World Film and Television Progress (1937-1938)

PEOPLE WITH PURPOSES Readers will welcome this helpful summary of what is happening in propaganda, religion, advertising, education FILM as propaganda. The political parties make films, or exhibit them, in support of their views. The National Government and the Liberals use "prosperity" films, specially created to publicise the recent trade recovery, while the ordinary newsreels recently showed a long and brilliantly presented sequence in justification of the new defence programme, and frequent shots of troops and battleships mirror the ideals and intentions of the government. Specially created films are used in country districts where a film-show is a novelty, either in support of candidatures or for background propaganda. The Labour parties are active in the use of films : The Defence of Madrid, The International Column in Action and a Soviet film The Road to Life have recently had showings in various parts of the country. National propaganda (Come to Britain) is in its early stages, but already a fair number of films have been made for export by the Travel Association. The Canadian Government shows films in this country, and the Irish Tourist Association contemplates a film campaign of some pretensions. Film as publicity. As distinct from background propaganda, film is used by some of the larger industrial and transport interests for direct or indirect publicity. Ford and Morris and Austins give film displays in showrooms and lecture halls. All the Railways have adopted film as the natural extensions of the free lantern slides they have provided for years. Polytechnic Tours, Cooks, I.C.I., Cadburys, National Benzole, Boots, Courtaulds, the Gas Light and Coke Co., the Book Council, Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board, Shell, H.M.V. These are some of the interests which use film as part of their publicity campaigns. Film as instruction. Emphasis on school-films tends to obscure the fact that films are being widely used in conjunction with lectures to adults. Air-raid precautions are taught by film in many places. Miners are taught safety measures by film. Lecture and demonstrations to women are illustrated with films on machine-sewing, jam making, etc. ; such hobbies as football and photography are the subject of other films for adult audiences ; engineers use film in lecturing on glassmaking, marine engines, steel hardening, brickmaking ; and doctors enlist film in lecturing on the prevention of venereal disease, tuberculosis and diphtheria. Film and Church. The most interesting of all users of non-theatrical film is the Church. It was stated recently at Nottingham by the general secretary of the Religious Film Society that the Society has produced about thirty specialised films for evangelical purposes, and that the demand for such films was overtaxing the powers and resources of the producers. This is at first sight amazing, for not one of the commercial films mentioned above has anything like thirty films : in fact most of them have only made one or two. But we must bear in mind that the Church is one of the biggest concerns in the country, with branches everywhere, so that it is natural that even preliminary experiments in the use of film should be on a far bigger scale than those of business houses. Here are some titles of religious films : The Sin Bearer, The Life of Joseph, The Life of Christ (4 hours), God in Nature and the Human Soul, Sheba's God, Barabbas, Giants and Grasshoppers, The Common Round, Light in Livingstone's Land. Shortage of religious films has caused some churchmen to use commercial films as attraction for religious meetings. This has caused comment from the local trade in some places. If spite of trade opposition, the movement for religious films is developing rapidly. The official organ of the U.F. Church of Scotland, "Stedfast," recently published an article in support of church films. Pioneer work is being done by individual ministers in parts of England (e.g. Sheffield and Bristol). Outside this movement and violently opposed to film in all its aspects are the Irish Bishops, who continue to fulminate against the influence of what they consider to be a dangerous and disruptive social force. Film and State. The Empire Marketing Board made about a hundred films. The G.P.O. has already made about forty. The War Office has made about a score of films, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries about a dozen, and films have also been made by the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Labour. Of these, the E.M.B. and G.P.O. films and some of the others are conceived in very broad terms as instruments of public address. Some of them on the other hand are technical instruction films for domestic use. " Mastership " Religious Film So.iely "The church . . . one of the biggest concerns in the country ... its film activities will be on a bigger scale than those of business houses." Film holds out great possibilities for public instruction and civic education, for social analysis and report, for exposition of policy. But things move slowly in the meantime. The Ministry of Health, for instance, seems to have made no films at all, a very surprising thing: this Ministry indeed left it to the Gas, Light and Coke Company to make Housing Problems and Enough to Eat, two of the most brilliant essays in public instruction that have so far been seen. R.F. Cost of Shows, per head Austin Motor Company film programmes in their dealers' showrooms and local lecture halls cost, on an average, 9d. per head of the audience. Cadbury Brothers spend 6d. a head on showing a 1^-hour programme of films to family audiences ; and 3d. per head on showing a dealerinstructional film to confectioners. J. F. Bramley, of Austin Motors, says : "Our figure is much higher than Cadburys because we have to go to a different class of people — the class likely to buy a motor-car. Even at ninepence a head, we consider our film advertising very economical and we propose to continue it. We get the attention of those people for over an hour, plus the opportunity of showing them our new models and putting a catalogue into their hands." we have 2 DAYS of RECKONING Our films have to please two interested parties. The advertiser demands that our films make sales. Cinema managers demand that our films are good entertainment. Well, we're still in business after a good many years -and last year's output was 68 per cent up on the previous year. So we must be making SUCCESSFUL advertising films EUROPE'S LARGEST SELF-CONTAINED ADVERTISING FILM ORGANISATION PUBLICITY FILMS Ltd Managing Director : G. E. TURNER FTLMICITY HOUSE £ § % S TELEPHO^R: upper ST.MARTHJ'S £ ^9-^^Sl*k Temple Bar LANE, W.C.2 I y {§ ** 0482 33