World Film News and Television Progress (Apr 1936-Mar 1937)

AND TELEVISION MANIFESTO By Alberto Cavalcanti, Cedric Belfrage, Thorold Dickenson, John Grierson and Graham Greene We appreciate the fact that televisioii must develop slowly. We appreciate the need for a preliminary period of test and experiment. We realise tliat from the television qualities and B.B.C. monies at first available we can only expect the simplest results. But we remember with concern tliat the tradition of radio is to REPRODUCE. We ask an assurance from the B.B.C. that the new medium— at least in part— will be used to CREATE. Part I THE USE OF FILM TELEVISION MUST BE KEPT WITHIN THE LIMITS OF EFFECnVE VISUAL PRESENTATION. Magic lantern levels and direct demonstration from maps, etc., should not be despised if they give a higher quality of definition. Better good magic lantern than bad film. Better good information than crude ass.hetic. CONSIDER FIRST THE FIELDS WHICH ARE NOT NOW EFFECTIVELY COVERED BY THE MOVIE THEATRES. The announced programme — ^with its emphasis on news-reel and cine-magazine — suggests an imitation of the trifles now satisfactorily supplied to the public in its weekly film programmes. A repetition of film news-reels is superfluous and beneath the level of news announcement we expect from the B.B.C. Far better to have the B.B.C.'s own news service, with simple illustrations. This need not be dramatised Uke The March of Time, but might be presented with a straightforward use of maps and stills. It might incorporate different points of view and different levels of appreciation. Let the B.B.C. in these matters create standards for the film trade, and not vice-versa. CONSIDER THE MORE PRIVATE ATMOSPHERE IN WHICH TELEVISION WILL DEVELOP. Television represents showmanship to the same people who go to the theatres, but to the same people in a different mood. The atmosphere of the home and the smallness of the screen emphasise the privacy of television. It should not be taken for granted, therefore, that film sequence can satisfactorily be transferred to the television screen. The B.B.C. should consider the possibility of television sequence being a new craft which must be discovered and built up by the B.B.C. itself. A training in existing film technique may be less useful than is now supposed. With these qualifications, film may be regarded as a principal factor in the television scheme. FILM PROVIDES A STORE AND LIBRARY FOR IMAGES. IT GIVES RANGE TO TELEVISION. FILM PERMTTS EFFECTIVE AND RICH EDITORIAL WORK. IT ALLOWS TELEVISION A CREATIVE AS DISTINCT FROM A REPRODUCrrVE ROLE. TELEVISION AS AN ART MEDIUM DEPENDS ON THE USE OF FILM. FILM ELIMINATES CLUMSY METHODS OF TIMING. Present B.B.C. methods of production, while preserving — and over a large part of the field rightly preserving — direct contact with broadcasters, appear to the film mind naive. The organisation of production through many microphones and many cubicles allows of only the simplest forms. Where mechanical means can ensure the consideration and reconsideration of sequence and tempo, and determine beforehand the technical perfection of a broadcast, it is foolish not to take advantage of mechanical means. FILM PERMITS EXPERIMENT. Most important criticisms of B.B.C. working are as foUows: The administrative and executive staffs are too detached from each other: consequently, the creative staff lacks the incentive of real responsibility. The fear of mistakes tends, in both staffs, to create inhibition, diminish energy, cynicise ambition and weaken results. The preparation of programmes on film will enable the creative staff to experiment, and the administrative staff to consider experiment, before broadcast. FILM ESTABLISHES TECHNICAL STANDARDS. A film basis for television will give to the B.B.C. what it has long lacked: a body of established technical standards which personnel may consider and absorb and develop. It will give the B.B.C. an effective body of criticism. It has been difficult to build a body of criticism among the evanescent impressions of direct broadcast. Part II THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE AUDIENCE will be published in next month's WFN. Edward VIII and Broadcasting It was a matter of common belief if not of knowledge that His late Majesty was a devoted listener to the B.B.C. programmes. Many believed that he exercised an indirect but powerful influence on B.B.C. style and programmes. The maintenance of the dignities and respectabilities of an old but swiftly passing generation has been a principal feat of Sir John Reith's directorship. The conjecture now is what the influence of the new King will be on Broadcasting House. His methods are less obviously ceremonial. He gives daily evidence of a practical common-sense outlook on national problems fitted to our time and mood. One paper already reports the discarding of the celebrated but ornate microphones of Buckingham Palace. The King, with admirable directness, decides to make his Empire broadcast from the B.B.C. itself.