World Film News and Television Progress (Apr 1936-Mar 1937)

PEOPLE WITH PURPOSES For Public Relations FEDERATION OF FILM GUILDS FOR THE LABOUR PARTY OflScers — There was, I regret to say, no direct connection between the Labour Party film scheme and the Maxwell-Ostrer deal. It was merely a coincidence that immediately it became known that the Socialists were going into the film biosiness, there should be apoplectic convulsions in the City and that the newspapers should put up the banners of the A.P.C.-G.B. coimter-revolution. A demmed pretty conceit. Sir Percy, to imagine the film magnates, remembering the tumbrils in The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Tale of Two Cities, shouting to their financial backers, "Close the ranks! They shall not pass!" But, I am afraid, if any rumblings kept the film capitalists awake at night, they were due, not to the tumbrils, but to oysters — or auditors. For the time is not yet, when the Socialist film movement can hope to challenge the United Front of the producers, the lawyers, the millers, the widows, the bankers and the insurance companies. The trouble is that to run anti-capitalist films you need capital. . . . And, having none, the Labour Party is going to capitalise its biggest asset — local loyalty and enthusiasm. Just as, in the early days of The Citizen, The Herald, The Clarion and Forward, the enthusiasts set out to build up their own newspapers, so, it is hoped, they will build up a powerful film organisation . . . with this difference, that the Labour Movement is much bigger and the going should be easier. The Labour Film Committee has worked out a scheme which, if not pretentious is, at least, practicable. It is based entirely on non-theatrical distribution. It is obvious that, in a crisis or an election, the City-controlled cinemas are not going to place their screens at the disposal of Sociahst propagandists— on the contrary! Nor is the Censor, the Brahmin of high-caste, going to sanction the poUtical "untouchables." So that, if SociaUst propaganda is to secure theatrical distribution, it will not be as Socialist propaganda. Distribution, therefore, is a more urgent problem than production. The Labour film scheme depends upon the Film Guild principle. It is proposed to set up under the sponsorship of divisional Labour Parties, or groups of local parties, as a start, G uilds which will equip themselves with 16 mm. sound-projectors. As the movement grows, more and more separate parties will create Guilds and acquire projectors until eventually there should be 600 or more Guilds and projectors in the country. So, at an election, films could be used as a mass-attack in every constituency. Winning votes may be important, but initiating and instructing people in what are the ideals, the practical' policy and programme and the true objectives of Socialism are more so. First, then, it is necessary to create a "socialconscience" and a reforming ideal in the potential voters. For that piurpose there already exist the social fihns (as distinct from Socialist films) which the documentary film producers have pioneered. There is enough of them to justify the immediate creation of Film Guilds, which will act as discussion groups, bringing not only Labour Party members, Trades Unionist, Co-operators, and social workers together, but attracting also the marginal or unconverted electors. Once the machinery exists, there are two other types of films to be developed — the broad propaganda or instructional films explaining, illustrating and underlining the Socialist policy and the direct, electioneering films which will make votewinning arguments visible. On the production side, the Committee has various schemes in hand. It is a question of Ways and Means. Maybe Mr. John Maxwell has another £1,250,000 to spare, and is prepared to come down, this time, on the side of the angels! Maybe . . . RITCHIE CALDER PUBLIC RELATIONS OITICERS, whose Special section this is, will do well to watch the development of the educational film world. It means large audiences and, for many interests, valuable audiences. The G.P.O. is working a half-million audience of children by road-show during the coming winter, and through its central library will reach one milhon more. Western Electric, by road-show, will reach another large audience. The Dominion Governments, Gas, Oil, Electricity and other industries are cultivating this special field of distribution. For long distance education it is, in many views, the most effective. Entry to the educational field is conditioned, however, and strictly conditioned. Public relations officers must have something to give. People on the right lines are Dunlops with their story of the progress of communications; Gas with its cookery demonstrations for older girls, and Cadbury with its account of raw products and production processes. Especially important is the educational experts' emphasis on civics. P.R.O.s should try to grasp its significance. It will repay them, for it is the royal road to the schools. The experts maintain that there is a gap between school Ufe and the community life, which they expect the film to bridge. Tell the children about life in the factory and the town. Tell them simply about man and his work. Introduce them to the labour and the reach and the organisation of modern life. These are the demands, and they may soon be issuing from thirty thousand schools. Public relations departments must surely seize the opportunity— and the privilege. WHITEHALL DEFAULTS The press reception given to the Nutrition film was well deserved. The film, as Miss Lejeune describes it, is a first effort to turn the cinema into a mass orator and on a subject of national importance. The occasion is of greater interest than the film itself, and of special interest is the fact that the film was produced for the Gas, Light & Coke Company. Years ago in America the attitude of big business was summed up in the words of one of the Vanderbilts, "the public be damned." This attitude is still to be found in the scruffier comers of the film and other industries, but slowly the notion that service of the public is better business, has taken hold. The cultivation of public relations has become an essential complement of good salesmanship. The Gas interests have shown imagination in associating their product with one of the great problems of our time. In helping to solve the problem of nutrition and promoting the public health they serve the pubhc and serve themselves. There are two curious omissions in the nutrition film. The film talks of a food pohcy for the nation, but the word is spoken by Sir John Orr and not by the Minister of Agriculture. It describes one of the principal issues before the Minister of Health, but there is no word from Sir Kingsley Wood. Is it possible that the business of national education is passing, by default, from the offices of Whitehall to the public relations departments of the great corporations? It might seem so. W.F.N. We believe in LOVE AS A BOX OFFICE ATTRACTION We use it often ourselves — plus a lot of other cinema box office attractions. All in the good cause of selling our clients' products by means of sound, well-constructed and entertaining films. EUROPE S LARGEST SELF-CONTAINED ADVERTISING FILM ORGANISATION PUBLICITY FILMS Ltd Managing Director: G. E. TURNER FILJUCirr HOUSE UPPER ST.IIABTIX'S LASE, W.C.2 TELEPHOSE : Temple Bar 6482 7.9