Radio annual and television yearbook (1945)

people on line in all kinds of weather patiently awaiting to go inside and see a picture which they know was completed several months ago. The people know the middle scenes were shot first and the first scenes shot last. They know each scene was taken and retaken. Yet they line up to get it. Why? It's only a cold, moving and talking shadow — but the story and the actors and actresses will make them laugh or cry or forget thmeselves for a few fleeting hours. It has been said many times: The high cost of programs on film is an impossible obstacle. I do not believe that programs in order to be entertaining and good, necessarily have to be expensive beyond reason. Some radio programs today cost from $10,000 to $25,000 for a 30-minute period. That's a range of from $300 to $600 a minute. We could supply film shows for that much and less — and, of course, more. Knotty Problems One of the knotty little economic problems of television which keeps occupying the attention of prospective station operators, especially the so-called originating stations for networks, is the vast amount of equipment and personnel needed to put a comparatively few hours of live talent programs on the air. There are a lot of people who say that television will operate only between four and six hours a day. Others point knowingly to a 24-hour-around-the-clock schedule. Let's take for our example a 12-hour day although even that might be some distance in the future. What would be required to put on 12 hours of programs a day if they were all live talent programs ? One station operator who has been on the air for several years and who has had the unique experience of running two studios has estimated that it would take 15 studios to put on the air 12 hours of live talent program material, allowing only four hours' rehearsal time to one hour air time. Believe me when I tell you, however, that many 15-minute and half-hour live talent shows require as much as a week of rehearsal. Five of these studios would be very large studios about 3,000 square feet apiece; five would be medium size, around 2,000 square feet, and five small — around 1,300 square feet. Nobody knows just how many technicians, property men, electricians, directors, cameramen, grips and other laborers would be needed for these 15 studios. With the most careful method of staggering all help (union permitting) there may be as many as 200 men needed. Rehearsal Angles When a program goes into reh< a production crew is assigned to it and that crew stays with it all during the rehearsal time and is the same crew that will eventually put the show on the air. So you can see that every show in rehearsal will require its own crew. In a radio station today at the end of a program there is not very much to be done in the studio to get ready for the next show but when a live television show is over, the crew has to come in, strike the set, properties and lights, hring in the new set, dress it, light it, and you just don't do that in 30 minutes. How very simple it is going to be when programs are provided on film. A large motion picture company can arrange with the advertising agency for whom it functions to supply identical prints of a program to any number of television stations throughout the country or, for that matter, the world. It would do this precisely as it supplies its regular motion picture film, on a "day and date" basis. This would be done through its nationwide network of film exchanges. No excitement, no worry, no scurry — just as simple as loading a home movie. Commercial Opportunities Public relations or straight advertising via television opens up a vast new field of opportunity. Today, more than ever before, it has become necessary for big business to justify its existence. Television on film will offer a most unique and effective method of spreading the story of the large corporation to Mr. and Mrs. Public. In a most entertaining manner it will be possible to portray what a big company does for its employes — group insurance, social service, hospitalization, home economics, company stores, extension courses, bonus system, job insurance, retirement funds. What better way could there be to present this story to the peoples of the world than via the motion picture films ? The screens of the majority of motion picture theaters in this and many other countries have been closed to the advertising or business propaganda film— and rightfully so. People do not wish to buy propaganda or advertising when they go to the theater. Now, with television, the home screens of the world will be open to the advertiser. Here again the efficacy of the television program on film becomes apparent. You can't drag television cameras all through and around a big plant and put on a carefully planned show. Also the finest (Continued on Page 231) 227