FUTURE OF THE FILM.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 290, 4 December 1920, Page 17

FUTURE OF THE FILM.

PUBLIC TIRED OF "STARS."

FICTION ONLY A PHASE OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT.

The film industry in America has grown so rapidly, and has achieved such prodigious prosperity, that it is looking for new fields to conquer. There are now over seventy film-producing companies iv the United States, and over 16,000 cinema theatres. It is estimated that the box receipts at. American theatres amount to JE'200,000,000 a year. But the American film producers, not content with supplying the vast American market for films, aim at exhibiting their films in the cinema theatres o£ every country in the world b** linking up the interests of the big men in eacn country who are the mainstays of the industry. For some years past the American companies have had' almost a monopoly in supplying pictures for the 3500 cinema theatres open in Great Britain, owing -to the block-booking system which they introduced. Under this system the owners or lessees oi cinema theatres enter into agreements with the Americai film producers for "a regular supply of films for a year or two ahead. Although there are only 3500 cinema theatres in Great Britain, compared with 16,000 in America, the filmproducing industry is not yet sufficiently developed in Great Britain to meet the requirements of the cinema theatres, though since the war the industry has developed rapidly, and thereare patriotic enthusiasts who declare that in a few years Great Britain will be the film-producing centre of the world. But in the meantime the British indusi.try is hampered by the American blockbooking syetem, which practically prevents many of the cinema theatres from exhibiting British films. But the British public is growing somewhat tired of American films, of American film stars, and American backgrounds, and this i-.= creating a demand for films deputing British scenes and stories.

The great prosperity of the film industry in America is indicated by the lavish way in which the film-producir.-r companies spend money in turning out good films. A British company, with ;ls market limited to the small number of the 3300 cinema theatres which are nit booked up with American films tor months ahead, cannot afford to spend more f.ian a few thousand pound-, in producing a film: but the American e•>•<*panics, with the whole r f the Bri'.sli market onen to them, and a market four times as large in their own country, can afford to be much more lavish. One o; the foremost Amer'ean compani _ blasts that it spends £25.000 to £30,000 en every first-class film that it proi —°s. On special films the big American com panics are not afraid to spend as nr'cli as £200.000. for they know that they can get their money back, with a R"bstantial addition in the form of profit--. BIG SALARIES PAID. The remarkable prosperity of the film industry in America is also reflected in the high salaries paid, _c__ only to film stars, but to other employees associated with the production of films. Some of the producers are paid salaries of over £10,000 a year, and salaries equally high are paid to the "adapters," whos; work is to transform literary masterpieces and popular novels into scenario; suitable for the screen. Even t.ie man who turns the handle of the earner.-, while a film is being taken gets a salary in the neighbourhood of £20 a week. What the film stars get in tlie way oi salary no outsider knows. The salary of a star is always extensively parsgraphed in the American Press, but no person possessed of any discrimination would think of accepting the figure*? as accurate.

But there arc indications of revolt in the film industry against the film star. In the first place, the stars owe their success to the success of the film industry, which has been brought about by business enterprise. A star is by no means essential to the. success of a good film. There is more value to be got iv spending money on varied and striking scenes than in paying inflated salaries to stars. And it must be confessed that the histrionic ability of the film star is seldom of a high order. The fickle public, both in America and Great Britain, is growing somewhat tired of the film stars. The repetition of the same tricks" and mannerisms hundreds of times creates a demand for something new. The public wants new stars; but the producers, realising that the star system, which they borrowed at great expense from the stage, is of no advantage to the screen, do not intend to create new stars when the old ones aro extinguished.

VALUE OF THE STORY. Film producers in America are in search of new material for the screen as the available material is being used up rapid'}'. In the early days of the moving picture the story told on the screen counted for very "little with the producers. ,The men associated with the film industry in its infancy 'were not men of culture or artistic sensibilities; for the most part they were salesmeu and shopkeepers, who saw in the moving picture an attractive novelty that wa; likely to be popular. FBESH FIELDS TO CONQUER. Owing to the shortage or storie--American producers are endeavouring to get authors, and e-peeially well-known American and English novelists, to write stories directly for the screen instead of WTiting novels. There- is no doubl that film stories wr.'l yield all but the most popular novelists more money thar books, and take less -.line to write. And stories written for tlie screen by authors who have made a study of its possibilities and technique will make better photo, plays than stories adapted from novels. But the supply of good stories which can be obtained in this way is not inexhaustible. There is a limit to the number of stories which an author can evolve, whether in the form of novels or photo, plays. And the fact that a story when written for tlie. screen lias to Instripped of most of t.ic. embroidery that goc-s to tiie telling of a story in book form tends to place sci'cre limits on the number of variations of a theme whicn the film can present in story form. It looks as if the film will have- to explore otiier fields in catering for the public, and regard story telling as only a supplementary phase of its scope. It ii obvious that presenting spectacuiar displays, allegorical stories, the reproduction of impressive natural phenomena including scenic grandeur, and in the presentation of, interestin.; education.il aspects of science and natural history the film has before it lields -which it has only faintly explored il.iring the years its chief attention has been given to the adaptation of popular fiction.