MUNICIPALITY MAINTAINS 'MOVIE 

 DEPARTMENT 



ANEW use has been found for the 

 motion picture that of advertising 

 a municipality. A motion picture adver- 

 tising department has been made a per- 

 manent feature of the work of the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce of Redlands, Califor- 

 nia, which probably is the first city in the 

 world to establish and maintain a depart- 

 ment of this character. 



Purely as an experiment this motion 

 picture advertising was put in effect 

 about a year ago. At Jhat time a special 

 event held in the city was pictured and 

 the results obtained by this picture being 

 thrown upon the screens in that section of 

 the country were so very remarkable 

 that the promoters were persuaded to try 

 something in this line on a larger scale. 

 As a consequence, the citrus business, one 

 of the largest industries in that city, was 

 photographed from start to finish from 

 the planting of the trees to the packing 

 and shipping of the ripened fruit. This 

 necessitated about three reels of film and 

 was quite an expensive feature, but, we 

 are told, the returns were more than 

 worth the expense and effort. 



The method of exhibiting these pic- 

 tures after they have been finished is of 

 interest. The first move is to show them 

 in the home town, giving each of the pic- 

 ture houses a chance at the pictures. 

 After the home territory has been cov- 

 ered the pictures are shipped to the head- 

 quarters of the nearest motion picture 



circuit, and from that point the pictures 

 are shipped to all of the picture houses 

 on that "beat." When these houses have 

 all shown them, the films are sent to the 

 next circuit, and so on. These theatre 

 men are permitted to run these pictures 

 free of charge, and it goes without saying 

 that they are more than glad to get them. 

 They make great "special attraction" 

 material. The pictures go from circuit to 

 circuit until they are worn out. It might 

 be stated that a picture that was started 

 out about a year ago is still in good 

 enough condition to "show." 



The outfit required for this picture 

 work is not prohibitive in price. The 

 camera and complete finishing out cost in 

 the neighborhood of $325. Redlands 

 pays about $150 for the average reel of 

 film of 1,000 feet. This figure represents 

 only the actual cost of materials, how- 

 ever, for a local photographer does the 

 work and in payment for his time and 

 labor he is permitted the use of the pic- 

 ture camera during such times as it is not 

 being used in municipal work. Accord- 

 ing to estimates received by this motion 

 picture department it would cost between 

 $500 and $600 to take and finish an aver- 

 age reel of this advertising film. 



The Vitagraph, Lubin, Essanay and 

 Selig studios will be described in forth- 

 coming issues of THE WORLD'S AD- 

 VANCE. 



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