Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

REEL and SLIDE 19 WITH THE REEL OBSERVER By Henry MacMahon (Special Correspondence Reel and Slide) NEW YORK.— The institutional film is coming into greater prominence and to a larger degree will replace the propaganda film of the war period. Church and charity and every institution for the propagation of knowledge are "prospects" for the film maker, and potential sources of interesting pictures for the consumer. One of the most noteworthy of the new projects is shared by the Junior Red Cross and the National AntiTuberculosis Association. The project calls for a Health Crusade picture to reinforce the "national tournament" for the better observance of health rules by children, the prospective "audience" being the 10,000,000 children of the country, together with their parents and relatives. When the film shall be completed and shown, it will be backed by the local Red Cross chapters and the local health associations in all the cities and towns where it is offered for booking. Some idea of the new movement for "Better Films" may be gained by an inside view of the forces at work. Not only are the health bodies busy, but the Y. M. C. A. and other kindred institutions are on the firing line also. For example, Dr. John R. Mott has written a letter to no less than twelve hundred Y. M. C. A. secretaries, telling them to help put over Director Herbert E. Hancock's two-reeler, "Bringing the Boys Back Home." The latter is a shipbuilding film with an intimate picture of the Y. M. C. A. activities in aid of the workers who are making Uncle Sam's marine transports at Hog Island. Both the above pictures are intended for the so-called amusement theaters. The special point is this : The institution isn't merely content to have it made, but backs the booking by creating spectator-demand for it everywhere. It offers the theater manager assured patronage for that particular picture, adding its own exploitation to the purely commercial exploitation. Here is a new wrinkle, and a good one. The alert manager is out to please his patrons. When any considerable body of them say that they will support a certain picture, he will book it and boom it, provided that it is available at a nearby exchange. Both the health societies and the Y. M. C. A., therefore, are going in for the regular channels of distribution. For example, "Bringing the Boys Back Home" is ready at Educational Films Corporation exchanges January 31. FILMS of general interest and entertaining quality will never have any difficulty about getting into the amusement theaters. Makers of industrials and institutionals should realize that human interest comes first — not last — on the list of specifications. Exhibitors and spectators are wary (as it is inevitable that they should be) of sermons or ad-talks or mere catalogue-information ; if there isn't a live, fascinating dramatic message to be conveyed, far better use the mailing list and the traveling salesmen. Film mention once or twice of the concern that is offering the message is amply sufficient. The best industrial vehicles fall into two classes: (1) straight educationals; (2) fiction stories. The nature of the material governs the manner of telling. If the processes of production are themselves highly spectacular and interesting, there's no need of fiction camouflage. The fiction story, on the other hand, is supreme in driving home the importance of little things and visualizing the relation of the customer to the product. In a broad way it may be stated that Big Business best conveys its message by educational, and luxury-business by fiction story. PHYSICAL geography is the first subject for "film textbook" assembly by George A. Skinner, Carl H. Carson and the other gentlemen who are working out a plan of visual education. The reasons for the choice are obvious. Not only does that science lend itself extraordinarily to pictorial teaching, but much of the footage is already made or reasonably attainable. The completed "textbook" will combine titles, straight pictures and diagrammatic drawings, and it will follow in a general way the standard syllabi of the schools and colleges. The promoters wisely do not intend to offer this as a substitute for the printed schoolbook, nor do they claim that it will ever supersede learning-by-print. Rather their aim is to gather in compact form all the physical geography that can be pictorially conveyed, and to offer it in whole or in part for the use of schools in need of such auxiliary help. The next study to be pictorialized will undoubtedly be natural history. The first one is an eight months' job; the physical geography now in progress will hardly he finished before the opening of the next school year. While, therefore, the promoters are grateful for teachers' suggestions, they will not be in a position to meet school demands for a good many months to come. Those who are interested in the project can communicate with Carl H. Carson at the Educational's offices, 729 Seventh avenue, New York City. THERE will always be room for big, vital stories like William Nigh's "The Fighting Roosevelts" or John A. Barry's "The Exile," which he has just brought on from the Pacific Coast. The idealist hoping for picture reconstruction cannot but be gratified that these two themes loom so large. The first-named deals with America's greatest figure since the Civil War era, while the theme of "The Exile" is founded on the part played by Carl Schurz in the Revolution of 1848. California Council of Education Advocates State Aid for University Film Work A measure providing for a system of visual education, which was introduced in the Legislature in 1915, was passed by both the Assembly and the Senate, but was not signed by the Governor. In the 1917 session of the Legislature two bills were introduced— A. B. No. S03, authorizing the State Board to establish a system of visual instruction, and A. B. No. 505, appropriating $33,000 for carrying out the provisions of No. 503. These bills were favorably reported by the Committee on Education, but finally died on the calendar of the Committee on Ways and Means, the members of which felt that the war conditions made it inadvisable to undertake the establishment of new work at that ti«ne. Throughout our state many cities are providing stereopticons and moving-picture machines, but everywhere the great obstacle in the way of success and the best results is the fact that much of the so-called educational picture material offered to the schools by commercial concerns is of inferior quality, because it is often not true to facts, is not planned to correlate with the work of the curriculum and does not measure up to the standards of public school work. The schools need assistance in securing and preparing material that is adapted to the aims, methods and ideals of modern education. Up to the present time the visual education department of the University Extension Division of the University of California has been most instrumental in meeting the needs of the schools. Weekly service of moving pictures, films, slides and exhibits has been made available to all the schools of the state. The Committee on Visual Education of the Council of Education are of the opinion that we will serve the schools best by urging the State Legislature to give more adequate support to the University Extension Division, in order that the service to the schools may be further increased. Respectfully submittted, A. E. Wison, Chairman. (From the report of joint conference of California Council of Education, State Board of Education and Commissioners, and Committee of 21 on Reorganization, held at Los Angeles, December 6-7, 1918.) A moving-picture machine will be installed in the Presbyterian Church, Salem, Ohio, in the very near future. It will be used in picturizing the Sunday school lessons and also as a means of entertainment in church affairs and social gatherings.