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

AV in the Church Field by William S. Hockman Eight Remarkable Filmstrips Eye-Gate House, Inc., (Jamaica 35, N. Y. ) has just released a series of sound and color filmstrips for young people and adults with the title, "Wonders of Science That Point To God." The goals of this series, quoting the producer, (to) "increase appreciation of our mysterious universe"; "We explore the 'wonders of science,' and marvel at what we know through the work of science; but we focus at last on what we do not know— the real mystery which will remain mystery ..." "When science dominates our culture. Christian young people and adults (should) understand the challenge of science, and its limitations." "We need to understand that science is limited to what happens, and how. The deeper questions of Why, and What does it mean, are questions which science neither asks or answers. We find the answers to these questions only in religion." The Web of Wonder shows man as both spectator and actor in the great mysterious drama of existence; The Air Conditioned Planet shows how water holds earth's temperatures inside the limits required for life; God's Wild Navigators probes into the mysterious migrations of birds and fishes; A Strange Friend takes us into the dark world of (wood) termites and reveals their important role in earth's life-drama; Cosmic Glue brings us smack up against motion, gravity, and inertia where our talk tends to exceed our knowledge; Magic White Sand is just about as mysterious to us as to the American Indian who called it that, except we know better its essential relationship to life; Let There Be Light brings us to the major key to the mysteries of the universe, and right to the first Chapter of Genesis! Gifts From Lightning describes the role of this phenomenon in keeping the earth a suitable habitat for man and creatures. In art and commentary these eight filmstrips are excellent. Time and time again there were frames of great beauty. Over and over in the series one is impressed with the cleverness of the visualization. But it drops to just about zero when the artist stupidly tries to humanize or personalize some fact or relationship. When will producers learn better! Of all places not to do this is in the abstractions of science. Why didn't some one tell him? We are not enough of a scientist to judge the authenticity of this material authoritatively, but here we must trust the gumption of the producer and the reliability of the book by Gary Webster (Sheed & Ward, N. Y.', publisher). Wonders of Science, upon which they are based. We may be a little more competent on the religious angle, and without speaking for too many parts of the spectrum of human faith and belief, we would call it good. Not too much is said; nor too little. The Biblical quotations hit the nail on the head each time. Both my wife and I found the background music an abomination to the ears. Why, when the mind is preoccupied with a stream of new ideas and closely connected relationships somewhat unfamiliar to the average viewer must we have that awful rattle and thumping of background music, badly selected and worse played? Who would think of dribbling assorted blotches of ink over every frame of the filmstrip! It would be no more divertive or digestible than the dribbling of irrelevant sound across the whole production. How can this nonsense of background music (noise, it is when considered from the perspective of communication) be knocked out of the heads of producers? A vestigial remain from the theatrical realm, why can't it be left in its museum of half-baked ideas. Now for utility: The producer singles out three titles— The Web of Wonder, God's Wild Navigators and A Strange Friend as especially suitable for the Junior Hi age bracket. I would agree with this. I can see each of these eight setting the stage for significant discussion. How significant and relevant religiously will depend upon the capacity of the leader. He, not the filmstrips, will set the ceiling of their profitable u.se with church young people and even witli church adults. I can see in these filmstrips a potent antidote for the false religion of scientisin. Science has a row to hoe, and it is not the Why-Row or the What-Does-It-Mean-Row. While real scientists keep to their own rows pretty well, a lot of the lower echelon boys, a cut above gageteers and technologists, often develop an itch to make pronouncements which they think wither religious and philosophical concepts. Every minister and director of religious education has had experience with young people, both of high school and college age, who have fallen under the influence of little men who would make a god of S-C-I-E-N-C-El The best setting for their use in many churches will be in the Sunday evening fellowship meetings where there is time to get into the religious and philosophical aspects which these fine filmstrips can and will raise. Congratulations and Advice It makes a lot of sense for people of skill and talent to associate themselves in a company or studio. In many fields this principle has long been in vogue. So it is with pleasure that we congratulate the Belvedere Art Studio (360.5 E. Gage Ave., Bell, California) upon its formation, and with our good wishes goes also a word of advice— probably not needed at all. This art studio ofi^ers its services in the field of filmstrip production and that is where the advice comes in. The filmstrip is a medium of communication. This should not be lost sight of by either client, producer or user. The filmstrip is not museum art, existing for its own sake. It is not illustrative art, helping some other medium get over a message. It is and always has been communicative art. In this it is unique, but this uniqueness has been often overlooked. The client often wants arty art. The producer often thinks he is creating illustrative art, and the user thinks he ought to get museum art. The filmstrip is none of these. The filmstrip's art is communicative art. It is not looked at for its sake alone and it is not assisting some other medium to get its message across. In the filmstrip, if it is to communicate to its inherent maximum, most of the meaning to be conveyed must be loaded onto the visual, with the verbal assisting. Too many filmstrips have been made on the reverse of this principle: most of the meaning in the verbal and the pictures acting as pleasant and attractive illustrative material. My advice is: Think out the message in pictures, and create these 404 Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — August. 1961