Documentary News Letter (1940)

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16 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER NOVEMBER 1940 THE FILM STRIP IN EDUCATION By W. E. TATE, Headmaster of Sneyd School, BURSLEM Thes oBe.^ mshf ran 01 I TAKE it that in accepting the editor's invitation to contribute to the Documentury News Letter a brief note upon the use of film strips in school work, I need hardly begin by defining the film strip. Perhaps it is sufficient here to say that it consists essentially of a series of say 20-70 lantern slide pictures with suitable text and captions printed, not like ordinary lantern slides upon glass, but upon a strip of cinema film. For educational use the film strip has in its cheapness and convenience enormous advantages over the oldfashioned lantern slide. I fancy too that, despite its modest cost and the simplicity of its use, it has some considerable advantages (though, of course, with many evident counter-availing disadvantages) over the cinema sound or silent film. For the cost of a couple of lantern slides one may purchase a film strip having five or six dozen still pictures. The storage of a reasonable stock of school lantern slides (say four or five thousand glass slides), requires a fair-sized cabinet, while film strips containing twice as many individual pictures (though costing only about a twelfth of the price), will go in a single foolscap filing drawer. Moreover slides have a knack of suff'ering badly both in use and in storage (the useful and interesting ones always seem to be getting broken, or having their cover glasses cracked), while, so far as my experience goes, film strips, if one takes even reasonable care of them, last quite as long as one can fairly expect. And when they do ultimately expire of old age and scratches, the cost of renewal is so modest that even a poor school like my own has no difficulty in replacing them. Probably the one of ours which will need such renewal first is Cinderella, and if, after giving the youngsters pleasure for five or six years, it costs us half a crown for replacement, we shall feel that we have had very good value for our money. In exhibition, too, the film strip is simplicity itself A ten-year-old youngster may safely be trusted with the lantern and its management. It just cant go wrong; there is no complicated mechanism to puzzle the amateur, and to introduce difficulties. As such an amateur, not at all mechanically minded, I have examined the inside working of our lantern. So far as I can see it consists simply of a light-tight box, a projection lens with a simple rack-and-pinion focussing adjustment, a lamp holder for a 10-watt bulb, with a couple of switches, and an adaptor to fit into the school lighting circuit through a suitable transformer. Inside the box are a couple of spindles to hold the reels of film strip, and these are worked by means of milled heads projecting through the side of the lantern. I should think that a wellequipped senior school, with a proper workshop, ought to be able to make a very useful lantern for a pound or thirty shillings. I find I have omitted to mention the greatest advantage of all of the film strip lantern compared with the miniature cinema, though, of course, one it shares with the old-fashioned lecture lantern. The picture appears upon the screen for just as long as the teacher and class want it there — a single second, or five minutes. If one wishes to refer during the lecturette to a picture already shown, one merely turns the milled heads backwards instead of forwards until the desired picture appears, then reverses the process and continues the display from where one has broken off. The reader who has had experience of asking his lanternist, without any preliminary warning, to go through his slides, and redisplay say one shown five or ten minutes before, will appreciate the convenience of this last-mentioned feature. Still another point, very important to those who are considering the use of optical aids in teaching, rather than of picture display as a sort of cross between teaching and entertainment, is that in using the film strip lantern one can make one's own commentary in accordance with the needs of the class ; and one is not faced with the alternative either of switching off a sound track (rather to the disappointment of one's audience), or of putting on a commentary which is perhaps largely irrelevant or which, when the same film is used for audiences of widely differing ages and capacities, must necessarily be over the heads of the backward classes, or beneath the capacities of the more advanced ones. Now for the practical details : Our lantern cost us less than £5 (we are a slum school, with very little money, and with little prospect of obtaining outside aid for the purchase of expensive gadgets). Had we bought it new it would have cost £7. 85. 6d., and other models are obtainable at prices ranging from £4. \Qs. to £16. 16i. Such lanterns are suitable for illustrating lectures to audiences up to but not much more than 200 or so. Since the wattage of the bulb is relatively low (and the lamps are correspondingly cheap), the room in which the lantern is used should be well sere* seatu old-C genei oar rooi I Scrit one I SllCCi of ft from tkef has have SIGHT AND SOUND O thev and face posii easy out type <^ o and hoi loo BOC pro< cine Sim arisi AUTUMN 1940 SIXPENCE