Variety (July 1954)

Wednesday. Inly 28, 1954 KEVIEW-PIIIJVIEW 45 s a Af BHMAiraft LEWINE (Executive Producer of Color Programs, CBS-TV) - * t . • i % tureon the Color tube that the eycr was seeing out pn the studio floor. Last November, CBS Televi$ion put on the first reguliriy-scheduled i ioior series , telecast tinder tbe L T; S. C. standard*,the time, t was decided* that the best Way io learn about color was to begin working with it under actual on- the-air conditions, A variety tor- mat seemed to present the best conditions for workshop, study of the medium.. : This program, which we , called “The New Revue," permitted every kind of production and lighting experiment and presented most of the problems We knew we were going to face later on when we began rotating all our major net- work shows in colori “The New Revue" was a totally new kind of project for CBS Television. The series started on Nov. 13 and by the 18th of June, some 30 shows and some 200 musical and variety acts later, we had learned every- thing we hoped we would—possibly more. It might be well to mention some of the mistakes we made— and the lessons we learned. Our first temptation—perhaps a natural one^-was to use too much color and too many colors. I sup- pose we thought that now that we were in “color" every picture should be a riot of color; otherwise we weren’t producing the show. This policy " didn’t make for very good pictures. It took the empha- sis off the performer where the emphasis properly belongs, and, of course, it made producing the show about twice as difficult. But by about the third week, we began thinking of color schemes instead of an arbitrary combination of many colors. Economy in the use of color quickly became our rule of thumb. When Edith Adams ap- peared and sang two of her songs from “Wonderful Town" we used only the poster from the show be- hind her on a neutral-colored flat; Martha Wright was shot mostly in cloSc-up, taking advantage of her own attractive skin coloring and the rich color of her gown. Just the performer alone made an at- tractive picture. When we fully realized this, we had learned our first importaint lesson. Equally important In choosing colors for the show was considera- tion of how the black and white translation of the color picture would look. George* Jenkins, our color designer—with as much Hol- lywood ancT Broadway experience in color as anyone could have- had a new problem on his hands. He had to keep in mind that, color notwithstanding, most of our view- ers were seeing the show in black and white. He soon found out that pastel shades placed close to each . other might be attractive enough in color, but made for a picture with little or no contrast in the black and white translation. A pastel pink and a pastel green, for Instance, were almost identical when rendered Into black and white. He began to think of Color contrasts very much as he would gray scale contrasts. Depth and background detail took on a new importance and I think he spent as much time looking at the black and white monitor id the control room as he did watching the more vivid expression of his work on the color monitors. I Exploring Lighting In our lighting experiments, we found that incandescent light worked much better than fluores- cents. It provided us with a more even tone and was generally more reliable for our purposes. One of our top lighting ^supervisors, Sal- vatore Bonsignore, was assigned full time to color and he began storing Up an invaluable backlog of knowledge about color lighting techniques. The ideal lighting sit- uation was one in which the per- formers were lit separately from the set, and he preferred light from a low angle source—very much like footlights, as a matter of fact. Since the colors changed every time the lights changed,,we needed complete and continuous control to maintain the same pic- As we went along,, we began to try low key end mood’ effects. When Maria Tallchfef appeared, she was provided with a formal garden setting in subdued tones. A group of Flamenco dancers was presented iii brilliantly colored costumes, well lit, in front of a purposely less-intense backdrop in the style and mood of an El Greco with only two or three darkish colors. This type of staging fo- cused attention on the excitement of .the performance itself. In brief, it kept the viewer’s concentration where' it belonged—on the enter- tainment itself—and color became, as it should be, a new facet of pro- duction rather than a new medium in itself. The choice of settings was very often, dictated by the coloring of the performer in ques- tion. For 'example, Janis Paige, who enlivened the stage with her brilliant titian hair, needed very little surrounding production other than' ah attractive neutral, back' ground. She offered as much color as anybody could possibly want. | No Time Ft Guesswork ■ 1 Our experience in learning how to plan a color show was invalu- able. We'found we needed no new people on the staff of a show; rather we needed a staff able and willing to think out every produc- tion detail days before camera! time. Nothing was left to guess- work. Our costume coordinator had to plan carefully the color of every necktie and every pair of gloves, because they often became a dominant part of a total color scheme. We reached a point, I should s^y after about six shows, where we felt we