Educational film magazine; (19-)

RELIGIOUS SCIENTIFIC PURPOSE OF PICTURES IS TO PREACH By Rev. John A. McAfee Pastor Westminster Presbyterian Church, Topelta, Kansas THE church has a big work to do in the world of today and it is not only its right, but its duty, to use every legitimate means available to convey to the people its message. It must ever be the paramount purpose of the pulpit so to present the person and principles of the Master that men will accept Him as Saviour and follow Him as guide. Commercial interests have no more right to monopolize the motion picture than they have to monopolize the music or the spoken word. One is no more the devil's own than are the others. All are God's and men have no right to use them otherwise, than to the glory of God. We are trying to make motion pictures preach, and avowedly we are doing it as an experiment. If we cannot so make them we will quickly discontinue their use. Pictures are but one item in the evening service of the West- minster Presbyterian church, and that not the most important. The time allotted to them will be, as a rule, very brief. Rarely do we plan to use more than one or two reels. They will not be, except on occasions, the major portion of our service. Pictures are not a bait to draw people; nor are they an ad- junct or addenda to please or amuse. They are part of the ser- vice. Our machine, a simple one, is operated by young men of the church, who do the work cheerfully and with no thought of finan- cial remuneration. Our pictures are for a purpose; and that purpose is to preach. CHURCH INSTALLS $1,300 PROJECTION EQUIPMENT ANEW step in the religious progress of the city of CoffeyviUe, Kan- sas, was taken by the First Methodist church when Roy H. Clossen and Embree Morgan, on behalf of the church, went to Kansas City and purchased a 1922 model Simplex projector, with a view to lifting the usually prosy, disappointing church slide performances to the satis- fying plane of "the modern motion picture show. The International Church Film Corporation will supply the film service. The cost of the machine plus the expense of building a booth and installation approximated $1,300. There is no admission charge, but the cost of the films and incidental expenses of the service is covered by a collection taken up at the close of the service. Rev. Gordon Thompson, pastor of the church, laid particular stress on this point in commenting on the innovation. "If we come out even in meeting the actual expenses incurred in operating the service, we wiU be prefectly satisfied, for that is all that will be attempted," he declared. "MOVING PICTURES IN THE CHURCH" THIS little pamphlet by Rev. Roy L. Smith, pastor of Simpson Metho- dist Church, Minneapolis, Minn., presents in compact form practical suggestions on the use of films in various branches of church work. It is the result of Mr. Smith's personal experiences as a rf'hurch exhibitor, includes information on film-sources, material, and most important of all, reactions from spectator groups. The modus operandi of handling various contacted groups, neighboring theatrical exhibitors, various types of conscientious objectors, etc., is also discussed. Tlie financial side of church movies is not neglected, the earnestness of Mr. Smith's purpose being well epitomized: "Let tlie churcli go into the entertain- ment business for the sake of the service it can render and be satisfied wlien the actual cost of the service is met by the income." .Some of the material contained in this pamphlet has already appeared in a motion picture publication. In its present enlarged form, it will prove of definite value to the pastor and church worker interested in the serious use of motion pictures in the church. Uovinv PielvreM in the Church, 74 pagea. The Abincdon Press, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. HOW I FILMED THE SUN'S ECLIPSE By Neville Bruce ABOUT ten years ago there was an eclipse of the sun visible in Britain. A few days previously I had been given an Adon telephotolens. On the morning of the eclipse I de- cided to see what I could do with this lens, and although I had no opportunity of making a lest beforehand, I succeeded beyond: my most sanguine anticipations. I mounted the Adon on a cardf board panel and used it on a reflex camera at an extension of about 14 inches from the plate. I used a ten times yellow screeivi and process plates, and secured a series of photographs of eacMj eclipse with the shutter working at the 1/500 part of a second They were quickly developed and enlargements made while thi negatives were still wet, and three hours later the reproductioni were stretched across the middle page of an evening paper. A few days before the recent eclipse of the sun on April 8 my previous experiment led me to think that possibly the sami lens could be used on a kine. camera to take motion pictures o the event. Such a camera, however, is not adapted by the manu facturers for the fitting of very long lenses, and it was necessar therefore to adapt my apparatus to meet the case. My previouj experiment had given me an image of the sun about 1/2 inci diameter using the Dallmeyer Adon at about 14 inch extension This on a i^ plate did not take up much room, but on a kinema tograph film the possibilities were immense. A drawout tele- scopic tube 14 inches long was made to fit into the lens flange of my kine. camera, and in front of this the Adon was screwed. The morning of the eclipse found me on the roof of a hotel at Southend where the atmosphere was delightfully clear. I was armed with a battery of red and yellow screens, of which I eventually used two, a 10 times and a 20 times. Of these un- doubtedly the better result was given by the 20 times screen. I was using Kodak negative stock—my shutter was cut down to the minimum—approximately 1/25 second, the Adon was fully stopped down and was 14 inches from the film, and I adjusted my exposure so that I was taking one picture every half second. My juvenile lead—the sun—had been on duty for some hours, but my leading lady was not due on the scene until 8:35. I have frequently been troubled during film production work by my leading lady forgetting her cues, or not turning up at the time appointed, but here I had no qualms whatever, and I commenced turning my handle 35 seconds before the call hour, knowing well that if I continued turning for five minutes Miss Luna would during that time have tentatively kissed and embraced her glorious lover. Nearly every film scribe tells us that em- braces and kisses on the screen are too long, and as this par- ticular love scene lasted two and a half hours I decided to take a section every 15 minutes only. These sections joined together have given a film nearly 200 feet in length, every phase of the eclipse is depicted and, although the film may show nothing that we did not know already, yet it must prove of considerable use for educational purposes. I do not know if my experiment is the first that has been made to photograph an eclipse of the sun direct by the aid of a kinematograph camera. It has, of course, been done hy re- flection, but the image of the sun obtained has been rather small compared with the direct method. 12