Moving Picture World (Nov - Dec 1918)

1512 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 28, 1918 Motion Picture Educator Conducted by REV. W. H. JACKSON and MARGARET I. MACDONALD What Will the Film Producer Do Toward Meeting Educational Demands of Future IT has seemed to many of us that the producer has used short sighted methods in dealing with what now promises to become one of the biggest assets of the screen, the educational film. In his eagerness to serve public taste he has concentrated all his efforts of salesmanship on the film of entertaining characteristics, and has left the educational aspect of the situation to take care of itself. That this should have been the case inasmuch as there appeared on the surface of things no ready market for a class of film which served chiefly to educate, is not at all singular. And inasmuch as schools and other educational institutions desiring to make use of the moving picture looked for something for nothing by force of a circumstance for which the boards of finance were chiefly responsible, it was difficult for the producer to bring himself to a frame of mind which justified a concentrative effort on something that promised an insufficient financial return. With one or two exceptions the educational department of the producer's ware rooms has lacked the necessary elements of salesmanship. There has been little or no effort made to advertise films of an educational nature in a manner that would reach the ultimate consumer which is undoubtedly the educational institution. And there has been only the weakest kind of an effort made to preserve in usable shape the vast collection of educational pictures which the industry has turned out in the last ten to twelve years. During this period extensive libraries of films have been collected, have been tried out in a way, and have finally been dissolved»and disseminated to different parts of the earth; and many of their members have dropped into oblivion. What were left after the dismemberment have frequently been redressed, reassembled and converted if possible into brief bits of theatre entertainment to be used as "fillers." In the majority of cases these have been travel or zoological subjects, and the educational film in a truly educational aspect for the time ceased to be. This term of hibernation we have reason to believe is over. The great war has come and gone; and out of its ruins has arisen a spectre which is rapidly being transformed into a vastly real and material thing. This "thing" is a universal appreciation of the uses to which the moving picture film can be put apart from its theatrical attributes. The tremendous possibilities of the screen in every walk of education, in every branch of science is no longer a supposition. The idea is about to evolve itself into a demand. The majority of educational institutions throughout the country are already equipped with projection machines and necessary adjuncts for the use' of the film. The Department of Labor is busying itself with the awakening of sluggish responsibilities. It is probing the consciousness of the educationist. The community worker by means of the film is striving to solve social and moral problems which the war has revealed, and our Government has realized its unlimited usefulness as a distributor of propaganda. What, then, are you, the producer, going to do to meet that demand of the near future which will serve not only the purposes of the best influences of civilization, but also those of the exchequer of the in " MARGARET I. MACDNOALD. New England Expresses Itself. The fresh interest of the public in the subject of motion pictures following the war was indicated at two meetings held recently in Danielson, Conn., and Worcester, Mass. The former was held in the High School building of the town under the auspices of the Killingly Woman's Club, while the latter meeting, which took place in the Free Public Library building, was called by the Worcester Board of Review of Motion Pictures, composed of forty-nine representatives of civic and social organizations of the city. Both of these meetings were addressed by Orrin G. Cocks, Advisory Secretary of the National Board of Review. At the former the subjects discussed were the importance of the motion picture in connection with the war, the advances made in the motion picture art, and the use of selected motion pictures for young people. Questions were asked regarding the possibility of greater cooperation^ with the exhibitor in connection with "family nights" and the use of pictures considered particularly suitable for young people. The Worcester Board of Review of Motion Pictures, purely voluntary in its organization, works in cooperation with The National Board and the city officials. At the meeting great interest was shown in the marked developments of the motion picture in the course of the last three years and the patriotic service of the motion picture industry. The discussion which followed the address centered around parental responsibility in the attendance of young people at motion picture exhibitions, the opportunities for the larger use of educational pictures, and the possibility of extended family programs. The audience appeared to appreciate the impracticability of State action as a means of regulating the motion picture industry, supporting rather the opinion that a volunteer review of pictures on a national basis, such as is conducted by The National Board, was more suitable in a democracy. To Make Film in Kentucky Mountains. Harry Levey, of the Industrial Department of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, is arranging for a trip into the Kentucky Mountains for the purpose of photographing conditions as they are known to exist in these parts, and also the beneficial results of the community work being carried on by Alice Geddes Lloyd. It is three years now since Mrs. Lloyd journeyed into the mountains of Kentucky and laid the foundation for a philanthropic work, which has grown more and more extensive. She has taught these primitive people many useful truths regarding modern methods of living. The community work being done by her is of a most interesting type, all of which is expected to be brought out in the film which Mr. Levey is about to make. Films of Business Active. The Films of Business Corporation seems to be unusually active since the return of the industry to more normal conditions. It has established a service for foreign distribution of industrial pictures. This points to a larger appreciation of the values of the industrial film and suggests the existence of a cooperative spirit in the relations between commerce and screen, which should mean larger developments in the business assets of both. The first foreign shipment of industrial film from the Films of Business Corporation left for Cuba last week. A vocational school on the Pacific Coast has just purchased for use in its class rooms a copy of this company's "Mephisto" auger bit picture, and has ordered a copy of their latest on Stafford's ink, which has just been completed. Look to Goldwyn for Ford Weekly. The Goldwyn Distributing Corporation has contracted for the distribution rights of the Ford Educational Weekly. This means, among other things, that all the Ford negatives, past and present, will be under the control of Goldwyn. It also means that the pictures will be re-edited and re-titled, and will be placed before the public a la Goldwyn. The Ford Educational .Weekly has made rapid gain in popularity owing to the excellent quality of both material and photography employed in the making of it. Reviews of the first Goldwyn releases will appear in these columns very shortly. Foreign Titles for Biological Film. Mrs. Katherine F. Carter of the Exhibitors Booking Agency has been un