FILM KING TALKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 394, 30 June 1928, Page 23

FILM KING TALKS

Future’s Slow Advance HIGHLY PAID STARS DECLINE

The story of Cecil B de Mille, | the motion picture producer , is virtually the story of the motion \ picture. When he and Jesse Lasky to- \ gether entered the motion picture I lousiness in 1913, they proposed \ that, instead of the incoherent, badly written, two-reel stories, . they would direct, produce and market feature productions of \ stage successes. Mr. de Mille, coming from a family of playwrights and act,ors, had been a stage star in New York. Yet the j whole idea in his mind was new; people were sceptical. Neither de Mille nor Lasky at that time had much of this world’s wealth. They needed financial assistance. To a number of successful men in the stage world was offered an opportunity to buy a fourth interest in the enterprise for as little as £I,OOO, but each refused. To-day that interest would be worth close to £2,000,000. His Lowly Beginning In December, 1913, Mr. de Mille arrived in Los Angeles to rent a location for making “The Squaw Man.” The place chosen was an old barn. This was the beginning of a studio which now spreads over two city blocks, and has the use of the 1,100-

i acre Lasky ranch, a few miles disI tant. , “In the next 10 years,” said Mr. de ! Mille. “I can’t think that the motion picture art will advance so far or so i rapidly as during the last 10.” “What about colour photography and the speaking picture?” he was asked. “Both of these developments can, and will, be vastly improved during the next few* years,” he said. “Even photography still has much to learn. Colour motion pictures now used in j certain spectacular scenes will continue to be so used. Ido not look for any revolutionary development along that line, however, in the next decade. Aid to Students “The talking motion picture, on the other hand, will make much greater strides. Its possibilities are tremendous. In educational work its use may result in changes of vast import in the teaching profession. “With proper and intelligent direction of this type of picture, the college course to-day could be completed in half the time.” Mr. de Mille, 46 years old. earnest, serious-minded, sincere, intelligent, is a keen student of life.