The Moving picture world (August 1921)

606 MOVING PICTURE WORLD August 6, 1921 Selling the Picture to the^Public Shea Daily Ads Are Held to a Standard One of the most interesting studies at the moment is the gradual development of the Shea daily advertisement. They have always been of a good grade, but the artist Seems to be working to get something better, and most of the time he succeeds. He knows that in so small a space as a single forty lines he must come through either with a black mass or a white space, and it is his experiments along these lines which form the study. The present set are for "The Witching Hour" and the first reproduction is in the same size as the original. Here the mass is used to throw up the title AS COOL AS THE SEA BR£EZ.ES CRITSRION THIS WEEK rare _ELLI0TT DEXTER " kUGUSTUS THOMAS' play WITCHING HOUR. AN ACTUAL SIZE SHEA into prominence through the use of reverse. The clock face showing the hour is employed in four of the five advertisement, but in this first display it is made the big thing, probably with the idea of motivating its later use as well as jjutting it over 'for the hook-up with the title. This violates one of the rules of good layout in that the star is in black and the title in white, and this might be held against the entire space, were it not that the dimensions are such that the eye takes it all in at a single glance, which is not the case with a two column width or larger. It also helps that the top projects upward into the white space, which further serves to bind the two parts. For Tuesday the L shaped mass is used, as seen in the lower right hand corner of the second re- production. The title was sunk in on the big Sunday ad and again on Monday. For Tues- day a situation is used, instead, to get the in- terest. Wednesday a second scene cut is used, both of them employing the black mass effec- tively while still giving room for the lettering. Thursday there was used the clock tower, which artistically is the best of the lot, though it would not have made as good a Monday de- sign because it is less commanding. The tower seen above the brow of the single line hill stands out in the white like a beacon and it gets almost as much attention in the page as does the heavy mass of the Monday. It's not a case of how much black you use. It's a question of how intelligently you employ it, and here a maximum effect is gained with a minimum of color. Friday was not so good. That little dab of black in the space in the upper left hand corner is a scene cut, but it is too small to show well and if you do see it it is only the inevitable clutch. No one is going to be dragged into a theatre on the promise that the hero is going to grab the heroine at the end of the last reel, so this tableau has no appeal. It might better have been left out, but it is the only ineffective display of the five and that, we consider, is a mighty good average. In the last analysis all advertising is good or poor in proportion to the handling of color, whether AS COOt. AS TMt S£A OfttCTtS CRITERION ELLIOTT DEXTER ySe VITCHINO as coo. as the se* oftteiii CRITERION J*°~ -A myshc Sour ruW — IA£ IrvnS of »£V iOWJS ' AS COOX AS TMt 5EA CW£C Z(_S CRITERION c ELLIOTT DEXTER. "%Vitehi[$fair FOUR OTHER DAILY DISPLAYS this color be gained from cuts or type or both. Your selling talk depends upon the display, and alone will not sell unless it be read. And the smaller you get your space, the more easy it is to go wrong on proportions, so study these Shea ads as they appear from time to time, see how Harold B. Franklin does things and it will help you to get better results from your own artist when you cut your spaces down. —P. T. A.- Faces and Trademarks Put Over Tom Meighan The Imperial Theatre, San Francisco, made Tom Meighan's face back up the Paramount- Artcraft trade marks on the marquise during the run of "White and Unmarried." Three 24-sheets were cut up to get these face cutouts, but it was a good investment for it capitalizes Meighan's popularity as nothing else could. It does not matter in what sized letters the star name appears, a single portrait, large enough to be seen will sell to greater advantage, and the Imperial got them up, down and across the street, so there was no escaping. It might have been even better to have put the two end ones directly looking up and down the street instead of angling them. —P. T. A.— Pittsburgh Smoke Gets in Displays Here is another specimen (fit Pittsburgh ad- vertising that looks as though it had been dropped into the gutter on the way to the en- graver's. With Samuel Sivits leading the way to better things, the other houses do not even CHARLES RAY Strafe Wtrfcl>j Top* * A PITTSBURGH BLOTCH seem to be interested. This is 38 lines across three columns, and to get the full effect you must visualize this as printed in a poor black. The figures so completely fill the space as to suggest some low-ceilinged dump instead of the outdoor location this situation carried, and you almost feel sorry for the poor people who have to stand there. The lettering is messy, with filled letters that arc hard enough to read even when they are clearly printed, and the text is perfunctory with "Charles E. Van Loan's story of the brave youth whom they called a coward" for the chief selling line. That would not sell tickets to a spendthrift, where "The fight that Carpenticr pronounced the best ever screened" would have sold a waste basket full. "See the screen's greatest ring battle," which ap- pears in one of those panels, does not mean A ROTH & PARTINGTON MARQUISE DISPLAY