There are studios in ten cities in the Soviet Union for the production of "art" or "story" films, and this number includes two studios for the production of films for children. Moscow has two studios, Kiev two, Leningrad one, and the remainder are situate at Odessa, Yalta, Tiflis, Erivan, Baku, Tashkent, Askabad, and Stalinabad. A large group of studios is now being built in the Caucasus and when this is completed all the more important Soviet films will be made there, the site having been chosen for its excellent weather conditions and varied scenery.
The Soviet film industry is at present too small to be able to maintain players on a full time contract or to train them exclusively for the cinema. All regular players, therefore, divide their time between the stage and the screen, their salaries being regulated by ability and not by demand. Playing in studios by day and on the stage at night is discouraged. Leading players, writers, and directors earn up to 2,000 roubles a month.
The plan to produce by 1938 an annual quantity of 1,000,000,000ft, of film stock will certainly not be fulfilled, the report adds, but "it is safe to say that by now the Soviet Union is able to produce sufficient stock for its own requirements. In general, the quality has not yet reached the highest standard achieved abroad, and the leading Soviet cameramen are allowed to use European and American stocks when the subjects chosen demand delicate or exacting pictorial effects, w HANKOW
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