International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

12 THE CINEMA IN TEACHING utilization of these films. This they can do not only by knowing how to project them and by introducing them into their teaching in the most profitable fashion, all of which presupposes a certain training in the methodology and technique of film teaching, but also by showing themselves capable of reacting to the projections and of provoking critical and interpretative reaction on the part of the pupils. What we want and must insist on having is a pedagogic and technical training for our teachers which they should receive in normal schools and pedagogic seminaries, not only during the various course of optics, electricity, methodology, etc., but also during practical lessons in laboratories and handicrafts schools. For teachers, who have already some experience, it would be well to organize lectures and courses in theory and practice on special days during week or month. A similar system could be adopted for teachers of secondary and middle grades who require clear and definite instruction on the use of lantern slides and motion pictures. This kind of lesson will enable the teachers to familiarize themselves with motion picture cameras and their working, the various ways of making " shots " such as long shots semi-close-ups, and close-ups, the slow motion camera and the accelerated running off of a film, micro-cinematography, sound and talking films, animated cartoons and many other details. In this way the taste for the cinema will be developed and encouraged. The teacher will begin think in terms of a scenario as something to offer to a film producer, just as an author thinks of his manuscript as something to offer to a publisher. In this way the question of specialists will arise. Just as a real cartographer must be primarily a man very well versed in geography so as to avoid any risk of being merely considered a simple draughtsman, so the cinema specialist must possess proper professional qualifications. He ought only to be admitted to the technical courses at a Normal Teaching School after having undergone tests or examination of his capacity at the hands of some official body. This Cinema Teaching Normal School ought to form part of the higher education system, and be a regular forcing-ground for those who will be called upon to produce for the State and private firms according to the country they live in, films capable of satisfying the exigencies of the teaching profession. Some cinematograph schools have already been opened in certain countries, and courses of lessons have been organized. Such initiatives should be encouraged, especially those among them which deserve the confidence of teachers. It would be well, however, to examine the possibility of establishing in every country a Normal Cinema School, where the admission of students would be hedged about by strict rules and the number of pupils limited so as to prevent any distribution of diplomas to pupils who would afterwards expect to obtain posts beyond their reach. An international Normal School is another possibility. Here the future cinema teachers would be brought into touch with the productive machinery of other countries, would see foreign films, and have the benefit of the best scientific, technical and literary training. General instruction for the bulk of teachers; a selection, choice of profession and a superior technical cinematograph instruction for the best qualified, a development of their culture in the branch to which they intend to devote themselves : here we have a list of measures which would in a short time raise the level of the teaching film. It is evident that this special training for the mass of teachers and the specialists ought to include not only the cinema but all the auxiliaries of the film, such as lantern slides, gramophone discs, sound ribbons and sound tracks, while the teachers ought to be able to use, discuss and supplement the reports, instructions or booklets of an explanatory nature sent with films. The teachers' interest for the critical study of the films placed at their disposal would run the risk of soon vanishing if their reactions