FUTURE OF FILMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 45, 22 February 1934, Page 10

FUTURE OF FILMS.

i SOUND AND .COLOUR. RISING STANDARDS. "THEATRE UX7I.IKELY TO DlE.'' The influence of tlic world crisis lias been for the betterment of the film industry, in the view of Mr. John E. Kennebeck, managing director of Paramount Pictures in Australia, New Zealand and the I'" ar East, who is on a tour of inspection of the Paramount organisation in this country. $ "The films of to-day are not what they were even a year ago," said .Mr. in an interview with the '•Evening Post,"' "and if people were to be shown a picture that had been made three years ago they would probably walk out. Thy film industry has learned that it must improve its releases in order to get the people into the theatres, and the productions of to-day are on a definitely higher plane.'' Mr. Kennebeck sees the rise of the films to prominence not as a threat to the existence of the theatre, but as an aid to it, a stimulus to greater effort on the part of producers in the theatrical world, and a demand fjr higher I standards in their work. "It has been claimed that the films are artificial," he said. "Put what could be more artificial than sitting in a theatre looking at painted scenery? The motion pictures, by the fact that they- are able to.outstrip the theatre in realism, have created a demand for much better presentation of plays, and by introducing the best actors and actresses in the world to places far from the orbits of their lives the films have given the public new standards or judgment of the work of the actors they see on the stage. The theatre has existed for thousands of years, and it is not likely to fade away now. Put the day of the inferior stage presentation has definitely ended.'' Towards this state of affairs, in the opinion of Mr. | Kennebeck, the work of the motion picture directors has been a material contribution. "Director Makes the Film."

"People go to the theatre usually to I see the stars in it," he said. "But it I is not the stars that make the picture, j In our organisation, which now makes (>."» pictures a year, we have over 20 directors, and one of the reasons that the standard of the films has risen is that these directors are now able to concentrate on fewer films each year. In the final resort it is the director who makes the film good or bad. He may be given a story and stars, but he is responsible for the presentation of those stars in the story, and it is due to his efforts that the production has what character it possesses." In the future the films will not be very different in character from what they are to-day, Mr. Kennebeck thinks. "I believe that the moving picture will retain its present colours," he said. "Black and white are the usual colours for a film, and the application of others is likely to remain a novelty. Employment of colour photography tends to lead to garish effects, and it must be handled with judgment. Some of the photography, also, is likely to appear blurred in outline. Improvement in Sound. "In sound, however, there has been a marked advance. One of the reasons for the improvement ot the films which 1 mentioned before is better reproduction. A year or two ago the sound in a film varied from reel to reel. Now, with the newer apparatus and the improved methods of recording, it is possible to rely absolutely on the sound, from one end of a film to another, and hence the adjustments which.had to be made for the older films and the constant attention to the quality of sound which has been the rule in the past are no longer necessary. "I do not think, however, that films are likely to be much longer than they are at present. The existing length of a film lias been dictated by experience, and if feature films were released at too great length it is highly probable that the public would grow bored and J would stay away.

"Of Course, all films are, finally, films. That must be understood. A film is not a play or a novel; it is a different medium. Where it deals with a play or a novel it is forced to adapt it to this new medium, and thus the completed film is something new as well as something which reposed in the earlier work. These completed films are an enormous influence upon our , civilisation —of that there is no doubt. They are a part of our life, and those who make them are alive to their resp&nsibilities."