MOTION PICTURES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 108, 8 May 1936, Page 10

MOTION PICTURES

DECENT PROGRES'S NO GREAT CHANGES. n Ji appeared fairly certain that third <iii:icu.-iuii or stereoscopic development in nation pictures would come in tire r future, and probably within four or u live years, but no great changes could e be expected in the near future, Air. C. e Mason, general manager for Colinbia _ Pictures m Australia and New Zealand, n told a Wellington paper recently. Third n ! dimension work was being perfected J but it v.c-uld not be given to the pubo lie until every detail was perfect. Col1. our might fouow after that, Mr. Mason i- added, but there were a number ot ;< dillieultics in the way of all-colour l-'to- > duct ions. d Although motion pictures had add vanced a long way since the sound pic- - turns lirst came into use, yaid Air. Mason, ta'c public had become very l.riticul and the producers had to keep - | abreast or the times if they were going to please. His company had recon ly secured the rights c-f the popular song rage of America. ‘‘The Music Goes Round and Around,’’ and he was visiting New Zealand to place the film made from it. That him, and also ••The King Steps Out.” would be lea lured this season, and he was sure that both would be pc-pular. Discussing colour work, Air. Mason >;iid tne time had not arrived when ;he public would sit out a full colour p-1. gram me. Apart, from the cost of <<dour productions, the colour systems u>ed were not perfect enough to give the minimum of eye strain, and his company considered that one coloured reel was all that was asked for in a programme.* Consequently, they were producing cartoons in colour and had just landed a picture in Wellington with the latest violet and pastel shades, colours that had not been used previously. This reel, ‘‘Dr. Bluebird,” was viewed in a tiny theatre not far from 0 Mr. Mason’s office and proved quite easy to look at and listen to. ’ One of the great difficulties ‘where odour was concerned Mr. Mason said, was that films from America were imported into Australia and duplicated there, but that could not be done in colour. If all-colour pictures were wanted expensive apparatus would have to be installed in Astralia or heavy day would have to be paid on a large number of prints instead of the one , master print used at the present time. Some idea of the cost of colour pro- \ duction could be gained from the fact ]• that Colmbia employed 120 artists for p the production of coloured cartoons. Columbia took no part in the proe duction of pictures in Australia ber cause production costs were too high v there. Mr. Mason said. It had been t fond that a picture must have at least . one well-known actor or actress before • it would draw well, and the cost of k bringing such artists to Australia was e great. The last big picture produced e there had cost considerably more than j a similar picture would cost in America H and it was doubtful if it would have (1 as wide a market as the average e American picture. r AV. C. Field-, a Paramount player, £ makes a hobby of collecting dictiond aries. He has one of eighteen volumes •- and has written one himself. He reads a a dictionary in preference to fiction and c knows the definition of more words, it is likely, than any other film player.