FEELINGS OF TRUST
3. Films showcasing companies and cooperative societies
In the 1920s the interest of filmmakers still revolved around current affairs: sports competitions, festivals and public events. By the beginning of the 1930s short films had ceased to excite and fascinate viewers like they had done in the formative years of cinema. A total of 290 short films were made in Finland during 1920-1932. The two major producers were the film production companies Suomi-Filmi and Aho & Soldan, founded by Heikki Aho and his half-brother Björn Soldan. Aho & Soldan was at the time even larger than the legendary Suomi-Filmi, with 290 short films made in the 1930s, compared to Suomi-Filmi’s 275.
One fourth of Aho & Soldan’s films from the 1930s were industrial films.
(Uusitalo 197: 171–206; 1975: 179–183.)
By the late 1920s and early 1930s the number of short films made in Finland had decreased dramatically, to around twenty per year. Most of them were commissioned works, and the economic recession in the 1930s further diminished the commissioners’ interest in them. The difficult situation for short films wasn’t a problem only in Finland. A tax reduction system for domestic short films had been established in, for example, Germany and the Baltic countries to support the industry. The cinema tax on the main feature of the evening could be lowered if it was accompanied by a domestic short film that met certain quality and content criteria. (Uusitalo 1975: 137; Uusitalo 1965: 72.) Also in Finland a tax reduction system was adopted in 1933 to support domestic short film production. The proponents of the system believed that it would reactivate the production of domestic short films and also improve the quality of feature films by providing filmmakers at the beginning of their career with the opportunity to practice with short films. As cinema-going became a more and more popular pastime, also the short films screened before the main feature of the evening were seen by large numbers of viewers. (Uusitalo 1965: 73; Uusitalo 1975: 138–139.)
The tax reduction films were made in Finland and their topics ranged from science and the arts to the domestic industries. The regulations were rather flexible and the law was loosely interpreted. Since films centering on the industries also qualified as tax reduction films, private companies became active commissioners of short films showcasing their companies and production. The taxation status was granted, first, by the State Board of Film, and starting from 1946, by the National Board of Film Classification. (Laki leimaverolaista / Repealed Act on Stamp Duties, Uusitalo 1965: 73; 1975: 138–139.)
Industrial films were made in the 1920s and 1930s in rather large numbers. In their article on 1930s industrial films, Tapani Mauranen, Erkki Niemi and Esko Varho have listed the industrial films made in the 1930s by branch of industry.
One fifth of the films dealt with wood processing, seventeen with the foodstuff industry, seventeen with the metal industry and fourteen with the textile and clothing industry. (Mauranen, Niemi, Varho 1993: 128.)
The tax reduction law was a shot in the arm for domestic short film production: it increased the number of produced short films manifold even during the last years of the 1930s, although the production didn’t quite reach the level of the record year, 1933. In 1933-1939 more than a thousand short films were made in Finland.
The largest film production companies were, same as in the 1920s, Suomi-Filmi and Aho & Soldan. (Heinonen, Lammi, Varho 1995; Uusitalo 1975: 139–140, 165, 168–170.) The system also created a genre of short films where education and advertising were interlaced.
The data of this paper consist of 45 films from the 1920s and 1930s. The films were selected from among around 150 films concerned with the topic. The work is based on a more extensive study where the research material included 342 consumption-related short films from 1920-1969 (Lammi 2006, see also Lammi 2009 and Lammi, Pantzar 2010). We have endeavored to cover as extensive a range as possible in selecting the films, because relatively few films were made at the time and some of them have become entirely or partly destroyed. Most of the films were silent, and not all of them even had preserved intertitles. In terms of style and topic, the short films of the 1930s were more varied compared to the films made in the 1920s. This was no doubt partly due to the tax reduction system which inspired short film makers to come up with new topics and approaches.
The research material from the 1930s tax reduction period includes, similarly as the films from the 1920s, a large number of films introducing production. Films were also made to introduce companies, stores and ideological organizations.
Some of the films showcasing companies and products were set within a dramatized plot. Among the short films from the 1930s are also films focusing on certain products, such as milk or eggs. While these films also portrayed the production process, their main focus was on introducing the properties and possible uses of the products. The research material is grouped in Table 1 according to theme and in Table 2 according to commissioner.
Table 1. The number of films studied by theme.
Table 2. The number of films studied by commissioner.
Moving images were an effective means not only in shaping consumers’ attitudes but also in disseminating new information and skills. Films were an important venue for education and advertising all the way up to the advent of television (Heinonen 1998: 376).
Studied films by theme
1920–1932 1933–1939
Industrial process 10 11
Company presentation 5 5
Fair film 2 1
Product presentation 1 6
Others 3 1
Total 21 24
Studied films by commissioner
1920–1932 1933–1939
State/ municipality/
public community/
state-owned company
- 1
Organization 1 1
Cooperative stores 7 9
Other stores 2 -
Other companies 8 10
Others 3 3
Total 21 24
Since the 1970s film research has started to pay less attention to films as art and more as a product of culture. While the aim of the study is to reveal the visible and invisible meanings of the films, also the researchers’ own interpretation is emphasized. In recent years the growing branch of socially oriented film research has started to pay wider attention also to documentary and non-fictional films.
The idea of studying different areas of film simultaneously and taking these areas, such as the text, production and reception of a film, better into account, has been subject to growing interest (e.g. Berner 2002, Koivunen 2003, Kortti 2003, Mickwitz 1995). This article proceeds from the perception that films are products of culture, which are influenced both by the prevailing production structure and the audiences. By shaping worldviews, general opinions, values, attitudes and behavior, the media are an important forum for exercising societal power (Kellner 1998: 46-47). The impact of film is not linear – some interpretations are more likely than others. More often than not, same messages are produced in several films over and over again.
As mentioned before, this article is based on a more extensive study where the research material included 342 consumption-related short films from 1920-1969 (Lammi 2006). At first, the studied films were selected from a list made by Kari Uusitalo including all the classified films. The list was categorized according to title of the film, and other information on the film that suggested it could relate to the studied matter. Most of the films were chosen in this manner, some through preview. The films were watched shot by shot and content reports were written.
We have applied a close reading technique (see e.g. Salmi 1993) in studying the films and performed content analyses, which cover both images, narration and music, as well as the time duration of the different types of scenes. We have also paid attention to the general aspects of the films, people’s clothing, the milieu, the atmosphere and things that may seem peculiar to today’s viewers. The visual material of the short films is at times rather simple and streamlined. For the purposes of this article, the films were selected on the basis of the content reports.
Of the short films examined in this article, we have also sought out the basic information, i.e. author information, buyer information, classification number by the Finnish Board of Film Classification, and information on their taxation status.
In the next chapters we will focus on how the films contributed to the birth of a consumer citizen and built up trust in industrial products, market participation and education aimed at producing quality-conscious consumers.