The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

March, 194} Page 99 SCHOOL MADE MOTION PICTURES Selling the School Through Movies A PUBLIC relations film, made in the schools by a professional cinematographer. is reported by Einar J. Anderson, director of Public Relations at Maine Township High School, a suburban school of 1700 students serving the cities of Park Ridge and l)es Plaines, Illinois, with a total population of 25.000. Mr. Anderson's interesting account of the profession- ally-made school film follows: ■'For .several years a definite public relations pro- gram has been carried on at Maine in an eflfort to (leveloj) under.standing and appreciation for our high school by our citizens and to educate the ]niblic to l)resent day trends in secondary education. This has iieen done through the accepted channels of school jntblicity such as exhibits, PT.A. meetings, monthly bul- letins to parents, special public programs and regular weekl)- releases appearing in our four local newspapers. "I^st year, however, we thought we would try bring- ing the school to the public instead of asking the public to come to the school. This was accomplished by pre- l)aring a fifty-minute film covering the classroom ac- tivities as well as the extra curricular life of the school Frame enlargements from "Maine in Action" By HARDY R. FINCH Head of the English Department Greenwich High School, Greenwich, Conn. Agricultural class picking onions Student in archi- tectural drawing class At wortt in the school chemifltry laboratory. With a question box on the making of school film productions, conducted by DONALD A. ELDRIDGE, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. which we are now scheduling for showing to every club, church and civic grouj) in our school district. ■'Our first problem was to decide whether the film should be taken by a .school "expert" or by a profes- sional photograi)her. If a local teacher were selected, classroom scenes, special projects, sports in season, and outstanding programs and entertainments, could l)e conveniently pbotograjihed as they occurred through- out the year at a great saving of time and money. '■\\'e found, however, that by hiring a professional photographer we could get better composition and better action shots. The difficulty in renting the neces- .sary lighting equipment to take good colored pictures, indoors, is becoming increasingly difficult. The latter point loomed large to us because we wanted to stress classroom activities. All of us have seen movies pur- porting to give the public a balanced view of the school and its educational aims with over fifty per cent of the film devoted to the school's band proudly marching up and down the parade or football field. This we wished to avoid. "The contract which we arranged with our photog- rapher called for twenty full days of shooting indoor .shots with floodlights and ten days' shooting outdoor scenes and activities. These days were scheduled throughout the school year to suit our wishes. "To assure our film Maine in Action giving as true a picture of our educational program and facilities as possible, the footage was divided into twelve sections as follows: Dramatic introduction 50 ft. School and campus layout 150 " Executives and personnel 100 Academic classroom scenes 100 " Sciences and laboratories 200 Music and art activities 100 Industrial and commercial 250 Physical educ. and sports 200 Miscellaneous courses 100 Extra Curricular Activities 600 Adult Evening School 200 Graduation and closing 200 "By labeling each shot, the views were later arranged in their proper sequence. Every eflfort was made to show the pupils in action, doing their regular every-day work. General views were always followed by close- ups. Appropriate background music for the film was furnished by the band, orchestra and the a cappella choir and recorded on phonograph records which are played simultaneously wMth the film, ^^'riting the script took considerable time and knowledge of the school's educational aims and policies.