Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

12 REEL and SLIDE shop, where the students could be working at the bench or on the implement which they were studying while the projector could run continuously, giving suggestions or instructions. The one in charge of the shop could give his time more to the supervision of the students at their work. When the school is over, the outfit can be expressed to the next dealer. While, of course, this machine has its limitations, it also has its own particular advantages. One of the largest cement manufacturers is using this machine for both advertising .and instruction. In closing, the writer begs to mention one of the troubles which crop up so often in the preparation of educational slides and films. Lack of knowledge of the schoolroom and its psychology is the principal one. In addition to the careful preparation of instructive material, the preparation of the students to see same is as important. They must know beforehand exactly what they are to see, in order to appreciate it. Even if the illustrative material is not of the best, careful presentation by the lecturer can sometimes put it before the students in acceptable form. Judging from the interest in instructional films and slides, displayed over the country, much advancement can be expected within the coming year. Specialists are applying themselves to the problems. Students of visual instruction can study to good advantage the methods used by the large commercial companies with unlimited resources, in thier advertising and educational work. Various States Find Moving Pictures Useful in Good Roads Work By Henry A. Guthrie THE June issue of Reel and Slide announced that the United States Government had formed a program of moving pictures advocating Good Roads, following the lead taken by Illinois in promoting av $60,000,000 Bond Issue for hard surfaced highways. This state'ment appealed to me particularly as I handled the distribution of this film for the Illinois Highway Improvement Association and later directed a similar campaign for the Michigan State Good Roads Association. Both issues were carried by overwhelming majorities. Here indeed the moving picture demonstrated its power in helping to carry an election. These photoplay campaigns prove conclusively that they were more effective than the average speaker, billboard, newspaper or other medium usually employed. "Through Illinois Over Unchanged Roads in a World of Change," the picture used in the Illinois campaign, was a two reel subject produced for William G. Edens, President of the Illinois Highway Improvement Association. Several months' time was consumed in selecting suitable locations which were in different sections of the state. There was no attempt made to weave a love story or sentimental romance into the picture, but a logical sequence of the evolution of highway benefits and construction was kept foremost. Beginning with the day when the Indian broke the trail, the audience was shown the evolution of highway traffic and consequent need for improvement of roads. Children plodding through the mud on their way to the old district school house were contrasted with happy youngsters walking on smooth concrete to the modern consolidated school. Automobiles jolting along on ordinary roads were contrasted with Motor trucks and soldiers on good hard surfaced roads. One of the most effective scenes was a close-up of Governor Lowden urging the people to vote "yes" at the November election. So many favorable comments were received that the fame of this picture soon became nation-wide. When the Michigan State Good Roads Association planned their campaign, it was decided to follow the Illinois method and prepare a special picture to carry the amendment to their state constitution, authorizing the issue of $50,000,000 of Road Bonds. The result was a one reel subject, "The Roads to Yesterday — and Tomorrow," embodying the principal features of the Illinois story, but localized by the appearance of Governor Sleeper, urging the voters to carry the amendment. In each campaign ten copies of film were used and the "cross shipment" of booking was utilized successfully. This method was necessary owing to the demand for intensive circulation within a limited time period and the small number of prints. Each film moved on perfect schedule as telegrams were sent daily to exhibitors confirming previous shipping orders. Special one-sheet posters and attractive heralds were furnished free of charge to theaters in unlimited quantities. Three Reel Moving Picture Visualizes Publishing of Books By H. E. Maule (Editorial Department, Doubleday, Page & Co.) "How very little does the amateur, dwelling at home at ease, comprehend the labors and perils of the author, and, when he smilingly skims the surface of a work of fiction, how little does he consider the hours of toil, consultation of authorities, researches in the Bodleian, correspondence with learned and illegible Germans — in one word, the vast scaffolding that was first built up and then knocked down, to while away an hour for him in a railway train." — R. L. Stevenson, The Wrong Box. SO says R. L. S. in his delightful farce. You may substitute publisher for author in the sentence quoted and lose no truth. Most of those who read and enjoy books and magazine have little understanding of the interesting and complicated processes of their manufacture. Because we have found very great public interest in these matters, we have had about 3,000 feet of motion picture film photographed at the Country Life Press, showing the steps in book and magazine making from the arrival of the author with his manuscript to the purchaser's enjoyment of the completed novel or periodical. This film has been shown in many different parts of the country, and is at the disposal of colleges, schools, libraries, clubs, churches, and any other organizations that are interested. It is copyrighted and registered in the Copyright Office in Washington, 1916. But the film cannot tell everything, and we have prepared a little booklet to supplement the pictures seen on the screen. It is based on a lecture which has been given in several places by a member of our staff. In places where the film is shown the booklet may be read aloud as the film passes through the machine; the text follows the course of the film exactly. We will be glad to send copies of this booklet to anyone interested, or to supply any further information. By no means complete, the following sketch of the contents of the moving picture will serve to give an idea of the points pictured: The Author and the Editor : The author, having finished his manuscript, sends or brings it to the publisher. The Composing Room: The manuscript now begins its journey. After being recorded by the editorial department; the manufacturing department estimates, style, format, number of pages, type face, method of reproducing illustrations and other details of the book. Foundry and Pressroom : The film next shows us one of the big hydraulic presses in the foundry, where a wax mold is made of the type pages. The Bindery : From the pressroom the sheets are delivered on trucks to the sheet room. Here they are counted by hand, and then go to the folding machines. These fold 2,000 sheets per hour; they take two sheets of 32 pages (16 on each side) and deliver them as four 16-page "signatures" in four separate pockets. The Finishing Processes : Not less important than the inside of the book are the taste and care exercised in the preparation of the cover and the paper jacket that surrounds it. Shipping Room to Reader : This part of the film is self-explanatory. It may interest one to remember that the stockroom contains on the average from 350,000 to 400,000 books. Making Magazines : Neither the book film nor the reel devoted to magazines shows the processes of photo-engraving _ and making color plates. By these operations photographs, paintings, and black-and-white drawings are converted into the illustrations which are so important in making books and magazines attractive. Magazine Editorial Work : The editor of any magazine which caters to varied tastes and interests becomes little by little a man of a thousand brands of knowledge in a thousand fields. Binding, Trimming and Wrapping Magazines : The "Perfect Binder," an interesting machine made in Champagne, New York, is very successful in binding magazines in the same way that books are bound — so that they open flat without cracking or coming apart. In Conclusion: The reel closes by showing the actual purchase of a magazine in one of the bookshops in New York City, and then gives pictures of some subscribers putting to use the magazine they enjoy. So impressed was A. B. Jewett of the Ford Educatonal Weekly, with the value of this film, that he released a subject entitled "Good Roads," Ford Weekly No. 145. This splendid version will have world-wide distribution. Good Roads movements offer exceptional opportunity for motion picture publicity. Pupils of the Alton, 111., public schools are now receiving instruction by visualization with the moving picture machine recently purchased by the school board of that city. Recently in the Horace Mann school several reels of film on history themes and natural science were shown the pupils of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The pictures were in charge of R. V. Smith, an instructor, and were followed by class instruction. E. R. Sayre, physics instructor in the Theodore Roosevelt High school, has used the machine several times in his science classes. Films are received every two weeks and consist mostly of instructional subj ects.