Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

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THE PROGRAM ANGLE
will be the regularly occurring events from year to year, almost to
the same day. These are religiously covered because they are "bread-
and-butter" news that is there for the filming and that offers little in
the way of inconvenience in getting it. The present
trend in theatres
seems to be away from the newsreel, and many of the chains are
the exhibition of this matter. This is noticeable both
discontinuing
here and in Great Britain. Strangely enough, the home viewer seems
to like to see news on his screen more than he does at the theatre.
This may follow the pattern set up in aural broadcasting where the
newscasts have always been quite popular.
The home viewer demands a slightly different approach to the
news event, and it is of importance to the tentative producer to ex-
amine these requirements so that his product will appeal to his
audience. Most devotees of the television newsreel demand more
detail and subject matter. In other words, their complaint anent
the theatre newsreel is that there are too many subjects,
none of
which is treated in sufficient detail to do more than whet the in-
terest before it is gone and something else is on the screen. In news-
reels for the theatre, screen cuts are sometimes as short as four or five
feet; members of the television audience complain that these brief
flashes are confusing and they want to know more about the sub-
jects. It appears
that the televiewer wants more information and
longer sequences in his news films. This is being done by Telenews
of 1 600 Broadway, New York, which is producing the first, and best
international newsreel for television.
Telenews service is very complete. It puts out five 1 6 mm reels a
week on negative stock and two on 35 mm. The latter is sound while
the former is silent supplied with script for the narrator to accom-
pany the film. The cost at the time of writing is fairly high, but it is
not given because cost decreases as more and more stations use the
services they provide. The daily (five a week) newsreel runs about
eight minutes with the balance of time available for local spot sales
and announcements. The only time that sound is supplied on the
film is when sound occurred at the location such as a speech or con-
cert, etc. The weekly twenty-minute reel is scored for sound and
music is on a disc. This lends itself to very effective presentations in