Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

January 22, 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 255 T wo Sides to A Story What the Producing Company's Press Department May Rank as First Rate Copy Sometimes Draws a Blank From the Showman — There Are Ways to Get Together Under the Spell of Printers' Ink By GUY FOWLER With Sketches by the Writer €VERY now and then some writer in a motion picture publicity office turns out a gem of a story. It has the three essential factors of a good yarn — a clever start, an interesting body and a strong finish. It isn’t blurred with superlatives and bloated with quotations from the producer. In short, it’s a story without “blaa.” The copy is broadcast, either in a press book, a clip sheet, or by multigraph. When the clippings begin to come in at two cents apiece, the director of publicity finds that the story “got a good ride” all the way from coast to coast. He sometimes congratulates the writer and sets him down as a likely candidate for other jobs of writing. But when the same young man undertakes another assignment the result is not so good. The story may read well enough, but it doesn’t sound convincing. It has words, but lacks feeling. It has facts, but they don’t bristle with sincerity. And on that one the clipping service makes little or no profit. A little investigation may reveal the cause. In the case of the first story 'the writer in all probability, had some first hand knowledge of his subject. In the second he was writing to fill space because the chief called for copy. Take an example — say, a publicity story for a picture dealing with court procedure. The writer had been a court reporter and he understood the shades and tones that filter into the dry atmosphere of justice. He wrote a story, then, which described a thing he knew about and did it in such a way that others read it and understood. But when the second assignment came along it had to do with a picture of the South Sea Islands and he had never been there, nor had he bothered much to read the Saturday Evening Post. Accordingly, his story about the tropics was about as convincing as warm ginger ale on the following morning. It will be contended that no producing company could expect to have a specialist in the publicity offi c e for every type of pic ture. Nor could there be any logical answer to the a r g u ment excep ting one. Any person who ever really The circus gets publicity in wholesale lots. worked well was a specialist in that line of work. And a really good, businesslike newspaper man can write specials about any subject that ever sprang into the mind of the most imaginative scenarist. The trouble in the publicity departments is in writers who lack experience, who have traveled little and read less — who have observed nothing as they went along. There aren’t many of them, thank heaven, but there are enough to turn out some painfully unintelligent press books and some woefully impossible copy for newspapers, magazines and the trade press. In time of heavy production publicity writers have to work swiftly under pressure. For that particular reason it is pointed out that newspaper writers have to do the same thing three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Time, tide, taxes and a printing press stop for no man. Why, then, should any but a trained news writer be expected to produce material for newspapers under conditions that virtually parallel those in a newspaper’s ordinary routine ? The producers are payiny salaries that are superior to those paid by most newspapers for ordinary reporters. A superior reporter in New York City draws ft >>m a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars a week. If he’s extremely good he spends about twice (Continued on page 296)