EXPENSIVE FILMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 140, 16 June 1930, Page 8

EXPENSIVE FILMS.

TENDENCIES IN AMERICA.

"SOMETHING COLOSSAL"

DEMANDED.

Some idea of the amount of_ money spent in film production was given by Mr. H. C. Mclntyre, general manager for the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in Australia and New Zealand, last evening. Mr. Mclntyre is returning to Sydney after attending a world conference of Universal Pictures Corporation delegates at New York.

"The chief object of the conference, which was attended by delegates from England, Germany, South America, and f,h*°Far East, was to outline the change in the company's policy brought about by the advent of the talkies," said Mr. Mclntyre. The world has now accepted talking pictures as an established form of entertainment, and the demand was for something outstanding—something colossal, that would dwarf even what were considered "super" films in the "silent" days. There was a definite swing in the direction of more elaborate films and his own company proposed to spend £2,000,000 on eighteen "super" productions alone.

"All Quiet on the Western Front," which would be released in New Zealand \vithin the next "five or six weeks, had cost 1,7;j0,000 dollars to produce. The stark realism of the film, said Mr. Mclntyre, made it one of the greatest epics of the age.

There was a growing demand for colour film photography, said Mr. Mclntyi;e, and colour would be introduced a good deal \n future films, although in a different manner from that known in the past. Few films lent themselves to colour photography right through.

Speaking of the newly invented "wide, film" Mr. Mclntyre said that it would be at least a year before it would be released. A conference of leaders of the film industry had decided that the present time was inopportune to force the new. film on to the exhibitors, who had been put to considerable expense by the advent of the talking films.