Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1938)

January 29, 1938 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 69 3,250,000 PUBLIC WORKERS WOULD BE TRAINED BY MOTION PICTURES Making of Experimental Sound Films Is Proposed to Committee of Social Science Research Council A three point plan for expansion in the use of motion pictures as an aid to training public employees is recommended by John E. Devine in a 114 page report to the Committee on Public Administration of the Social Science Research Council. Mr. Devine, formerly on the staff of the Civil Service Assembly of the United States and Canada, proposed that: 1. "A continuing research project be established for determining the most valuable subjects for public employe training, and definitely establishing what value motion pictures would carry in such training. 2. "Several experimental sound films be made for training in the police, fire and prison fields. 3. "A national distributing . plan be worked out so that these pictures will benefit as many as possible of the 3,250,000 public employees in the United States. In a foreword to the report Louis Brownlow, chairman of the committee, explained that Mr. Devine had been commissioned to make the report "in response to the increasing evidences of interest in the use of films as an aid in the training of public employees on the part of groups of public officials and educators especially concerned with public service training." Mr. Devine's study of the field showed that "taking the films which have thus far been used for public employees' training and remodeling them, duplicating them hundreds of times, and depositing them generally over the country will not satisfy the need which now exists for films in public employee training courses." Mr. Devine also pointed out that very few of the training films in use were actually produced for that purpose. In the case of fire films, he continued, the pictures, for the most part, were made by insurance companies for the education of the public in regard to fire prevention. Potential Users Cited Admitting that not all possible uses of the film were cited, Mr. Devine named the United States Employment Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Social Security Board, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the United States Army, state and local police and fire departments, prisons, public health and welfare organizations and departments of public works as potential users of employee-training motion pictures. However, Mr. Devine continued, the path is not clear for the general acceptance of films for training public employees. "Several conditions exist," he wrote, "which will delay for some time the desired general use of such films. "One of the most formidable of these impediments is the higher cost of films as com NEA DONATES FILM TO HELP TEACHERS Designed to train teachers in methods of progressive education under the activity program of the New York City board of education, a sixreel motion picture showing groups of elementary school children learning by doing has been donated to the city by the metropolitan branch of the visual instruction department of the National Education Association. Each unit of study is divided into six stages, conference, excursion, research, instruction, dramatization, and sharing of experiences. The film was produced on 16 mm. film and directed by H. Threlkeld Edwards, a member of the visual instruction department of the NEA. pared with other methods of factual presentation. . . . Equipment Cost Problem "In addition to the fact that the costs of producing, renting and buying films are serious deterrents to the use of films in public employee training, the cost of projection equipment is really a more serious difficulty. . . . "Before films can be used as a regular part of in-service training programs, the instructors must be trained in the proper use of instructional films. . . . "The improper use of films has been one of the stumbling blocks of educational films in the schools. The public service would do well to remember this and when films are introduced, some method of training the instructors should be provided. . c . "One of the things which has held up the use of films in the schools most seriously and which will more than likely have the same effect in the public service, is the persistence of many persons in thinking of films only as a form of entertainment. . . ." For the production of an instructional film, Mr. Devine explained that three participants are required: "an expert in the subject matter, a teacher to tell how to present the material with the most desirable pedagogical effect, and a technical motion picture director." Notes Technical Advance As for the cost of producing an instructional film, Mr. Devine pointed out that industrial films companies could do a satisfactory job in making public employee training films. He then bemoaned the fact "that instructional films have not been able to benefit directly from the great technical development which the motion pictures have undergone in Hollywood in recent years." "The large entertainment picture companies," Mr. Devine continued, "have carried the making of films to a high degree of (.Continued on following page, column 3) Journal of Educational Sociology Devotes Entire Issue to Articles on the Motion Picture in Instruction Educators' increasing interest in motion pictures as an educational medium was evinced when the Journal of Educational Sociology devoted an entire issue of the monthly publication to the "educational aspects of the motion pictures." In nine articles, the majority of which were written by educators, were discussed the various ways in which films are looked upon by teachers and professors as an adjunct to their profession. Titles of the articles included : "The Film as an Agency of British-American Understanding," "Interest of the League of Nations in Motion Pictures in Relation to Child Welfare," "Civic Education and the Motion Pictures," "Educational Possibilities of Motion Pictures," "Extending the Use of Motion Pictures for Physical Education," "Motion Pictures : A Social and Educational Force, "Rescuing Civilization Through Motion Pictures," and "Motion Picture Appreciation in the New Haven Schools." Chief British Source In the first, a copyrighted article written by Frank Darvall of the English Speaking Union of the British Empire, it was announced : "American films are the chief British source of interest and knowledge so far as the American people and their history, country and life are concerned. . . . "Indeed the tempo of British life itself is being altered by the impact of the United States, an impact which would be far less powerful upon Britain were it not for the domination of the American film over the British screen." Mr. Darvall continued by pointing out that the British people have gained a wrong impression of the United States through films and added that "even radio and education, the two great propaganda agencies in Britain which are not compelled to give the public what it thinks it wants, are powerless to correct the wrong impression. . . ." 1,000 Schools Equipped The article also explained that about 1,000 British educational institutions are equipped with film projectors. "On the whole," Mr. Darvall continued, "British education today is proceeding along the same lines that it would have done had the radio and the talking film never been invented." After a comparison of the films produced in Britain and those produced in America, Mr. Darvall concluded with the observation: "It is, however, not often recognized how internationally important films are. Nor is it fully realized that the film, as the most powerful current propaganda medium, to some extent sets the level for the press and even, in some countries, the radio. These vital facts cannot, however, be overlooked by British people who are conscious of the vast influence of American films upon their view of America and upon their life as a whole." The publication's second article, written by Ruth Bloodgood of the children's bureau, United States Department of Labor, was based upon (Continued on following page, column 1 )