Are you a storekeeper who would blazon the path of originality, yet would not object to the increased outlay?

The advertising powers of the motion picture have been fully realized by the large manufacturers of this country, but the average retailer has confined himself to the slide.

With a film, however, you can cause a small-sized sensation in your town, for folks will look upon your effort as a home product. You can not, of course, live upon publicity, and the true test will be the extra amount of business it brings. Once the interest of people is aroused, there can be no doubt concerning the latter.

The most suitable kind of photoplay is the comedy. You may have a commercial motion-picture photographer located near by, in which case you can avail yourself of his services. Failing this, however, there are a number of concerns who do nothing else but produce films for commercial purposes.

If you have the film produced along economical lines, you should get the negative produced and developed for an inclusive charge not exceeding seventy-five cents per foot. A useful length is from two to five hundred feet. Then you will want a positive, which will cost you ten cents per foot.

In regard to the actual producing of the photoplay, I strongly advise you to have some scenes taken amid familiar local landscapes. You might persuade members of the local dramatic society to attend to the acting end. It would improve the play if you could manage to introduce well-known local citizens. This will save you the expense of having to hire regular motion-picture actors, and the folks who see the film will not be critical as to the technical defects. The concern you engage to put on the picture will send along a capable director, who will knock the players into passable shape.

Considerable additional expense is involved in the use of interiors, such as a store, house or office building. These have to be specially erected in the studio and plenty of electric light used for photographic purposes, so keep to outdoor scenes. It can easily be done by exercising a little ingenuity. For instance, instead of arranging certain action to take place inside your store, you can get it over equally effective by arranging for it to occur outside your premises.

For economy’s sake, you need only one copy of the positive in circulation. Now, if you approach local motion-picture exhibitors in the right spirit, they may not demand a fee for showing your advertising motion picture, as they realize too well the value of anything with a local appeal. You should arrange with the leading theater to have first run of the photoplay, say, for a week, after which you can loan it to the next on the waiting-list, until all have been covered.

Plenty of newspaper publicity is yours, too, if you invite the local press to be present at the producing of the film, and also when it is about to be released for public exhibition.