The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

188 The Educational Screen respond primarily to visual means and that visual'aids are not the best tools with which to reach them. We then consider visual instruction in the remaining field —which may embrace from 60% to 90% of all people." In answer to the question, "What do Movies contribute as a visual aid?" the author concludes that the element of ac- tion, giving life-like reality, is the funda- mental contribution of motion pictures to visual instruction. Other points in their favor are their ability to make minds meet upon a common ground of under- standing, their low per capita cost in reaching large numbers of people, and the speed with which they impart ideas. "The movies overcome time, size and space. They reproduce for all time, we hope, a faithful record of past action and events. They unfold the mysteries of far- away places and customs. They uncover to all eyes the marvels of the minute world revealed by the microscope. They make known the immensities of the uni- verse discovered by the telescope." The author compares the appeal of mo- tion pictures with the appeal of words. Following Professor Barrett Wendell's definition of style in language, as consist- ing of clearness, force, and elegance, the author asserts that since movies are merely tools, in the form of pictures, to express ideas, they too must have clear- ness, force and elegance. "In other words, both movies and words have three fundamental appeals: (1) An appeal to the intellect, rea- son or judgment (clearness). (2) An appeal to the emotions, in- stincts or the feelings (force). (3) An appeal to the artistic sense which responds to the pictorially beau- tiful (elegance). "The well-balanced educational pro- gram may include a knowledge of lan- guage, mathematics, fine arts, science and the humanities. There is no sound reason why movies cannot be designed to appeal to the intellect, the instincts and the] artistic sense in teaching each of these subjects. No one doubts that theatrical movies have at times a vivid emotional appeal. Why not link up the teaching of English or History or Psychology with the fundamental instinctive appeals? "Although 34 American cities are using motion pictures for class room or assem- bly hall instruction, nearly all their sub- jects were produced as entertainment movies. These were planned originally for circulation in theatres. They have been recast, retitled, re-edited for school distribution. Such material is certainly not more than 50% efficient. There are probably not more than a dozen groups of pictures (if that many) which have been designed primarily for instruction. "Another difficulty in using movies suc- cessfully for instruction is the fact that movie men and women as a class do not understand instructional or pedagogic pictures. Nor do teachers generally un- derstand the medium and technique of the movies. As time passes, this gap will be bridged. Then we may expect instruc- tional pictures which have high artistic and pictorial value, which are motivated by appeals to the instincts, reason or emotions. The author reviews the various devel- opments in the motion picture art which, benefit the educational film as well as the entertainment movie. The animated drawing, slow-motion photography, mi- crophotography, and the linking of the camera with the telescope have im- mensely broadened the scope of the edu- cational film, until now there are movies in dozens of fields, from Natural Science, Geography and History, to Philosophy, the Useful and Fine Arts and Sociology. The present-day limitations and disad- vantages of motion pictures are seen to be a lack of natural color in instructional pictures, the fact that movies are in two dimensions only, that they do not repro- duce sound, that they necessarily lack \