The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

160 Telling the Educator The Educational Screen selves in order to make use of this new educational tool. In 1918 there were about fifty schools equipped with motion picture apparatus in this state. Today there are over one thousand and the number is increasing at the rate of forty per month. Central Bureau of Information Needed A plan should be worked out by which it would be possible for an educator to obtain from one central point information as to what is available in motion pictures in any given subject. It is possible to establish such a Bureau of Information at a very small cost. Bui to do so it would be necessary to have the absolute cooperation of every producer interested in the advancement of his educational subjects. It would be necessary for an intelligent staff to review hundreds of pictures. As soon as the picture has been reviewed it could be classified and cross-referenced and the necessary index cards immediately typed. As soon as sufficient material has been previewed a list should be published giving the title of each subject, the number of reels, the producer, and the distributor together with a synopsis of the film. A list of the addresses of the distributors and their various offices should be printed in a conspicuous place in the catalogue. The distribution of these catalogues should be made through the various disinterested state university exchanges. In California this Department could easily distribute 20,000 such Hsts each year. Supplements to this list should be published every month as new material is previewed and catalogued. At the end of the year and during the summer months when there is little or no distribution in the non-theatrical field the entire list could be revised at the headquarters and new lists published. If there is one thing that the moving picture industry can do to promote better feeling between the public and the producers, distributors and theatre men, it is the publishing of such a list of pictures. To publish such a list would mean that the producer, distributing organization and exhibitor would have to put prejudice out of sight. Only by the closest cooperation among all factors in the industry can such a list be published. Newer Issues in Motion-Picture Situation* By H. Dora Stecker Secretary of Review Committee, Cincinnati Council for Better Motion Pictures. HOWEVER experimental the motion picture has been as a medium of expression, however huge-scale production has evolved to be, however extensively the factory method of producing has been developed, with its immense studios, its thousands of performers, and the studied detail to each inconsequential episode; the fact remains that the producer is a most timid person, for the most part. He has been boldly experimental with the mechanical technique by which pictures are put together, but he has been fearsome about straying into original pastures to find new and unhackneyed themes. For the most part, he has repeated episode after episode, and story after story, because the original was found at some time to have made an appeal. This is really the explanation why we have quantity production in stereotyped plots and situations. So much so, that I seriously propose a limitation of output of certain types of stories. If we can apply a percentage restriction to our immigration, why not estimate, likewise, the per cent of crude melodrama, slapstick comedy, and inane adventure serials ♦From an address delivered before The Woman's City Club of Cincinnati. Reprinted by permission from The Bulletin for December, 1922, published by the Woman's City Club of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the interest of Better Citizenship. This article began in March and concludes in this number.