Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

Talking Pictures The cost accountant brings these figures to a second conference. There, if the budget is too high, each department head computes methods of economy. The final budget is established on a basis of a certain number of working days. To complete the picture within a prescribed time becomes the objective of all concerned. Film cost accounting has reached such a point that despite the many chances of disturbance in a business so dependent on human health and weather factors, a good 80 per cent of all pictures reach completion within the time set, and within the original budget cost. The mention of the cost accountant brings into focus a general department of the studio which spreads its activities so widely over every phase of production that it may be overlooked as a factor in production. But the accounting department pays all the bills and computes all the costs. Picture making is not like the manufacture of gloves, or of overcoats, or of shoes; it is not based on a few raw materials and specific labor activities. Picture making is a business in which the rules change every day. To prevent loss or waste, accounting and auditing practices must be much more precise, exact, and detailed than those which prevail in most other industries. The financing of day-by-day production in itself is quite distinctive. Modern studios are not concerned directly with the sale of the pictures they make. They turn out a finished photodramatic product and that ends their immediate responsibility. No studio attempts to dictate selling policies. It furnishes its photoplays to a subsidiary corporation of sales experts. The studio's [94]