Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER <>l conditions to exist at all. We cannot expect all at once to have brand new high class machines issued all round, but there are certain elementary precautions which could be taken to see that the show gets half a chance. But nobodyseems to care That is what seems to me to be so terribly wrong with the whole business. Nobody cares. They say they do. They give pep talks about the enormous social importance of the shows they organize. They haver about the hundreds o! thousands of people who see the light of modern social progress through the medium of the nontheatrical cinema. But they don't seem to have the nous to employ a technically efficient department which could give this cinema the chance it deserves. Get the films out in sufficient numbers. See that the copies go to the regions on time. Drag bored people out of the wet into the \ iilage hall. Then we've all done our duty. It doesn't matter whether anv one has the faintest idea what the film is all about. The attendance figures look good on paper. But this is all assuming that the studio has done its work well, and that a good print has managed to tiller through. What happens when the studio has filled the track up with impossibly broad dialect, with a music background so heavy that even on standard projection the dialogue is hard to follow? Or when the laboratory has produced an almost black sound track with the track area well out of alignment'.' What happens? Well, just you wander along to the next C.O.I, show in your nearest village. You'll see the vicar and his wife, three labourers who have come in because the local's out of beer, two couples taking advantage of the darkness, and half a dozen children. That's what we're making films for. I know that when two or three are gathered together . . . and so on. But is it really worth while? GRAPHICS IN CANADA by GRAHAM McINNES Co-ordinator of Graphics Division — National Film Board of Canada wim i the spearhead of any educational or informational him project remains the sound film, its value both to sponsor and producer — to say nothing of audience -can be greatly enhanced by its considered correlation with other visual media. This at least is the conclusion we have reached in Canada; and if the fact that the National Film Board is equipped to produce all the visual media, more or less under one roof, has had a bearing on that conclusion, the need lor well-rounded exposition first showed itself in the field : in the grass roots. As growing sponsorship by Government departments brought with it a need of guaranteed and specialized distribution, there also arose a demand for a wider and more lasting presentation than was possible through the film alone. The key to the fulfilment of this demand lay with the establishment of a Graphics Division and the setting up of a Liaison Department. Both sections were set up under Grierson's regime, but their function and scope have been greatly enlarged and geared more closely to the film programme by his successor, Ross McLean. It is now the duty of each member of the Liaison Department to become an expert both on the needs of a group of government departments and on the various visual media which the Film Board can produce. As the Board is partially dependent upon sponsorship for its operating costs, the task of the Liaison Officer FILMS OF GREAT BRITAIN LTD & SCRIPTURAL PRODUCTIONS Under the Direction of ANDREW BUCHANAN //•»,,/ Offices PARK STUDIOS, PUTNEY PARK LANE, S.W.15 Putney 6274/4052 red Offire CLIFFORDS INN, E.C.4 Cult I /!_' KOOIIU 86 WARDOLR STREET. W.l Holborn L855 Gerrard 8519 takes t)ii at times a poignant urgency. He must maintain the closest contact with Ins opposite number in agriculture or national health, and with the producers concerned ; and the midwife's cares weigh heavily upon his shoulders. On to his desk come all the producer's troubles, yet he docs not at any time come between the producer and the sponsor when direct contact is necessary. In a sense, however, he protects both producer and sponsor from arbitrary claims advanced by either side, and is responsible for all the contact work which might otherwise occupy the unit manager. 1 1 is also through him, as often as not, that the various film and non-film producers are brought together with the sponsor round a table and matters of media thrashed out. The Graphics Division of the Board is equipped to produce still pictures, film strips and slides, displays and small exhibitions, wall-sheets, posters, photogelatine sheets, maps, charts and certain publications. The task of convincing a sponsor that what he needs is not 'a film' or 'maybe a small paper display', but a considered combination of possibly several media, falls initially to the Liaison Officer. But he in turn is greatly assisted by co-ordination between the various production units. Though this often means committee meetings and memoranda in quintuplicate rather than the careless rapture of ad hoc production, it also means that the individual producer, while holding prime allegiance to his own medium, sees the informational programmes and problems of the Board as a whole. A film producer, in a conference, is just as apt to suggest a filmstrip or a wallsheet as a display producer is likely to suggest a film. Thus we all take in each other's washing and the result is that the sponsor can be assured of his message receiving wide and continual attention, and is, in the long run, more likely to avail himself of the Board's services. There is the further point that, no matter how many media he may wish to use. he is dealing with a single organization and, except during production, often with a single man — the Liaison Officer. Such an arrangement has naturally led us in the direction of the visual unit, and our first pilot model, produced for classroom use with the advice of the 1 ilms Committee of the Canada and Newfoundland Education Association, is now being tested in Canadian schools. The theme 1 he Policeman' and the unit consists . one-reel sound film, a half-reel silent film, a film strip in colour and four wall-sheets It has been designed to appeal to schoolchildren between the ages of six and nine dnd. if successful, will be followed by others. Another venture, sponsored by the Polymer i Crown* companv producing synthetic rubber consists of a film, stills cover oi the processes involved, a travelling display, newsreel coverage, a booklet . . . and a (. hristmas card. In the past ve.it of consolidation, which has involved a certain amount of shortening sail, we have found that nearh all is grist that comes to the \l M mill l urther, the sponsor finds that, unlike the mills of God. we grind them out pn 1 Stale-owned.