were in control and that we were running the color program instead of, it running us. Makeup, which we thought would be a difficult problem, turned Out to be a fairly simple matter. Oddly enough, normal street makeup pro- vides very satisfactory results and even now, it is no more difficult nor time consulting than for black and white. I don’t think- we have learned the answer to' every problem. by any means, but I think we’ve got most of them. The color technical crews worked closely with us and the value of their experience can’t even be estimated. Had it not been for their constant readiness to try new things week after week, I doubt whether we would have learned very much or have gotten very far. But they fought the good fight along with our production staff and we completed the course. As we begin rotation of all our major CBS Television shows into color, we'do so with some seven months of solid production and technical experience, all of it achieved the hard way — under actual show conditions. Our pro- ducers and directors will have the advice and assistance of the key production and technical personnel from “The New Revue," sparing them a great deal of trial and error. And I’m sure that as each of our production staffs begin ac- tual work in color, they will be- come infected with the same en- thusiasm for it that for 30 shows, through the easy and difficult times, never left any of us for a moment. ALAN. YOUNG "Saturday Night Revua" NBC-TV KENNETH ROBERTS TV and Radio for TONI-BULOVA-ESSO-IPANA By PAUL DREISCHE (MPO Productions) Television has long proved a gold mine to the nation’s advertisers. Soap flakes, cigarets and soft drinks zoom up into aggressive closeups,. punctuated with pitch and jingle, battering down sales resistance with as much force as a coaxial cable can stand. But American business and in- dustry have recently uncovered a rich new vein of ore in 'tv—con- siderably dess forceful-, but prob- ably more effective; free showings of sponsored public relations and sales promotion films. Today, more and more television viewers are gently prodded .into buying products by documentary pictures which make little, if any, mention of either their sponsors or their sponsors’ products. Hunt- ing, fishing, the curiosity of youth, life on farms and ranches, forest conservation, scientific research and American history are 1 just _a few samples of the subject matter of these films. In granting free time, all the tv stations ask is that the pictures be entertaining, and convey their messages with sub- tlety. The economy and effectiveness of this genteel salesmanship have spawned a vast, multi-million dol- lar industry, where big business is spending more and more of its advertising dollar for films for television. And, in a way, it all began by accident. j $50,000,000 Annual Tab j, # By JEAN PAUL BLONDEAU (Mr. Blondeau is e urently in this country from Paris to help foster an international setup). An important grqup of French commercial radio producers, adver- tising agencies, sports promoters and several newspapers have recently formed a company whose‘specific purpose is to spank a little life into what might have been a still-born baby—French television! This group, known as International TV, of which I am a member, has. announced its plans, which may eventually transform French tv into, an exciting and dynamic medium. We envisage the construction 6f a TV City in Paris, including the transformation of “Velodrome d’Hiver,” Paris’ Madison Square Garden, into a mammoth tv studio where rtiany of the great European sporting events will be televised. As a result of this construction, we are planning to obtain from tha government permission to televise certain sponsored programs. Since the U.S. is the furthest advanced in, tv, we have decided to study your: techniques; both technical and artistic. I was chosen to represent our group in the U. S. because of my affiliation with Amer- ican tv, being the first European to present a live show in this, country (“Dollar A Second"). I have spoken to many tv engineers, producers and directors here, and have received wonderful ideas for future use in France. We are continually looking for new programs, both film and- live, which will be compatible with French taste. French tv, I am sorry to say, is in a* rather sad state at the present time. ’The reasons are obvious. Our- nationalized tv industry has only three stations operating presently—Paris, Lille and Strasbourg-—with an average viewing audience of 300,000. Television viewers have in- creased very slightly during the past year because of the lack Of interesting programs and relatively few hours of tv broadcasting per day. * Lack Financial Support T In the early days, tv stations /ere crying for material. Looking bout frantically, their eyes soon ell on the thousands of sponsored ilms already produced for school, hurch and club group distribution hroughout the country. The movies •roved such a success, that busi- less today is slanting its films pri- nariiv f nr fhp fiO. 000.000 television Nationalised tv, having no financial support from sponsors and existing purely on a limited government grant, has npt been able to hire the outstanding talent available in France. Since the war, the same problem existed for French nationalized radio, and the result has been that the French radio audience, for