Part 1

THE FILM: ITS USE IN POPULAR EDUCATION

THE FILM: ITS USE IN POPULAR EDUCATION

BY M. JACKSON WRIGLEY, F.L.A. CHIEF LIBRARIAN, THE LIVERPOOL LIBRARY, LYCEUM, LIVERPOOL

WITH A FOREWORD BY RT. HON. SIR GILBERT PARKER, BART.

AND

AN INTRODUCTION BY WALTER A. BRISCOE, F.L.A.

CITY LIBRARIAN OF NOTTINGHAM AUTHOR OF “LIBRARY ADVERTISING,” ETC.

GRAFTON & CO. COPTIC HOUSE, LONDON, W.C.

THE H. W. WILSON CO. NEW YORK

1922

To the Memory of two Dear Colleagues

THOMAS RILEY (_late_) _of the Birmingham Public Libraries_

AND

ERIC A. PEPPIETTE (_late_) _of the Liverpool University Library_

Who died for their Country “_Somewhere in France_”

FOREWORD

I have read Mr. Jackson Wrigley’s little book and I think it an admirable statement of the uses of the Film in Popular Education. It is clearly and succinctly written and its arguments are undeniable. I have just come from California where I spent nearly a year in writing films and studying the industry and art, and Mr. Wrigley is right in saying that 6,000 schools in America have cinema rooms. Quite apart from the entertainment in stories presented on the screen, there is immense value in the teaching of the film in geography, science, and natural history and topical events; and I would, if I could, put a film in every school, or rather, have films shown in every school in the land. I believe some fears have been expressed that the films may injure the eye-sight. Well, there is steady improvement in the lighting of the films, and expert medical authorities must decide as to that. Of one thing I am sure, that if injury does ensue it will be dealt with by scientific experts, and the danger will ultimately be removed.

Mr. Wrigley’s book is an excellent contribution to general knowledge on the subject, and it should be widely read. The time will come, I believe, when Municipalities in England will do as is done in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and give “Municipal Movies” two days a week. I have faith that the enquiries and reports of the Cinema Commission will induce the London County Council to include the film in the educational life of the country, and that all Councils throughout the country will do the same.

GILBERT PARKER.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Some of the matter contained in the following pages has been included in papers and lectures, and after frequent requests from various sources, I have decided to submit the whole in book form.

The topics touch upon the various phases of the value and utility of the “film” as an indispensable ally of the education and library authorities, capable of being used in the interests of both.

Other subjects of vital interest have been included, all coming within the scope of the projector. The film as an educational agency is now recognized, and the following chapters will be read, it is hoped, with interest.

M. J. W.

INTRODUCTION

THE CINEMA-EDUCATOR.

The educational possibilities of the film have not yet been fully visualized, and this volume is designed to advance its usefulness in the widest sense in the scheme of education.

“Do not train boys to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds,” said Plato, and this in a measure is the theme of a section of this book dealing specifically with the use of the cinematograph in our schools and colleges. One can imagine the introduction of the film in class-work eliminating that Shakespearean type of scholar who goeth “like snail, unwillingly to school.”

Emerson wrote to the effect that “the secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.” Although he was not making allusion to the pupil of the eye, it may be that to-day “the secret of education lies in _attracting_ the pupil,” and the film is the important factor to secure his or her attention.

At a scholastic conference on “New Ideals in Education,” at Bedford College, Miss E. Holmes affirmed that the average teacher of to-day could think of no other way of teaching than by grouping pupils into classes and educating them by chalk and talk. That meant that the older children had to mark time during the most critical years of their life, making them tired of routine, and all desire to continue education died of sheer inanition. The average teacher into whose soul had entered the iron evil of tradition could rid himself of much routine, to the advantage of himself and his pupils. Given a sympathetic Government and a sympathetic local authority, teachers might do much as they pleased in the way of striking out new paths for themselves, it is averred. The aid of the film may be one of the “new paths” to knowledge.

It has been said elsewhere that when you introduce into our schools a spirit of emulation, you have present the keenest spur admissible to the youthful intellect. The screen can convey the proper spirit to the boy and girl, whether the subject be scientific, literary, historical, or biographical. Rousseau wrote that “Education is either from nature, from man, or from things”--and the film is the modern medium. If it be truly said that the eye is the window of the soul then the possibilities of the cinematograph in our schools are without limit.

While the film can never supersede oral education, it may be most valuable as an aid to instruction. Modern educationists would not contemplate the idea of training the eye to the exclusion of the use of the ear. The cinematograph may (to use a stereotyped phrase) “supply a long-felt want.”

