Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

REEL and SLIDE 41 How Can I Get My Product in the Movies (This article, and those to follow, are the result of considerable investigation. They represent, not the views or experience of one man. Rather, they are based on the experience of many advertising men who have actually used films in advertising. An effort is made to generalize so that the information may be of service to advertisers in all lines of business.) THERE are not many different angles to the preparation of a survey or scenario for an industrial picture. Standards are pretty well established along lines that are sufficiently general to apply to al-most every line of business._ But, when we come to production we are trampUng new ground constantly. The application of the ideas on paper to the screen involve some highly technical elements in which the screen advertiser does not and should not be concerned. It is at this point that the advertiser merges his activities into those of the producer. The production company which undertakes to film your plant or product knows more about the application of films to your idea than you can possibly know, and by the company's advice you should be guided. On your sales scenario, each scene should be numbered as well as each title, in their proper order. The following is a sample of a production script that will serve to illustrate : 1 — Panorama of Steel \^ a 1 1 e y, showing furnaces in distance. 2— (Title) In Steel Valley, Pennsylvania, 80,000 People Find Well Paid Employment. 3 — Back to Scene 1. Continue panorama. Fade out. 4— (Title) Those Who Fight the Hun in the Workshop — 5 — Iris in — workers pouring through gates of mill. And so on. What the Producer Can Do With this working script, the producer is called upon to carry out the ideas it suggests with precision and judgment. He can, according to his experience and enterprise, make a good script produce a poor production and vice versa ; he can either get "punch" and character into your picture or he can make it merely an uninteresting string of jumbled scenes, without sequence and without meaning. The capable director of an industrial picture studies his script with care. He separates his scenes in groups in order to facilitate production, making all of the interior forge or foundry scenes at one time and the outdoor pictures at another. He will go over the ground to be covered, decide upon the best points of vantage and get a proper perspective on the picture as a whole. No. 3— Production— What the Director Can Do or Leave Undone— Editing the "Factory Print" — ^Avoiding Monotony in Titles and Scenes By Lyne S. Metcalfe A great deal can be done in an industrial production to introduce features calculated to give the picture a striking effect. The use of the iris diaphragm, the "fadein" and "fadeout," the "cut back," etc., calls for more effort than some producers are willing to give, but they have a very important bearing on the effectiveness of the finished film. To make a 1,000-foot industrial leel the From a series produced hy Essanay to exploit the resources of Canada producer will more than likely make 1,500 to 2,000 feet of negative, possibly more. This will be edited down to the l,0(X)-foot unit. Whether you are to pay for the actual footage made or just the resultant 1,000 feet depends upon the form of contract you enter into with the man who makes your picture. Industrial pictures are often a success because of careful editing and the substitution of better scenes for poorer ones. By selecting from 2,000 feet you are enabled to use merely the cream of the film and thus be certain of getting the result you are after. Another thing. Very often a scene that is difficult to make because of lighting conditions may turn out poorly when developed. If costly vapor lights have been utilized, and the scene must be "shot" over, the cost of your picture advances in just that proportion. Points to Remember Therefore, it is cheaper in the long run to shoot doubtful scenes two or three times under varying photographic conditions in order to be certain of having one turn out usable. Many industrial subjects — such as the orange grower's films— can be made in th e open sunlight without the use of CooperHewitt lights. But where the interior of a factory is the subject, or the smoky steel mill, portable lights must be brought into play. These lights are cumbersome and require several men to properly operate them. They also call for a camera man of expert knowledge. Most modern factories can be filmed on a bright day if the operator knows his business. The degree of action which you secure in your producion likewise depends upon the producer. For instance, our steel mill employes flocking through the gates can be made at too great a distance, eliminating the human interesting and striking qualities of the crowd. A competent producer will film these people in a manner that will hold the audience's attention ; perhaps he will find one strapping giant that is worth a "closeup." Maybe he will be able to show how many of them come to their toil in costly automobiles. When 2,000 feet of negative have been shot and developed, a print is made, called a "factory print.". This copy, unedited, is projected on the screen in order that the producer may size up his results — may know what he has to work with and to begin the process of elimination. As a general thing the producer takes the first crack at this print and boils it down to about 1,500 feet. His titles having been filmed in the meantime, he splices them in where they belong, following the scenario carefully in this to prevent disastrous confusion. The first rough draft of your picture is ready for your inspection. Now the scenario writer and the advertiser are once more back on the job. The film is run off several times, a stenographer making notes of corrections, deletions and additions in the projection room. Must Eliminate Monotony The main idea, in an industrial, is to eliminate monotony, to have the titles bright, snappy and easily understood, to have as few titles as possible and to avoid the practice of "sandwiching/' "Sandwiching" means splicing together title and scenes alternately, without regard to their character and meaning. One might as well stick a row of pictures on the wall and tack up title cards between them. The editing of an industrial is auite as important as its production. Scenes shoidd be cut to the bone. If you are about to show a trip-hammer in action, don't show the getting-ready process; plunge right into the action. Permit only the essentials to be shown. The audience's imagination can take care of an engine coming toward the camera two miles down the track. Cut out every frame until the engine is within a few hundred feet of the lens. Make Your Dollars Fight