International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

76 THE CINEMA IN TEACHING The documentary function of the cinematograph is of self-evident utility, because it faithfully reproduces common events and phenomena or those which occur at long intervals, such as astronomical events ; because it fixes the evolution of delicate experiments which necessitate the use of costly material or of difficult technique, or which cannot easily be repeated ; and because it serves to facilitate the exchange between students of the knowledge of certain technical processes which even the minutest description fails to illustrate in all their clearness and completeness. There are pathological phenomena which occur bu trarely, surgical operations, which necessitate a special technique, telluric movements, etc., all of which can be fixed and documented by the cinema to remain only as permanent records, but also as objects of detailed study since the view of the phenomenon or phenomena can not only be repeated as often as necessary, but can also be compared with similar phenomena verified in the past or in other parts of the world. Where, in fact, we used to make drawings, with all their inherent limitations and inevitable subjective quality, we are now gradually substituting cinematography, which gives us an objective and dynamic view of every fact and event. The Study of Mo The cinematograph is vement and Ac snown to be a valuable celerated and Slow instrument 0f sc;en_ Motion Reproduo -r i tine research every time that it is applied to the study of movement. There are movements which take place so rapidly that the eye cannot perceive their different phases, so that they give the impression of being instantaneous, while there are others which develop so slowly that they appear stationary. In both of these cases, the cinema is found to be a marvellous instrument of research. The beat of an insect's wing lasts only the fraction of a second, and the flight of a rifle bullet as it passes before our eyes is so swift that we do not see it. Such movements as these can only be analysed by means of the motion picture, because it is only the cinema which can both register them and also reproduce them under the most suitable conditions for their study. The growth of a plant, for instance, is such a slow phenomenon that it is extremely difficult to follow it throughout its whole cycle, which often lasts for years ; and therefore we can follow its development in those periods when it is important to know it, only very imperfectly. The cinematograph, however, can register every one of these mo ments, and when we need it can give us a dynamic reproduction of the phenomenon in being and the effect produced on it by the various natural agents, sun, light, water etc. Thus we may throw on the screen in the space of a few moments, all the details of certain phenomena which are spread over a period of years and which, without the aid of the cinematograph, we can know only in their different stages without being able to follow their development in its continuity. The cinematograph, therefore, acts on time, modifying the development of certain phenomena, which cannot be fixed by direct observation in consequence of the speed or slowness with which it takes place (Comandon). The two most important processes of the scientific cinematograph are based on these possibilities namely, the accelerated and slow motion reproduction of phenomena. Micro-cinematogra In the last few years. phy, Dynamic Aer through the work of ial Research and certaJn bioiog;stS) we the Cinema. L j j • have succeeded in combining the cinematograph with the microscope and the ultra-microscope, thus opening new and unsuspected possibilities for scientific research. Micro-cinematography and ultra-micro-cinematography are already beginning to give a valuable contribution to the growth of our cognitions. In the domain of biology, the cinema is the necessary complement of very many studies of living elements, because it enables us to analyse and synthetize and define the methods