69th Semiannual Convention
 


Get-Together Luncheon Remarks by President Mole


 
  SEVERAL TIMES since I became President I have been asked whether or not the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers can carry water on both shoulders-meaning of course, is it possible for the Society to serve the needs of both motion pictures and television at the same time. My answer is that the Society has been and is now serving these related interests successfully. It intends to continue doing so in the future with increasing effectiveness. In the eyes of the engineer no conflict exists between motion pictures and television because both are mutually related methods of pictorial communication-they both provide pictorial rendition of action that has occurred at another place or at another time. Because the two are very closely related, I believe their techniques and their processes can be applied interchangeably on a broad scale, resulting in joint contributions of great value. The change of the Society's name a year ago to include the word "television" was formal recognition by the engineers of these interrelationships.
Just as television has come to rely heavily on motion picture films and on the techniques of motion picture studio production, so must the motion picture producer and exhibitor seek out, experiment with, and adopt new techniques that appear to have commercial possibilities. This calls for courage and imagination unclouded by the fears which the present economic conditions have produced within the motion picture industry.
Remembering the economic boost that followed the introduction of sound, many people have said recently that great new technical strides must be taken at once to keep the motion picture industry prosperous. In my opinion the present state of affairs is quite the contrary, however, because technical contributions already at hand are far ahead of the industry's willingness to adopt them. The lack of interest in commercializing these developments now may have the effect		   of applying a brake on future technical growth. If allowed to continue, it could become a demoralizing influence upon our engineers and research workers. I refer not only to the early application of television by the motion picture industry but also to: the potentialities of the increased use of color, multiple sound tracks, wide angle pictures and stereoscopy. Any of these things might recapture the interest of the moviegoing public.
In our Society we have been able to unite engineers from the motion picture field with engineers from radio and from other fields into a unified organization in which one group complements the other. Has the same result been accomplished within the motion picture industry? I am afraid it has not. Do the engineer, producer and exhibitor work hand in hand? The answer is an unequivocal No.
The past success of the motion picture industry was made possible by men who had the intuition to foresee its great potential future and were willing to risk time and money in exploiting it. It is quite possible that this same Pioneering spirit will be needed again before the technological advancements already known are properly applied.
Unfortunately, in many instances the men who head lie motion picture industry and who should translate invention into commercial reality have become so economy minded that their first question concerning a new technical process or product is -What will it cost?" and not "How can it benefit this industry?"
We in the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers are constantly improving the technical elements of the pictorial rendition of action. It is now up to the producers and exhibitors of motion pictures to take advantage of our technical developments and to continue their business as the most effective medium of mass education and entertainment yet devised. 		 
 
Journal of the SMPE, vol. 56, May 1951, pp 584-585


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