The world film encyclopedia (1933)

4^4 Film Directing That is why I spend so long on the preparation of a story and, once I have begun " shooting," am able to get that completed in eight weeks or less. What so m^any people forget when they criticize the work of a film director is that he has to cater for varying tastes, all over the world. When a play is produced on the New York stage, for instance, the producer can stress certain points, introduce definite " business " which he knows will appeal to the New York audience. If he were to produce the same play in London, he might change his method drastically, because he knows that London would appreciate certain situations that a New York audience would miss ; and vice versa. Imagine, then, the enormous difficulties that face a film maker. He has to produce a screen play that will appeal, not only to New York and London, but also to the Middle West towns of America, the Irish and Scottish peasants, the Australian sheep farmer and the South African business man. This will giv^e you some slight idea of the difficulties with which a film director has to contend and why so much time and thought are necessary if a worldwide reputation is to be secured. Sometimes, of course, scenes are made twice for different countries. I can give you an example of this. In The Smiling Lieutenant, I had all those scenes where the word " lieutenant " was pronounced "' lootenant " done again for Britain, with the players saying " leftenant." That was a definite case where it was impossible to cater for both countries with the one picture. American people would have been shocked to have heard '" leftenant." Britons would have laughed at " lootenant."