Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

42 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 2 contain a Dracula and a Hitler : If I may make a wild guess about the nature of the postwar Weirdy, I should say it will be about things that really will scare us then because they will reflect society’s deepest concerns. What greater fear will there be than the fear of Fascism’s return? Think of a furtive, malevolent, underground organization of Nazis, worshipping a dead Hitler with pagan rites. Somewhere in the Black Forest, they plan the day when they may return to earth. They are ghouls who would prey on their fellows, so there is a horrid suggestion of cannibalism as a ritualistic symbol, and their swastika is a talisman of ill portent, whose spell would drag us all back to mediaeval times. Over all broods the spirit of a dead yesterday; that is, of 194.5. Pat Uuggan, story editor for Samuel Goldwyn Productions, pleading for higher standards of screen writing, says : The motion picture production business, spending millions yearly to create its product, has learned over the years to utilize fully every element concerned with the making of a picture— except the writer. The quantity and quality of original writing developed by this medium is shockingly inadequate. For thirty yeai's the picture industry has been using the best writers the world has had to offer, yet only half-explored their talents. ❖ >it The producer must be one who knows and understands that strange animal, the writer. He must have read enough to be familiar with all styles of writing and he must be on speaking terms with the literature of all periods. ❖ * ❖ Lack of understanding of the function of a writer has enabled us to grow a bumper crop of the most expensive hacks in the world. With their disappeaiance, the talented and capable screen playwright will be enabled to assume the position in the industry of which he is worthy. Discussing credit arbitration, a procedure necessitated when several writers contribute to the final result on the .screen, Maurice Rapf, head of the Guild’s arbitration committee, states : RENT 16MM FILMS SOUND AND SILENT For Teaching, Recess and Entertainment Most of Our Films ore Also For Sole Write for Information NU-ART FILMS, INC. 145 WEST 45, h SlREEI NEW YORK 19, N Y Unlike the author of a novel, short story, or play, the screen writer is an employee in a mass production industry. His talents are contracted for and his work is directed toward a finished product over which he has, except in rare instances, little or no control. It is the producer who decides how, when and, presumably, why a script is ultimately ready to go before the cameras. Before this time and frequently after — even as the picture is being made — it is this individual who hires and fires writers to achieve whatever objective he has in mind. Int-er-Racial Film and Radio Guild Social-science teachers will be interested in the newly organized Inter-Racial Film and Radio Guild, which is setting up a research bureau and library at Hollywood. The IFRG seeks to abolish group sterotyping in films and radio on the basis of race, religion, or nationality ; to include, as a counter-balance to traditional portrayals of Negroes, Indians, Chinese, and others as servants, comics, drudges, and “inferiors,” the casting of these as professional, business, and artistic figures ; to encourage the production of films and radio programs giving a truer concept of Latin America; in general, to stimulate world unity through screen and radio. The Guild has presented awards to Bette Davis, Orson Wells, James Wong Howe, Eddie Anderson, Bob Burns, Pandro Berman, Norman Corwin, Bing Crosby, CBS, WMCA, and many other organizations and individuals for constructive Avork in this field. Postwar Audio-Visual Education Alvin B. Roberts, principal of H a w Creek Township High School at Gilson, Illinois, has made a survey of audio-visual problems which has been published in Educational Screen. Mr. Gilson considers the “leaseto-sale” plan adopted by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, Inc., of great aid in encouraging schools or groups of schools to have their own film libraries. He also considers the EBF Correlation Service Department of great help to schools in correlating films with the curriculum. “Teacher training,” he says, “has been and still is the major problem that must be worked out before any great progress can be made.” In this connection he praises the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Audio-Visual Instructional Materials, which is being developed by Stephen M. Corey. It may well be asked whether teacher training is the major problem of audio-visual education. There are some authorities who believe that textfilms, like textbooks, will be properly utilized as soon as such films become more generally available. The basic problem, perhaps, is production of good films in generous quantities. When EBF has moved the decimal point of its production schedule, the utilization problem and the problem of democratizing the distribution of projection equipment will more readily be solved.