Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

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May, 1 946 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 37 and experimentation in the field of classroom films. What has been achieved under that policy in the last ten years is the foundation for the progressive steps now to be taken. In 1936 the members of this Association engaged in a cooperative project with the Commission on Human Relations of the Progressive Education Association. This called for experimentation with the use of selected excerpts from regular theatrical films dealing with character building and human relations problems. The film excerpts were prepared for school use by educational authorities. A year later the Association formed its own Advisory Committee on Motion Pictures in Education. A grant of $50,000 enabled the Committee to search the archives of theatrical films no longer in circulation, for short subjects having a definite educational value for use in schools. Then in 1939 Teaching Film Custodians, Inc., was set up as a non-profit cooperative agency for the purpose of distributing to the schools the short subjects which had been selected and edited. During subsequent years the scope of Teaching Film Custodians has been broadened. It was empowered to distribute to schools excerpts from feature pictures which were based on classics of literature, biography, or history. The present work and future development of Teaching Film Custodians are discussed elsewhere in this report. To date its activities have been limited to distribution of film materials made for other purposes than those of the classroom. Any effort to go beyond this limited service necessarily involves the actual production, as well as distribution, of films for classsroom use. Some important steps in this direction have already been taken. In 1943 member companies of this Association contributed $125,000 to the American Council on Education for a five-year program of its Commission on Motion Pictures in Education. Eric Johnston, President of the Motion Picture Association of America. The Commission undertook to survey the need for classroom films, and to outline screen treatments for needed films. At the present time more than 75 film treatments have passed severe critical scrutiny and have been approved for their educational worth. Of these about 50 deal with the subject of global geography; 18 with the problems of freedom — political, religious, and economic ; and nine or more with mathematical subject matter. To date, however, none of these film treatments has been turned into a shooting script or made into a picture. On the recommendation of our own Subcommittee on Education we allocated $50,000 of this year’s research budget to the field of visual education. Within the current month arrangements have been completed for the use of this money to produce some experimental films, one on the circulation of the blood in mammals, another probably on some phase of global geography, and perhaps a third. on some problem in ninthgrade mathematics. These films are to be “experimental” in the sense that each is to be made in half a dozen different versions to test the effectiveness of various production techniques. The versions will differ with respect to the use of sound, music, diagrams, animation, and montages. Some versions may use commentators, either off or on stage. In some versions children may be pictured discussing with each other the problem or theme of the film. At least one of these films is scheduled for completion by September. It will then be exhibited under controlled conditions in a number of schools with different versions of the film tested to see which produce best results under classroom conditions. Concurrent with the making of these three experimental films, we now propose to use the know-how of our member companies to make a substantial number of films based on the most challenging of the 75 treatments already prepared by the Commission on Motion Pictures in Education. These films are to be models for classroom use, exemplifying the best production techniques available. They are also experimental in that they must prove their effectiveness in the classsroom before going into general distribution. An educational survey has already determined the need for visual aids in the subjects with which these films will deal. Conceived as a public service, these model films are to be made without any expectation of or desire for profit. But we shall try to see that production costs do not exceed a figure at which