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The intensity of light recommended could not be at all deleterious, being considerably more subdued than that usually allowed in schools, hospitals, libraries, theatres, and other places where a number of persons are wont to gather for one reason or another. The study cited compares the intensity of light desirable in cinemas during the suspension of projection with that usual in the corridors of schools and hospitals, underground passages, and sickrooms, which is the minimum to see by.
But it is not the intensity of light in itself that does harm, it is the brusque change from semi-darkness to bright illumination, a gradation which is wont to jump 29 lux according to the table we have quoted. And this, as we have above said, could easily be obviated by lighting up gradually or by the use of coloured lamps.
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In a general way, for adults, it would be sufficient to have recourse to technical means (to get rid of " intermittence ", to regulate the speed of projection, improve the presentation of the captions, daylight screens, or grey-toned screens, or screens in penumbra).
But in the case of children and adolescents, who are, moreover, from all statistical returns, the most assiduous of cinema-goers, the problem is different and must be considered from two different points of view — that of public shows and that of school projections or special shows for children.
There is no great difficulty in the second case, where cinematographic representations are placed in the hands of teachers and psychologists, or, in general, of those persons or bodies whose business and interest it is to safeguard the young.
But it is a much more complicated question in the case of public exhibbitions, in which children form part of a mixed audience, and at which longfootage reels are shown. The average length of " feature " films is from 1500-2500 metres, generally divided into three or four parts.
Calculating that each photogram measures 18 millimetres in height and that the normal rate of projection is about 20-24 photograms per second, it would take (without interruption) from 60 to 62 minutes to show a reel measuring 1500 metres, and from one and a half to two hours to show a reel measuring 2500 metres.
Each part, measuring about 500 metres would take from about 20 to 23 minutes to show. Thus the eyes of the onlookers must follow the more or less harmonious movements of the actors on the screen for more than a third of an hour at a time.
This may be very well for adults who do not suffer from eye trouble and who are not of a neurotic temperament, but it cannot certainly be desirable for children and adolescents, even if they are ocularly and psychically sound. The least harmful results are likely to be a form of eyestrain which in the long run, may produce the typical " cinema headache ", or may objectivate and produce disturbances of a visual and nervous order.
It has been said and repeated that shows for children ought not, at the outside, to last longer than from 10 to 15 minutes; at the end of which a