International projectionist (Nov-Dec 1933)

34 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST December 1933 International Photographer — is a finely printed and beautifully illustrated monthly magazine owned by the West Coast Cameramen's Union. In all matters concerning the professional motion picture photographers of the country it is the official organ. It is designed to appeal to amateur followers of 16mm. cameras as well as to the most advanced technicians. The columns of the magazine recognize the close relationship between the photographer and sound recorder. If your news or kodak dealer does not carry the magazine on its counters write for a sample copy to INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER SILAS E. SNYDER, Editor 1605 North Cahuenga Avenue, Hollywood, Calif. • 25 cents a copy #3 the year Eastern Representative: James J. Finn, 580 Fifth Ave., New York cury is run up or down in a thermometer by the application of heat or cold; and that two or three films of a similar theme were much more effective than one. Sons of the Gods, a film that shows the Chinese in a favorable light, made a whole townfull of children much more favorable to the Chinese than they were before, while Harold Lloyd's Welcome Danger carried Chinese stock, already low, to a still lower level. Birth of a Nation resulted disastrously to the standing of the negro among the children of the Illinois town where it was shown. The pro-negro film Hallelujah, if it had been used, might have moved popular sentiment toward the negro equally far in the other direction. Extensive tests made with films on different subjects thoroughly established the effectiveness of the film as an instrument of propaganda, even though it was not so intended by the producer. An effort to measure the total influence on children of the hundreds of thousands of films they had seen was not very successful. In view of the conglomerate and conflicting nature of film content it was a heroic undertaking at best. But quite aside from that, the reasons for its comparative failure are easy to see as one looks back upon it. The proposal was to discover and measure the differences between a group of non-movie-going children and an equated group of movie goers. No group of children unaffected by movie attendance and environment could be found. So, a group who went infrequently had to be compared with one that went more often ; that was not convincing. In the second place, the technic used was lacking in sensitiveness when compared with the technic used in determining the influence of a single film. Finally, it could not be determined by the technic whether the effects discovered were the result of selection or of movie-going. The failure of the study does not, of course, cast any doubts on the validity of the results of the other experiments that did successfully measure the changes in attitude caused by single films, or by groups of two or three films of like theme. It has been completely established that the film is a highly effective instrument for changing the social attitudes in great masses of people, and in either socially approved or disapproved directions. Behavior Patterns (5) Behavior. — The study of behavior patterns and conduct, as molded by the films, was so extensive that I can not attempt here to give even the slightest summary. It shows that the movie theatre is an educational system, a school of conduct — it may be desirable conduct, in socially helpful directions; it may be objectionable conduct leading to vulgarity, delinquency and crime. What the young child sees on the screen he accepts with much the same trustfulness that the fledgling in the nest displays in accepting food from the mother bird. A South American gentleman of education and culture, who had been several times in the eastern United States, said to a North American friend that in the visit he was then about to make he would land at a California port and see "wildwest." What this gentleman had seen on the screen had had validity for him. How much more does it have validity for the child! This attitude of trustfulness toward what is seen on the screen is not much shaded until well into high-school years, if even then. Occasionally an entire and startling change in personality takes place in children and youth under the influence of a screen star who is admired. Such influences on conduct reach their maximum effectiveness in the disorganized areas of great cities peopled by the foreign-born and their children. Among such un-Americanized populations the movie is shown to be one of the major resources from which to become acquainted with what they conceive— often mistakenly ; sometimes tragically — to be American ideals and ways. What the child sees on the screen he goes out and day-dreams about, imitates in his play, follows in his lovemaking, becomes a devoted worshipper of the screen stars who guide him into life. (To be Continued)