The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 24 The Educational Screen IMOVIES TO HELP WIN THE WAR! Outstanding Anti-Axis Features (16mm Sound) "THIS IS THE ENEMY"—The Polish, Yugoslav, Russian and Ukranian people in combat wilh the Nazi forces, "THE SPANISH EARTH"—Ernest Hemingways great anti-fascist documentary. "CHINA'S 400 MILLION"—Absorbing and timely screen story of China's epic defense againsf Japanese invasion, "CRISIS—THE NAZI WAY"—The crisis in Sudetenland. fhe Czech preparations; Hitler propaganda methods. "THE LADY VANISHES"—Exciting drama of English espionage. And many other new training and morale films. Wn¥X^l? for New Free Catalog TVtkW WW M%M.M.M!j "Movies to Help Win the War" iH^^t* BRnnDon filhis 1600 BROADWAY NEW YORK CITY the entire amount immediately. Remember to allow a considerable amount for "wastage," particularly if this is your first film. Experienced school film producers con- sider themselves fortunate to get away with as little as 20% wastage. Alost beginners waste closer to 50% if they do a real job of editing. In this connection, it seems wise to reemphasize the fact that the amount of film wasted decreases in direct proportion to the care with which the shooting script is prepared and the thoroughness with which the action is rehearsed. With film at a premium, you owe it to other movie makers in your community to take every precaution possible to pare the wastage item to the barest minimum. If your local dealer cannot supply you, you might try one of the big agencies in a nearby city. In doing so, be sure to specify the amount of film you want, the size, and type. Also, a check enclosed to cover the amount of the order might be a factor in getting results. (We'd be interested in hearing of the results of your work. And incidentally, if you locate a dealer who has just hundreds and hundreds of feet of film available, please let us know; we'll probably be searching for film ourselves one of these days.) Question: Perhaps we are anticipating trouble which will not come, but we want to be prepared for the worst, and are trjing to make plans for giving our movie makers club something to do when our present supply of film is exhausted, as it will be when we finish our current film on Our Schools in IVar-tiiiie. We have maintained a rather extensive pro- duction schedule for the past two and a half years. We have a few newsreels dating back as far as 1935, and would hate to have to cease activity now or in the future because of a lack of film to work with. Can you give us some suggestions as to things we could do if we should be unable to secure additional film in the future? Answer: This is a timely question which is a logical supplement to the preceding one. It indicates a type of long range planning which we hope is being practiced by school movie clubs generally, for, as we indicated above, 16mm film supplies will be increasingly difficult to procure for the duration of the war. The first suggestion which occurs to us is an obvious one, and probably has been listed by you already. Since you ap- parently have a rather extensive library of films produced in your school, why not screen them, looking for sequences which would lend themselves to a common theme—perhaps simply a historical review of the past eight years? This sort of thing has been done commercially, with pro- ducers using "clips" from their films of the past decade which, arranged carefully, give an effective picture of the changes in history during this period, changes which are given new significance as illuminated in the light of today's war condi- tions. Surely there must be scenes in your earlier school films which show changes which have occurred in styles of dress, hair-do's, dancing, curriculum, faculty and administration, and various classroom as well as extra-curricular activities. Perhaps you could shoot a few extra scenes while making your current film on the adjustments your school has made to the demands of war, with the idea of using them for con- trast and to l)ring the continuity up to the moment. Of course, objections may be raised that cutting sections from tlie older films will impair their historical value as individual documents. If this is really important, it would in most cases be possible to "borrow" the desired scenes and splice them together long enough to present a few special showings, or. if you use the negative, and if there is enough slock available to the laboratory to make a print, you might have a copy made. Then you could re-splice the sections into their original places. If this is done, it would be helpful to insert a short strip of white leader film in place of each section removed. By numbering these white strips consecutively, and keeping a careful record of where each corresponding section of film i? inserted in the composite reel, the business of reconstructing the original reels would be relatively simple, though time- consuming, to be sure. fn a future issue icv zvould he glad to suggest a few specific types of treatment zchich might he given to such composite rc-editions. Better yet, we ivill offer this column as a medium through xvhich all movie producing groups can "pool" their resources of plans, experiments, and experiences in this sort of thing. Send in your report in any form you wish — outline, synopsis, or sample script — zvhatevcr is easiest for you. We ivill attempt to summarize these in such a Tvay as to anticipate potential questions on this problem, to the mutual benefit of all concerned. Doxald A. Eldridge Department of Visual Instruction {Concluded from page 19) Metropolitan Ne'w York Branch Program Tlie .secdiul jjrdgrain in a scries on "War and the Schools," held Deceinlier 1 by the Metropolitan New New "^'ork Branch of Zone II. attracted an attendance of approximately 500. Since the theme of this program was "Pan .\nierican Relations." films from the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs were fea- tured. Those sliown were "Colombia, the Crossroads of America." "Mexican Moods," "High Over the Border" (in Spanish), "Argentine Primer." Speakers were Miss Regina C. Burke. Associate Superintendent. New York City Schools, and Dr. Henry Hein, Principal of James Monroe High School. Miss Rita Hochheimer presided. Zone VII Meets Mr. Boyd B. Rakestraw, President of Zone VII, reports that on Monday, November 16th, the Univer- sity of California Extension Division called a luncheon meeting of the members of that zone for the purpose of discussing pro1)lems concerning the availability and distribution of government fihns with the representatives from the various War Information Agencies. Miss Barbara Spendlove, from the British Informa- tion Office, explained the film .service of that Office: Miss Beverly Le\y, from the Pacific House in San Francisco, recommended that organization as a source of film material on Latin America, and Mr. Clark Gallowa}- from the State Council of Defense, discussed "\'isual Instruction and the Office of Civilian Defense." The meeting afforded an opportunity to exchange ideas, and suggestions as to cooperation with these film sources and agencies in securing satisfactory distribu- tion of government subjects.