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In our last issue we presented a discussion about the creative situation in Hollywood, with a variety of viewpoints represented-from the established professionals like Zinnemann to the struggling outsiders like Mackenzie. Continuing our exploration of the problems and potentialities of the film in present-day America, we present below an article based on years of experience in Hollywood reporting; it attempts to assess the prevailing practices by which films are initiated in Hollywood, and to indicate possible developments that may give promise for the future.

The focus of diplomacy, which used to be concentrated on diplomats and kings, has broadened in the last fifty years to include a wide variety of targets. An ambassador is increasingly concerned with public opinion. Foreign policy responds, as it always has, to basic economic needs and the dignities of national traditions. But its application is now irrevocably tied to the rattle of teletypes and the drama of "peoples speaking to peoples." The changing nature of world interactions at the unofficial level has its personal symbol in the rise of the American public affairs officer. In small diplomatic posts he may work virtually alone. At critical centers, he is surrounded by a corps of specialists-poll-takers, news reporters, speechmakers, speech writers, librarians, photographers, educational advisers. He may have it in his power to bring prominent Americans to visit, tour, and teach. He can often give favored local "specialists" free trips to America. But he is primarily in charge of the ambassador's relationships with press, radio, television, and film. The U.S. film officer in any major capital is primarily a distribution man. He tries to get informational movies shown in theaters, schools, clubs, churches, and union halls. He takes 16 millimeter shows on the road. Sometimes he is also in charge of special film production, tailored to the needs of the country or area to which he is assigned. In certain key places he may put out a periodic newsreel. Always it is his duty to fulfill over-all "directives," worked out by his own public affairs officer or in Washington. Such semi-military coordination no doubt stems partly from the fact that information activities got their major growth during World War II. The whole notion of 16mm screenings in villages was a wartime development. Adjustments to "area needs" around the world was also a wartime public relations policy. The content and style of these policy guidelines, howeverand in fact the whole surviving apparatus of angling for approval among the populace of foreign countries-is in large part a result of the ritual of cold war competition. Budgets for films, for the Voice of America, and for other expensive