FILM PRODUCTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 424, 15 November 1930, Page 15 (Supplement)

FILM PRODUCTION

DEVELOPING NEW TECHNIQUE

LESS DIALOGUE IN PICTURES Mr S. N. Burger, a special representative of Loew’s Incorporated, the parent company of the film producing firm of Metro-Goldwyn-Maycr, arrived at Auckland by the Niagara on Monday. He is making a tour of the Dominion, investigating the general conditions of the motion picture industry.

Mr Burger gave some information concerning recent production activities in Hollywood. Statements that there was likely to be a reversion to silent films were without foundation, he said, but in future productions there would certainly be a smaller proportion of dialogue. There could be no doubt that many producers had become almost intoxicated by the success of the new medium and had crammed dialogue into their pictures regardless of cost. The iesult had been a torrent of speech, much of it without direct bearing on the plot, of the film, and a smaller use of action and breadth of scene.

Cut Out Unessential Dialogue. “The only remedy our producers and directors could see was the cutting out of unessential'dialogue.” Mi 1 Burger said. “I have no doubt that this will result in the development of a distinctive technique for talking pictures. There will be dialogue in scenes which demand dialogue, and speech will take its natural place in the general scheme of things.’ ’ The death knell of musical comedy films had already been sounded in Hollywood, Mr Burgei’ said. They had been merely a passing phase, but they had performed one useful service, in that they had demonstrated the folly of introducing song into pictures without rhyme or reason. Music would still be largely used in film production, but it would have to be used naturally. The possibilities of music in talking films had not yet been fully exploited.