PHOTOPLAYS OF THE FUTURE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3132, 28 August 1922, Page 8

PHOTOPLAYS OF THE FUTURE.

(By G. A. Atkinson.)

Posterity, the most I'avored ol human generations, will enjoy many privileges, among them being a really good laugh over our clumsy methods of presenting dramatic entertainment. It will strike posterity as singular, even humorous, that the public of this generation should be willing to crowd into a small and inconvenient building to sec a play, instead of discovering methods by which the play could be carried simultaneously to the whole ol the public. . Some advance in this direction has been made by the photoplay, which, even now, can be simultaneously presented in many theatres throughout the world, but posterity will not stop at that point. It —or they will have svstems by which the spoken play can be seen and beard simultaneously in millions of homes by means of small figures projected on a miniature screen in their natural colors, accompanied by a perfect synchronisation of wireless telephony. „ , These plays will ho performed under huge arc lights on a- stage of filmstudio dimensions. Already it is possible to "listen, in” at the' theatre through the wirele'ss telephone; soon it will ho possible to "look in” at the theatre through the wireless telescope, which will show the images thus received on a ground glass or rough screen, not- miliko that used in the enmera obscu.ra sometimes featured at country fairs. Posterity will doubtless discover some method of showing these figures stereo'scopically through mirrors, so that they will appear to bo three-dimension-al or real, as if they were human marionettes. The plays thus staged will lie filmed for record purposes first on celluloid or similar transparent material, from which they will be printed on paper ribbons for distribution, in conjunction with some kind of filmprojector and gramophone combined — an extension of the marionette process —or they will he "broadcasted” on familiar lines from central wireless stations. Many of the present films that come under the head of topical, scenic, travel and educational subjects will be wiped out of existence for the simple reason that the inheritors of our brilliant future will see these things by direct vision instead of at photographic second hand. ] lira sometimes asked what will happen to the thousands of existing film negatives. There are several answers to the question. Some of these heirlooms will be used to make toecaps for fancy shoos. Others will pass into museums, where they will bo varnished and stored in air-tight receptacles, and others will start a new craze for wealthj: collectors. One of the prominent objects ait sales rooms 1 in the future will be the "filmophile” willing to pay fancy prices for the old celluloid masters of Mr D. W. Griffith or Mr Cecil M. Hepworth. The celluloid ribbon, by that time, will probaby have shrunk to the extent of one-sixteenth of an inch, not sufficient to interfere with means of projecting it. The condition,_ after a hundred years, of the chemical stri [ which contains the photographs is problematical. but a good coat of varnish should preserve, it indefinitely. Film collecting is certain to be a. rich man's liobbv.