International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1931)

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314 The greatest cause of misunderstanding between the film companies and the schools in the past has been that the producer has had little knowledge of the practical problems of the classroom. The producer has failed to realise that the technique of education is not the technique of entertainment. A schoolmaster has to make people think, a film producer has, at any cost, to prevent such a box-office calamity. A film producer must make a direct appeal to his audience, and change the subject frequently to prevent boredom. It is a schoolmaster's business to prevent the subject being changed. Unless the educational film producer is conscious of the presence of the teacher as essential to the success of the lesson there is small hope of that understanding between them which alone can bring success. Unless one has had real experience of modern classroom methods, of driving a team of thirty or forty young minds along a certain definite track, it is hard to realise the exact function of the teacher. But the teacher has a function, and a technique, and it is the job of the educational film producer to understand it. It is not a question of eliminating the teacher, and probably no intelligent educationist has ever considered that the cinema could do such a thing. It is a question of helping the teacher, and that is why sympathy and understanding are the only key to the problem. And now for a few frank questions to the latest arrivals in the world of screen education. The talking picture companies assert that the silent film is as dead in the school as in the cinema. Perhaps we may be permitted to wonder if they are right. They have been so devastatingly right in the entertainment world, that it would be hardly surprising to see them stampede our educational institutions The Board of Education, however, is not the Public, and the talking picture educationists will need stronger ammunition than they have produced so far. Have they considered, for instance, that a running commentary made on a silent film by even a good teacher, is not educationally sound? With the juvenile mind, an attempt to engage both eyes and ears at one time will mean that the eyes have it. From the entertainment point of view, where hard work is not demanded of the senses, a spoken commentary can be very excellent. One would like to know if it is sound from the educational point of view. The study of drama and foreign languages by talking films has much in its favour, but it is impossible under present conditions in any but the very wealthiest private schools. Talking films have entered the arena just at the very moment when interest was being shown in the possibilities of the silent film in school. The trend of the film in school has been towards intimate classroom teaching with the 16 mm. projector. It is cheap, portable and easily operated. The best opinion has held that there is little future for the cinema when the children have to be moved to a larger hall for exhibitions. Teachers have begun to realise that within a reasonable distance of £ 20 they can equip themselves with efficient apparatus. Now they are asked fifty times