NEW ZEALAND ON THE SCREEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 40, 10 May 1927, Page 14

NEW ZEALAND ON THE SCREEN

FILM PUBLICITY BEING EXTENDED AND IMPROVED

(From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-day. Thirty to forty fllm3, reported by London cable to be now screening in English picture houses, arc the result of an accumulation, states the Government Publicity Office. Arrangements have been made for the distribution of these films through the High Commissioner’s office and the Dominion publicity campaign is now working well. New Zealand’s output of official films now totals 500,000 ft a year, representing some 800 copies of each weekly feature, which is made in the Government laboratory. This laboratory is now too small for the requirements and is to be rebuilt on a site close to the city as soon as the necessary land is obtained. The new structure will be designed to suit the altered conditions of production, and work will be done by private contract. The Dominion now sends four copies of a weekly picture to England and six to Australia and in the Commonwealth the system of distribution has been perfected, and it takes a film two yea.rs to travel throughout its destined circuit, so that at the present moment between 600 and 700 publicity films are screening. To England the supplies have been regular only more recently. Previously the department was not in a position to send supplies every mail and the result is that the circuits are still being built up there.

A new departure will be made this week when the first negative film is to be sent to America under the Government’s contract with the MetroGold wyn-Mayer. Two hundred copies of each of the series of weekly negatives is to be printed and distributed throughout the United States. The first film to be sent will deal with deep-sea fishing. The intention is to widen the field and not to restrict productions to the scenery of the country. National life, industries, customs and recreations are to be treated. The operation of the Government theatre for tourists is suspended for the winter and will be resumed next November, when travellers begin to arrive again. The operation has been satisfactory, an average of 100 tourists a week attending the programmes, which were shown during the months of January and February, after which the theatre was closed owing to the fire.