Publix Opinion (Aug 31, 1929)

me Ee ee if eepoueea i! PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF AUGUST 3lsrt, 1929 ITT IM Mt) SELLING “JEALOUSY” By RUSSELL HOLMAN (Ady. Mer. Paramount Pietures) “Jealousy” is 100% red meat drama. Better box office than “The Letter” because it has a better title and the whole story strikes closer to the average man and woman. With the public being fed an almost continuous diet of girl shows and back-stage romances at the present time, a tense domestic drama like “Jealousy” may be welcome. The principal characters might just as well be Mr. and Mrs. Public, and that’s not a bad note to hit in advertising. There are two ways of handling the picture—highbrow and lowbrow: 1. Highbrow. Selling Eagels, stage people and type of entertainment: (a) (Cc) (d) rity aaa ST ALL Baa rift tei (a) (c) Jednne Eagels, foremost dramatic star on the American stage. Star of the stage “Rain” and the screen “The Letter.” In “Jealousy” she has type of gripping dramatic role that made -her famous. “Jealousy” as a stage play ran on Broadway. It was widely talked about because the cast numbered only two people—Fay Bainter and John Halliday. The picture has a bigger cast and you see and hear situations that were merely talked about on the stage. It is adult, modern, New Show World entertainment. It will neither entertain nor interest children. Play adapted on stage by Eugene Walter (author of “The Easiest Way,” “Trail of the Lonesome Pine,” etc.). From original play by Louis Vernueil, French playwright. Dialog staged by John D. Williams (Sam Harris’ partner in -producing “Rain”; producer of many other stage successes) and Edward Goodman, well known playwright. Directed by Jean De Limur, who directed “The Letter.” 2. Lowbrow. Selling the story and bringing it home to audiences : Leading man is Fredric March, becoming popular with screen fans because of appearances in “The Wild Party” (Clara Bow) and “Studio Murder Mystery.” Story of a Parisian marriage between an innocent young artist and a beautiful woman with a past—a marriage wrecked by jealousy. The man from the wife’s past is murdered—either wife or husband, or another man whom the murdered man wronged, might have done it—the audience is kept in ignorarice of the real murderer until the last minute. The climax is the husband's confession over.the ‘phone to the police to save an innocent man accused of the crime. Drama lies in the fact that confession was unnecessary ; the man had proved an alibi and been let go; the husband would never have been suspected! Copy thoughts: “JTealousy—love’s companion and its bitterest enemy.” “Should a bride conceal her past?” “In Paris they call it ‘crime passionel : in America they call it—?” Ete. Base your method of handling “Jealousy” on the results you got from Letter,” change. town and the average 0 high, be highbrow. is safer. use If Eagels and stage “The Letter.” If you did well with “The same type of campaign. If you didn’t, plays means something in your ligence of your audiences is the lowbrow method the f inte If the opposite, mn A fe su SEEK 50 MORE. STUDENT MGRS. FOR FUTURE (Continued from page ft) over that they ; ; to discov ¢ for our business.” | s should write di| titude or likin All applicant Mr rectly to complete outline o round, photos, there are two or three rters and assista re who have the executives, chance to get ou . alley profession which is limited by eration, into its local op ublix affords. opportunities P and would gladly wel te o-0-e-0-e eee A RARE EVENT! In a few weeks, you'll be getting HAROLD LLOYD In his first uproarious all-talkie “WELCOME, DANGER!” ‘ Don’t wait until it’s booked, or for presssheets or stills! Start YELLING NOW that PUBLIX is bringing Harold Lloyd in a few weeks! That’ll tease the talk of i his fan following! ee aiid have no ap> | Stoddard, giving a f personal back| and references. Mr. hat in every city | newspaper makings 0 t of a blind the limitless PT Lc Lan a aaanana NLA NU AAU : = 4 a| =| =| = = = = 4 = = = = = = : = = 2 ARE SOUN partment D TIPS of Sound and Projection, _ HARRY RUBIN, Director BULLETIN No. 24 HORN SETTINGS There fs nothing mysterious | about the horn settings on the 200A panel. . They should not be changed without a careful check in the auditorium, with special constant frequency film or record if possible, or the distribution of sound may be upsets The little dials on this panel govern the volume of sound issuing from each individ| yal horn, and changing the setting without this check will almost cer'tainly result in unequal ‘volume} ' of sound in the different parts of the house. For this reason departures from the standard A, B and C settings should be made only while some competent person is listening in the auditorium. When any change in settings or horn pointing is being made, a) constant frequency record, or . | should be run so that it is just audible. The person checking should then walk to every part of the house— EVERY part—and| make adjustments in favor of| those portions where the sound disappears. Your Erpi service engineer can secure a constant frequency record, } 'or film, at short notice. Horn