Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

Talking Pictures film industry as a whole. Many corrections were made in cameras and in celluloid film formulas as a result of the months spent in the incredible cold of the South Pole by two newsreel cameramen with Admiral Byrd. Many scientists who may never go on such an expedition can study the South Pole terrain leisurely and check their own conclusions by important visual data, gained through such pictures. A Servant of the People is a short subject illustrative of the effective film use which can be made of important historical facts. The picture is a short cinematic history of the writing of the Constitution of the United States. It supplements written texts in a significant manner. History students may now see the signers of the Constitution come to life, hear them debating each clause of the document, and hear the personal and human side of the States' rights controversy. It is evident that the motion picture is, in films like this, indicating an approach to a new method of teaching history, a method which will greatly vitalize the subject. It is essential that significant basic material will always be found in books and records, but the time is at hand when the camera can and will supply valuable supplementary material. A photographic record of a president's campaign speeches, his inauguration, his various accomplishments and failures, would aid in making the United States history of the future more clearly intelligible to our citizens. More and more the cinema is opening new doors. Geography, natural science, and geology have gained new appeal values when discussed in the pictorial form. [250]