Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

REEL and SLIDE 23 SCENARIO — PRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION HE OTHER FEUOW'S IDEA A WRITER on advertising topics once made the remark that Charles Dickens, were he alive, would make the greatest writer of food advertisements in the world "because of his power to describe tasty viands in a way to make the reader hungry for them." Dickens drew word pictures of good things to eat and has proved that sight, even more than the sense of smell, has the greatest sympathy with the appetite. This idea has attracted more than one advertiser of common food products and the result is that our magazines are being filled with lavish and costly color plates of tasty items of food with very little reading matter therewith. * * * Now, why cannot motion pictures create a hunger for food articles in the same or a more efficient manner? In answering this question, consideration must be given the following facts : Food, in the ready to eat state, being inanimate, does not benefit from animation ; motion should only be employed where actually needed. To return to our question, films can best be used in connection with the exploitation of food by showing, not the food in its finished ready-to-eat state as in the magazine color plate, but the materials, labor and conditions under which it is made. A tempting viand, pictured in colors, is merely a view of the result of certain conditions which are not and cannot be made clear in the space of a magazine page or two. Only the motion picture can accomplish this result quickly and effectively. The motion picture then may be considered auxiliary to the color plate, fulfilling a worthy and necessary function but exactly saying "buy" to the public. * * * For the above reasons, films are being found useful as a means of carrying on an "educational" campaign by certain national advertisers of package food products. The magazine ads and newspaper cuts say "buy" — the film guarantees the responsibility of the broker and takes the buyer into his confidence. The two work closely together to get results. A manufacturer of jellies and jams just now entering the field has undertaken to work along these lines, showing by color plates the deliciousness of his products on hot biscuits or wheat cakes and saying very little, but visualizing what goes on to make this product so good by scenes from the berry field and the orchard, on through factory and warerooms to the table. * * * Mary Pickford's $750,000 a year is made possible by advertising — screen advertising. A good play for Mary Pickford is said to be worth tons of white paper publicity. One thing about film stars is that they are constantly advertising themselves by appearing on the screen — an endless chain, as it were. Screen advertising is making ready to occupy the center of the stage at the convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World in New Orleans, September 21 to 25. Screen folk are determined that this year that infant of the profession — motion picture advertising — which grew into a giant in twenty-four months, shall be accorded a man-sized chair in the advertising family circle. * * * To give the youngster a chance an important part of the convention program has been turned over to the Screen Advertisers' Association, which is the motion picture division of the associated ad clubs. Harry Levey, manager of Universal's Industrial and Educational Departments, is president of the Screen Advertisers' Association. The principal theme of the convention this fall will be how advertising men can help bring capital and labor closer together and how to help increase production in order to bring down the cost of living and at the same time add to workers' earnings. It naturally follows that the trump program card of the screen men will be a motion picture based on the same topic. This picture will visualize the screen advertisers' interpretation of how ad men might attain those ends. President Levey is determined this picture shall earn the applause of perhaps the most exactingly critical audience ever to be assembled — the 17,000 advertising experts who will gather at New Orleans. The best talent in the screen men's organization is being put into the film. The most brilliant directors, scenario writers and artists have pooled their skill to make the picture. * * * The prelude will portray the history of advertising. According to the scenario editor's way of thinking, the late Mr. Stonehatchet became the world's first advertiser when he covered the walls of his cave with chiseled drawings to let posterity know that as a hunter he was some guy. The first scene of the prelude will be a close-up of the old boy grinding out the world's first ad copy. The screen advertisers will present this picture to the associated clubs, and after the convention it will begin a tour of the world, to be shown at all the ad clubs affiliated with the international organization. Officers of the Screen Adver • Users' Association are now holding biweekly conferences with President Levey on the subject of a program of films which will depict the development of motion picture advertising. It is planned to exhibit films of this program from 11 A. M. to 10 P. M. dailv in the Red Room of the Grunewald Hotel. * * * The amazingly swift development of screen advertising has only one counterpart— in the development of modern advertising itself, which was unknown one year and a most vital artery of business not many months after. Today leading advertisers of the world are recognizing the motion picture medium as one of the indispensable branches of advertising to be used. * * v One marvelous thing about motion pictures is their ability to stimulate the imagination of the man with a very small amount of that faculty. In six 75-foot scenes the entire process of dipping cheap furniture in paint vats was shown, whereas if each detail were depicted it would take 2,500 feet of film. It is simple enough to imagine the inconsequential actions of a group of workmen if the chief actions are shown. This development of imagination in the people of the United States has been achieved by moving pictures. Development of imagination makes for more progressive thought and a happier race. Thus, the stoker on a night off finds himself in a movie show, trying to imagine the details of the murder of Darnley, expurgated by a paternal censor. * * * What is the life of an industrial production? Every buyer of advertising film must pay some attention to this question if he is a judicious advertiser and there are a number of points to consider in connection therewith by which the advertiser may be guided. We do not regard the physical lasting qualities of the picture; a well handled negative kept under proper conditions is good for years. We refer to the subject matter itself, which may easily become obsolete in a few months or a few weeks, especially where models of machinery may be concerned. Experienced screen advertisers have found more than one way to keep reels up to date. One manufacturer of nationally advertised package foods, whose moving picture appropriation amounted to $50,000 in one year, places his negatives in the hands of his producers at the end of each season for "editing." Changes in processes, additions to the plant, new lines and realignment of the old ones are added and obsolete scenes are taken out. It has been found also that methods of film production are being improved upon steadily and standards of the visual appeal are changing constantly. This "editing" process insures pictures that are up to date and worthy of exhibition. Film that is still good is retained ; prints are renovated and destroyed if worn out. New copies are made. * * * Another Chicago firm in the ready-tov^ear clothing business finds it necessary to order a complete new set of negatives each season, not only because of the changing fashions, but also because of the rough treatment accorded prints in circulation. No advertiser who values his reputation can afford to send out a print that is not in excellent physical condition, that much is certain. The utmost care is essential to prevent such a thing and for this reason _ most experienced screen advertisers find it pays to recall all prints once a week for careful examination. Theatrical film exchanges take particular care to keep reels in good condition but dramatic reels are not often subjected to the rough treatment given ad films. Inexperienced operators can do much to damage a film and more operators of small experience project ad films than is the case with dramatic films. So much depends upon how a film is treated that its period of useful life can scarcely be gua^ed with any degree of accuracy. E. J. C.