Business screen magazine (1946)

"Wc grew into the large monster you now sec and. of course, wc became tops in diKumcntary filmmaking. We have been making anything that it is audio-visually possible to make: covering drama, TV, education, animation, etc. And we have been winning an average of about 70 awards per year across the world. ■■\\e have tried to innovate and ex|X'riment — in a way no private producer would be able to. Now there is a private film industry in Canada — which again has been helped by Ottawa who have set up a lending money agency — and the Film Board is no longer the only film company in this country." The afternoon sessions at the Film Board were most enlightening as five separate presentations took the lAVA group into recent experiments in Canada using \idco playback ■'recording gear and the use of cable television; computer-controlled animation; application of still imagery in documentary and exhibition formats; and a very frank analysis of the future of EVR and lelc-playcr equipment. Noted NFB producer Colin Low took time from his busy scheduleto head a panel discussion of tlic video recorder/playback experiments on cable t.v. which began in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia under the working title of "Challenge for Change." This experiment brings telecasting techniques down to the community and inter-conimunitv level as cconomicallv distressed areas of Canada achieved free expression through candid use of small video recorders and their subsequent appearance on local channels via cable. The program continues and appears to have achieved real goals of better understanding in these early aspects. Readers of BrsiNF.ss Screen have already been told of the potential of the computer-controlled animation stand. The Film Board has taken this equipment into new areas of presentation. Animation chief John Pley cited and showed, as an example, Sidney Goldsmith's educational film. Fields of Sparc, created with this equipment. In the late afternoon, as an extremely pleasant "au rcvoir" to lAVA, members were guests of the Film Board at a cocktail reception in its Board room and met Mr. Sydney Newman, Commissioner of I he NFB. In a semi-private talk with Mr. Newman, your correspondent learned that a very sound reason for the Film Board's survival through annual budgetary reviews at Ottawa lies in its self-sustaining operation. In recent years, revenues from services, film sales and rentals have been sufficient to meet its total costs in Canada and abroad. That, of itself, is a real achievement as the visitor glimpses new construction and a payroll into the hundreds. As Commissioner Newman recently asked: "what is the price of membership to belong to this family?" And he has replied: "film-makers, like other artists in a st)cial milieu, respect their role of being leaders of public opinion. In the Film Board they accept the further fact that there is no way of separating the freedom they enjoy from the Board's right to determine its own policies and work practices. Tin's /.v ilic adult /iiiviledge of responsihiliiy, oj the price of membership in tlie Film Hoard." Ott Coelln, center, Business Screen founder, discusses meeting activities with lAVA group in Ottawa. Two comfortable buses, replete with box lunches, took lAVA members off to Canada's capital: Ottawa on Thursday, May 6th. Greeted at the studio doors of Crawley Films I.imiled in that city immediately after lunch enroute, they saw and heard the "private enterprise" side of Canada's film story. For nearly three decades since "Budge" Crawley ami his wife brought the world the beautiful images of The Loon's Necklace, Crawleys has gone it on its own. And its film output has covered nearly every coniinent in location and sponsorship; servetl nearly every leading sponsor and agency in Canada many in the U.S. Today, as Crawley vice-presii Graeme Fraser told the group, film company has complete in-h facilities for every phase of making, storyboard and origi writing/research through final l| oratory processing under its control of ultimate screening pri .Members and their wives touj both new and older studio faciliti visited the laboratory, artists' stui and animation rooms. Stage fm ties formerly at the Fairmont enue headquarters have now enlarged and occupy special bui ings some distance from this ba: It was our special pleasure renew a long acquaintance Graeme Fraser and other friei at Crawley Films, to recall through our many years of revii ing and association in industry matters, we have never seen a "b; picture turned out by this compa How useful were these first tri international sessions of I.AV.A Montreal? A first, basic contribut of such gatherings of men who h everyday responsibilities for conmiunication in many of the corporations is the opportunity inter-personal exchange on simi problems, results achieved on tei niqucs and tools. That phase al would serve most of the men w| attended with real benefit. At Montreal, Jim Damon's wi arranged program moved ale swifily and often reached new hi points ol infiirmation and inspi lion: showing how much the sa are the problems and interests Canadians and how the\ are forgii ahead uilh audiovisuals. .Xnother high point was the "m member" intrcxiuctions, which quire these candidates to "prixhic an audiovisual rcptirt on their i ternal activities. And for us and our readers pass along Gerry Graham's well-p "law" for every audiovisual co municator: "Never enter a new area of led nology unless you can .M'DIT t consequences." Think about that relation to the many new tools n being offered for projecting audii visuals. And think about anoth jirecepl: "what you use to proji the message is l.(H)() limes less ii IKirtanI than what you have to pi ject." 22 BUSINESS SCREE