British Kinematography (1947)

110 Our solution of this difficulty was to break up the film into episodes, inserting a short length of opaque film between the sections. The film was then used by the lecturer as he would normally use lantern slides ; as each section of film ended the projector would stop whilst the lecturer spoke, until, when he was ready for it the projector showed the next episode of the subject. We named these short lengths of film " animated lantern slides," and it is an interesting fact that at a recent meeting to discuss the use of 16 mm. film in medical teaching just such a method as we had planned and used twelve years earlier was put forward as the most effective way to use 16 mm. silent films for teaching. Titles and Credits When a surgical film has to be shown without a lecturer, titles are necessary. These titles should be explicit and each one should only deal with one statement. The long title which covers the various happenings in a length of film long before they happen is worse than useless. A multiplicity of titles may be bad motion picture technique, but it is certainly a good practice to adopt when necessary in a film which is designed to teach. Whilst on this matter of titles I should like to make another point. In the U.S.A. the practice has been established to submit all surgical films to the American College of Surgeons for approval and a special title is issued for use with each approved film. We used our influence to avoid a similar system in this country as we felt that a motion picture was a medium for expression in the same way as the written word, and if articles and books by medical men were not subject to approval by medical organisations there was no case for putting motion pictures under this form of control. It is, however, necessary for someone to accept responsibility for the ideas propounded in a medical film and wre have always insisted on a credit title giving the name of the medical man responsible for the production, and the place where the film was made. Occasionally a medical man will object to this because he thinks it savours of advertising ; when it is pointed out that his name is always printed at the head of any article he may publish and that a motion picture is but another form of publication, this opposition vanishes. Factual Treatment The treatment of a subject in its film form is also of interest, and here a distinction must be made between the teaching film and the propaganda film. The theatrical treatment with fades, flash-backs, dissolves, etc., is definitely wrong in a medical film. A teaching film to be effective for adults, must be factual and free from theatrical tricks or fanciful treatment. There are three ways in which surgical technique can be portrayed. It can be shown in direct photography or if parts are difficult of access, it can be shown by means of models, with or without the surgeon's hands. For extreme conditions where even models fail use can be made of the animator's art to demonstrate details. The Use of Colour This brings us to a consideration of the value of colour in surgical films. There are some who favour the use of colour for each and every medical film and there is a lot to be said for this point of view. It allows the photographer to use only one sensitive material in the operating theatre. For exposing Kodachrome Type A film, Photoflood lamps must be used. The fall-off in intensity and quality when a Photoflood lamp is used at a voltage below that marked on the lamp must be borne in mind. For example, a fifteen per cent, reduction in voltage results in nearly a fifty per cent.