Why, I maintain, should not the publisher have the business that is legitimately his? There is little chance of co-operating with the ordinary one- and two-reel photoplay, as the fiction rights of these are given to the motion picture magazines, whose staffmen write them up. There are, however, opportunities for the publishers to handle the big feature photodramas, as well as the linked series and serials. It is a paying proposition for all concerned if operated on the right lines.
XXI.
ADVERTISING YOUR NEWSPAPER WITH A MOTION PICTURE
Enterprise is a restless thing. Once let it remain still and all the good work is undone. This fact is brought more closely home in the case of a newspaper, for enterprise does so much to hold a reader. One stunt is soon forgotten, and it is therefore imperative to keep the ball a-rolling.
You, as a newspaper man, know the huge following the motion picture has, and if you are a small-town member of the fourth estate I want your attention right now. Mr. Big City, your turn will come next.
Several small-town newspapers have tried out the following plan successfully. A prize, usually $25, is offered for the best one-reel scenario, comedy or dramatic, as you may choose, only it must possess a plot which can be effectively taken amid familiar local surroundings. Usually the editor, dramatic critic and the movie director act as the judges.
This is followed by a voting contest for the selection of the most beautiful young woman and handsomest young man in town to play the heroine and hero, respectively. A prize of, say, $25 each, should be offered.
Nominations are best made by coupon, accompanied by a photograph. The judges can weed out the hopeless ones and print the photographs of the good-looking ones in the newspapers, as well as having them thrown upon the screens of the local motion-picture shows. Interest may be maintained each day by announcing the standing of the candidates.
It is up to readers to vote for their favorites, who, if successful, would be trained to act in the prize-winning story.
The advantages of the indirect advertising campaign are many, and it will be found to pull more results than ordinary advertising could accomplish in a lifetime. I say this in all seriousness.
In the first place, almost everybody has a hunch to write a photoplay, but few see their efforts on the screen. In a local contest they stand more chance of making good. The winner is aware that there is more than $25 and local fame awaiting him. His success does much to remove the barriers from the doors of the regular motion-picture producers, who, knowing he is one of the “arrived,” give his future efforts special consideration.