most picturesque. The music has been carefully gleaned from operatic and other available sources, and exhibitors will be provided with a piano score that provides suitable selections for every scene." "Do you provide music with other feature films?" "We have decided to adopt that policy. I think that suitable musical selections are a most important consideration in artistic productions. We shall furnish piano scores for 'William Tell,' for 'Everyman,' and in every instance when good music will add to the attractiveness of the performance, for it is just as necessary in motion pictures to appeal to the ear with effective results as it is to satisfy the eye. This is especially the case in romantic and historical photoplays. If music 'hath charms to sooth the savage breast,' it must be effective •otherwise the savage might howl with anguish and turn upon the perpetrator of discordant sounds.'' "Do you anticipate any great improvements on present methods of presenting feature plays?" "I don't know of any special improvement — except pos.sibly that the sub-title ought not to be resorted to when the incidents can be made clear by pantomime. I might illustrate this by saying that while I don't understand French I have attended performances given by a line •company of French players and understood every incident of the plot from start to finish, although I knew nothing about the play before the performance. It's the ■old story of the poor workman quarreling with his tools. Dramatists have karned to avoid the aside on the speaking stage, and in time they will overcome the unnecessary use of the .sub-title in the silent drama." ''But you consider the sub-title necessary to some extent, don't you?" "Yes. the problem has not been solved for plays that don't lend themselves easily to pantomime— that is, plays in which you cannot convey everything by action, facial expression ^and gestures. Possibly the 'talking' pictures may be made more effective some day. Then again, instead of sub-titles they may substitute a lecturer for important productions, as they do now for educational films on the lecture platform and in educational and scientific institutions. It would not be feasible to have lecturer.> for the cheap moving picture houses, but the nec•essary explanations might be made by means of phonographs. Nevertheless, there is no question that the public are satisfied with things as they are. So long as the pictufes sustain interest and draw audiences it is just as well to leave well enough alone. A poor lecturer and a poor phonograph would not improve matters in the cheaper houses, but they certainly might brace up on the quality of music supplied by many of the exhibitors in the cheaper houses throughout the country." "Do you supply explanatory notes for exhibitors that print programs?" "Yes, we send descriptions of the Kinemacolor features ten days in advance, so that the exhibitors can post themselves as well as their audiences in regard to coming films. These descriptions are accompanied by suggestions for suitable musical selections. In the case of the important features, as I have already told you, we supply a piano score of appropriate selections, which the exhibitor can have orchestrated if he sees fit. The descriptive notes of our program enable the exhibitor to supply the local newspapers with advance notices. It is only a question of time when the local newspapers throughout the country will carry advertisements of moving picture attractions just as extensively as they now carry the advertisements of the performances on the speaking stage. They will also have regular reviews of multiple feature plays, as they must necessarily follow the public demand. Columns, as you know, have been written about 'Quo Vadis," 'The Scarlet Letter,' 'Nathan Hale,' and similar photoplays and the Sunday papers have published elaborate descriptive articles and numerous illustrations of photoplays of this character. Even now a number of daily papers in this country devote a great deal of space to a motion picture department." "Tell me something about the invention of your colored pictures." "Kinemacolor is the invention of Charles Urban and G. Albert Smith, of. England. The first presentation of these actual color pictures was in London on May 1, 1908 — over five years ago. The films are sensitized by a chemical process so that when exposed they absorb every tinge of color. When these films are projected through a color filter attached to a moving picture machine, the colors are reproduced on the screen in all their natural beauty. It has been our policy to furnish for each entertainment an experienced operator and a complete Kinemacolor equipinent including an asbestos booth for the machine. Owing to the demand for good operators we have opened a free school recently to teach operators the proper method of handling the Kinemacolor films. Frank Scott is the principal instructor and Walter Smith is his chief assistant. With the aid of our new color filter our operators will be taught the method by which our natural color pictures are perfectly projected on the same amperage required for the blackand-white.'' "Have you any competitors in the moving picture amusement field?" "Not so you could notice it. A French concern attempted to invade the amusement field in England. _A London manager advertised that he would give a joint exhibit of Kinemacolor pictures and pictures of the French concern and requested the public to come to the performance and judge which they liked best. The French concern has not been heard of since in the English theatres. In the scenic field Kinemacolor has always been supreme, and now that it has gone into the production of American photoplays, pictorial dramas of human in-terest, acted by American players, it has equaled, if not excelled, the most ambitious attempts in black-and-white. We have now over 200 two and three-reel dramatic and comedy subjects ready for service. Our list incliides such popular photoplays as 'The House on the Plains,' 'War and Peace,' 'Fisherman's Luck,' 'The Husband's Story,' 'Jack and the Beanstalk,' 'An American Invasion,' 'Pearls of the Madonna,' 'The House that Jack Built,' 'Fifty-miles from Tombstone,' 'Girl Worth Having,' 'As the Candle Burns,' 'There is a God,' 'Romance of Princess Romana,' 'The Call of the Blood,' 'Her Crowning Glory,' 'When a Woman Wills,' 'Mumps,' 'Mixed Signals,' 'The Better Success,' 'The Return of the Prodigals,' and others. Among the strong features of our program are the fashions which are shown to audiences very often weeks in advance of the arrival in this country of the gowns and millinery creations of Parisian design. But you've certainly made me talk a lot. The color picture is not only a business but a fad with me. Kinemacolor is a sort of artist's dream come true. It is the greatest amusement triumph of our generation. No longer do we have to go traveling to see the world. Kinemacolor brings the world to us. It is Nature's mirror, and reproduces all her colors, tints and shades. Even the color of eyes, hair and complexion are reflected. Things are shown on the screen just as they really are. At the present time Kinemacolor photographers are located in practically every country on the globe." EASTERN FEATURE FILM COMPANY MOVE TO LARGER OFFICES The Eastern Feature Film Company of New York, Inc., have taken offices at 835 Broadway, con-ner of Thirteenth street. Mr. S. Friedman, manager of the New York office, says they will lease one feature each week. The company also contemplates moving the Boston branch from 22-1 Tremont street, which is managed by Flerman Rifkin, when suitable offices can be obtained.