World Film and Television Progress (1937-1938)

People with Purposes— News Notes fcontd.J The number of cinema admissions in the Irish Free State last year was 18i millions, states Liam O. Laoghaire, Secretary of the Irish Film Society. This is equivalent to six visits per annum for every man, woman and child in the Free State. Film rental paid out by Free State Exhibitors amounted to approximately £200,000. * * * The Catholic Film Society is preparing another film entitled Great Awakening. The story is by Anthony Young and the production by Terence McArdle. * * * The Austin Motor Company, 479 Oxford Street, W.l, has set up a library of motoring and travel films; ten of these are industrial films covering practically every subject from the manufacture of an engine to the making of tyres. Six films deal with travel in England and abroad, and four are of the newsreel or variety type. The library is open to senior schools, clubs and other vocational or social institutions and copies can be borrowed on both 35mm. and 16mm. stock. All of the films have commentary and music accompaniment, but arrangements have been made so that for silent showings a verbatim copy of the commentary can be read while the film is in progress. * * * Joseph Lucas Ltd. make their first entry into the publicity film field with Electricalities, a 500-ft. film produced and distributed by Publicity Films. The film covers the whole field of car electrical equipment . . . lamps, dynamos, starters, coil ignition, horns and batteries. The high-spot of the film is a sequence in which electric horns are tested. Sound is converted into light and with the cathode ray oscillograph the sounds are seen. The actual notes of horns have been recorded and the film reproduces these sounds visually as well as aurally. Fulham Borough Council Electricity Committee has produced through Gaumont-British Distributors Ltd., a one-reel film dealing with their new Power Station. This is for use at demonstrations in showrooms and elsewhere, while a short version of the film, approximately 300 feet in length, is being shown at 1 70 cinemas. As the result of the showing of a territorial propaganda film Defence not Defiance at Ealing, 116 recruits were enrolled. A series of 102 medical propaganda films have been ordered by the Film Committee of the Commissar of Health of the Soviet Union. * * * The New Zealand Co-operative Pig Marketing Association has produced a second propaganda film dealing with diseases of the pig and the causes underlying them. * * * The use of films for electioneering propaganda has been forbidden by the Government of Madras which has issued orders to the President of the film sponsors to ban any pictures containing political propaganda. Street Lighting The British Thomson-Houston Company's research staff at Rugby have produced a film entitled Modern Street Lighting to illustrate the great advances which have been made during the last few years in the use of lamps of increased efficiency and improved lantern design. The film, which is silent, shows first of all how the light from a lantern is focused on the road to the best advantage and then, taking typical roads in this country, demonstrates how the lighting has been planned by careful and experienced engineers to eliminate dark patches. The film ends with a complete tour through a length of well lighted road during which the audience can see how clearly all traffic movement is visible to the motorist. When the film was shown to the Street Lighting Conference arranged by the British Electrical Development Association in Newcastle-on-Tyne, a running commentary was given by Mr. G. S. C. Lucas, of B.T.H. Co., Crown House, Aldwych, W.C.2. Quarrying An effort is being made by the Secretary of the Institute of Quarrying to form a library of technical films for use by members of the Institute. The address of the Institute is Salisbury Square House, Fleet Street, E.C.4. It is proposed that these films should be distributed to branch meetings all over the country. The following manufacturers have already offered to provide films for the library : — Messrs. Broom & Wade Ltd. 20-minute film (silent or sound) on the manufacture of this firm's products. British Road Tar Association. "Coal Mine to Road" and "The Highway." International Combustion Ltd. "Energy," a film showing the manufacture of this firm's products. Nordberg Manufacturing Co. Symons Cone Crusher in actual operation, i.e. process of crushing inside the machine. Pegsons Ltd. Rammers and rippers in operation. Ropeways Ltd. Film of a ropeway which operates between Tilmanstone Collieries Ltd. and Dover Harbour, a total distance of 7 miles. And in New York The first of a series of films, called Getting Your Money's Worth, was shown recently in New York. This series sets out to prove that heavy advertising is the reason for large sales, and that the actual value of an article is immaterial. The first issue deals with men's shoes, lead toys, and Grades A and B milk, showing tests that prove the real worth of the commodities and offering advice against misrepresentation. After an enthusiastic reception, plans are afoot to have it shown in schools, clubs, societies and more enlightened commercial theatres. Arthur Kallett, author of "100 Million Guinea Pigs," worked as technical supervisor, in co-operation with the staff of the Consumers Union. Herman Weinberg, American film critic, declared that this picture was "ten times more honest than the March of Time, and certainly more entertaining." Arrangements are being made for English distribution. Making a Picture — Exhibit for Students An unusual exhibition giving a comprehensive step-by-step account of the processes involved in the actual making of a motion picture from scenario to release, was recently held by the Museum of Modern Art Film Library in New York. The exhibition, the first of its kind ever assembled, was arranged from material contributed to the Film Library by Walter Wanger and United Artists from the production You Only Live Once directed by Fritz Lang, with Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda. The sections displayed covered the sequence from the baseball scene in the prison yard, umpired by Father Dolan (William Gargan), through to the closing of the gates behind Eddie Taylor (Fonda) on his release from prison. Six sets each of four typed pages were displayed so that students of the film could see exactly what changes are made from the original scenario, through first and second revisions, third revision with changes by the director, final continuity and director's shooting script. These were followed by still photographs illustrating the script in detail. An instance of minor discrepancy in the scenario being caught before actual production begins was shown in an erroneous bit of baseball technique that appeared in the original scenario, was carried unchanged through revisions one and two, to be caught and corrected in the third version. It occurred in the business indicated to accompany Father Dolan's line "You're out!" where the script originally indicated that he was to gesture downwards with both hands. As every baseball fan would quickly recognise, this means the that player is safe, not out. With a running commentary on cards, written by the director, Fritz Lang, the exhibit continued with a series of production charts and notes, pay vouchers and lunch checks for the extras, blue prints of sets, a sheet showing every detail of the cost for one day's work on production, a "shuffle-board" by means of which economical use is made both of sets and of players, the allimportant notations recorded after each shot by the script-girl as a guide to the assembly and cutting of the material, instructions for dubbing-in sound and inserts, and finally, sample postalcards of praise or critical comment from members of the audience that saw the film at its first "sneak preview" ; and notes and indications on the numerous changes made, after that, before the release of the film. Also on exhibition were wood and pasteboard models of the prison and inn sets. These models also indicated the camera positions for the various shots taken in these sets, while still photographs showed director, cameraman and technicians at work. The Film Library was established in 1935 by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation not only to assemble, catalogue, preserve, and circulate notable films, but to collect and make accessible to students and educational institutions books and periodicals on the film, motion picture memorabilia, historical and critical material, and pertinent data of all kinds relating to the film, past and present. This was its first acquisition of material on the methods of motion picture production. 29