HIGH GOST OF FILMS.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16736, 12 March 1926, Page 5

HIGH GOST OF FILMS.

VARIOUS REASONS. ’ It is a perpetual source of wonder to the man in the street that films should cost so much money (says a writer in the Daily Mail). But, of course, the visible results are ' a mask for manifold activities. There is the studio, v expensive to rent and with heavy overhead charges for electric current. Then there is a small army of workmen carpenters and painters to "build the scenes, electricians with arc-lamps and reflectors to create lights and shadows at will, wardrobe workers and cliefs. The camera man, who is a highlypaid expert, has a group of assistants, and so has the highly-paid director. The whole of the cast may have to travel to a considerable distance for outdoor scenes. And even under ideal conditions, when working operations have all been planned and all the artist's and staff rehearsed beforehand, a full-size picture cannot be made under a month or six weeks —many take far longer. There is also -the expense of assembling the resulting celluloid, editing and titling it, and the heavy cost of printing and developing." Even in England, where producers are unable to be as extravagant as they are in America, quite a simple film will cost £IO,OOO. “Nell Gwyn,” just completed, cost £40,000.