M. Jackson-Wrigley

“ British and colonial railways have found the cinema a good substitute for the glaring advertisements in their endeavours to lure the holiday-makers to the beauty and health spots served by their train systems. This method of advertising would speak more than volumes and be more vividly impressed upon the minds of the audience than by many an hour of searching through railway and holiday guides, or touring announcements. ”

“ Some remarkable blunders are perpetrated in the production of some modern films, either due to an oversight on the part of the producer who endeavours to make it too realistic, or inattention to details. These incidents have a tendency to do more harm to the cinema than good, for these little slips which have been allowed to creep in and appear on the screen are apt to make the picture patrons become impatient. Some people find amusement in the noting of all these blunders. ”

“ This is where the cinema may help our less fortunate brothers and sisters. An effective film could be prepared which would depict with great precision the lip action which takes place as the various letters of the alphabet are being articulated, and also the similar change of appearance visible, as groups of letters or words are uttered. Such an alphabet and the graphic record of speech, available for use over and over again, enabling mute pupils to commit to heart, would make a tedious task simplified. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We have in projectors a valuable aid to our works as educators. The “movies” are the coming apostles of education; in them we have the world in miniature, and its value as an educative force can hardly be over-estimated. In a very few years every well-equipped library will be installed with its own cinematograph apparatus, and possibly its own asbestos-lined cinema-operating room, as at Stockport, for instance.
The Book.
A film on the making of a book could be made decidedly interesting, showing the many processes that go to the making of a book ”

“ Some new tactics must be tried; something which will yield better results, something which will meet the gaze of young or old—and there is that all-powerful national appealing projector, the cinematograph. This will explain with greater efficiency than either the public Press, the hoarse-voiced orator, or any other medium.
People who remain ignorant or illiterate need no longer remain in this stage. If they do not know the alphabet, they can be taught it ”

“ 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 [16] mediocre matter will be crowded out by the far-seeing producers who realize that the Public, unlike the Law, is not “a ass.” ”

“ Knowledge could be extended far beyond the invention of the printing-press; metal, stone, bricks, walls, pillars, and even the rocks of Nature’s own production were used to convey information to succeeding generations. We should be brought into close contact with the libraries of Assyria, Babylonia and Chaldea, the three ancient empires of which the most is known. ”

“ It has been said that the public library should reflect every phase of mental activity, not only the high and educational kind, but [55] also of the recreative, the social side of life. A vast amount of enlightenment and instruction, with remarkable force and rapidity, can be conveyed by the aid of the cinematograph. “Every picture tells a story,” whether it be of wonder or beauty, or of travels and national customs; some enlightenment may be gained from the exhibition. ”

“ In this dilemma the progressive manufacturer has joyfully hailed the advent of the motion picture film which enables him to display every step in the manufacture of the machine or articles, and every phase of its operation. ”

“ A colour-film has to be very realistic, and to secure its real market value its ascendancy over the ordinary black and white film has to be proved. If the “projector” required it to be elaborate, the stage effects to be in unison, its chances as a commercial venture are greatly reduced on account of the high cost of film rental. The various expensive processes of production have greatly retarded its progress—hence its rarity. ”