Screenland (Nov 1930-Apr 1931)

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112 SCREENLAND WHAT TREND PICTURES IN 1931? in pictures in the next year will come through color and its use. So far it is only practical for outdoor pictures with scenic backgrounds or for musical revues and spectacles, but advances along this line will undoubtedly be made in the new year. "The star system will gain momentum this next year, I am sure. Individual stars who have kept pace with screen progress are greater box-office attractions than ever. We have lost many old favorites, but we have gained many new ones ! "We must give the public real entertainment of a superior sort this year and I believe we will be able to do so taking advantage of our combined experiences and mistakes of the last year. Also, writers, directors, players and all the various units it takes to make a picture are becoming accustomed to the new medium and are feeling more at home in it, which will make for better results all along the line. It should be a great year of progress !" summed up the optimistic Joe Schenck. Louis B. Mayer of the Metro-GoldwynMayer studio, always calm, efficient, and boosting his own product, met my question with a smile. "What trend pictures?" he asked, repeating my question. "That is an almost impossible question for anyone to answer, let alone a poor harrassed producer! However, I will say we must have story and showmanlike presentation this next year. Type of story will not matter one whit. "Take our own pictures as proof that the public does not give a continental about the type of picture. 'Caught Short,' that rollicking 'low comedy' fun fest, 'The Divorcee,' an ultra-sophisticated drama, and 'The Big House,' thrilling, gripping, sheer melodrama, came before the public within a few weeks of each other. They were all instantaneous hits, yet you would find it hard to find three pictures more widely divided in type. The same public enthused over them all ! "I do not believe that talking pictures will ever fall into a definite type. Good pictures, well handled, will attract the public any time, anywhere ! The requirements of the talking screen are greater and more exacting than those of the stage and, of course, than the silent screen, and they have developed a more critical and exacting audience. "In my estimation, with study and careful application to the new medium most of the silent screen stars can be made bigger and better in talking pictures. We have proved this with Marion Davies, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and many more. "We are constantly going to great lengths to develop new talent for the talking screen. The days of the pretty face and empty head are gone forever, as well as sex appeal-minus, if you know what I mean!" he smiled. "An imaginative, untrained mind cannot write dialogue. They may still write screen stories and let dialogue writers adapt their ideas, but scripts must have a new development which takes more than imagination. "A producer must be six jumps ahead of the public mind and try to read it for them. He must be able to guess what they are going to like this and that personality in, whether they are going to approve of color here and music there. Continued from page 25 We cannot always hope to do this but we have our ways of gaining the trend of the public mind. "There must always be a keen sense of showmanship based on a fundamental knowledge of human nature in every production. We do the best we can to please that fickle and never definite thing, the public, and if you think that is easy, come and sit in my chair and try it — just for a day!" he laughed. I quietly folded my notebook and as silently stole away ! Winfield Sheehan, that dynamic Irish vice-president in charge of production at Fox Film Studios, expects that during 1931 emphasis will be put on outdoor recording and wide film. Mr. Sheehan said: "With regard to the two innovations which have followed the advent of talking pictures — color and wide screen — Fox is applying tested principles of wise showmanship. "We are convinced that haphazard and indiscriminate use of color is no more becoming to the screen than it is to a beautiful woman. On the other hand, its employment under the direction of a master leads to magnificent effects. That is why we have secured the supreme colorist of the day, Joseph Urban, to supervise that phase of Fox production. Mr. Urban's artistry will be revealed in 'Luxury,' 'The Man Who Came Back,' and 'A Connecticut Yankee,' pictures whose exotic or bizarre backgrounds will be greatly enriched by color treatment. "Forthcoming outdoor pictures will be notable for their dramatic pace. For a time after the advent of dialogue pictures, the handicaps of sound-proof recording slowed up this type of entertainment, but the movietone camera has now been perfected to a point where it is as mobile and flexible as its silent ancestor." I wandered over to the RKO studio where I talked to that much beloved and brilliant mind which controls the vital production factors of Radio Pictures, William Le Baron. Mr. Le Baron is positive and sure of his ground before he makes a statement. Yet, if you disagree with him he is gravely interested and weighs your words in the balance and if he finds them — not wanting — he dismisses his idea and accepts yours ! That's one of the most poignant reasons for the startling strides which RKO has made in the past year. He has that rare quality of greatness, the ability to believe in the other fellow and his opinions. "Now that sound recording can be done easily and naturally outdoors as well as on the stages, we will undoubtedly have a great many strong outdoor dramas this next year. Pictures in the early days clung timidly to the stage technique of treatment and indoor sets. Now they have found this is not necessary and we will have many pictures like 'The Silver Horde' we are making now, 'Cimarron,' and so forth," he said. "I believe this next year, now that the most pressing problems brought up by talking pictures have been solved, much time will be spent in smoothing out the rough spots in story and screen treatment. Dialogue will take a natural course and will not be forced. People will be made to speak only when absolutely necessary to the story. The story will be told more in the old screen fashion, speaking only very necessary lines, the rest of the story being told in action and pantomime. The greatest strides will be made in the way dialogue and screen story-telling is handled on the screen — and that is one of the weakest points in talking pictures today. "Though wide film will be constantly perfected in this next year I do not believe the public will see much of it because of the radical changes which have to be made in the theater projection of these pictures. "Television is fast on its way. We must be ready to deal with it when it really arrives. But so many novelties in picture presentation have taken place in the last year and will continue this next year, it is very possible the public will be so busy absorbing and getting used to these changes that television will be held back until it will properly take its place in the natural course of events. Home projection of pictures is. a certainty but not in the next year, I believe. "New wonders, discoveries and inventions are crowding so fast upon the public today that it would be well to hold back some of them for a time. The human mind can accept just so many wonders at a time before it becomes bewildered— that is, in the mass conception. It is better to release these innovations and discoveries one by one and wait for the novelty and excitement of one to work off before offering another." Jesse Lasky, in charge of production at Paramount, said : "This next year will be a year of comedies. It has been a hard and trying year for every one, financially and otherwise. The public are going to want to be made to laugh, and they are going to go where they are surest to find laughs. Therefore, even in drama and straight heavy melodrama we are going to have to insert comedy characters and scenes. "Wide film is the next great development of the screen." He went on. "It will not become a general success, however, until the film industry has passed through a period of precarious and interesting experimentation. It takes a different form of story presentation, for the close-up in the wide film is almost an impossibility. This development, however, should come as a natural course of events. It must not be rushed as we rushed talking pictures through. "Color will probably be universally used by the end of next year or certainly within the next two years. "There will always be screen stars, at least as long as the world worships its Lindberghs, Babe Ruths and elects Presidents. The public demands their idols ! "At the present time, Paramount has three men to every woman under contract. Most of life's dramatic problems center about men and their activities. Men seem to be able to impress the public with their personalities more than women on the talking screen. Why, I do not know, but this has been proved true ! "The entire technique of love making and romantic development of stories is changing with the demands of dialogue. It will be reflected in the love making of our impressionable young folks, just as the passionate silent screen love making reflected itself. Talking pictures may help to bring back a period of chivalry, and poetic romance, because of the ne