Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

12 TV and the AMATEUR The producer of "Reel Adventures," a television program of amateur movies, reports his findings DAVID O. TAYLOR, Station WGN-TV, Chicago A PROGRAM of amateur movies entitled Reel Adventures was carried on WGN-TV, in Chicago, for six months last year. This article is an outline of some of the problems that were encountered, some of the things that were learned and an appraisal of the possibilities for amateur movies on television. My first problem as the producer of Reel Adventures was to discover what films were available, who had made them, and how they could be seen. In approaching this, it soon became apparent that there was one man in Chicago who knew more amateur filmers than anyone else. This was Dr. C. Enion Smith, FACL, president of the Associated Amateur Cinema Clubs and a founding officer of the Metro Movie Club of River Park, ACL. He paved the way by introducing me at various cinema clubs and by indicating which cameramen were doing outstanding work. FIRST IMPRESSIONS My first and still outstanding impression of amateur movies was that their producers were trying to run before they had learned to walk. Not technically, I hasten to add; for the general level of amateur camera work I found to be acceptably and surprisingly high. But I found also that personal movie makers get so intrigued with the mechanics of taking pictures that the^f^jget to say anything in the process. Their ambition in Snaking each new picture is to capture and hold an audience. But not one in a hundred stops to ask himself, before he starts a film: "What do I know best that can be said in moving pictures?" Thus, I cannot stress too strongly my belief that the secret of success in film making — as with many other endeavors — is to know your subject. This point was made succinctly yet powerfully in Movie Makers review last September of the Disney picture Water Birds. And I can assure all amateurs that what holds true for the theatrical entertainment screen holds equally true for television. It makes no difference whether your subject be birds, bugs or your own backyard. You must know more about it than your audience if you will hold their interest. NATURE FILMS EXCEL Proof positive of this theory was supplied by two outstanding nature studies shown on the Reel Adventures program. These were Honey Harvest, a documentary of bee culture by William W. Vincent, FACL, of Kenosha, Wise, and The Monarch Butterfly, a life study of this insect by Leon F. Urbain, ACL, of Chicago. Of the two, the butterfly film was unquestionably the finest piece of amateur movie making seen on our program. For Urbain was an authority on the monarch and what he presented was a sequential and authoritative story which held the spectators' interest from beginning to end. DAVID O. TAYLOR, at right, producer of Reel Adventures, welcomes Edwin Dahlquist, ACL, to program. YOUR OWN BACKYARD Quite a different, but almost equally effective, example of knowing your subject was found in Historic Chicago, by Alice Stiger. A first prize winner in Reel Adventure's initial series, her picture was a simple but satisfying study of the changing face of a great city. There were some bits of old times and old timers, and woven in with them were the people and their practices of current Chicago. Such a documentary carried over several years will improve with age. The value of its showing will increase as time goes on. While not every amateur may become the authoritative naturalist, he can easily become an authority on his own home town — and record it in pictures for posterity. THE FAMILY FILM The family album idea was presented by several; but no one of these films was outstanding. They included Christmas parties, a trip to the farm, a boy and his dog and neighborhood news flashes. Our impression, however, was that amateur photographers have failed to uncover the opportunity that is latent in everyday American family life. Our American way of life is the boast of the whole world, yet no one makes a record of it as it really is. There is beauty there, and there is romance of an enduring kind. Let some imaginative amateur dare to outdo Sinclair Lewis and make the commonplace vivid by showing its true worth! HALF-HEARTED HOBBIES Many put hobbies into their films, but they did not carry them through from beginning to end. If hobbies are the "escape mechanism of thwarted men," let the movie show how the escape works. If hobbies are a "tie between members of the family," let that story be told but let it be factual and honest. These are approaches that would be acceptable on television, and they lend themselves to amateur photography. But so far no film, either amateur or professional, was observed that did a good job on hobbies. THE TRAVEL FILM The majority of films shown on Reel Adventures were travelogs, with scenery predominant and only occasionally with bits of good action. Also, most of the photographers traveled the same route. So that after seeing one picture of, say, Mexico you knew what to expect in all the others. While their quality varied greatly, their subject matter coverage varied little. Further, [Continued on page 22]