British Kinematography (1950)

10 BRITISH KINEMATOGRAPHY Vol. 16, No. 1 3. Research films have been made to assist the research sections in their investigations. 4. One of the duties of the film section has been to keep in touch with the film world generally and arrange for the showing of films which are of special interest to any departments of the Institute. These are briefly the main film activities of the N.I.A.E., although a great deal can be said on each individual section. The Instructional Film Putting revolutionary ideas into the farmer's mind was a formidable undertaking. For generations the farming community had thought in terms of horses and simple horse-driven implements, and to educate the farmer to think on the lines o^ mechanisation as soon as humanly possible, was a task which made the machinery instructors look to all the available resources. The films which had been made to train the M.Is. were released for general use and more films were made. The first major decision which had to be faced was the old controversy of sound versus silent. The films were intended to be used as aids to a lecturer rather than self-explanatory lessons in themselves, and it was considered preferable to make the films silent so that the lecturer could alter the commentary to suit his particular audience. Agriculture above all subjects varies greatly according to localities ; the West Country farmer and his counterpart in, say, Durham or Northumberland have completely different names for the same implement, and it was a great help for the Instructor to speak to the farmer in his own local terms. This was particularly useful, in fact essential, in some of the more remote parts of Scotland and Wales. The instructor's work was not limited to showing films, he had to be an all-round man capable of doing lecturing and demonstration work in the field, and the fact that he could commentate on his films helped to give the farmer confidence in his ability, and was always much more conducive to discussion than sound film would have been. Although the training course which these instructors underwent was devoted primarily to a study of farm machinery, the film was considered such an important part of their equipment that the course always included special instruction in the use, care and maintenance of films and projectors. Films were shown under all manner of conditions. Many of the areas served were miles from electric mains and so battery projectors had to be used. Ingenious back-projection units were devised, some of them mobile, others constructed inside marquees at agricultural shows. Special Techniques Most of the films dealt with straightforward field activities and techniques, such as the correct way to set a tractor plough, or the use and maintenance of a combine harvester — an expensive machine which was a new project to the majority of farmers and needed carefully explaining before the best results could be obtained. Some films, however, required special techniques. One example of this was the film " Systematic Ploughing " which demonstrated the way of setting out and ploughing a field, using the minimum amount of time and fuel — the latter consideration being of the utmost importance during the war. To film a tractor ploughing a 3-acre plot would take a day to demonstrate on the screen, and so it was decided to make use of the timelapse technique to speed up the whole operation. This meant that the tractor which normally runs at about 2 or 3 m.p.h. was filmed at 1 frame per second, and appeared to move round the field at about 40 or 50 m.p.h. The result was that a full day's ploughing was shown to the audience in 30 minutes, and, although the first impression was rather comical, the audience soon settled down