The children of to-day are such habitual Cinema-goers that too much cinematograph is to be discouraged, but the film used in proper perspective in the schools will excite and increase interest in science, industry, art, geography, travel, history, biography and literature.

“The eye sees what it brings the power to see,” said Carlyle, and the inference is obvious.

A student of child psychology (blessed word) opines that a child criminal is often the outcome of the cinema--forgetting, probably, that child-criminals existed long before the “movies” were even thought of, and overlooking the fact that “penny dreadfuls” used to be credited or discredited with this in the days gone by.

Nevertheless, the film as a new force must be recognized. At a recent Congress on Child Welfare, held in Brussels, the importance and value of the moving picture was referred to as frequently as its dangers; and it was agreed that the problem was not how to nullify, but how to harness this new power.

For the sake of the children it was proposed that a form of moral control of films should be set up. The control, it was suggested, should be exercised by a central and special commission composed of persons nominated by the Government and chosen from members of elected bodies, from associations of artists and literary people, from societies for the protection of childhood, and also from firms having an interest in the film business, producers and importers of films. Special exhibitions for children were advocated. This important phase is treated upon at some length in this volume.

The film has, however, a wider sphere than in the confines of the juvenile--that of the adolescent and the adult, summed up in the one term of “the Public.”

“Public instruction should be the first object of Government,” declared Napoleon (although Buonaparte never foresaw that he would be so ignominiously filmed in divers manners for the “instruction” of posterity). It is incredible, however, how much instruction the Public receives from the cinemas. It is, therefore, an enormous power for good or for evil.

It is well to review the position in this volume and not to shirk the issue.

All manner of indictments have been levelled against the cinemas. Writers have vied with each other in their condemnation. “The producers have prostituted a noble, useful, and marvellous art before the money god of the films,” it has been publicly asserted.

Much is being done to “ban” improper films, and it would be better for the reputation of the film-world if these immoral photo-plays were “taxed” out of existence. Such films are not “towards the education of your daughters,” as Shakespeare writes. The Public can be its own Censor. In the meantime educationists and social-reformers can strive to guide public opinion.

“I have hope that society may be reformed, when I see how much education may be reformed,” said a German writer once; and the reform of the film will come about possibly only by the people educating the film-producers to the view that it requires something else than the “adults only” brand.

While this volume advocates “direct action” against this class of film it is not intended unduly to emphasize the seamy side of the case. It is recognized to the full that there are many splendid films being “released” daily, and many managers are rendering a public service by “featuring” only the best class of picture. These many admirable productions are to be commended, and it is for the public to encourage the producers by patronizing those houses where refinement is the rule, to the exclusion of the other brand. Cinemas are public educators.

Mr. Arthur Weigall, author of “The Influence of the Kinematograph on National Life,” has at various times lamented on the dullness of screen plays, making Byron’s phrase in “Lara”--“dull the film”--almost a modern one. There are some film-producers who still fail to understand the mentality of a large portion of their patrons. Some films do not appeal to the intelligence of the audience. Many patrons are wearied of seeing what passes for melodrama. It would be a happy release if there were fewer “releases” of this nature. It has been said that until producers recognize that the principles of Art must come before commercial considerations the film industry is doomed.

It is for the people to insist on the best, and only the best, being “screened,” and the various “corporations” that are giving us mediocre matter will be crowded out by the far-seeing producers who realize that the Public, unlike the Law, is not “a ass.”

While the film can never supplant the printed word, it has been the means of directing the attention of many people to the books available at the Public Libraries. Quite recently the Rev. T. W. Pym, in an article in the “Library Association Record,” said: “People will read any book which they have seen on the films, whether it be Dickens or ‘George Eliot’ or any other author, whom, normally, that particular person would not think of attempting to read.” The cinema is thus a direct advertising medium for the Public Libraries. This phase, and the use of the cinema as a publicity service for Public Libraries, has been definitely outlined in the book on “Library Advertising,” and Mr. Wrigley considerably amplifies this in the following pages.

This volume is a résumé of what has been done in film-land, and the author advances numerous original ideas that will be read with interest and profit by educationists generally, library authorities, social-reformers, and cinema-goers collectively. It is not a technical work, but the technics of the art of film production are also dealt with. After studying this volume the reader will doubtless accept Mr. Wrigley’s contention that “the film is the coming apostle of education.”

WALTER A. BRISCOE.

CONTENTS

PAGE INTRODUCTION: The Cinema-Educator 9

I. HISTORICAL 21

The genesis of the film.--Present and future.

