The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

June, 1946 Page 307 teacher friends to see the "show", many of whom are prospective students for the coming summer. We believe it is a "natural" in summer-school publicity, and wherever shown it is a powerful reminder not only of Oneonta but of the "Course in Visual Education." Question Box on Film Production QUESTION: On about three hundred feet of film I have different shots of five groups of participants in some athletic events. Each of these groups expressed a desire to get a duplicate copy of the footage. Do I have to order reversal prints for each group? What is the appromixate cost per foot? The original is in black and white. It is possible to duplicate my own at home? ANSWER: A black and white reversal "dupe" can be obtained for about five cents per foot. To get five reversal prints at that rate the total cost would amount to seventyfive dollars. You can get positive prints which will project as sharp as the original by proceeding as follows. Order a fine grain negative made from the original. The cost of this negative is about five cents per foot. From this negative have the laboratory make five positive prints. The cost of each positive print is two cents per foot. Thus, by using the negative to positive method of printi"g, you bring the total cost of your duplicates down to forty-five dollars — a net saving of thirty dollars, in addition to which you still have a master negative for your file. It is not too difficult to duplicate films at home. By removing your one inch lens from your camera, your instrument becomes an optical printer. Take about forty to fifty feet of your original film — footage showing even exposure, that is to say avoid fluctuating areas of illumination. Holding the emulsion side of the raw negative film against the emulsion side of your original, wind both clockwise in the empty 16mm camera spool. Be sure that your negative film winds on the outside with its shiny side outward. This will bring the shiny side of the original nearer to the source of light. All this should be done with about two feet of leader and two feet of trailer for both films. Remember, too. that panchromatic film should be handled in total darkness. After spooling carefully — sprocket holes must match — the film may be threaded under subdued light, the same way as threading a single layer of film. Exposure comes next. Point the camera's aperture against a number one photoflood lamp held about twelve to eighteen inches away. A trial exposure at various distances will reveal the optimum distance for each roll of film. Run the entire film through while holding the camera steady against the source of light. In a large tray pour at least two quarts of fine grain developer. In anotlier tray prepare about an equal volume of hypo. Open the camera in total darkness. Separate the original film from the negative. A pair of rewinds properly placed can facilitate this operation. Thread the negative on to a homemade developing drum (see February 1944 column in Educational Screen) and develop in total darkness for about twenty minutes. Wash and fix in hypo. Wash in running water for about fifteen minutes before hanging film to dry. (A type of developing tank used by the army to develop 16mm film in daylight has recently been marketed by the Morse Instrument Company.) Making the positive print is the last step in this process. Using the dried negative instead of tlie original reversal, you spool it with a raw positive film of equal length, emulsion side against emulsion, and repeat the entire procedure. D. S. Report from Holland SOME film prwlucers turn out pictures just to make a handsome profit, some use films to glorify their products — material or ideological, but leave it to the Dutch to find a nr,vel reason for introducing their own films into about a thou.sand of their public schools. The Nederlandsche Onderwijs Film (Dutch Educational Film), a semi-official school film organization, was founded in May 1941, by its director, Mr. A. A. Schoevers, whose one burning desire was to prevent the Germans from introducing their Nazi propaganda films into the Dutch schools. According to the report, which came to the attention of this department, "the plan has been completely successful, as not a single German 'educational' film has been shown in the Dutch schools during the occupation." "In the meantime", the report continues, "the Dutch lulucational Film, composed of a pedagogical and technical section, planned a complete film program for the Dutch schools with the help of well-known authorities in the fields of geography and biology. A complete technical staff was trained in the preparation of the scripts and the direction and shooting of this particular type of film. The distribution of these films in the schools, the instruction of teachers in the use and care of projectors, and the way in which they were to give the lessons with the help of the films, was done by a special department organized for this purpose." In less than three years, four thousand teachers acquired this new skill of conducting film lessons regularly. Over 100,000 children, who might have been exposed to the Nazi virus, were thus given this visual as well as si)iritual prophylaxis. By August 1944, 34 films, all excellent, had been released. Here is a list of some of their outstanding films : Sand and Heath, Field and Woods, Chairmaking, Chare oal-Burners, Bark Stripping, Wheat Crops, Skating. Cozvs in the Stables, Cattle Market, From Green to Bread, Fresh Water Fishery, Sugar Factory, Lapiving, Peat Fields, Cheese, Glass, Bulb-G rowing, Pottery, Butter and Milk, SeaGull. In the company's catalogue each of the above films is accompanied with a terse and illuminating description. As a sample, we give one entry complete — "Wieringermeer. This is an impressive little film showing the results of 10 years work to regain land from the sea. Within this time it has been jxissible to make this place rich in cultivated ground, with roads, bridges, and a limitless extent of fields. It is a monument to Dutch perseverance. In one day the Germans destroyed it all !" If the thrifty Dutch can turn out such splendid educational films in periods of adversity, we certainly ought to strive to make the fullest use possible of all our equipment, resources and talents to keep America in the lead in visual education. REMINDER: Have you sent in your completed Questionnaire on school-made films? You owe it to the rest of our readers who are waiting for the tabulated report. D. S.