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

the prestige of instructional techniques identified with teachers. However, the relationship of scientific research in nuclear physics to the engineering development of the atomic bomb had the indirect effect of raising the status of scientific research in the American value system. The soft-spoken professor, with umbrella and academic detachment, achieved sudden and unprecedented status. Consequently, academic research on motion picture influences and on factors which increase effectiveness of motion pictures in training and information has today achieved a prestige and a measure of governmental support completely unknown before World War II. The net effect of instructional film research has been the renewed emphasis in nontheatrical film production on application of these techniques. Where teachers failed to influence producers of teaching films the research technician, working under controlled laboratory conditions and employing such terms as "audience participation" to describe what was formerly referred to as "reciting" and "classroom drill," has succeeded in raising by halo effect the status of instructional techniques as a recognized element of training and informational films. Our discussion of the relationship of these two factors, i.e., (1) instructional film research findings and (2) television emphasis on rapid, low-cost programming, to current trends and innovations in training and informational film production will be organized around three topics: first, story treatment; second, studio methods; and third, preproduction analysis and planning. I. Story Treatment There are several things about the story treatment of the Signal Corps' experimental film, TF 11-1752 How to Operate the Army 76mm Sound Projector Set., that were intended to serve the dual purpose of cutting production time and cost and increasing training effectiveness of the film. First, we incorporated into this film a number of instructional principles which have firm foundation in current theory of educational and social psychology. One such principle, long stressed by William A. Brownell, distinguished educational psychologist, is that instructional materials, to be instructionally effective, must be produced so as to reflect process of learning, not simply the product of learning. Following this dictum, story treatment of TF 11-1752 was developed so as to teach operation of the projector in the way trainees actually behave in learning this operation, and not exclusively to demonstrate the way projectionists behave after they have learned and practiced their lessons. To do this, two characters were created: Jim, the trainee; and the off stage voice of the expert. This provided two models for the audience: the one who could be imitated immediately, and the other who represented a model of future performance. The technique of the off-stage voice had been used previously by the Signal Corps in production at the end of World War II of a series of films on map reading. Jim, the trainee, was carefully developed in the scenario and carefully cast. His ability to handle the projector set, clean it and operate it is established on a level slightly above that of the complete novice, but somewhat below that of the expert. Occasionally, in the picture, Jim steps out of his role and for a moment is master both of the machine and of the practical aspects of the theory. But, characteristically, Jim is the pleasantly alert and occasionally forgetful American young man, temporarily in Army uniform, who prides himself on his ability to master machines and complicated equipment. Jim is objectified on the screen. He can be seen and heard and his performance can be carefully observed and easily Hoban and Moses: Cameo Production Technique 197