The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

November, 1930 263 Film Slides for Modern Visual Demands WiLLARD D. Morgan DURING the last few years the widespread acceptance and use of the small cameras and projectors for making and projecting still-pictures on thirtyfive-millimeter film has created a fascinating field for the film-slide worker. For a long time there has been an immediate demand for cheaper and more improved methods for projecting still-pictures to supplement the excellent advantages of the common 3'/^x 4-inch glass slide. Such a demand has now been fulfilled with the film-slides, which contain twenty or fifty pictures on only a few feet of 35 inillimeter non-inflammable motion-picture film. The immediate application of film-slides may be classed into three main groups: (1) for use in the public schools and similar educational institutions to tie in with special visual education facilities, (2) for use in advertising and selling, and (3) for use in the home for entertainment or private showing. In the case of public institutions, the film-slides have been accepted to fill immediate needs for visual education material. A survey of the second application of film-slides shows that many manufacturers supply their salesmen with small portable projectors for use in craveling about the country when introducing new commodities to their customers. Filmslides for home-entertainment are a decided innovation for everyone interested in making pictures. Editor's Note — This article is presented here as being of particular interest and value to our field. It ia reprinted from Photo-Era Magazine (April, 1930) by permission. ' With all the modern possibilities of making and presenting pictures to the public, there is developing an increasing demand for wider applications of this powerful visual medium. Books, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, and the news reels in our theaters keep a constant flow of new pictures moving to the eagerly consuming public. Pictures are being considered by the educational world as the most positive and economical substitute for real experience. We can all recall numerous dull lectures and long study-hours which could have been saved by seeing a few dramatic and clinching pictures thrown upon the screen during our cla'isroom hours. Fortunately, the progressive schools of today are adopting the visual education possibilities in all their departments. Moderate Cost of Film-Slide Apparatus This visual educational opportunity for the pupils in the classroom is very easily carried over into the home, where the young people are allowed to express their own ideas in preparing pictures for projection, for their own pleasure or for special entertainments. W' ith the cost of film-slide cameras and projectors at such a reasonable figure, there should be no price barrier in obtaining equipment. The camera for making film-slides is also just as valuable for making any type of photograph for the family album or for enlarging and using to illustrate a magazine article. The cost of film is so low that hundreds of pictures can be made for one dollar or more. ^Motion-picture film can be obtained at any price, from two to twelve cents per foot, and with the Leica camera eight pictures are made on each foot of film, and twice that amount can be made with the single-frame camera. There is a wide field in which to select cameras and projectors for film-slide work. With the single-f r a m e projectors, the Memo and Sept cameras may be used for making the negatives. Positives may also be made from regular motion-picture subjects where special still-pictures are selected from the reels. In addition to the single-frame equipment, there are the double-frame cameras and projectors manufactured by E. Leitz, Inc., of New York, who make the Leica camera and the "Uleja" projector. The Spencer Lens Co. is also a well-known producer of film-slide projectors and attachments. A new entry into the field of doubleframe cameras is the Q. R. S.-DeVry camera, which is much larger and not so compact as the little Leica camera. In selecting filmslide equipment, there are special advantages to be considered in every camera and projector. For my own film-slide work, I have been using the Leica camera and projector as well as the special printing and developing apparatus sold by the Leitz firm. My selection of this equipment was governed by a number of factors. In the first place, with the Leica projector, printer, and "Reelo" developing tank, I could use or prepare either the singleor double-frame film-slides, without having to duplicate my equipment. The double-frame positive