DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 074 751 EM 010 937 AUTHOR Hopkinson, Peter TITLE The Role of Film in Development. INSTITUTION United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural

Organikition, Paris (France) . Dept. 'of Mass Communication. PUB LATE 71 NOTE 54p.; Reports and Papers on Mass Communication Number 64 'AVAILABLE FROM UNIPUB, Inc., P. 0. Box 433, New York, N.Y. 10016 ($1.50)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0,,65 HC-$3.29 DESCRIPTORS Cultural Education; *Developing Nations; *Film Production; *Films; Guidelines; *Information Dissemination; Instructional Films; *Mass Media; Television; Video Tape Recordings ABSTRACT Addressed to those connected with filmmaking and information dissemination in developing countries, thismanual offers practical advice in initiating and maintaininga filmmaking program. In addition to general information on film history and film potential, the manual presents a step-by-stepcase history of an instructional film made in India to demonstrate the utilizationof water sources for rural audiences. Also providedare guidelines for using television and portable videotape recording equipment.(MC) Ma - -10.--IIC----Ni --A irr Air

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This series of Reports and Papers on Mass Communication is issued by the Department of Mass Communication. Unless otherwise stated, the reports may be reproducen full '67 in. part, provided credit is given to Unesco. The following reports and papers have so far been issued and are obtainable from National DistributorsoTtriiirsdo Publications or from the Department of Mass Communication, Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, Paris-7e.

REPORTS AND PAPERS ON MASS COMMUNICATION

Number Number 21Current Mass Communication Research I - Bibliography of 53Communication satellites for education, science and Books and Articles on Mass Communication Published culture,1967. since I January1955, December 1956. 548nun film for adult audiences, 1968. 22Periodicals for New Literates: Editorial Methods,June 55Television for higher technical education of the employed. 1957. A first report on a pilot project in Poland,1969. 23Cultural Radio Broadcasts. Some Experiences, December 56Book development in Africa. Problems and perspectives, 1956. 1969. 24Periodicals for New Literates. Seven Case Histories, 57Script writing for short films,1969. November 1957 (out-of-print). 58Removing taxes on knowledge,1969. 25Adult Education Groups and Audio- Visual Techniques, 59Mass media in society. The need of research,1970. 1958. 60Broadcasting from space,1970. 26The Kinescope and Adult Education,1958 (out of print). 61Principles of cultural co-operatiOn,1970. 27Visual Aids in Fundamental Education and Community' 62Radio and television in literacy,1971. Development, 1959 (out of print). 63The mass media in a violent world,1971. 28Film Programmes.for the Young,1959 (out of print). 29Film-making on a Low Budget,1960 (out of print). 30 Developing Mass Media in Asia, 1960. 31The Influence of the Cinema on Children and Adolescents. An Annotated International Bibliography,1961. 32Fihn and Television in the Service of Opera and Ballet and of Museums,1951 (out of print). 33Mass Media in the Developing Countries. A Unesco Report to the United Nations,1961. 34Film Production by International Co-operation,,1961. 35World Film Directory. Agencies Concerned with Educational,. Scientific aid Cultural Films,1962. 36Methods Encouraging the Production and Distribution of Short Films for Theatrical Use,1962. 37Developing Information Media in Africa. Press, Radio, Film, Television,1962. 38Social Education through Television,1963. 39The Teaching Film in Primary Education, 1963. 40Study of the Establishment of National Centres for Cataloguing of Films and Television Programmes,1963 (out of print).

41Space Communication and the Mass Media,1964. . 42Screen education. Teaching a critical approach to cinema and television,1964. 43The Effects of Television on Children and Adolescents, 1964. 44Selected List of Catalogues for Short Films and Filmstrips, 1963 Edition. 1965. 45Professional Training for Mass Communication,1965. 46Rural Mimeo Newspapers,1965. 47Books for the Developing Countries: Asia, Africa,1965. 48Radio Broadcasting serves rural development,1965. 49Radio and television in the service of education and development in Asia,1967. 50Television and the social education of women,1967. f 1An African experiment in radio forums for rural develop- ment. