Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

REEL and SLIDE 25 ^^ EDIT^ODIAUS (£5 — XD Experience Tells ADVERTISING is no longer a "hit and miss" game. Fifty years of experiment and test have been reduced to concrete facts. Human nature and human needs are no longer elusive subjects to the advertising expert. As new mediums have developed, specialists have appeared to guide their destinies. This is particularly true of the screen, which is rapidly taking its place in the foremost rank of mediums through which the advertiser may "talk" to great masses of people, quickly and directly. Many men who have studied and directed advertising in other mediums have entered this field, studied its problems and are solving them rapidly. They, too, are making use of the fifty years of accumulated experience ; but they are using a medium so potent with possibilities that innovations and new methods are developed almost over night. Motion picture and stereopticon slide campaigns are now planned with as much care and exactitude as periodical or newspaper campaigns. In other words, screen advertising is becoming standardized. Stereopticon in the Home WHEN the first so-called "magic lantern" came into use many years ago, it was considered a toy designed for the amusement of children. But, even at that time, grown-ups were not beneath using it. Then came the improved stereopticon which soon attracted the attention of educators and lecturers. Year by year, facilities for the projection of pictures on the screen have improved as the quality and range of slides broadened. And now there is being put on the market a stereopticon that projects sections of moving picture film on the screen. This machine, while of value in educational and advertising purposes, is also intended by its makers to enter into the family circle as offering novel entertainment and instruction. With it the operator may show 100 feet or more of "slides" which are in reality celluloid "frames" from moving picture film. These are easily shipped and inexpensive to make. And sections from any picture desired may be projected. Picture Writing IN Peru, there lived a race, thousands of years ago, who had no written language. They built palaces wonderful in their beauty, had bathrooms, reared churches. They left their history written only in pictures, on the walls of their buildings. Science is now deciphering these pictures. Even the ancients, recognized the picture as the "soul of brevity." The Novelty Film EACH day it is becoming more of a certainty that purely dramatic films are not the sum total of screen entertainment. Especially is this the case when overproduction and a growing skepticism on the part of the public precludes the possibility of a return to the "easy money days," when the cry was for cheap, trashy pictures and lots of them. The market is flooded with inartistic, distasteful and uninteresting dramatic features now. There is a cry for something new and the novelty film offers it. Moving Pictures in Court? A LAWYER, making a plea for the defendant in a criminal case, brings to bear all the power of his oratory in summing up his case to the jury. He endeavors to lay the facts before the jury, so as to impress them and to sway them. The better he is as an orator, the more successful he will be in working on the human emotions of the twelve men who hold his client's future in their hands. These pleas are usually "word pictures." They are designed to make the jury SEE the pitiful side of the client's case and thus show mercy. It is all legitimate and ethical. Many lawyers handling criminal cases do little else but bring their powers of oratory and knowledge of human nature to bear in the final summing up. Recently there has been a movement among prominent members of the bar to utilize motion pictures as an aid. The idea oiTers vast possibilities. Just how such a picture would be "staged" or what it would consist of is a question. Perhaps each case would require separate and distinctly original treatment. Such films would unquestionably hold the attention of a jury more closely and impress them to a greater degree than any speech that could be delivered by the human tongue. This is because the mind is too often incapable of visualizing a suggested fact or condition, of seeing it as it really is. And yet, the chief function of the lawyer in speaking before a jury is to make the jury see his side of the case. Films have been used in court in civil cases. They have been used to prove patent .infringements and other civil cases in several states. They offer a powerful and unique brand of "evidence," and evidence that, as a rule, it would be hard to refiite. The cost would not be prohibitive, ordinarily speaking, when it is seen that in many important cases, thousands and thousands of dollars are spent in attorney's fees. Maybe, some day the screen will be a factor of every important civil case. An enterprising producer could doubtless do much to make this possible. It is certain that a well-staged film, depicting the action of the case as it is to be opened for trial, would tell a greatly more clearly and quickly than a brief would do.