The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 54 MOTION PICTURES- NOT FOR THEATRES The Educational Screen Part 45.—Our history continues to show that schools and churches have had their film supply problems ior a long, long time By ARTHUR EDWIN KROWS The Proper Audience A PROJECT late in January, 1927, for the leading boys' school in Great Britain and the United States to exchange films showing their institutional life, was symptomatic of an important realization. It was not suffi- cient to supply a film with any audience; it was necessary to have a proper audi- ence. For national advertisers, per- haps, where the main interest was in mass sales, it might not especially matter what cross-section of the pub- lic attended one show in a thousand. And yet, even among these earnest calculating bidders for attention, it could scarcely be advantageous, in exploiting an unproved patent medicine, to show the related advertising film to a gathering of doctors, for instance, any more than there could be com- mercial point in teaching the fellaheen in the Valley of the Nile how to grow Iceland Poppies. Among the national advertisers, in- deed, there is an occasional sentiment to the effect that, in telling their stories to children in elementary schools, they have nothing to gain but a mild good will. The youngsters there will be too long growing to that stage where they can buy commodities on their own initiative, and at that time, anyway, with material progress so headlong in its advance, the present products will all be obsolete. The many obvious advantages of having audiences which are predisposed to attention has naturally developed specialist distributors as it has made specialist producers. Among the other welcome advantages presented by a "class" market, the body of it may be measured. Its probable return is ap- preciable, and, in consequence, the dis- tribution business designed for its service may be better organized to survive, certainly better than one which aims loosely to serve all non- theatrical comers. There is mass to it, although, with a prevailing rental rate so low, this means only that, for the development of a self-sustaining library, the volume of business must be large. There must be a great many paying customers before the large number of small sales will provide a sufficient income. Answers to these requirements are easiest to be seen in church and school distribution, and here, therefore, are to be found most of the specialist non-theatrical distri- butors. That the schools of America present a rich undeveloped market, with all features which any specialist distribu- tor might desire, is one of those sup- posed facts which are accepted at face value by even cautious business men. It is probably true; at the same time there are tremendous obstacles—so great that they have occasioned a strong conviction that it is really just one more snare and delu- sion. At least, that opinion emerges from the accumulated experience of hundreds of disillusioned salesmen who have tried to dispose of films to the schools and have retired in despair. They came to the work from the hard, uncompromising grind of selling office or household appliances, or books, per- haps, and are delighted when, instead of having doors slammed in their faces, they are invited in by kindly school Ilsley Boone, true pioneer in uses of school films, believed in follow- ing the Biblical injunction that "the laborer is worthy of his hire." A startling idea for the customers. superintendents to discourse pleas- antly on the facts of visual instruction. Again they call; again they are cor- dially received. Such courtesy is un- believable. Yet the friendly visits go on day after day, week after week. In fact, that is the trouble with them; they just go on. There are no sales or, in all events, not nearly enough to justify a business. How can such things be? Here, surely, is a market which may be measured. The teaching usefulness of motion pictures has been firmly estab- lished these many years, and there are repeated and continuing tests to con- firm the fact. We know that there are certain courses in which they are more useful than in others; how long, ap- proximately, exhibitions should run; their main objectives; what equipment standards should be, and much more of importance, all in their favor. Stu- dent teachers in almost every reputable normal school are given the prevail- ing, favorable bias toward classroom films. Among teachers in service, and concertedly at their conventions, they acclaim the merits of visual education, especially motion pictures. If the ob- stacle to the actual use of classroom reels is a lack of money for film sub- jects which cost a great deal, as super- ficial examination indicates, why is there any difficulty about those reedited theatrical subjects which may serve, at a mere dollar or two rental per reel per day, in geography, natural science, civics and vocational guidance, for in- stance? In these particulars, at least, there seems to be a receptive market, useful films and a practicable form of distribution. What is the trouble? It is—to be brutally frank—in the form of our local public school system which I, for one, would be loath to change because I—surely not I, as a layman—cannot think of a better .sort. Each school system stands separately. Fred Wythe, with his customary pene- tration, calls it the most truly inde- pendent form of government left in America. No matter what teacher training institutions may say in favor of films—regardless of the happy find- ings of the N.E..^.. irrespective of the recommendations by experts after regional tests—each individual board of school trustees must be separately persuaded, and, being persuaded, must be made to see also, as a rule, that its members can afford films before they can afford needed playground equip- ment, or, shall we say. coal for the coming winter, or, what is commonest, an urgent rise in teachers' salaries. It is that kind of problem. I believe that there are some 250,000 public school buildings in the United States. I have no convenient figures on the number of systems. But it is probable that there are quite enough of them to con- stitute an appalling selling job for any enterprise which expects to prosper by monopolizing the business of sup- plying film to the nation's educational institutions. William Fox, is accredited with hav- ing instigated one of the most sensa- tional efforts to force this market when, just before the revolution wrought by talking pictures, he launched his elabo- rate program of educational films. He is said to have brought pressure to bear, through expert lobbyists, to in- duce the Ohio State Board of Educa- tion to make the use of classroom films compulsory in all schools in that area. The general aim was surely ac- ceptable to the State Superintendent who. in common with most other progressive educators, was an avowed proponent of visual instruction. At all events, he