The Washington times., 1915-07-21
THE BEST
Photoploy Department in
, WASHINGTON
P ictures Displacing
Oranges AS Big
Califor MIA
Industry

Oranges and specimens Of Bur-
oAnked horticulture are being crowd
ID hard for their high place as the
leading industries of California by
motion pictures! OF course the "glor-
Nous climate Of California" holds
Arst place among the products Of
the State--but It 10 the glorious cli-
mate that made 1t possible for
grange ranches and Burbank to OBJ
oAin such fame, and It ID this same
oaorious climate that 10 making mo-
tlon pictures possible. on such a large
scale that California Ia now produce
ing three-fifths of all the photoplays
that are being made in the world.
Eventually. 1t Ia predicted. 1t will
produce four-fifths Of them.
$7.000.o00 to $15,00O.O00 worth Of
motion pictures are produced an
nually In or around the single city
Of Los Angeles. Los Angeles 10 the
motion picture capital Of the world.
20 to speak. Practically all Of the
big producing companies have plants
$4,000 Of the city's 100000 inhabi-
tants are employed In the production
OF the pictures in one form or anoth-
All figures that one gets in con-
nection with motion picture statis-
tics are ,vague--,but they are all big
and such has been. the remarkable
history of the industry that the
higher figure is more often near the
accurate than the lower. Nobody
really 10 in possession Of authentic
statistics. The Federal authorities
are compiling them. but the work is
slow, and as fast as one set Of zig.
the leaping progress Of the industry
itself has left the mathematician
far In tho rear.
The nearest to an accurate estimate
Of the position Of Los Angeles in the
world Of commerce and art by reason
recently been set forth BY George
Blaisdell, the photoplay expert. In
a rather unusual number Of the
Moving Picture World. This num-
Der Of the Moving Picture World. 1t
might be added. seems to have been
written almost exclusively by
Blaisdell. 1t is a special number
devoted to California motion pic
ture making and makers and is
rather a valuable addition to mo-
tion picture literature. In discuss
ing Los Angeles BlaisdeH states:
"Candor compels the admission
that II In Southern California all
the conditions for picture-making
were as desirable as are the weath-
or and the Photographic light there
would not be so many feet Of Aim
exposed in other parts Of the coun-
zone hears here on every hand
the assertion that IS to 80 per cent
Of the pictures produced in tho
United States are exposed in Cali
fornia. Let us see. We have for a
beginning the DEFINITE figure of one
hundred directors. One company
employing more than a half q
dozen producers requires that each
shall turn in at least an average
Of a thousand feet OF finished neg
ative each week. Another with over
a dozen directors comedies an av-
erage OF a thousand feet a week.
A third employing between six ani
twelve does not release on an av-
erage OF over six or seven hundred
feet for each a week.
"The nature Of the work IL such
that a larger amount would inter-
fere, with the particular quality the
company desires to maintain. Many
feature companies, using elaborate
sets, cannot turn out more than a
single reel weekly. II they accom-
pliSh that. There was a concern re-
Gently which extracted from it's di-
rectors 2,00o feet weekly, but that
concern is not now doing business.
The latter figure may be attainable
where all or nearly all scenes are ex-
teriors, and all other factors favor,
but there are few producers who will
maintain that 1t is q safe average.