Focus: A Film Review (1948-1949)

FOCUS 23 include the diascope (our old friend, the magic lantern), where the light is passed through the lantern slide, or sometimes today through cellophane or some other transparent medium — the episcope, which projects the reflection of a picture or other object illuminated by mirrors (these two machines are often combined in the epidiascope) — the cine-film projector, silent and sound, the type commonly used in schools being the sub-standard or 16mm. size — and the film-strip Projector, a modern adaption of the diascope which is gaining great popularity. Its pictures are made up in rolls, or singly, on sensitised film instead of glass plates, and are consequently smaller, lighter, more compact and more economical than the old lanternslide; and so is the machine itself. As is the case with the lanternslides, one’s own pictures can be made up, and at far less cost. To complete the list we must add the micro-projector, by means of which microscope-slides can be thrown on to a screen large enough for the whole class to see at once. Every school that wishes to try out the possibilities of visual aids should invest in a film-strip projector at once, and so might enterprising teachers, as it is not an expensive machine. They are being produced in great numbers, and, while other projectors are unfortunately in short supply and impossible to procure for months ahead, there seems to be no difficulty yet about these. And, as every reader of the educational papers must be aware, film-strips are also being turned out in great numbers. Advice as to the choice of machines is available through the office of Focus. It is proposed in subsequent articles in this section to review films and film-strips new and old, and give information as to how they can be obtained, and from time to time to add other information and suggestions from teachers experienced in the use of visual aids. Suggestions and questions will also be welcomed from subscribers, as well as accounts of their own experiments and the impressions and reactions of children. Earlier in this article it was suggested that there is a more important aspect of the matter to be considered : we have to educate for the film as well as by the film. It has been said that a revolution as great as that resulting from the introduction of movable type is transforming our social habits through the new instruments of learning that have entered the world. The cinema and the radio have become the greatest educational agencies of the time. By their means vast stores of information are placed at our disposal, experience is enriched, thought is, or should be, encouraged, and standards of value in matters of both conduct and taste are inevitably affected. 'Moreover, all is conveyed with the wealth of technical skill and often with psychological suggestion in an artistic setting that make its influence almost irresistible. This demands a reconsideration of educational problems and technique, but it has not been faced by our schools as a whole. Few are equipped with the necessary apparatus: four out of every five homes have the radio but only half the schools — and how many have a film-projector? And, far more important, what of the