Business screen magazine (1938)

«<fTjfekFIL BUSINESS IMPROVES ITS EDUCATIONAL FILMS BY ARCH A. MERCEY School of Ptihlic Affairs. American University • Business is going to increase its use of motion pictures. Many of the new films will be used in schools. Education is growing increasingly critical of industrial films. The problem: How can business make films which the schools will accept.' Educators have long used industrial films because few others of merit were readily available. The indifference with which many of these films were made and distributed did little to elevate the standards of this type motion picture. While progress has been rapid in many fields of education, one must reluctantly report that as far as motion pictures are concerned educators are in the main back in the horse and buggy age. Only a few glimpses of light dot an otherwise dark horizon.** Too often educators have lacked understanding, appreciation, and discrimination in the use of visual aids. Many teachers are wholly unconscious of the usefulness of new picture techniques in a rapidly advancing society. A few leading educators are concentrating on the new problems presented by advances in visual education. A primary task of teachers is that of properly evaluating the place of the industrial film in the school. Business may soon expect schools to cease being the distribution pushover for any type of film it makes. With new demands, new standards, and an exacting attitude on the part of educators, can industry expect to obtain distribution among the schools at all? The answer: a conditional "yes." The problem might be restated thus: business is going to increase its use of movies *• It rfriiiiliH'd for one not in education to make two oulstandinK contemporary contributions to the educational screen: Pare Lorentz's The Plow Thtt Broke The Plain) and The River wliicli recently won the 193H award as the l>est of 71 of the world's ouLstandiiiK documentaries in the Venice Exposition. and education is going to become increasingly critical of the business film. Query: is there an irreconcilable conflict.'' Aside from much of the shallow ballyhoo which press agents write for trade association banquets about the "romance of business", the fact remains that industry has much to offer. In fact, business has a great deal more to offer than it has intelligently utilized in the past. We are living in an age of technological tcnuousness, mechanical miracles — a super-complex world of streamlined inventive genius. This world is a vastly exciting one. The million and one cogs making up the machine of business; the complex processes, methods and devices of modern life is a new frontier challenging the best of our film makers. Hollywood has not realized the tremendous possibilities inherent in the machine age. The Federal Government has been too busy with its problems of human and natural resources to tap the reservoir of machine age possibilities. Business, therefore, must portray its own thrilling story. But how can business tell that story which will meet the demands of the educator? Factors of Evaluation 1. The films must be factual and not philosophic. Education fears propaganda and business itself should be aware of internal conflicts which give rise to inter-industry propaganda. Propaganda in the past has kicked back on industry and there seems no reason to believe that history will not repeat itself in terms of new techniques. Moreover, the inter-industrial competition would seem to dictate an assiduous disregard of propaganda. For example, the brick man does not want his children to see films extolling the superiority of cement over brick or the cement maker does not want his youngsters seeing films that say brick or lumber is preferable to cement.* 2. The films must be exciting and entertaining.The old-fashioned "educational" is the epitome of dullness. Movies made their reputation by giving people entertainment and excitement in a new medium. Pupils can see Greta Garbo or Joan Crawford in a slick M-G-M production at the neighborhood theater for a quarter. They will not be satisfied with a dull substitute in movie form even if it is free and given in the name of education. The films for school must have craftsmanship and class; cheaper articles will not suffice. ,3. The films must articulate the jacts oj industry honestly. Research is becoming of greater importance in all phases of modern life; we therefore cannot tolerate industrial films which are made with the general authenticity of a publicity blurb. 4. Honesty in listing and announcement oj films is essential. Business has not tried to mislead exhibitors, but some of the available lists are incomplete. For example, some film bureaus often list films without disclosing the maker or the name of the interested group which has an axe to grind. Even educational institutions' film libraries have omitted complete information. It is conceivable that educators might be misled if they book somewhat blindly without knowing what particular brand of bias they are getting. 5. Industrial film makers might do well to organize a Council oj Review which will evaluate industrial films designed for schoolroom distribution. This council should include bona fide representatives of education, the consumer and business. Nor should the council be used as a rationalizing agency or a vehicle to give respectability to films which otherwise might not make the grade. This council might give a rating of industrial films ranging from AA (excellent production, entertaining and accurate, no propaganda) to E (poor production, dull, filled with interest-group propaganda) . Some Projects Suggested How, now, can some of these criteria be used in improving the business film to meet educational needs? Two types of films can be made: direct or instructional and indirect or institutional.* A General Motors film showing in detail the mechanics and operations of a diesel engine is direct while a documentary film on public housing made by U. S. Steel might be called institutional. What are some suggested films which might prove acceptable? The railroads might film the evolution of the