Business screen magazine (1957)

> ' SS 9S SC ^ ^ ^ }$ The Sponsor: BELL TELEPHOITE Animated Sequences For FEANK CAPUA'S "SCIENCE SERIES". Completed -"Heme the Magnificent" In Production —"Cosmic Hays", "Weather" MIKE TODD Productions ,^^ Animated Epilogue For 40^ "Around the World in 80 Days " UHITED AUTISTS HIKE TODD Productions Animated Theatrical Trailer For "Around the World in 80 Days" IMPEHIAL OIL COMPAUY, LTD. Color Industrial Film For Esse of Canada sh«\rnus culhAnc productions, mc Animation Live INDUSTEIAL • THEATRICAL • TELEVISION • EDUCATIONAL NEW YORK, 207 E 37lh St., MU. 2-8234 • CHICAGO, 203 No, Wabash Ave, ANdover 3-4971 • HOLLYWOOD. 6226 Yucca St , Hollywood 28. HOIlywood 4-1128 S5' o •? 5? O O ^5 (CONTINUED FROM PACE 80) creative devices you want, and do tliis job for me on film", then he's v/ell started toward buying a really good motion picture. This same responsibility holds through research, scripting, shooting, editing. In each of these fields, the producer's skill, training. e,\perience and imagination are essential to the creation of a good motion picture. But they cannot produce a truly worthuhile film without a thorough knowledge of the subject; and the producer can't be expected to have this without access to the client's background, training and specialized experience, any more than the client can be expected to properly light a set. Because of the necessity for this intimate cooperation, it is characteristic of documentary films that their ultimate worth lies outside the direct control of the producer. He can control their technical aspects, he can contribute to their creative development, but their basic approach and scope is fundamentally governed by the aims and imagination of the men who commission the film and must approve its final form. In some cases, because of too much or too little interest on the part of the client, this is a restricting limitation on the picture's over-all quality. But when the client cooperates intelligently and imaginatively (and has a sound message truly worth telling), this is the catalyst that makes the sponsored film a moving and memorable means of communication. On Medical Film Production by Warren Sturgis RECENTLY, on a panel. I was asked to speak for three minutes on the particular problems encountered in the production of medical films. As one interested for many years in the whole field of medical education as well as the technical aspects of film-making. I summed up my answer, thereby indicating also what I consider to be the greatest need, in the presently overworked but trenchant words, good communications. From the day most of us started to write our first script, or to load our first roll of film, we have had thrown at us from the lectureplatform and from the printed page two priceless rules: understand the purpose of your film, and know what will be its audience. This is fine as far as it goes. But in dealing with the medical profession it is not enough merely to elicit these facts from the Technical Advisor or his Committee before starting to write a script or direct a film. If medicine itself has not been part of one's training, I feel it is a necessity to steep oneself in it. to acquire a feeling for the particular entity under consideration. One must know how doctors think, how they will react to the film, and therefore, how it can best be presented. But all this applies only to the learning process of the film-maker, and Communications can never be a one-way street. In dealing with the medical profession particularly, it is incumbent not only to understand and interpret their point of view, but also to teach. In fact, 1 would say that no successful film can result unless during production the Professional Advisor learns something of the lore as well as the details of film writing and production. Whether the film is on a purely technical procedure, or deals with health and human relations, or is a commercial "product film", it will achieve its goal only if a true understanding is developed on both sides, leading to a complete empathy between doctor and producer. As more knowledge of medical problems is gained by the producer, and a greater appreciation of film procedures is acquired by doctors, the output of good medical films will be increased, and as a result the public at large will be better served. 86 BUSINESS SCREEN MAGAZINE