Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

_ SCENARIO — PRODUCTION — DISTRIBUTION , M OIHER FHiOW'S IDEA A PECULIARLY effective method of bringing business to a Ford motor service station has been adopted by the Bleoo Motor Company of Chicago. The Diamond Film Company has produced a short subject for this concern, cartoon style, in which a Ford, car is shown crashing into a street car. The debris is shoveled into the Bleeo garage and the debris is quickly "put together" again in a few seconds. Appropriate titles accompany the cartoon. The film is being shown in neighboring theaters, where it is said it always brings a laugh. ings and afternoons. The De Vry projector, motor driven, was adjusted in the show window and the picture projected on a sheet of tracing cloth. Passersby stopped before the show window to watch the screen upon which the story of an "electrical household" was displayed. The image showed plainly through the tracing cloth — on the opposite side from the projector. It was very effective. AN industrial reel, idle on the shelf, is a loss. To be effective and bring in its maximum returns, it must be kept busy. Most advertisers realize tjiis. A unique method for getting the maximum return on their film, "A Romance of The Old Time School," has been adopted by the Westinghouse people. This film is designed to arouse interest in the use of electricity in the home and to create a bigger demand for Westinghouse electrical appliances. Dealers who agreed to run the film in local theaters were also shown how they could make it "work" during the period when the theater is closed, morn 1N short subjects — those running between 50 and 100 feet — it is often necessary to use up considerable of the footage on titles, in order to get the "sales talk" over properly. A ten word title takes ten feet — a 20 word title, 20 feet and so on. A Chicago screen advertiser conceived the. idea of doing away with all regular titles and using placards. His product is a household necessity. A woman demonstrates its use before the camera. She holds up black and white printed cards to explain the merits of the product. A trailer follows. The picture holds attention while the cards are being read. A WISCONSIN furniture firm adopted the screen to exploit a special line of upholstered parlor sets. It was DniiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinii»^ Get Your FACTORY in the MOVIE Free Tests Against Any Competitor Any Where, Any Time Cincinnati Motion Picture Co. Runey Building, Cincinnati, Ohio realized that the lack of action in such a product might prove uninteresting to the audience. Accordingly, the reel wound up with a couple spooning on the comfortable couch; "father" enters and there comes a "scene" quickly followed bv a title. This proved to be a good attention-getter and holder. A HjBJisewife Demonstrates Perfection Oil Staves on the Screen for the Standard Oil Co. (Camel Film Co.) ONE recognized difficulty experienced by screen advertisers lies in the necessity for saying much in few words on the screen. Screen titles, unlike the printed ad, are seen only once by the "reader"; the title is flashed on the screen and held there for a certain number of seconds, then flashed off again. If the audience misses its meaning, the effect is gone. The Brunswick Balke Collender Company, in producing the new Brunswick Phonograph pictures, (Diamond Film Company) have adopted the double exposure title. The title is exposed over an actual film of the instrument standing in an attractive room. The title is brief. During its presence on the screen, the instrument it is designed to advertise is there also. A "reader" who might not read a "salestalk" title, or notice an ordinary wash drawing decoration, is attracted by the pictorial value of this device, quite common in dramatic pictures, but seldom used in screen advertising. A PARTICULARLY novel screen device has been used with great success by the Firestone Tire people in a "film talks to dealers," campaign. The salesmanager is shown talking to a group of salesmen. As he takes up point by point, his ideas are illustrated in a "fade in" just above his head on the screen, driving home the various points in the sub-titles and visualizing effectively just what he means. The novelty of the idea is only one indication of the many short cuts the film offers in securing brevity and clarity in transferring the experience of one man to the brain of another. — E. J. CLARY. 33