Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

DON R. EGBERT, Managing Editor NEW YORK OFFICE: 1022 LONGACRE BUILDING, Forty-second Street and Broadway Telephone Bryant 7030 CHARLES W BRENNAN, Advertising Manager LOS AN6ELES OFFICE: 6035 HOLLYWOOD BLVD., MABEL CONDON, Western Representative NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Changes of advertising copy should reach the office of publication not less than fifteen days In advance of date of issue. Regular date of issi'" every Saturday y^=r. THE MOTION PICTURE TRADE JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ELECTRICITY MAGAZINE CORPORATION FRED W. SCHWAMB, President and Treasurer PAUL H. WOODRUFF, Secretary and Editor in Chief MONADNOCK BUILDING CHICAGO, ILL. Branch Telephone Exchange: Harrison 3014 Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second Class Mail Matter. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Per Year $3.00 Canada Per year $4.00 Foreign Per year 5.00 Single copy .15 NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS Remittances— Remittances should be made by check. New York draft or money order in favor of Motography. Foreign subscriptions may be remitted direct by International Postal Money Order. Change of Address— The old address should be given as well as the new. and notice should be received two weeks In advance of the desired change. This publication is free and independent of all business or house connections or control. No manufacturer or supply dealer, or their stockholders or representatives, have any financial interest in Motography or any voice in its management or policy. Volume XIX CHICAGO, MAY 4, 1918 Number 18 Religious and Educational Pictures WHILE the annual convention of the National Education Association held a few weeks ago ignored or avoided the subject of instruction by motion pictures, the Religious Education Association devoted to it a full conference session. Evidently the church people have lost the leadership in the gentle art of ultra-conservatism. School pictures and church pictures obviously belong in the same category. Both are seriously educational and wholly outside of the influence represented by the terms "entertainment" and "amusement." Both make exceptionally strict demands upon the producer, because error in production does not merely reduce the effectiveness, as in amusement work, but absolutely destroys the value of the product. In addition to that, those who handle the films must contend with the personal idiosyncrasies of the people in the education and religious fields. In the Bulletin of the Affiliated Committees for Better Films, Assistant Secretary Herbert F. Sherwood of the National Board of Review says of the difficulties of religious film service: "The chief problems to be met in adapting the motion picture to church use are those involved in the development of a plan of distribution and the acceptance by religious leaders of the conditions which interfere with the production of pictures intended especially for church audiences. The smallness of the profit, the relative lack of interest in definitely religious subjects, the differences in point of view regarding the methods of treating Biblical stories in order to give them dramatic form, the absence of standards to serve as a basis for the selection of pictures, and the difficulty of picturizing satisfactorily in physical form highly idealized personages, all serve to complicate the problem. There are many pictures, however, which may be used as a whole or in part as illustrations of ethical principles to point a moral, and scenic pictures which can be used in connection with Biblical study." The problems of the school film are really much simpler, consisting in most part of a demand for absolute accuracy and authenticity. It is not even essential that school films be attractive in the entertainment sense ; for any picture holds the attention more firmly than the most skillfully prepared text book. The church workers are doing all they can to develop the use of pictures, in spite of rather difficult requirements; and there is little doubt that this field will enjoy a slow but healthy expansion. The school situation is somewhat different. The business of publishing text books is large and prosperous because the major part of the product is sold directly to the public. School boards dictate what books shall be used; the students buy them in the open market — at least it is theoretically open. This encouragement of private enterprise makes for large and cheap production, and consequently a good product. If some way could be devised for collecting text-book prices from the students to pay for the purchase or rental of films which took the place of such books, the problem would be simplified. The producer would be assured of a reward for his effort, and would be enabled to develop the field still further.