Educational film magazine; (19-)

EMOTIONAL REACTIONS TO EDUCATIONAL FILMS Some Observations on the Psychology of Motion Picture Appeal Which May Guide Producers and Ebchibitors of Instructional Subjects By Colin N. Bennett A SUPERFICIAL but useful classification of films accord- ing to their appeal to spectators would be to divide them into those which appeal chiefly to the memory, those which appeal to the intellect and those which appeal directly to the emotions. Films appealing to the memory first and foremost are the great body of travel films and geographical subjects. Many of these difi'er only from the ungarnished memory appeal of the geog- raphy book itself inasmuch as, while the book relies solely on large black type, the film reinforces this with pictorial represen- tation of localities described. Coming to films appealing to the intellect, a typical instance of these is the industrial film. We are shown graphically various processes in baking bread, or weaving cloth, or printing a newspaper. On the surface there is nothing emotional in watching a dough mixer, or a power loom, or a rotary printing press. Of the class of film which seeks di- rectly to arouse our emotions there is no need to give any detailed description since every comedy and drama in existence comes within that grouping. The aim of educational kinematography is to provide and pro- ject films having as their chief object an appeal to the intellect and memory rather than one made simply to the emotions. This must be so if only because the meaning of the word education is a leading away from the mind from mere dependence upon the call of instinct and emotion and toward reliance upon the power of intellect, or reason, working through association, or memory. Yet, while we quite well realize this, we are liable to fall into a serious error if we regard the superficial grouping of educational films, already set out, as though it were an actual fundamental statement of truth, and not just a convenient work- ing arrangement. Actually, the appeal of any and every film is in essence emotional. Without the arousal of emotion there could be no attraction or interest at all, simply because attrac- tion and interest are essentially emotional activities. They are the "affection" of the psychologist which follows upon cognition, or "attention," and leads up to "conation" or the firing of the trigger that starts bodily action. Psychology of Attraction and Repulsion While on this subject of the analysis of intellectual attraction, there may be no harm in turning aside a moment to explain a perfectly common-sense objection to what has been written above. The objection would be that not only attraction but also repulsion can give to a film a certain gripping power. Admittedly it can, but equally certainly repulsion is only attraction in disguise. It is the resultant of attraction modified by disgust. For instance, a very young child will go through a phase of liking to pick up and eat dirty or injurious substances. Doing this brings upon it punishment, or illness, with the result that a counter emotion of disgust arises cmd turns the infantile attraction into repulsion. In the same way, small children are habitually cruel until this elementary blood lust is extinguished through the counter action of self-disgust arising through loss of parental favor and through parental punishment. At the same time disgust has this about it, that it can be more or less easily worn out. Once it is worn out for any particular repulsion, that repulsion turns back again, and becomes an attraction once more. There we see one excellent reason why any exhibition of cruelty on the motion picture screen, or any tendency to depict a debased attitude toward life and its problems, should not be tolerated, especially in films shown to young people. A too often quoted excuse of the general exhibitor that an objectionable film is "only a comedy subject," is thoroughly vicious, inasmuch as the natural will to happiness in all of us predisposes us to ac- cept all the more quickly a point of view which carries with it a laugh. For the same reason the possibilities of widespread evil example in tragedy films are greatly overrated. For these films strike no highly sympathetic chord in the emotional make- up of a normal person. On the other hand they will, h^re and there, be witnessed by people of sadistic tendencies, in whom the cruelty lust is over-highly developed, and these people may 'be incited, through imitation, to doing harm to themselves or others. Recently there was an instance of this in England. An es- caped suicidal maniac from a neighboring lunatic asylum entered a picture theater where, as ill-luck would have it, a film was being shown which depicted the self-destruction of a woman driven frantic by grief. When the woman in the photoplay killed herself the lunatic calmly produced a razor and pro- ceeded there and then to cut his own throat. An incident of this kind should not be brushed aside as not worth considera- tion on the ground that the man was mad. On the contrary, it is well worth consideration by all those wishful to understand the influence of fiilms upon the human mind, for it set forward an textreme example of the influence possessed by all films upon all people in greater or less degree. Importance of Well Directed Thought in Film Having, then, seen how easily a misdirected film may influence toward misdirected thought, or action, we shall be the better able to estimate the importance of instilling ihto educational films as part and parcel of their intellectual appeal a strong concom- itant emotional set toward action of the right sort. They must not only inform, but must also "pull the trigger" which will set the mind wishing. For instance, if the film is a geography lesson, it must be so framed as to make the scholar who watches it think to himself, "I wish I could go to that place," or—which is the same thing—"I wish I knew more about that place, and I'm glad I have had the chance of learning what I now know." In an industrial film the operation shown on the screen must cause the scholar to say to himself, "I wish I could see the actual machine at work. Already I understand the operation fairly well, but then I should understand it still better." And don't let us imagine that the same receptive state of mind, or one approaching it, will be brought about by the class master stand- ing up and bawling out something after this style: "Attention. Scholars are to remember at all stages of the film to try to imagine themselves in the actual factory. They are to ask themselves frequently, if they fully grasp what they are seeing. Later on they will have to explain it in a home exercise." (Continued on page 28) U