settings may not be made with reference only to distribution. They must also, and this is} equally important, match the input impedance of the horns. Any two electrical circuits, of} | whatever nature, work to max-| imum efficiency when the output} of one matches the input of the ‘other in impedance. In sound| work this is especially important, sinee any serious difference in im-| pedance will distort the quality of | the sound. Impedance may be described, shortly, as ‘“‘A. C. resistance,” or opposition to the flow of current. A short-hand method of figur-| | ing whether your impedances are} right or not is given by the table film, | dial is set on 4, calculate, the index as if it were set on six. Thus, a setting of 4-4-4-4 would be incorrect for any other system, adding up to 1.60; but it will be right for a system using two 43A type amplifiers. In that case, reading the dials as if they were set on 6,: (or at impedance value of .25) the total for the four units adds up to 1. Where double-throat horns are used, each unit is to be considered independently when adding up impedance indexes the fact that two units are mounted on one horn makes no difference. The index method of setting impedances, as described, is of course, shorthand. Actually calculating them from! the ohmic resistance is a different and much more complicated job; which need not be considered here because the simpler index method has been found to work out satisfactorily. A, B and C settings may have a word of explanation while we are on the subject. They do not ex ' ist with 15-type horns. The older | 12 and 13 type horns have differ ent frequency characteristics — that is, the 12, or upper horns, favor the high notes, and the 13, or lower horns, the low notes. For dialogue the lowers should be used as little as possible, or the speech will be unnatural. But for |musie it is desirable to bring in the low notes; in a heavy orchestral selection the lower horns should be used strongly. Hence, three different settings. The 15type horns favor all netes alike, so only one setting is needed with these horns , Lower, or 13-type horns, should never be used heavily with speech. If proper balcony distribution cannot be obtained without them, the upper horns should be reset. There are very few houses where distribution cannot be obtained without use of the lower horns. A, B and C settings vary for different houses. They are found experimentally; they are NOT the same for every house. In filling } : } } | 0 a The table is used as follows: | Add the indexes of all horns in use INCLUDING the monitor. Do NOT add in horns which are turn| = ed off. The sum of the indexes should be as close-as possible to The allowable limits are 1.25 =| and 0.75. If you use your monitor at “any old setting,” or use it for = changeovers only, you will have to disregard the monitor, but that is not the best practice. For some examples: A house with only one horn should have that horn set at 0—unless the monitor also is turned up high, when both horn and monitor should be set at 2. With four horns, setting each one at 6 adds up to an index of one—see table —and is ideal from the impedance point of view. On these dials the low numbers indicate, of course, the higher volume. For six horns a setting of 6-6-10-10-6-6 is allowable, as within the limit, 1.25. Obviously a setting like 0-0-10-10is all wrong, adding up to an index of 2.20. There is one exception to the above rule for figuring indexes. In a system using two 43A type amplifiers, the numbers on the dials must be calculated as if they | were one point higher than they actually are. For instance, if a out your Weekly Projection Room | Report fill. in the actual setting, in numbers; not A, B or ©. The latter are meaningless to persons checking the report. To sum up this bulletin: Horn settings govern distribution of sound. Distribution of sound is obtained by pointing the horns in onjunection with the horn setings. Horn setting indexes must add up to within limits of .75 to 1.25. With two 43A amplifiers indexes are to be read as if settings were one step higher than’ they actually.are. A, B and C settings are designed to adjust the reproduction of the older type horns. to high or low notes, according to whether the sound is speech (A), oN music (B) or heavy music (G). IF ANY CONDITION IN YOUR THEATRE IS AT VARIANCE WITH THE DESIRABLE . CONDITION AS DESCRIBED IN THIS BULLETIN, CALL. IT TO THE ATTENTION OF YOUR SERVICE ENGINEER OR THIS DEPARTMENT. HE MAY BE ABLE TO EFFECT A SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT IN THE QUALITY OF YOUR SOUND. i FIELD HEADS PLUGGING “THE DANCE OF LIFE” A. shower of enthusiastic telegrams was the result of Mr. Katz’ wire to all district and division beg asking them to get behind “The Dance of Life’ in a big way. (Mr. Katz’? telegram is reSaeanigy elsewhere in this issue.) very one of the field heads promised to leave no stone unturned in selling this picture as no Paramount picture has ever heen sold before. ONAL THOUGHT IN ADS AND SCREEN EVERY WEEK Your back files of PUBLIX OPINION will furnish the hunches for copy. nuerevornsnenevennneannatveeuace nee een