The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 62 The Educational Screen Whether you seek EDUCATION or ENTERTAINMENT you will find that the VISUAL way is the BEST way! INCREASE your knowledge of world affairs and home affairs; enjoy the thrills of your favorite sport in season and out of season; "See America" and travel to the four corners of the world; ... or see Hollywood's greatest stars in their greatest pictures, just as they are shown on the screens of America's theatres! Here are some of the outstanding dramatic, musical, and comedy successes of the year, pro- nounced by the leading motion picture critics as "Pictures You Must Not Miss!" ABBOTT & COSTELLO —the comedy team voted by the nation's picture fans as t^e Number 1 Attraction . . , in two of their funniest pictures— "KEEP 'EM FLYING" —a story of the two nlt-wits who get tangled up with the air corps, bringing to the screen some of the most thrilling and spectacular air shots ever filmed and— "RIDE 'EM COWBOY" —a picture which puts these ace comedians on horses, but can't keep 'em there. A hilarious comedy featuring an all star cast of Hollywood beauties. "WHAT'S COOKIN'" Here is one of the liveliest musi- cal comedies of the year, with an all star cast, featuring the de- lightful little song-brd GLORIA JEAN. It's one for the hep-cats —young and old. Deanna Durbin Charles Laughton in "IT STARTED WITH EVE" Two great stars in one of the finest comedies of the year. "BROADWAY" George Raft at his best ... in the role of a Broadway hoofer during the prohibition days. Ac- tion, pathos and romance. "BUTCH MINDS THE BABY" The delightful Damon Runyon story put on the screen with Brod Crawford as Butch. T^e critics call this a "must' picture. "THE SPOILERS'* Here is the picture 'ihat made motion picture history with the dramatic fight between John Wayne and Randolph Scott. Mar- lene Dietrich is also starred. "SABOTEUR" Here is Alfred Hitchcock, master of suspense, at his best. It is a story of what could be happen- ing in your town today. Burma Convoy Flying Cadets—Road Agent Three action-adventure pictures with top flight stars, each of which is guaranteed to provide you and your friends with a glori- ous evening of entertainment. We are also proud to make available to you at this time, two feature productions. "CAVALCADE OF AVIATION*' "MENACE of the RISINGSUN" These two featuretteswere actually billed as features in the finest theatres of America. They are timely, thrilling, spectacular and authentic. UNIVERSAL PICTURES COMPANY, INC. Rockefeller Center New York, N. Y. CIRCLE 7-7100 l^eople's feeling's may be hurt. Others of us feel that only certain parts shoud he selected and re- tained. The argument has reached a stalemate, and we finally agreed to submit it to you for arbitration. The film is intended as a public relations film to be shown to Parent-Teacher Associations, service clubs, and other groups in the community, as well as being a historical record for the future. We'd greatly appreciate your advice, and if space permits, a suggested method of attack. All we have now. frankly, is about 350 feet of scenes of rationing at a number of schools. Some of this is pretty good, and in one case we have followed a mother through the whole sugar rationing process. Answer: This question demands a rather lengthy and conipHcated answer, for it involves the very fundamentals of school-made fihiis in general, and school public rela- tions films in particular. Our answer will be quite arbitrary, since we strongly feel that any film made by any school group to impress the public has got to maintain high standards or it should not be shown at all. Only a cjuod public relations film makes for good public relations. This sounds too obvious to mention, doesn't it? Yet in many instances the idea has seemed to be that the audience will overlook flaws or excuse them on the ground that an inexperienced school group made the mistakes. Obvious errors in technique or composition are no more to be con- doned in a motion picture than are grammatical blunders or lack of unity in a written or spoken exposition. In the case presented above, presumably the cameraman is technically skilled, so we will disregard problems of camera techniques. This leaves a dual problem: (I) organ- ization of personnel for making the production, and (2) methods of achieving unity in the film itself. We will list a few suggestions in answer to each of these problems. .-/. Organization of Personnel 1.—Elect one individual to act as director, with the unanimous understanding that his (or her) decisions are final, and that the responsibility for the finished production is primarily his. 2—The Director, when elected, should assign to each member of the committee a specific job, e.g. preparation of titles, arrangement of shooting schedules, drafting or re- vising sections of the script, etc. The Director should outline the general policy to be followed by all persons, and should see that all of the activities are coordinated. 3—The Director should supervise the actual filming of all scenes, and also supervise the editing of the film. He must have the authority to cut scenes where he thinks it best for the sake of the picture. 4.—Do not show the "rushes"—i.e., the film sections as they come from the laboratory—to anyone except the actual production staff. This is the easiest way to avoid personal .grievances and disappointments. It is generally wise to show your product to "outsiders" only after it has been edited. It's difficult, for example, to explain to a friend that a picture of him was cut out because it was slightly out of focus or because other people were more photogenic, once he has seen himself on the screen. The average person is not likely to be self-critical under such circumstances. But if the cutting is done first, the chances are the person in- volved won't notice his absence, or if he does, he can be given a polite explanation of a technical difficulty which spoiled that particular shot. To put it bluntly, it's another