BRITISH FILM ERRORS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 254, 22 July 1919, Page 8

BRITISH FILM ERRORS

"TOO BRITISH" FOR WORLD MARKET. "Tho answer to the much-discussed Question of British and American films is to be found in a simple economic fact," said Air. Frederick L. Collins, of New i!ork, who is publisher' of "Al'Clure's Magazino" and creator of a number of important innovations in Sims, including tho kinema serial and iho authorised screen autobiography of tho late Air. Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Collins is au authority on film conditions in the "United States.

"There aro 20,000 kinema theatres ill tho English-speaking . world," lie said. "Three thousand of these are in the United Kingdom. Most of the othors are in the United States.

"The American.manufacturer makes a picture that is ideally fitted to live-sixths of his market and is saleaule in tho other sixth. The British manufacturer makes a pictuio with leas than a sixth of his possible market in'view, and manages to make it so utterly British that it is not worth twopence outside his own country. Consequently ho geis about one-sixth of tho income that the American gets, and has only one-sixth of the money to spend on production, and is doing pretty well if he makes a picture that is half as good. British manufacturers can mako just as good pictures as Americans—but they do not. Thero is not the I'.nancial incentive to doveloD the same technical excellence, and there will not bo until tliO'kcy to the world-market is discovered.

"If I wore a BratWi manufacturer, I would choose stories in whi:;h there aro British and American characters—say an American heroine and. a British hero— and I would ca6e the American parts with people who mean something to the American picture public; artists like Miss Mario Doro, who is hero working for nn American director, and MisS Lois Meredith, who is in the Hippodrome revue, and Miss IVannie Ward, who is on holiday in England—three sterling film actrcsses who are typical of the flow of visiting artists always available for tha British manufacturer.

"Having made a picture that has some chance of being shown in the 17,000 theatres, I would take definite stops to seo that it got there. All this talk about American picture magnates welcoming British pictures is what we call in America 'junk.' Practically all tho renting and distributing channels in the United States ate controlled by manufacturers of American films, and a British production, even when ideally suited to tho American public, has ."bout as much chniicc as tho Huns at - T ersaillos.

"British manufacturers v-ill have to build their own renting organisation in America or co-operate wiih some entirely independent non-manufacturing American distributor who can advise his British clients of American needs. And,, then, in my odd moments, 1 would try to encourage tho building of 11 ore kineroa theatres in the United Kingdom. With half the population of tho United States, ynu have about one-sixth of the number of theatres. This oondition cannot last.

"What do I think of the future of pi.--hires? Unlimited—in power to entertain and to mould public opinion. The great writers in pictures have ynt io lie discoverul. The great writers in words have held tho field for thousands of years. The film is still in the hands of the adapter, the hack writer, and the literary man who is learning the, kinenm. But n generation of writers will rise wlm can write equally well in words aml in pictures, and they will produce lnaslr-r----nieces that will be equally effective if printed 011 paper or 011 celluloid."