Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 11, 1946)

Page 22 Canadian FILM WEEKLY December ax, 1946 Canada Needs Fiim Courses HILE courses in screen writing and production ¥ technique are becoming common among USA educational institutions and British producers have organized a school for film scripting, Canada is still to have its first. This is a rather peculiar situation, for film production in Canada by native enterprises and American companies on location now runs into millions of dollars yearly and will blossom into a great industry within the next decade. Large sums of money are being invested in Canadian theatrical and hon-theatrical production every month now and major expenditures are being made for the construction of additional studios in Toronto and Montreal. Yet the motion picture production industry is probably the only field of endeavor in the Dominion for which no type of institutional schooling exists. It is unique and amazing that academic and technical training organizations should not be playing a part in bringing to Canada a great new native industry and language. Canadian film men today are learning their craft right in the studios from those who learned theirs in the same way. British and American film makers were brought in in the past to help carry on the struggling film industry in this country and USA producers in Canada for location shooting bring their own technicians. For the shooting of “Bush Pilot” American technicians were imported to assist Canadians. There are film courses in Los Angeles universities and last year a Cleveland technical school set up a course in non-theatrical screen writing. VOCALITE SCREENS Five times more sound permeability. One-third more light. Vocalite Sound Screen is the result of a series of intensive and costly experiments which have resulted in the production of the finest sound screen made. Flexible plastic coated, flameproof. PERICINS COMPANY LIMITED 977 VICTORIA STREET 2027 BLLURY STREST TOPONTO MONTABAL USA and Great Britain Train Film Craftsmen but None Are Planned Here New York Course Heightened interest is being shown all over the world in the Institute of Film Techniques at City College in New York, which began its fifth year recently. More than 350 men and women are expected to take the 15 weeks of night classes. Specializing in documentary films, the institute has already trained more than 1,500 students, both amateur and professional, many of whom now hold important posts with government and private film-producing agencies. Many of those attending this year v.ill have daytime jobs in the industry or in other occupations while attending the evening sessions. Students are expected from India, Arabia, Greece, South Africa, Iceland, Switzerland, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, many of thém sponsored by their governments. Canada is also expected to be represented as there is no institution in the Dominion which has a course of this kind. At present, the departments of the government and private firms that are engaged in this type of work are forced ‘to train their Own men while they work. Hans Richter, director of the institute, predicted that within a few years there would be dozens of institutes patterned after the one at City College. In declaring the aims of the course, he said that the institute attempts to awaken its students to an awareness of responsibility “since, in a sense, no matter what they film as a “weapon for undersocial influence.’”?’ He added that he looked on the documentary film as a “weapon for understanding which must be used intelligently and without fear to spread information and to clarify issues.” Each week of the 15 is devoted to a separate course, the first of which is a lecture class. The following 14 courses are practical work-room classes whether for beginners or professionals. In the curriculum are subjects such as films in the classroom, motion picture writing, editing, photography and directing. The British School A novel venture which bears out the spirit of enterprise and intellectual awareness felt amonp United Kingdom film makers is now being launched by a group of four companies. They have in-~ augurated a new training scheme for young screen writers to gei the chance of learning their ar{ under expert supervision, experience and advice. A course is being organized at Pinewood Studios, near London, considered to be among the most! modern up to date studios in the world. It will take no less than three years for a student to absorb the full course. A selection of new talent in the case of film actors and actresses has been comparatively easy for the film industry and their most successful method of setting about it is still the traditional way of talent scouting throughout the theatres of the country. In a similar way the film industry all over the world has always been able to revert to stage designers, musicians, painters, architects, etc., for recruiting new blood into the ranks of directors, art directors, film musicians, and other technicians who form the production unit as a whole. Things are altogether different in the realm of screenwriting. And yet here lies what is probably the most important problem of the progress of the cinema as an art. After all, a film is as good or as bad as its scenario. For the scenario is nothing else than the score which the orchestra, in this case consisting of artists and technicians, with a director in place of the conductor, transforms into visual and aural reality. It seems all the more surprising that so far next to nothing has been done to explore methodically and to foster specific talent among young writers possessed with enthusiasm and a feeling for the film as their natural means of expression. The training scheme, therefore, appears as a turning point in the history of film writing. How should a potential Shakespeare of the cinema ever find his chance of self-realization when this basic, all-important point is more or less left to haphazard circumstances as and when they arise? For there are innumerable pre-requisites and technicalities unknown to the novelist or even the dramatist, which have first to be mastered if you desire to express your visions and ideas through the me dium of the film. It is therefore an invaluable advantage for students that the first year of their training at Pinewood Studios will be devoted to coming into intimate contact with the various technical departments of the studio. The film is not the work of one brain or one pair of hands but a collective effort of many brains and many pairs of hands, each highly skilled in their respective crafts. It is essential that from the outset the screen writer should become thoroughly acquainted with the intricacies of the individual factors; lighting, cutting, editing, camera work, sound recording, etc., which constitute the final materialization of his script into terms of cinema. Once these basic points have been mastered, trainees will for the rest, of course, be teamed as juniors to experienced screen writers. They will learn about the construction of scenario from its initial phase as a synopsis to the final shooting of the script. They are fortunate in that the four production units concerned in the scheme rank among the finest in the world. They are Archers, Cineguild, Wessex and Individual Pictures. But the names of personalities mean more than the mere names of companies. The students will have the advantage of having as their tutors such well-known and accomplished masters as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, responsible for films like ‘49th Parallel’ and “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” “One of our Aircraft is Missing,” “I Know Where I’m Going” and “A Matter of Life and Death”; “Anthony HavelockAllen, David Lean and Ronald Neame who made “Blithe Spirit,” “In Which We Serve,” “This Happy Breed,” “Brief Encounter” and “Great Expectations”; “Frank Leunder and Sidney Gilliat who distinguished themselves in productions like . “Millions Like Us,” “The Notorious Gentleman” and “I See a Dark Stranger.” It is a characteristic feature that almost all these men began their brilliant film careers with script writing and up to the present day still: continue the practice of working out their Own scenarios. Obviously the selection of candidates whose gifts justify their admission to the course’ has to be carried out most carefully. At the present stage a first group of five trainees has been chosen. Their names, so far, are secret, but it has leaked (Continued on Page 23)