Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

58 FILM AND RADIO GUIDF Volume XII, No. 5 ties for the year. Nor does it attempt to survey all the technical, creative, and commercial aspects of the industry. What it does is to present a basis for growth. It offers a symposium of ideas as to current problems, trends, and aims in a transitional period between war and peace. It points the way to a greatly expanded industry, an industry concerning which there will be many interesting and authoritative compilations of data in future yearbooks. “A feature of this first yearbook is the beginning of an Audio-Visual Who’s Who. Biographical sketches of 16mm industry personalities have been appearing for several years in trade magazines but this is the first lengthy list of its kind. The officers and directors of ANFA hope that those into whose hands this first yearbook may come will contribute lists of many additional names for succeeding issues. “It is hoped also that suggestions for the development of the yearbook into an indispensable almanac of information will be promptly forthcoming. What new features shall the next issue include? What data as to films in education, religion, industrial training, government information, home entertainment, television programs, and in situations without theatres would be desirable? Let the second ANFA yearbook be a cooperative and mutually helpful publication, at once comprehensive and of practical use for constant reference. “To the many contributors whose articles appear in this first issue ANFA desires to express its gratitude. To the generous advertisers whose commercial announcements have made the book possible ANFA is most thankful. “To William Lewin, Publisher of Film and Radio Guide, who read all the articles and who Dr. Charles F. Hoban, Jr., Director of Visual Education at Philadelphia, in an article on “Films and Textbooks,’’ which appeared in the December, 1945 issue of Educational Screen, points out that “for many years, educational administrators have been trying to interest textbook publishers in the production of films which correlate with their books” and that “investigations currently being made by textbook publishers . . . indicate that . . . something will be done about it.” Dr. Hoban analyzes the distinctive psychological characteristics of the textbook and points the way to a coordination of film and book. Too many books, he says, are impersonal, abstract, difficult, and dull — unnecessarily so. Educational films, he says, should have “exactly the opposite characteristics.” He sets forward criteria of textfilm craftsmanship which will make pictures basic educational materials, not merely supplementary aids to illustrate dull books. Films and books, Hoban feels, are destined to work together: films to supply the basic stuff of experience ; books the material by which this experience may be “intellectualized, integrated, and extended.” The most significant passages in Dr. Hoban’s article are those in which he warns that films can be just as bad as textbooks if they are not designed to capture audience interest, enliven subject-matter, increase motivation, and build enduring impressions. Just as textbooks are usually dominated by authorities rather than by persons who can write served as editorial consultant, we are grateful for encouragement and much practical help.” clearly and fluently, so films can be dominated by dull scholars, whose presentations are coldly factual, differing from textbooks only in the form of presentation, so that they will have to be shown repeatedly to be grasped. Good textfilms, says Dr. Hoban, should be personal, warm, vibrant, intimate, and leisurely. Their appeal should be emotional rather than intellectual. Such films, he holds, must be made by professional producers, not by subject-matter specialists or classroom teachers. The services of educational specialists, while indispensable to the planning and the technical supervision of the film, must play a secondary part in the production process. Only scenarists, directors, cameramen, editors, and commentators can make good pictures, whether for education or for entertainment. One might add to Dr. Hoban’s analysis the important point that the ideal textfilm maker is the teacher who is also an experienced movie-maker. What remains is to train a whole new generation of picture-minded subject-matter specialists, who will combine teaching skill with cinema craftsmanship. The most valuable members of the Encyclopaedia Britannica Films producing organization, for example, are those who were formerly teachers and who have had the imagination, persistence, enterprise, and intelligence to learn creative movie-making the hard way — through experimentation leading to the all-important know-how. Films and Textbooks W. L.