Moving Picture World (Jul - Aug 1918)

July 20, 1918 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 377 tinued about the time he made his first release and exhibitors everywhere welcomed him as the successor of their previous funmakers. Three special Selexart productions were taken on by the Goldwyn organization for distribution a few months ago, and they are rapidly gaining headway in sales over the summer, and unquestionably will duplicate the sales successes of other productions handled under the Goldwyn auspices. For the coming season Goldwyn has enlarged the man-power of its sales organization and opened, besides, a twentieth branch office, New Orleans being the city selected for this development. All the facilities of the Goldwyn Distributing Corporation are available to the owners and makers of any wellproduced picture. Behind this actual sales service these independent producers can avail themselves of the usual publicity and sales exploitation resources of Goldwyn. While no announcement is made now, Goldwyn will offer the exhibitors of the country additional special productions of great value and importance during the coming season. GOLDWYN STARS. Teamwork is the Aim of Goldwyn Personnel At the Fort Lee Studios Workers Major and Minor Are Made to Feel Their Responsibility for the Success of Completed Product. IN co-ordination of effort lies the secret of success in the management of any enterprise enlisting the services of many people. This is especially true of the Goldwyn studios, where efficiency and harmony are allied with genuine artistic achievement. It is accomplished by means of a system very nearly perfect, and which bids fair to bring about ever better results with the beginning of Goldwyn's second year as a producing organization. Manned and operated by men of ideals and achievements, the studio organization stands as an example of what may be done when all the forces concerned in the creation of motion pictures unite in upholding a definite standard. At its Fort Lee plant, where all the productions are now made, the producing and technical departments are distinctively Goldwyn in personnel; men selected because their ideals and accomplisments represent the things Goldwyn desires for permanent association with its name. Every worker is conscious of his intimate relation to the finished product, and when a production is completed everyone in the studio is made to feel that his endeavors have made possible whatever success attends the picture's reception by the public. The forces entering into a production are, of course, varied and the departments controlling them are managed by executives recognized as specialists. The management of the Goldwyn studios is in the hands —and head— of Abraham Lehr, whose able generalship embraces every department, and whose presence at every con ference is a necessary help to his colleagues, no less than his handling of the hundred and one questions which arise daily in the big studio. His keen sense of human values forms a happy combination with his training in business efficiency, thereby enabling Mr. Lehr to achieve practical results with no sacrifice of the amenities. His work is closely related to that of Willard Mack, officially editorial director of Goldwyn, but in reality much more than the title implies. To Mr. Mack falls the responsibility of selecting the stories intended for Geraldine Farrar, Pauline Frederick, Madge Kennedy, Mae Marsh, Tom Moore and Mabel Normand, after which the various department heads confer jointly with Samuel Goldfish, president of Goldwyn, for final decision. Mr. Mack is concerned with every stage of production, and his work does not cease until a Goldwyn picture is released. His auxiliary is the scenario department, of which H. R. Durant is editor. His functions include the supervision of all the work connected with receiving books, plays and stories submitted to Goldwyn as well as arranging for those purchased, together with the preparation of continuities, of which three are made by as many writers for each scenario. Ballin's Work a Large Factor. It has been said often that the striking note in Goldwyn pictures has been contributed by Hugo Ballin, the distinguished art director. His work begins with the first conference with the other department heads when a story is under discussion. For every scene he makes a separate sketch, employing a color scale of photographic values originated by himself. Directly under him are two buyers, or studio shoppers, who purchase everything required for the settings, while Edward Wortham, stage manager, superintends the work of his corps of assistants in building the scenes. In direct contact with this department is Charles De Soria, electrical expert, and his fifteen aids. Every problem of lighting, as well as the devising of special effects as the-/ are demanded from time to time, is handled by this verynecessary department of Goldwyn production. As director of photography, Percy Hilburn advises the cinematographers in regard to any difficulty which may come up during the course of a production and inspects the film as it comes from the laboratory. The still photograph department from which emanate the volume of scenes'from the various productions, as well as special publicity photographs, is in charge of C. H. Detrick. The inspection of the finished negative is continued by Emmett Flynn and Robert Kern, film editors, who have in mind not only the photographic quality to be maintained but the continuity of the story. The work of Paul Bern' cutter of the negative, then follows, with every emphasis' laid . every emphases the narrative, on preserving the dramatic unities