the most part, now listens to the commercial stations of Radio Luxembourg, Radio Mont® Carlo, and Radio Andorra. These stations, situated on the French frontier, being able to afford the best actors, writers and directors, have given the listeners the type of programs they want. Unfortunately, this happy solution has not been applicable to tv. The two commercial stations, Telesarre—(located on the Northeast border of France)—and TV Luxembourg, which are scheduled to begin operations this fall, have already announced that the programs will be broadcast in German, due to the very limited reception of their tv picture in France. Whereas commercial radio is able to penetrate through all France, via its more powerful wavelengths, commercial tv obviously is not. Our radio sponsors and producers, who have be ; en waiting the coming of tv, now realize that their only solution lies in a commercial tv network. It was this realization that brought about the formation of our new company, International TV. Our present plans, providing for partially sponsored tv, will not only furnish excellent programs for the French tv network, which will include Lyon, Nice and Marseille, by the end of 1955, but also will take advantage of the great potentialities of the budding European tv network known as “Eurovision.’? Thus far, Eurovision has consisted of a series of international sports | programs, plus outstanding public events like the Coronation and the Pope’s address. But our plans are to institute several daily tv programs linking the major western European capitals. What 4ype of program* would all the countries of western Europe have in common? -Countries with different languages, customs, mores? Never before have the problems of Europe been explained within the same.medium. First of all, the interpretation of news: Imagine, in all the western European capitals, tv studios set up similar to that of “Today” in New York City—and a program which switches from capital to capital, giving Europeans for the first time, an unprejudiced view of their neighbors and their problems. Also a program that strikes to the heart of all Europeans—their homes. What better way of people understanding one another? An international “Home Show’’ would do more to bridg tolerance and Understanding-among Europeans than everything that has been done till now. The day Germans start eating frogs’ legs and French begin enjoying Wiener Schnitzel, then tv will have done more to bring about harmony than all the treaties that have been signed between Franc® and Germany in the 100 years! It is a revolutionary concept but the tremendous potentialities of tv leads me to believe that one day, in the not too distant future, w® will not only have such programming, but also will be exchanging news and entertainment with the U.S. audience. Last year two thousand firms spent over $50,000,000 on motion pictures. An even greater amount will be spent this year. Why? The answer is two-fold. First, the prestige gained for a firm, by showing an entertaining, informa- tive documentary is incalculable. But prestige is abstract. Tough- minded business men have found that these films also pay off—In dollars and cents. In 1951, for example, MPO Pro- ductions produced for Remington Arms a motion picture called “Gunning the Flyways.” The film has been in distribution for two and a half years, with prints being handled both by MPO and .by the regional sales offices of Reming- ton. The production cost was $18,500. Seventy-five prints cost $11,549.75, or a total investment of $30,049.75. Distribution han- dling charges to date total $434.24. In two and a half years “Gun- ning the Flyways" has played over 165 tv stations reaching approxi- mately 26,000,000 people* ^ Total cost per person: $.0012. And this infinitesimal cost per person goes even lower every year as the original Investment is pro- rated against an ever increasing total audience. i The Ford Motor Co.’s ‘ “The American Cowboy" reached 27,000,- 000 people on 308 stations, and Nash’s “Proof Through the Night" played to 22,000,000 on 135 sta- tions—both over a two-year period. And in only six weeks, “Decision CY HARRICE LExIngton 2-1100 for Chemistry," sponsored by th® Monsanto Chemical Co., was seen on 32 stations by 5,500,000 people, The examples are endless. But more important than the siz® of the audience is the impact on that audience. The production cost, plus a $15 distributor’s charge for each tv screening, buys th® undivided attention of the viewer, with picture and sound, for 30 min- utes, Another way of putting it is that the motion "picture medium delivers “advertising .readership" almost equal to circulation. Nash’s “Hunting in Alaska” and “Fishing in Alaska,” for instance, are not only the most popular and heavily booked films distributed by Modern Talking Picture Service after five years, but Nash dealers have cited case after case of sales directly resulting from screenings of -these pictures. So It looks like the television viewer is in for a steady diet of documentaries in the years ahead. He will become very well informed on a lot of subjects ranging from grasshopper control to the romance of plastics. And if, in seeing the scenic delights of the Hawaiian Islands, the camera takes him there via one of the sponsor’s passenger planes, the viewer won’t mind. The sponsor certainly won’t.