Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1930-1949)

and that the requested film will be a good teaching film. The production outline is submitted to the Navy Film Production Board of Review. This board is made up of officers representing the training and fiscal parts of the Navy. They determine what training films are to be produced, the priority and the basic specifications for each film. For a film to be approved, the need must be justified, the plan must appear educationally sound and the project must represent a wise expenditure of public funds. If the Navy Film Production Board of Review approves the project, the Bureau of Aeronautics assigns it to the Motion Picture Branch of the Naval Photographic Center for production. It becomes either an NPC production done entirely with NPC facilities or an NPC contract production done with the assistance of a commercial studio. Productions done entirely at the Center are normally those of the highest security classifications or those requiring shooting on location or intermittent photography that cannot be done efficiently by commercial studios. Regardless of how the film is to be produced, the Photographic Center assigns the project to one of its twenty project supervisors. The requesting part of the Navy assigns a technical adviser. These two individuals supervise the preparation of a script. In all cases where art or animation is to be included in the film, the script includes a detailed storyboard. The resulting script must be more than technically correct. •It must be capable of being produced at a reasonable expenditure of time and money. Expensive color is used only if it will contribute to the teaching quality of the film. The comparatively inexpensive filmagraph is used rather than the motion picture if the former will accomplish the film purpose as effectively. If a short film will do the job, no padding out is permitted. The script must be consistent with the specifications laid down by the Navy Film Production Board of Review, in accord with governmental policy and in good taste in all respects. It must lend itself to becoming a good film from the point of view of direction, photography, editing and sound. Above all it must be educationally valid. It is on the educational side that we are making perhaps our most outstanding contribution. Emphasis on educational effectiveness is placed at the script stage. If the script is educationally sound and if the production follows the script, there will be little difficulty in making the resulting film educationally sound. We shall not discuss our educational standards in detail here, but it may be helpful to indicate a few of the general principles followed. The scriot should make the learner aware of what is expected of him. The script should be carefullv organized around the chief instructional values to be gained from the film, and this organization should be prominent in the presentation. The detailed development of every part of the film should be slow and clear in pictures and words, with primary emphasis on informative picturization. The treatment should be consistent with the film purpose and should generally be expository rather than telling a story or hanging on "gimmicks." The commentary should be simple, precise, brief, direct, dignified and closely integrated with the pictures. The introduction should be no longer than necessary to take the learners from where they are in information to the body of the film. The conclusion should reinforce the chief learnings. Obviously, the project supervisor must lean heavily on education and cost experts to make sure that he is meeting all his responsibilities at the script stage. In the same way the technical adviser must lean on other experts on fine points of the film content. July 1952 Journal of the SMPTE Vol. 59