Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

January, 192 3 19 JIUKq SIGN ofthp Readers are invited to submit everyday questions for answer in this department. It is suggested that the queries be direct and specific — narrowed down to a single point — rather than questions of a broad, general character that do not easily lend themselves to treatment in the brief space here available. Address Question and Answer Editor, care of VISUAL EDUCATION. // a school or a church is planning to purchase a film for its own library, is it always possible to secure the print on non-inflammable film? — C. A. B., Detroit, Mich. It is possible to specify and insist upon non-inflammable stock where the buyer is dealing with the owner of the negative and the print is being made to his order. Many of the prints offered for sale, however, are old used prints, the majority of which are on inflammable film, and in many cases the negative is no longer available. No film intended for non-theatrical use should be printed on other than non-inflammable stock. Indeed, there are signs that make it appear likely that there is a time coming when even all our theatrical films will observe that rule. Public sentiment has brought about even more drastic improvements in manufacturing practice. What is the remedy for delays, disappointments and substitutions in the delivery of films ordered for school showingf — L. A. S., Columbus, Ohio. The best insurance against such disappointments is to specify first, second and third choice when the order is sent in to the exchange. Few distributors of non-theatrical pictures have as many copies of each listed film at their disposal as is the case with theatrical releases, and in addition their distribution schedules are seldom made up as far ahead as is the case in the commercial field. Therefore, it is frequently impossible to meet a short-notice call for some picture which is in active demand. Indicating a choice of subject saves everybody trouble, and eliminates the annoyance of having to write or wire to ascertain an acceptable substitution. Where there can be no alternative as to the film itself, the same result is achieved by indicating first, second and third choice as to date of showing. / understand that in some schools children are making their own stereopticon slides. Please give directions for this work. We could make good use of a bigger slide collection, but have no appropriation for adding to our library. — J. F., Atlanta, Ga. Ordinary window glass or old photographic plates are cut to standard slide size and then coated with a thin film of gelatin. This coating gives the glass a surface on which you can write or draw with crayon, ink or paint. A tablespoonful of ordinary cooking gelatin dissolved in a pint of boiling water will enable you to coat hundreds of slides. The glass can be laid over a picture in book or magazine and the design traced with ink or pencil. Cutouts from white paper pasted on the glass give very striking silhouette effects when the slide is projected on the screen; captions and additional art touches may be added with paint or India ink. See the interesting discussion and illustrations of such "home-made slides" which Dudley Grant Hays, Director of Visual Instruction in the Chicago Public Schools, contributed to the January, 1922, issue of this magazine. Our school wants to install a portable motion-picture machine, but has been told that the Board has exhausted its funds. What in your experience is the easiest and quickest way to raise money for such a purpose? — M. R. D., Rockford, 111. Judging from the experience of schools that have set themselves to earn a projector, the simplest and most dependable plan is to borrow either the full cost of the machine or the amount of a substantial initial payment from a school organization, the parent-teacher association, or some public-spirited citizen, and then use the projector to give a series of moving picture shows, charging a small admission fee. In that way it will quickly pay for itself. It is always a good plan to work up local enthusiasm over the idea of a classroom projector by inducing a few influential citizens to sponsor a preliminary visual education program. Once the members of the community realize all that school movies will mean to their children, they readily find ways to raise the necessary funds. There are many other plans, such as having pupils sell advertising slides, solicit magazine or newspaper subscriptions, or conduct money-making entertainments and projects of various sorts. See the January and February numbers of Visual Education (1922), which reported the means by which sixty different schools worked out the problem of securing a projector and other equipment. Films for All Tastes INTERESTING and emphatic are the views of Ellis Parker Butler, author of that delightful bit of fooling known as "Pigs Is Pigs," on the subject of creating motion pictures that shall win the stamp of public approval and avoid the pitfalls of criticism. "Books have been printed for five hundred years and written for thousands of years, and nobody but an utter idiot would expect every man, woman and child to like every book that is printed. Some will always like one kind, and some another The motion picture is merely a new mechanical method of telling a story that formerly had to be either spoken or printed. "Yet many seem to think the 'movies'' are hopeless and helpless because every picture produced does not please every man, woman and child that sees it. The thing desired by all appears to be some type of film that will suit every one who happens to enter a motion-picture theater. I can't agree with that view. . . "I do not know what the outcome will be in the case of pictures. It is probable that in time certain producers will make one kind of picture and be known as doing so, and another producer make only another kind and be known for making that kind. Each will have his own faithful audience. Then certainhouses will show one type of picture and another lot of houses will show another kind."