396 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



Part of this grant has been expended on the erection of the shelter house 

 referred to earlier in this report. 



EDUCATIONAL AND DOCUMENTARY FILMS. 



Report of Committee appointed with the following reference : Educational 

 and Documentary Films : To inquire into the production and distribution 

 thereof, to consider the use and effects of films on pupils of school age 

 and older students, and to co-operate with other bodies zvhich are studying 

 those problems (Sir Richard Gregory, Bt., Chairman ; Mr. J. L. 

 Holland, Secretary ; Mr. L. Brooks, Mr. A. C. Cameron, Miss E. R. 

 Conway, Mr. G. D. Dunkerley, Mr. A. Clow Ford, Dr. C. W. 

 KiMMiNS, Prof. J. L. Myres, Mr. G. W. Olive, Hon. S. Rivers- 

 Smith, Dr. Spearman, Dr. H. Hamshaw Thomas, Dr. F. W. 

 Edridge-Green). 



Report of the Film Commission. 

 The year which has elapsed since the second Report of the Committee was 

 presented at the London meeting has been, for their part, one of waiting 

 for the Report of the Commission on Educational and Cultural Films. 

 Individual members of the Committee have assisted in the inquiries which 

 have culminated in the Report. There has, however, been no call for the 

 co-operation of the Committee as a body, and as the Report was not 

 published until June, there has been no opportunity for subsequent co- 

 operation. Apart from the general quickening of interest which has 

 followed the publication of the Report, the Committee are of opinion that the 

 Commission have done a great service in maintaining the claim of the film 

 to be regarded as an art form characteristic of the present age, and as a mirror 

 of national life. 



The Committee note with pleasure that, in the opinion of the Commission, 

 the future of the film, both sound and silent, as an aid to education is bound 

 up with the 1 6 -mm. projector — a view for which the Committee contended in 

 their first Report at the Bristol meeting in 1930. The Committee also note 

 that considerable extracts from their first Report, dealing with the two 

 types of film material, namely, nitro-cellulose (inflammable) and cellulose 

 acetate (non-inflammalDle), with sub-standard projectors and with illumina- 

 tion and eye-strain, have been included in Appendix E of the Commission's 

 Report. On the latter subject there is still room for further research. 

 Dr. F. W. Edridge-Green, a member of the Committee, has established the 

 fact that if the screen alone is illuminated and the rest of the class-room or 

 cinema left dark, conditions of eye-strain arise with concomitant headache in 

 the spectators. Illumination must, therefore, be studied as a comparative 

 matter of the relation between the general lighting in the room and the 

 amount of special light concentrated on the screen. 



Reports on Educational Value of Films. 

 During the year a number of Reports of inquiries and experiments germane 

 to the Committee's reference have been published, to three of which it is 

 proposed to refer. The Report of the Chief Inspector of Schools to the 

 London County Council on School Children and the Cinema frankly 

 recognises that the film is so considerable a factor in the life of the child 

 that a purely negative attitude toward it cannot be maintained — an admis- 

 sion which many Education Authorities and Teachers still find it diflficult to 

 make. He finds that the ordinary film in the ordinary cinema broadens the 



