Television and Motion Picture Production: And Kinescope Recordings

Abstract

RECENTLY, several views have been advanced by various executives and film makers in the motion picture industry about the future of television, and more specifically about how that particular future would affect the general future of the films. "Lick 'em," "If we can't lick 'em, join 'em," "People are gregarious," and "Phonevision is the only answer," have become recurrent watchwords in the face of a finally recognized threat to the motion picture industry's longevity, importance, and income. What I have to put forth in this article is yet another view, another one man's opinion, which insists that television is more important to the motion picture industry as a partner than as a competitor, and which proposes a means for "joining 'em." It is based, I believe, on a minimum of crystal gazing, which, though often delightful as a pastime, is far from being a legitimate offspring of the science of optics. This by way of preamble. The major motion picture studios say it is impossible for them to make a "quality" product for television now at a mutually acceptable cost. Several of the small independents and some of the office-in-their-hats boys have tried their hand at it. No matter how much they have cut corners in production, however, few of them have been able to meet the buying price, and in general the cut corners have been all too obvious. The trouble as I, an admitted outsider to movies, see it, is that the major, minor, independent, and no-studio producers seem to