II. EDUCATIONAL 26

The cinematograph in the schools.--The film as teacher.--Some educational films.--History taught by film.--The development of the British Colonies.--Political propaganda.--The film in American schools.--Instructing the deaf mute.--In mental hospitals.--Medical students.

III. LIBRARIES AND LITERATURE 50

School, Library and cinema.--Film collections.--Preservation of the film.--Library of films in Berlin.--Advertising the public library.--“Publicity” films.--The book.--Film as mental ally.--Filmed literature.

IV. SOCIAL 76

The Cinema Commission.--Film censorship.--Juvenile crime.--Morality tests.--The “White Scourge” problem.--Churches and the cinema.--The film and the savage.--Co-operative cinemas.

V. COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING 96

Advertising by the film.--Sales by the film.

VI. PRODUCTION 101

The failure and success of the film.--Cinema eccentricities: blunders and inaccuracies.--Natural colour films.--Talking films.--Paper films.

VII. CONCLUSION 121

THE FILM

I

HISTORICAL

The rise and development of the cinematograph during the last few years has been truly phenomenal.

GENESIS OF THE FILM.

The history of the cinematograph dates back to the obscure ages of the year 65 B.C., at which period Lucretius, in his “De Rerum Natura,” made certain pertinent remarks relative to the persistence of vision--the base upon which the whole theory of motion photography is built. According to a document in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the cinematograph has a history as far back as A.D. 130.

The first stage from which the cinematograph evolved was an invention, simplicity itself, which readily lent itself to immediate and successful development. It emanated as a toy for children, and this has been gradually built up, stage by stage, until finally completed as at the present time. I refer to that simple toy-wheel or “cycle of life;” also to the children’s booklet consisting of a series of pictures of various stages of action. The leaves were held between the first finger and thumb, the little book bent backwards, and the leaves released, one by one, as quickly as possible. The whole gave the impression of the subject being in motion; and this optical illusion was the embryo of the modern motion picture.

Before the introduction of the celluloid film, animated pictures from glass plates were exhibited; but without the pliable celluloid film it is contended that cinematography would have been impracticable.

DEVELOPMENT.

The modern cinematograph was rendered possible by the invention in 1890 of the celluloid roll film, on which serial pictures are impressed by instantaneous photography; a long sensitised film being moved across the focal plane of a camera and exposed intermittently. For an hour’s exhibition 50,000 to 165,000 pictures are needed. To regulate the feed in the lantern a hole is punched in the film for each picture. These holes are extremely accurate in position, and when they wear, the feed becomes irregular, and the picture “dances” in an unpleasant manner--hence that irritating feeling which arises from seeing a well-worn film vibrating. The machines have been devised in enormous numbers under the names of bioscope, biograph, kinetscope, mutograph and cinematograph, derived chiefly from Greek and Latin words for life, movement, change, etc.

The first actual attempt recorded seems to be that of a Frenchman named Louis Du Hauron, who took out two patents in 1864. Although they covered all the essential points of the modern cinematograph, the one factor which made it a failure was the slowness of the wet collodion plates of that time as compared with the gelatino-bromide. In 1906, Mr. C. Rider Noble brought out a patent whereby the moving film could be stopped at any moment for examination. Prior to this invention, the film had to speed on to the end without interruption.

New ideas and inventions seem to add improvement daily.

PRESENT AND FUTURE.

It was predicted that the cinematograph, like the skating rink, would have a short life and die in its infancy, but this was a mistaken idea--the “movies,” like “Liza,” have “come to stay.” They are a force to be reckoned with. It would not be overstating the fact to say that more people attend the cinema than all other places of entertainment massed together.

The returns relative to the cinema industry are immense. Regarding attendances at these places in this country, it shows no fewer than 1,075,875,000 attendances at cinema exhibitions in the course of a single year. In the British Isles there are approximately 4,500 theatres with a seating capacity of accommodating one in every thirty-seven of the population. Upon working out these figures it shows that the entire population of the United Kingdom visits cinema exhibitions on an average once a fortnight. About 5,000 new subjects are issued each year, and some 70,000,000 feet of film are running through the projectors each week. From 80,000 to 100,000 persons are directly engaged in the various branches of the trade.

Its increased popularity in the future is assured, and its progress will depend largely upon what uses the nation makes of this new force in national education.

II

EDUCATIONAL

THE CINEMATOGRAPH IN SCHOOLS.

