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

of equi])nRnl llif iccord player for the filinstrip's loninieiuary. He must develop finesse in operating both at the same time — a chore and test of skill even for old-timers like myself. And. let us remind ourselves, one slip in bringing off the use of a sound filmstrip in a department, group, or rlassroom, can Hub the whole performance so the educational potential leaks out of the situation like water out of a Ijerry-basket. What can be done about this? At least three things, as we see it. Produce fewer sound fdmstrips. improve the physical qualities of the filmstrip, and develop inexpensive projectionplayback equipment within financial reach of the church. It is superficial, it seems, to assume that if a given piece of subject matter is cast into the filmstrip medium that it will be better still if made into a sound filmstrip. We need a keener and more objective appraisal of material (content) in terms of wliat media and what format within a medium. This is the first step, and a necessary one. We doubt if the church really wants all its still projected material in the sound filmstrip medium. Secondly, the filmstrip can be improved. Some of the (ill) temper can be taken out of the thing. It's too springy for easy handling. The front end can be marked — with a frame-size green arrow, perhaps. The tail end can be marked — with a large red arrow. The title can be put on legibly, using several clear frames. The right side of the thing can be indicated somehow. (Manufacturers may need to cooperate on this one.) Certainly, it can be printed and cut with relation to sprocket holes so that when fed into a standardized channel it will always be in frame. (This, too, will need the cooperation of the manufacturers.) With millions invested in the medium of the sound filmstrip by the industry, it would seem reasonable to assume that producers, laboratories, distributors, and users would be more than willing to conference together for the purpose of making this medium more acceptable to the masses who should use it. Unless this step is taken, how do we know but the future will find the sound filmstrip wanting just like a few swift years took the measure of the once-promising slideset? While we have no desire to see the filmstrip projectors now owned by the churches made obsolete, we do believe that a carefully designed, integrated, one-unit projector-player which is easy to operate and easy to buy, is definitely indicated if the medium of the filmstrip is to have a secure future in the church field, .\lready produced for industry, and business, are such cER^iclBLUEnP SYLVAN I A PROJECTION LAMPS ...for all makes . . . all types . . . in all sizes Use a Syhania Ceramic Blue Top in your projector . . . your slides and movies deserve the best! w SYLVAN 1 A New Sylvania Ceramic Blue Tops are available in all standard sizes for any projector ... to fill your exact requirements for clear, brilliant projection. Blue Tops offer these superior qualities: Brighter . . . Ceramic Blue Tops won't scratch, chip or peel like ordinary painted tops . . . machine-made filaments assure pictures bright as life. Coaler . . . Ceramic Blue Top Is bonded to the glass for Improved heat dissipation . . . cooler operation assures longer lamp life. longer Lasting . . . Exclusive Sylvania shockabsorber construction protects filaments from vibration damage. Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. 1740 Broadway, New York 19, N. Y. . . . fastest growing name in sightl LIGHTING RADIO ELECTRONICS TELEVISION ATOMIC ENERGY projectors. Nothing but bold and creative engineering stands in the way of creating a satisfactory one for the churches' classrooms. It is altogether possible that this "new" integrated projector would use the principle of rear projection, enabling the teacher to face his class. The sound filmstrip can be improved along these three lines. If it is done it will have one future; if it is not done, it will have another future. Now is the time for action, although ten years ago would have been better. IV Interest in a new projected still picture medium, no larger than a man's hand, was in evidence at the California Workshop in 1956. By Green Lake in 1957 it was a sizeable cloud formation there in the horizon for all to see who would. Some did see it, talked about what it meant, and tried to relate it to the filmstrip's future. At the first consultation this summer at Penn State this interest in a medium for the classrooms of the church was much in evidence, and carried over into the fifteenth Workshop. For many of us, three factors are important in any consideration of improved or new media for projected still pictures: a) holding to the 35mm size; b) continuing the usefulness of the large resource of present filmstrip materials; c) keeping in operation, even with adaptive devices, the projectors now owned by the churches. Others in the movement will think the time has come for radical change, for the creation of a new medium for the projected still picture. To the most far-seeing and objective among us, both positions will have considerable merit. EdScreen & AV Guide October, 1958 Conclusion Within a decade the verdict will be in. Projected still pictures are destined, we believe, to carry the burden of visualizing certain parts of the church school curriculum. They will share this job with the sound motion picture — short, and power-packed as few now are. Along with this will come a new understanding of the power of the audio medium, and to it will be assigned a significant role in the teaching work of the church. While over the long-years advancing technology will bring us audio and visual (and audiovisual) media with power and characteristics now little dream of, the sound filmstrip can have a long and useful life-time in the church if all those concerned with its production, distribution, and utilization will face present realities and do something bold and intelligent about them. -WSH Accenting the Positive .\t last we have a mental health film that shows health and happiness and not just problems and perplexities. Thus, another title for The Bright Side could easily and accurately be "The Blessedness of Parenthood." Here is a 25-minute B&W film which documents the kind of uncommon sense that Dr. Benjamin Spock has been talking about; a film which shows parents playing their roles with wit and devotion and getting a lot of deep joy out of it. They seem aware of the conviction that the family drama provides growth for the parents as well as the children. Highly recommended for use with parents, teachers, ministers, professors, older 537