Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (1950-1954)

From the sponsor's point of view, whether an influencing film is expected to extend and reinforce, or to reorganize and redirect the present behavior of the intended audience, a given film is ineffective unless it is planned, produced, distributed and used as one of a series of related and cumulative experiences operating in a common direction and all designed for the same specific viewers in the audience. When it is the purpose of the sponsor to redirect behavior patterns and to reorient the motivations of an audience such as a group of Navy trainees, it may be necessary to reinforce the film with complementary impacts through other nonfilm avenues of instruction. A second principle is that the behavior-influencing impact of film is usually specific and not general. Discussion. The principle that films have a specific effect holds for all informational objectives. The cumulative effect of related films shown over a period of time and/or reinforced by other means of instruction may be general. Even here, however, this general influence is limited to the area of the instructional content of the films. Application. From the production point of view, the sponsor has to be brought to the realization that instructional or informational films must be designed to achieve very specific objectives. A statement of film objectives in general terms is of little value to either a sponsoring or a producing agency. Failure to define the film objectives specifically at the planning stage of production is a handicap which makes it highly improbable that the film will be effective in influencing behavior or otherwise creating conditions for viewer recollection. (Throughout this digest that aspect of viewer recollection which relates to the entertainment value of the film is excluded as being irrelevant to educational objectives.) The third principle is that required film influence increases directly as the content of the film matches the specific audience response required by the sponsors. Discussion. The subject of the film and the way that subject matter is treated is instrumental always and only to a specific end product of audience response. This means that the behavior pattern that the film is intended to produce must be directly related to the content and treatment of the film. Application. It is necessary for the film sponsor to spell out the instructional or informational objectives in terms of the specific behavior the film is intended to influence. This means sponsors must indicate what or how the viewers are expected to know, think, feel or do as a result of seeing the films they buy. When the film purpose is established in this specific way, production time, facilities and expense can be materially saved by the omission of content and treatment irrelevant to the specific behavior the film is intended to produce. The effectiveness of a given film may be increased by audience participation relevant to the informational objectives. The fourth principle is that variations in the prejudices or predispositions of the audience influence the reactions to a specific motion picture. Discussion. Some elements of these variations depend upon audience literacy, abstract intelligence, formal education, age, sex, or previous experience in the subject. Differences in heredity and social experience mean equivalent differences in reaction to the film, and these differences seem to increase with maturity. It has been found that intelligence and formal education are directly related. Viewers of above-average intelligence and education learn more from films than those with average or below-average education. Below-average education viewers learn 438 May 1952 Journal of the SMPTE Vol. 58