Various boroughs have made forward steps in the introduction of the cinematograph in the school. The Birmingham Juvenile Organization Committee has prepared an exceedingly readable and interesting report for presentation to the Birmingham Education Committee. To expand upon this theory, an open exhibition is to be arranged and will be attended by thousands of children from the senior departments of the schools, the younger element being excluded. Teachers and officials of the Local Education Authority will lend their support.

A synopsis of prepared notes was given to the teachers and scholars. The schools are to be formed into groups, so that pupils may attend a special performance at a convenient centre at regular intervals. The programme of exhibition is to last for one hour; the films selected coming under five headings:--

(1) Literature, (2) Geography, (3) Science, (4) Natural History, (5) Composition.

Literature is represented by a pictorial representation of “The Merchant of Venice.” It is argued that by this method the children will be induced to turn to the plays after they have seen the characters portrayed upon the screen.

One feature missing is that the film cannot give the child any idea of the beauty of Shakespeare’s prose and verse. In the case of geography it is apparent that the film can efficiently take the place of the text-book. Science and natural history could be represented by films showing the life-history of the salmon and the silkworm. One suggested experiment dealing with composition is that a portion of the story be shown, and that when the children have returned to the school they should be asked to invent a title or to summarize the film as far as it has been shown, and complete it according to their own ideas. At a future sitting the remaining portion of the film would be exhibited and the children would then compare it with their own efforts.

A similar exhibition was given in Manchester before members of the Stretford Education Committee. In this instance a portable projector was used, the lighting circuit being tapped for electric power. It is openly admitted that the cinematograph has a wide field, but the idea that the cinema will ever supplant the text-book is considered unlikely.

One would like to know the definite view adopted by the Commissioners as regards educational films and the benefits derived therefrom. Many authorities are still stumbling along in the dark, unwilling to make a beginning, but they cannot maintain this attitude for long, because the forward march of the utility of the cinema in the school is becoming apparent, and all education authorities who are apostles of progress will have to toe the line.

THE FILM AS TEACHER.

When it is remembered that the moving picture camera may be used in connection with the microscope, that it has an unlimited field in geography, in the recording of social life, and in natural history--it seems difficult to account for the fact that universities and colleges have passed it by. The value is not so much to be sought in the classroom, for there are, of course, objections to its use there, but the founding of this new type of library would possess an interest for future generations which can scarcely be over-estimated.

There is no doubt that the decision of the London County Council upon the question of using the film as a part of the educational curriculum, will, in the main, be governed by the nature of the Report issued by the Special Committee appointed by the National Council of Public Morals to consider the part the cinematograph is destined to play in public education.

The Education Committee was instructed to report as to the provision by the Council of the facilities on an educational basis to enable all London school children to see cinematograph films. These were placed under the following heads:--

(_a_) Purely instructional or educational; travel, science, and natural history.

(_b_) Suitable in other respects for exhibition to a juvenile audience.

Certain objections were raised. One fundamental difficulty was eyestrain, and another, ill-ventilated rooms. The whole problem is being viewed by experts from a technical, psychological, and physiological standpoint.

They had exhibited before them a film showing the power to teach history and geography. This was demonstrated in a remarkable way by an exhibition film relating to Christopher Columbus. The scenario was in Spain, for the most part in the actual surroundings associated with Columbus. There could be no better way of demonstrating to the scholar the trials and difficulties encountered by Columbus before and after he realized his life’s ambition.

It was contended that it would be better to arrange a series of lectures beforehand, explaining at some length the persecution endured by Columbus. By this means an oral and visional teaching would be enacted, leaving a more lasting impression than would be attainable otherwise.

SOME EDUCATIONAL FILMS.

To-day Shakespeare is reeled off a spool, and human life taught at the end of a crank. You may travel over land and sea without leaving your seat and see great personages of the world perform their mighty deeds, and unconsciously knowledge of life and the world is derived which makes a difference in the conception of things surrounding us.

The average member of a community fails to comprehend the significance of the new and powerful agency in education. All this means a revolution in pedagogy, the scrapping of text-books in favour of the film. It means a vividness where before had been vagueness. It means a true visualization and realization of life, where hitherto an indefinite printed description of it was acquired. In this country gatherings of teachers have been vividly impressed by animated photography. By means of the silent teacher, young and old have learned more about the physical, industrial and social geography of the world during the past few years than during any previous quarter of a century. It brings vividly before our eyes the idea of intense cold, atmospheric conditions, blizzards, and life peculiar to the regions around the Poles; and, again, the sweltering heat, vegetation, methods of living and transport in the tropics. One is brought face to face with the primitive life, habits, and customs of the aborigines of the least known corners of the world; while even life immediately around us is revealed in a manner which hitherto has been impossible.