What Next?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 620, 23 March 1929, Page 25

What Next?

Colour and Depth, Says Sydney Expert SCREEN’S NEW ADVANCE

i j A FTER the talkies — what? { Attendance totals jor the j i talking picture allows in j Sydney constitute a record that will he equalled only i ■when the screen takes its j next step forward. But in. what direction? I i

■ N six days more than SO,OOO people packed themselves into two Sydney theatres presenting talkies. They paid between £8,500 and £9,000, a sum greater than that taken by all the other city cinemas put together, with a couple of legitimate theatres thrown in. Mr. F. W. Thring, managing director of Hoyt’s Theatres, Ltd., has written for the Sydney "Sun” his opinion of future development. TWENTY YEARS AGO Not 20 years ago Edison showed his first crude talking pictures. At the same time we saw the first imperfect colour films, and soon afterwards, experiments in the third dimension began. Each division has struggled for the first honours, and sound beat colour and the third dimension by a mere matter of months, after a race of 20 years. At the beginning of 1928 almost every producing company in America announced that during the ensuing season their pictures would introduce the stereoscopic effect. To perfect their various devices, experts were brought from the Continent and put to work in the studios of Hollywood and New York, with unlimited money for experimental purposes. They are still in the laboratories, temporarily eclipsed by the marvels of sound, but perhaps next year the results they have achieved will be popped on us as the new surprise. COLOUR ATTEMPTS To some degree, colour has already been achieved; but instead of the harsh exaggerations we see in occasional sequences to-day, it must capture the softer pastels of nature. Allow another five years perhaps for the perfect blending of all three factors, and very little imagination is required to foresee the probabilities of 1934.

Not for a moment, however, do I believe motion pictures ever will displace the stage. Rather, by bringing screen technique closer to stage technique, they will inculcate a keener appreciation of a well presented, well acted play, while increasing competition of the films will force the legitimate theatre on to a still higher plane. Screen beauty?—what is it, anyhow? An ability to photograph well in cold lifeless white. But add colour, and flaws of features are lost in the general ensemble. Add the individuality the third dimension brings, and you will see how much the importance of mere beauty diminishes.