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REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



MOVING PICTURES. 



Mr. Charles B. Brewer gives, in the 

 Century, a most illuminating account of 

 the immense development of the mov- 

 ing picture. 



It is estimated that there are almost 

 thirty thousand moving picture show 

 places in the United States. The 

 Americans are said to spend close on 

 ^40,000,000 per annum for admission to 

 these shows ! The ten leading film 

 makers in America produce pictures to 

 fill some 3,000,000 feet of film every 

 week. This amounts to almost 30,000 

 miles of pictures annually ! From an 

 original film about 200 pictures are 

 usually reproduced. The reels were for- 

 merly sold, but are now always leased. 

 Dates of exhibition are arranged with as 

 much care and business acumen as are 

 the great plays of the stage. 



The larger places attempt to have one 

 "first-night" reel among the several shown 

 at every performance. The reels usually 

 rent to the exhibitor for from 20 dollars to 

 25 dollars for the first night, the price being 

 scaled down each succeeding night about 20 

 per cent., until finally the rent is as low as 

 a dollar a night. Hence a reel may travel 

 every day, much the same as a theatrical 

 troupe in visiting small cities. 



The cost of admission is small, but 

 the expenses are not great. Usually one 

 operator, paid about £$ a week, a piano 

 player £3, a doorkeeper 30/-, and a 

 ticket-seller £2, carry on the show. 



It is almost as impossible to speak of 

 the cost of producing a film as to talk 

 of the cost of producing a painting. 



We know the cost of the canvas of the 

 latter, and we also know the cost of the bare 

 film is three cents per foot ; but the cost of 

 what is on the film may be represented only 

 by the cost of developing and the labour of 

 the machine-operator, as, for example, in 

 such pictures as "An Inaugural Parade," or 

 the famous pictures showing the " Coronation 

 of George V." Sometimes, however, the cost 

 runs as high as fifty thousand dollars, as did 

 the film known as " The Landing of Colum- 

 bus." These films require many people, 

 necessitating the taking of long journeys to 

 provide an appropriate sotting, and need 

 from two to three years to finish them. Be- 

 fore the film known as " The Crusaders " was 

 ready for the public, six hundred players 

 and nearly three hundred horses had ap- 

 peared in front of the lens. The film of 



•• The Passion Play," now in preparation, 

 will cost, it is said, a hundred thousand dol- 

 lars. 



The educational use of the cinemato- 

 graph is only beginning to be realised. 



Mr. Edison has very recently been quoted 

 as saying: " I intend to do -away with books 

 in (the school ; that is, I mean to try to do 

 away with school books. When we get the 

 moving pictures in the school, the child will 

 be so interested that he will hurry to get 

 there before the bell rings, because it is the 

 natural way to teach through the eye. I 

 have half a dozen fellows writing scenari 

 now on A and B." 



THE MORAL TONE OF THE PICTURES. 



In America a National Board of Cen- 

 sorshio, which serves without remunera- 

 tion, has had a most salutary effect. 

 Reputable film makers have welcomed 

 its work, and voluntarily submit films 

 to be reviewed. No manufacturer has 

 been known to refuse to destroy a film 

 which did not receive the endorsement 

 of the board. Such an honorary body 

 could do excellent work, both here and 

 in England, where many morally de- 

 grading pictures are too often to be seen. 

 Last year this National Board passed 

 on more than 3000 reels, and rejected 

 less than 3 per cent. A reel is usually 

 a thousand feet long, and contains 

 16,000 pictures. 



They are an inch wide, and three-quarters 

 of an inch deep. On a screen twelve feet 

 square, which is smaller than the usual size, 

 there is surface enough to show twenty- 

 seven thousand of the pictures side by side 

 if they are reproduced without an enlarge- 

 ment. Yet if every enlarged picture' were 

 shown on a separate twelve-foot screen, a 

 single reel would require a stretch of canvas 

 thirty-six miles long. Likewise a screen 

 twenty feet square would accommodate over 

 seventy-six thousand of the little pictures, 

 and the stretch of canvas required for the 

 enlarged pictures would be sixty miles long. 

 After witnessing a performance, few realize 

 that they have seen any such stretch of 

 pictures as the figures show. 



Wonderfully instructive films mow 

 help the scientist, the microscope and 

 the Rontgen rays enabling marvellous 

 moving pictures to be taken. The cir- 

 culation of the blood and the action of 

 various bacilli, the digestion of food in 

 the stomach, and the result of inoccu- 



