Documentary News Letter (1940)

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DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER MAY 1940 Opfei Willi ereal oday not laieii ccompaniment to certain films on a portable gramophone, nd this was definitely appreciated. I have already stated that each operator carried eight to ten els of film. From this number a judicious selection of from ,ve to eight reels was made to suit the needs of the moment, the ;ngth and nature of a show being governed mainly by the age nd "capacity" of the audience. A typical day's work would onsist of a forenoon and an afternoon show on the lines idicated with an occasional evening show for adults where lese could conveniently be organised. For these, the proramme was generally augmented by the inclusion of a feature Im like Grass or Mount Everest Expedition. These shows were reatly appreciated and would doubtless have developed apidly had the scheme continued. The original purpose of the scheme, which was to bring to vacuated children their favourite medium of entertainment, ps more than amply fulfilled. I know that operators everywhere were given an enthusiastic reception, and it is not unjust 3 claim that many children were heartened and deterred from ^turning home by the promise of a regular visit. All the jachers were unanimous that the shows helped the evacuees feel more at home in their new environment. They helped to reak down the barrier of strangeness between city and local ul^r* liildren by providing an experience which both could share. irep^ ut beyond this there is no doubt at all that the scheme has done an incalculable service to the educational film movement. Possibilities were revealed to many teachers for the first tim2, and the use of battery projectors where electric power was not available meant that no teacher, however remote, was denied this revelation. One headmaster became so enthusiastic that hs collected some £50 in little more than a week and equipped his school with a complete outfit. I know others who were imbued with the same ideal. My final circuit included 28 schools in Stirlingshire and southern Perthshire and represented three weeks' work — work which it gives me great pleasure to recall. I was only one of some 20 units operating each week in various parts of Scotland. Altogether 1,484 shows were given, of which 609 were given on battery-driven projectors. The total audience was 152,549. The average cost of a show was 15^. Id. I finish with this statement of a country head teacher's view, from another operator's report which is quoted in the final report issued by the Scottish Film Council. "The town children who are evacuees are deriving educational benefits from their stay in the country. Why should not we — country teachers and pupils — obtain some of the advantages of city life? And since we cannot take the country children into the town for a period of schooling, the next best thing is to bring some of these advantages into the country districts. Chief among these I should place the showing of films." 'sm ith. iki tssosi atonei iteadf SCIENTIFIC FILMS HAS BECOME almost a tradition in Great Britain for teachers asanaBnd scientists to make film records of their experiments on 5 mm. Every laboratory and every classroom seems to have a Im enthusiast, and the films are used to amplify a lecturer's saching notes or to record experiments. Owing perhaps to pense one rarely sees an attempt to give the subjects a wider ieoni'i ontext. Nevertheless, if one added together all these efforts ■Jm\ 'om the University of Aberdeen to the Mining School of J»ere( Ledruth, the body of scientific information collectively repremted by the films would be a very considerable one. There novtiw 'ould be records of operations, records of experiments, de■ city an lonstrations of behaviour of animals. There are films to show iheyoii tiat the movements of certain eels take the form of simple ^pedesii armonic motion. There are pictures of a dog's heart beating, llavei fcken by X-ray film. There are records of the exploration of ;Liiii,/'Jfl le cortex of a monkey's brain. j[\'popiil i Considering the number of such films which must exist it is );snti i-eatly to be regretted that no attempt has ever been made to ,j(io»f bcord, let alone preserve them. Though many of the i^fS bv !lms are of wide general interest, the maker often does not jver\3 other to distribute them, or more often does not know how to .^[looiii pt about it. He uses his films to show to his own colleagues, ^ (0 pd to help him in teaching his students. No one in the outside I 'orld hears of them. Many are made on "reversal" stock which leans usually that only one copy is made and thrown away hen it has worn out. 11 The scientific film effort of Great Britain is largely wasted i'^om lack of initiative, lack of interest and lack of knowledge. he only committee seriously concerned with the scientific If qmO film is that maintained by the Association of Scientific Workers. This is a voluntary group which is already doing work of the greatest value in connection with films made under the auspices of science and industry and intended for distribution.. But the fact that this Committee is a voluntary one and commands very slight funds makes it impossible for it to undertake the far more elaborate job of classifying, collecting and preserving the films made privately in Universities and laboratories. Yet the finance required would not be very great. A fulltime secretary with a travelling allowance and a fund for printing would probably be sufficient. Once the films were assembled and catalogued no doubt some organisation such as the British Empire Film Library would undertake the machinery of distribution. £1,500 to £2,000 a year would see the job through, and this would be a relatively small sum to set against the enormous benefit which scientific education would gain. One other factor must be considered. Since the films of which we are speaking are often made for private use, technical quahties in their assembly often leave something to be desired. A research worker will only photograph the key aspect of his experiments. A teacher will co.nfine the film only to those points which need direct pictorial illustration. No one can complain of this at present, since such films adequately meet the restricted use required of them. If an organisation for the classifying and circulation of such films were set up, there is no doubt that scientific workers and teachers would be willing to take the additional shots and make the additional titles necessary to make their films self-contained and of use to all.