Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

710 ilhtitch oeMttment bv WILLIAM S. HOCKMAN God On The Soundtrack While churches do not have the money to "deniillize" biblical material, they can commit cinematic folly on a smaller and more dangerous scale, perhaps. And when it comes to film-folly, we have already seen several previews of ghastly possibilities. The objectification of the voice of God via an echo chamber is a case in point. The producing company might have settled for reporting via the narrator's voice at this point, but the client preferred the echo chamber representation of the voice of the Eternal. What does this do to the prophetic idea that the Creator spoke through the consciousness of his sensitive and listening creature? We raise the question. Let tlie church give the answer. And we think that an answer must be given by the leaders of the church. We also think that there is no better place to begin forging out this answer than at the International Conference on Visual Aids in Christian Education which convenes again at Green Lake, Wisconsin, September 4-11. Here is home-work, neglected for ten years, that needs attention. As the spiritual suggests, we may "shout all over God's heaven" in some latter day, but for God to be shouting all over our imperfect paradise right now via both big and little soundtracks is just a little alarming, especially since the cjiildren (of our church schools) may be listening. -WSH The Audio -Visual Story In the United Lutheran Church in America hj the Rey. George B. Anunon* In ten short years the United Lutheran Church in America has come a long way AV wise. At the end of the war its service to congregations was limited to AV sales and advisory service. Now it has a coordinated program of production, distribution, and utilization. Like most denominations, at the end of World War II we found a huge demand for audio-visual equipment — largely motion picture projectors and slide-filmstrip projectors. To meet this expanding need for equipment, and to guide congregations in their use of AV media, the United Lutheran Publication House established a Department of Audio-Visual Aids. I was called, from a parish where audio-visuals had been used extensively, to be its first manager. This same department now employs four persons serving in the fields of production and distribution. Very recently it was directed by the church-at-large to move forward and coordinate all audio-visual distribution. •Secretary for Audio-Visual Aids, Board of Parish Education, United Lutheran Church in America. This newer program of coordination is being guided by an official "Joint Committee on Audio-Visual Aids." It is a small delegated body with representatives from all the boards and agencies of the church. It meets twice yearly to share and guide audio-visual development, to coordinate production, and guide the evolving patterns of distribution. Each board or agency of the church produces its own material as it sees fit. However, increasingly the production of audio-visuals is being channeled through the enlarged and newly named Department of Audio-Visual Materials of the United Lutheran Publication House. The work of the late Rev. E. O. Armbruster was an excellent foundation for the denominational audio-visual program, and also for our participation in the very necessary interdenominational audio-visual developments. He was active in setting up the Religious Film Association (an inter-church agency for distribution of films) and its successor, The Religious Film Libraries. The latter agency serves Protes tantism through fourteen denominationally or privately owned AV depositories throughout the United States. Ten years ago our seminaries and church colleges took little cognizance of the existence of the newer AV tools for communication. Now some seminaries and colleges of the church have fully developed audio-visual courses and one seminary is engaged in building a completely equipped audio-visual center. One of the earliest efforts to produce any audio-visuals for church-wide use was a motion picture entitled, Thunder of the Sea. Produced by the Board of .\merican Missions, it was shown to practically every congregation of our church. Designed to raise money for the establishment of new churches, it fell short of its goal, perhaps because too much was expected of it. Our latest production efforts include a host of promotional and informational filmstrips and a short 13-minute stewardship film in color for children entitled, The Candlemaker. Twenty-two filmstrips are now in various stages of production — from the earliest "treatment" stage to the final shooting. Efforts to provide guidance to the local congregation in the selection and use of audio-visual materials led to the establishment of a new department of audio-visual aids by the Board of Parish Education in January, 1949. Since then it has provided a regular quarterly service of carefully selected audiovisuals for curriculum purposes in the Sunday, vacation, and weekday church school, catechetical instruction, leadership education, adult elective courses, and summer camp courses. In addition, the department has made available a general manual for the AV Committee of the local church. It has helped to establish two excellent interdenominational resources — the Visual Education Fellowship and the annual international audio-visual workshops. The United Lutheran Church of America cooperates fully in the interdenominational AV enterprises through representation on NCCC Committees in practically all current fields of joint 252 EdScreen & AV Guide — May, 1 957