Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER 103 HISTORY ON FILM Bv Peter Baylis the Pathc Company have produced a newsreel twice a week since the earij years of the centurj and a cinemagazine once a week since the earb twenties. And each week from home ami overseas, the News and the Pictorial gather in some 8,000 feet o\' film. After their all-too-brief tour of the cinema circuits, the reels and the mass o\' unused material are transferred to the Library. Occasionally, odd sections of film are dusted oil' to be incorporated in a biography of a departed personalis, and at the close of each sear the News Editors dig down lor bits tor their review of the past 12 months. The remainder of the film shot, in all probability . ne\er again sees the light of the projector arc. Here, then, is material unlimited. From it films can be compiled on every possible subject — politics, sport, aviation, scientific progress, everything from international affairs since World War I, to 40 years of football. The first film we put in production was a 4-reel compilation for theatrical distribution. One of the most popular series of feature broadcasts has been the Scrap Book programmes written by Leslie Baily. We considered that if. in some way, we could combine the two techniques, radio ana film, we might be able to achieve an illusion of a past era which would surpass in nostalgia anything which has yet reached the screen. We called in Leslie Baily who enthused over the idea. The main question was — just how far back should we go. It had to be far enough back to provide colourful contrast with the present day, and yet not so far back that the better part of the cinema audience could not enjoy a fair modicum of nostalgia. Finally, we decided on 1922 — just a quarter of a century ago — a year strong enough in post-war influence to invite interesting and significant comparison with 1947. And it so happened that 1922 was chock-full of exactly what we wanted; history and nostalgia unlimited, ft was a year of international unrest, the fall of a British government, civil war m Ireland, the Inst days of the BBC, Suzanne Lenglen and Jack Hobbs. Bonar Law and Bottomley, Sarah Bernhardt and Stanley Lupino, 'normalcy' and night-clubs, Felix the Cat and "Beaver!" So, step by step, Scrap Book for 1922 is coming together, ft is a job calling for prolonged research and infinite patience, but we are convinced that something different will be the result. So much for our attempts to slip into the now fairly distant past; but what of the time that is only nowr slipping into history? We had in mind a film record, in topicality somewhere between a newsreel and a March of Time, which would present the events of a given period with some semblance of explanation Hecause of the time which must inevitably elapse during production, our period had to be of some considerable duration. So we cut our cloth to a one reel quarterly, which would be entitled Summing Up. With one eye on the schools, we chose as our subject international affairs. This was to include, also, those events which can heconsidered as having distind international significance as. for example, the international search for a lost Dakota in the Alps. or. an American coal strike affecting production vital to world reconstruction. The whole was to be an inter national lev iew which would be a solid plug for world unity . The film's immediate use was to provide background and atmosphere lor teen-age lessons on current affairs. Its long-term use would be as a permanent historical record. The material with which we had to work had very distinct limitations. Often coverage consisted ol onlj a handful of shots and frequently these shots were cut extremely short. A style of commentary and presentation had therefore to be adopted, which would tell the story in the simplest possible terms. The commentary could not expand or expound at will :t had to be confined to exceedingly short bursts. Opticals we shunned, because, as we were working on dupes, there would have been an unbearable loss of quality. To punctuate the film and to provide breathing spaces, we adopted the March oj Time style of continuity titles (which, on reflection, seemed to be used by Mart h oj lime for exactly the same reasons' I When the first two editions of Summing Up reached the schools, complete with teaching notes, we invited criticism. We certainly got it. Sequences were too short, commentaries were either too newsy or too emotional, we linked events on film which had no real link in real life, and so on. ami so on. But, by and large, the reception has been encouraging. We would like to extend the use ol Summing I !> as lai into the nontheatrical field as possible, and, may l->e, into the il field Here, however, arise questions of release and topicality. When does delayed news material cease to be oul-of-date news and become an historical record? In the dramatic form of presentation adopted nming I p. I admit to indulgence in a pet theory with regard to instruction by film. I consider that instruction on history and current affairs can best be achieved by dramatization; that by using forceful commentary, appropriate music and polished editing, we can show children and students that the events taking place around us aie as dramatic and as exciting as anything that Hollywood can contrive. We wanted to impress upon them that Trieste is not just a spot on a map, a name to be bandied about over conference tables, but is a living community of men, women and children. We wanted to show them that an atom blast at Bikini, a conference in Moscow, a civil war in China and a strike in Balham were all part of one great story — the story of mans tight lor existence and world unity. AUDIENCE REACTIONS IX SCHOOLS three new Road Safety films for children, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, have just been released by Petroleum Films Bureau. They aim to be something more than the usual traffic-light and careful-crossing type of film, but both their makers and the distributors regard them as something in the nature of an experiment albeit an experiment thought out with care and a sense of responsibility. They endeavour to use the child's love of fantasy to teach him good roadbehaviour— to teach him more through his imagination and his love of make-believe than by dinning a concrete idea into his head until it loses meaning. Adults vary greatly in their reactions to these films — some think they arc too fantastic; others that they are not fantastic enough. Some think they will be above the heads of children; others that they talk down too much. But the important thing is — how do children react. ' "I hey have been made for children and what matters is whether they influence their behaviour in the desired way. The Tavistock Institute ol' Human Relations was called in, and the suggestion made that an audience reaction test should be carried out amongst some schoolchildren. The Local Education Authorities in Harrow were very co-operative and made arrangements for two of their schools to receive a team of investigators. As Playing in the Road was not finished at the time, only Puddle Muddle Riddle (for the seven and eight year olds) and The Ballad ol the Hollered Bicycle (nine and ten year olds) were tried out. The classes, of about fortj children and providing different age groups, weie split into sec l ions ol ten children each Section A did free drawing for twenty minutes, then saw the film, then drew again lor another twenty minutes. It was hoped to find something of the content o\ the films being brought out in the second lot of' diaw ings. I hese pictures were all stored, with the rest of the lest material, (o be examined later Section B, with two observers, did .\\\ oi.il ompletion. < )ne observer started them on a hen cadi child in turn added bits to the s he or she liked I his observer kept the ball rolling and made general notes on the behaviour of the group. The other observer had the job of taking down everything which was said by all the children in detail. After twenty minutes the story was left in mid air while the film was shown and then another story was started which had some parallel meaning to that of the film. Again, every word and action, as far as possible, was noted down. Section C in the three older age groups did a written story completion both before and after the film. These stories were taken away and examined later. (Fn the case of the sev en y ear olds Section C did the same as Section B I Section I) was the play group. They went out of doors with one observer to direct the play and another two to do all the writing of the conversations and general actions o\~ the group, ft was suggested to the children that they should make up a road game and play at crossing and being buses and cars. After they had seen the film it was suggested to them that they might like to act it out and to put in anything which they felt might improve the film. Again, everything they did or said was noted down. Each film was shown to the four sections at the same time that is. to the seven year olds Sections \. B. C, and D, and so on through all the age groups. As the schools were large ones it was possible to have an "average' class in each age to avoid either the very bright children or the dul lai ds During each showing of the films all the observers were on the alert to note down the laughs, the bits which held the attention best, the bits which were obviously boring and the bits which seemed to be beyond the children and during which they started to fidget. The next day every child who had seen either of the films was asked to write an essay on the film and these ess, is s cere collected by the teachers and sent on to the Institute to add to the piles ol drawings, stories and notes which were already assembled there foi interpretation I he results will take some while to work out, and until that is Aonc it is ol course impossible to draw anv well-founded conclusion.