The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 314 The Educational Screen xow... is the time To order YOUR copy of the I9TH EDITION of "1000 and ONE" The Blue Book of Non-Theatrical Films USERS OF FILMS in Schools, Churches, Industry, Military Training Camps, Clubs and Community Work will find the 19TH EDITION of "1000 and One" more serviceable and indispensable than ever before. Among the several thousand films listed are hun- dreds upon hundreds of new, important subjects made available since the previous edition appeared last Fall. Included are the latest and best films for classroom instruction in the elementary school, the high school and college . . . films for training in war production ... for the instruction of men in military training camps . . . films for informing the general public on the aims and progress of the war . . . films on Health, on Religious subjects and for entertain- ment and recreation . . . Films for every need and every purpose, classified into 176 subject-groups, with complete information as to length, whether silent or sound, and distributors from whom avail- able. MAKE SURE you have this latest Edition of the famous film directory. .Send for it NOW Experimental Research Price 75c Subscribers to Educational Screen pay ONLY 25c for "1000 and ONE." Please enclose coin or stamps with order $2.25 will bring yon the magazine for a year and copy of the directory; $3.25 pays for two-year subscription and "1000 and ONE." * • • • Educational Screen 64 East Lake Street Chicago I, Illinois (Continued from page 306) predispositions which seem, even with so liinited data, to be typical. To verify their typicalness would require further re- search. Conclusions Technical Presentation 1—The visual part of the film presentation seems to be far the most important element in determining the trend of likes and dislikes as the film is seen. The variations in the charts of reactions seem to depend much more upon changes in visual than auditory stimuli. And the reasons given during interviews on the likes and dislikes recorded are much more concerned with visual elements than anything in the commentary or sound. Music, when it is mentioned, is judged favorably for the way it sustains and provides a background for what is on the screen, and unfavorably if it is considered incongruous or unsuitable to what is seen. Film music is evidently regarded as a background eleinent mainly. 2—There is much evidence in this material to support the simple proposition that a most essential requirement of a motion picture is that it move. In both films, there is marked liking for sequences which embody a fairly quick succession of action shots, particularly shots of machinery in rhythmic motion. 3 —There are numerous examples, particularly in Valley Town, of decline in liking for certain sequences which were liked considerably at first. The respondents' reasons indicate that the decline is due to the sequences' lasting too long. Some of the much-liked machine sequences are cases. Nothing can be said about how long a sequence ought to be, since it depends entirely upon how it is done, and how the interest is sus- tained, but the slump in liking for some of the Valley Town sequences should be studied. A —The transitions between sequences in both films meet with indifference—a decline in both likes and dislikes. This may not necessarily be an adverse criticism, because interest cannot be held at equal pitch all the way through, and it may be advisable to give mental breathing spells in an educational film. It might be that subjects simply get tired of reacting except at the most climactic shots. But two small studies of March of Time films. The TVA and Our America At War, resulted in charts which do not have these characteristic dips between sequences. Long, slow fades between sequences are particularly apt to create such indifference. S—Unnecessary material or completely familiar material in- troduced into the film meets with indifference. On the other hand, common actions and symbols of every- day, typical life can be shown with favorable reaction if given the right build-up as symbols in the commentary. Milk bottles on the steps in early morning, Mr. Case shaving in the bath- room were liked as symbols of the "American way" because of the stress on this symbolic value in the script. 6—Close-ups of expressive faces are well-liked in general, tut especially in conjunction with certain actions or ideas of which they clearly reflect the significance. 7—The mood of the presentation is of considerable import- ance in determining reactions. The depressing mood of Valley Town, and the cheerful one of What So Proudly are referred to very often as causes of dislike and like respectively. This comes mainly under the content aspect, but beauty and pleasant- ness of setting as opposed to ugliness and squalor, lifting music as opposed to slow, clear lighting as opposed to cloudy, are presentation aspects chosen to carry certain types of content. Content 1—To continue the last point above: The response to people gaining in happiness and possessions, managing well, machines, producing, goods getting into use—all these gainful aspects termed "indulgent" in a classification for content a:i- alysis suggested by Dr. Harold Lasswell, is on the whole favorable. Response to "deprivational" aspects—people suffer- ing, production cut off, communities deserted—is generally one of dislike. This may be due in part to the difference in action, depression being portrayed in Valley Town mainly in slow-mov- ing, rather long sequences. But there seems to be definite dislike of the deprivation which goes beyond dislike of the way it is presented.