LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 3 January 1931, Page 4

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE

DEVELOPMENT IN THE MOVIES

TELEVISION NEXT?

It is very interesting to reflect that in this scientific ago we should find Science flirting so violently with Art, _ .as instanced particularly by the motion picture. Indeed, in tins sphere Science lias pressed his suit so unremittingly that Art, enraptured, has been swept completely off. Her feet. This somewhat unexpected alliance does not raise the question “Will the movies become a mere adjunct of science?” Rather docs it stimulate a guess as to how far the talkies will be developed as entertainment by the assistance of science. Wc have already seen how enormously science can help, first of all by verily establishing the motion in our screen entertainment, and more recently by the addition of dialogue and sound—especially as the average moviegoer, after seeing* and hearing a few good talkies, finds the silent picture far less engrossing. At the same time, let us remember that the “talkie” is still in its swaddling clothes—a most amazing infant—and tlie wonder is that we should be witnessing such rapid development for the better!

The seers of Hollywood and Elstrce themselves are wondering what the future holds in store. The latest mails inform us that recently a small group of famous directors were asked in Hollywood to express their opinions as to the next steps in motion picture progress, if thq screen of the near future brings into concrete form the ideas outlined by these cinema identities, our coming era of entertainment will be far more revolutionary in nature than most of us had anticipated. Cecil B. De Millc, who has just completed “Madame Satan,” feels that television will soon he widely applied in the field of tlie newsreel especially, and from the very seat of the event at that, whether it he London or New York, Cliina or. Peru. “Television will he a splendid newsreel asset.” lie says. “I can visualise the coronation of a king, or the inauguration of a president, which wc would see and hear in our neighbourhood theatre the moment the new ruler took tlie oatli of office.”

‘‘There will probably be key theatres or studios in the larger cities,” says Fred Niblo. “By a system of remote control the projectors and reproducers in all the smaller theatres of a State, or on a “chain,” will be operated in synchronisation. In other words, the theatres will be controlled from various central stations. (Thus, for instance, a studio in Sydney would simultaneously broadcast picture and dialogue on to the screen of every theatre in New South Wales desiring same). “This does not mean any radical change in theatre construction,” adds Mr Niblo. “The millions tied up in theatre investments are perfectly safe. Our present day theatres arc not so very different from those of a. dozen years ago, long before the talkies except that they are larger and more elaborate. They are housed in what we may call standard buildings, and the initial investment in such buildings will make a radical turnover difficult, for several decades, anyway. There may be new types of theatres, especially in the large cities, but it will be a long time before the theatre in the smaller city and small town changes its form.”