MAKING FILMS THAT TEACH

[Music] [Music] so [Music] you've got it easy hanging there you've seen a lot of films around here i wish you were here to help me write this [Music] right [Music] quite soon boy quite so what who are you phil magic me boy from my place in the frame there i've seen many an interesting film many have warmed my heart as an educator but so i know if i could only help our teachers know how to evaluate teaching films uh what to look for well what does it say and how effectively does it say it well there's a third thing that applies to a film does it make a unique contribution to learning a contribution that can be made best by the motion picture don't tell me show me after all a motion picture should be visual that's right well here are some of the things that go into the making of a film first of all a teaching film needs thorough research it must be carefully planned for his purpose not factory made it can be written in a day or two out of a single chapter in a textbook [Music] it calls for a careful study of school curricula throughout the country the film must be correlated with textbook handling of the material the research must include a survey of advanced knowledge on the subject and a study of the most modern professional techniques for teaching it as a whole should be reviewed by distinct consultants men who make education as well as practice it in addition each subject has to get individual attention from a staff of experts who have to function not only as educators but as businessmen since every film costs thousands of dollars to make the film's producer ought to be chosen as much for his occasional background as for his filmmaking ability in order to give professional continuity to the film he should be responsible for it from its earliest planning stages to its completion he should work closely with an educational collaborator a man outstanding in the subject area of the film now these two men are ultimately responsible for the educational and pictorial quality of the film all right we've explained the structure of a muscle and of the individual muscle fiber now how can we best show what's inside the cell well i i don't know we've been doing some wonderful things lately let me show you i've got a new one right here it is the subject material must be accurate but the film must also be carefully planned for the right grade level we want to find a simple way to get these ideas across to primary grade children we've been giving that a great deal of thought here on the council on foods and nutrition and i find in my own work that by using my fingers to count off the different food groups appeals to children and they can remember it that's how the producer collaborator team works the final script should be based on one criterion to provide whatever is needed to make the film an effective teaching tool it must not be tailored to fit routine production systems or limited budgets the producer who has done the basic research and has written the script directs the film and follows it through to completion working closely with him is the cameraman and other members of the technical staff who must be able to translate the script into visual forms studio facilities are important for some films which need dialogue scenes and especially for those which call for recreating historical scenes okay here we go everybody quiet please all right roland frank speed p10 take two track 110. action gentlemen this tax is a piece of expediency mr jefferson this country must have taxes to endure this is our only way this is a discriminatory measure against a particular body this is the first step to tyranny gentlemen gentlemen mr jefferson too strict an interpretation of my constitutional authority does not enable me to make this government work this government must have funds to operate can't you agree on the necessity of a whiskey tax to raise revenue mr president we cannot deprive these people of their livelihood to strengthen the central government i regret that i must agree with colonel hamilton this refusal by western farmers to pay the tax is a challenge to our new government officer experimental equipment used by great scientists of the past can be reconstructed in the studio to give students a fuller understanding of the work they accomplished thus the film can recreate the past and make it come alive providing a fuller understanding of the character and motivations of people whose names live today how better can students learn to remember archimedes principle than by seeing him actually making him how better can they understand galileo the tower of pisa the great men of the past live on the educational screen and their accomplishments become easier to understand when one knows how they thought and felt about them the film studio can call on the whole world of make-believe to aid the learning process [Music] but the studio must not be a limiting factor the producer must be free to go outside the studio to take his camera crew wherever the educational value of the film requires for instance to the american medical association for experiments on tobacco smoking to chattanooka tennessee to photograph how nylon is made [Music] [Music] to gary indiana to show a giant steel mill in action to actual on-the-spot locations where real things are happening where history is being made education is concerned with more than our own continent and the producer of classroom films must be able to send cameramen to all parts of the world not to make travelogues but to photograph films to a script based on careful research into geographic economic and social factors films which show cause and effect the impact of geography on human life look how each of these films carefully shows the family situation the cameraman must carry lighting equipment and do some careful casting and direction scenes like these have to be planned in advance the classroom requires different material from travelogues which emphasize pretty or unusual scenes at the expense of realistic understanding [Music] films in the natural sciences too must be more than casual pictures of animals a script based on research must be prepared beforehand it's the educational filmmaker's responsibility to get the scenes that are vital for student understanding [Music] scenes like these can't be picked up accidentally or taken from previously photographed stock scenes a producer should feel free to use costly techniques like animated drawings if the educational value of his film requires it good animation which really moves requires hundreds of drawings each sequence of drawings must be carefully checked by the producer the collaborator and other experts for accuracy an animation stand costs a great deal of money but to get proper quality you can substitute pictures of ordinary drawings made in a regular camera even where an animation stand is used the value of the film depends on the quality of the artwork i'm beginning to see what you're driving at me boy well there's so many ways in which the film medium can uh enrich the classroom of course they're often time consuming and difficult to do but properly used they make a unique contribution to learning how else can an entire classroom watch the human larynx vibrate while a person is actually singing how else is it possible to see from inside the head the action of the human eardrum vibrating to sound telescopic pictures can bring astronomy to the classroom x-ray motion picture photography made with a special lens shows the actual movement of the bones and their joints stop motion photography can be used to emphasize points in time where movements are too fast for the ordinary eye the motion picture can slow them down and time lapse photography speeds up movements which are too slow to be seen by the unaided eye [Music] time lapse is it i've seen it before i wondered how it's done well it's very interesting the time lapse photographer has an arrangement by which he takes the pictures one at a time instead of continuously as with an ordinary motion picture camera it takes great skill and highly specialized automatic equipment suppose he takes one picture an hour when this is shown on the screen at the usual rate of 24 pictures a second we see in one second the action which took 24 hours to photograph seems easy enough to understand once it's explained yes but very difficult to do now after all this material has been photographed there are other aspects to filmmaking which bear on teaching effectiveness one of these is the way the material is edited so that the film goes smoothly from point to point the producer closely supervises the editing since he knows the material best editing calls for a high degree of manual skill as well as an understanding of the subject the sound department adds natural sound effects and music to the film film producing is an extremely complex process and it calls for precision equipment and skilled technicians from my place in the frame there i've seen a number of films in color very pretty color is pretty but sometimes expensive for the teaching value you might get from it suppose someone were photographing us for instance in color yes you can see in this kind of a situation color wouldn't contribute much to a classroom learning experience it's different of course where color is an important part of the subject take these films of the four seasons as an example they illustrate better than anything else could the changing mantle of nature wears in different times of the year [Music] [Applause] [Music] art films of course all depend on color [Music] color increases the teaching value of some films on natural science as these scenes of life along a waterway ship or this unusual scene of the monarch butterfly color is just another of the many techniques available to the filmmaker like animation microscopic photography telescopic photography stop motion slow motion x-ray photography and many others that i haven't mentioned these techniques shouldn't clutter up a film they should be used only when they make a film a better educational tool the particular techniques used depend on the subject no one method will do for all films i it's learning the classroom films will be judged finally by the teachers in the classroom on their ability to increase the learning process that's the point pretty scenes and pleasing music aren't enough that's what i want to get into my memo as an educator this has been most [Music] interesting [Music] how does this sound dr mcguffey dr mccarthy [Music] so [Music] you