International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

MOTION PICTURES IN ART COURSES 35 for studying the composition of art culture and art history films. Comparison as a pedagogic principle will also reveal the possibilities of the students in the various classes. Comparison will show the art production of various epochs and different countries, illustrating motives, tendencies and fashions. The indications which we possess concerning a film made by Carl Pfluger of the department of Public Instruction of Basle on Rhythm in Nature and Art suggest to us certain ideas for comparisons which might lead the students to form almost insensibly a philosophic conception of art which will certainly not possess the loftiness of that of a Taine, but which may nevertheless, help in examining first principles. Acknowledging a certain rhythmic analogy between nature and art, it does not seem impossible to trace to different climates the different rhythms of nature and their influence on the rhythms of art. It does not seem risky to attribute to climate an artist's exuberance or indolence, the exaltation or pondered quality of his inspirations : all which states of mind are interpreted in the work of art in more or less capricious lines more or less rational features, forming the base of all artistic creations. We may go back into the past and recognize the characteristics of a nation's art, its influence, superimpositions and connections with the art of other peoples. The economic history of a people will cast its reflex on that people's art, and the study of one side of nation's life must cast light on all the others. Apart from any question of didactic value, a comparison undertaken in various departments can yield us elements for fixing grades in the preparation of art culture and art history films. The foregoing are merely suggestions for experts and may possibly prove useful for a profounder study of the whole question. THE USE OF THE CINEMA IN TEACHING VARIOUS SUBJECTS Report of the " Czechoslovak Confederation of Intellectual Workers ". FlLM AND DIDACTICS. — New teaching methods continue to insist on the need of bringing the school and active life closer together and of rendering observation for young people as easy and clear as possible. It was in this way that the doors of the school were opened to the cinema, which with its special technique, is capable of improving any method of teaching. With regard to the subject-matter of teaching in general, the motion picture allows of an understanding of abstract things, increases the possibilities of intuitive knowledge, and makes the teachers s explanations clearer. Indirectly, the film can render a good service to the school, illustrating special themes which are closely connected with life, with social and economic problems or wiih scientific, artistic or ethical points of view. When the cinema made its appearance, the benefits it would later on be able to offer to teaching were at once appreciated. The first use in the didacticscientific field that took place was when Fausen utilized the motion picture for observing the passage of Venus over the sun, which proved that the film was particularly suited for reproducing phases of that movement which, on account of its rapidity and multiplicity of detail could not, without loss to scientific exactitude be divided into fractions to permit of a long and minute observation. Another advantage offered by motion pictures used for didactic purposes is that the spectators' minds, observing, analysing, comparing and classifying the phenomena explained by the teacher work according to a unified and simultaneous policy which permits of visual inprovements being rendered objective and universal instead of splitting them up into various observation centres, and making them subjective, as occurs in microscopic observation. Moreover, the possibility of using the slow motion projector introduces the microscopic principle in the measuring of time, while the accelerated projection permits of a rapid synthesis of events which actually require a longer time to come about (the growth of plants, geological transformation of the soil, evolution of the species). In cinematographic teaching, room should be left for the animated cartoon, which allows us to complete the scenes of a schematic movement so that the spectator's intuitive powers will benefit thereby. If the projector is fitted with a lever for arresting the running of the picture for a moment, the advantages offered by the film include those offered by the lantern slide or still photograph, and permit the teacher to become independent of time and the greater or less rapidity with which the various phenomena take place.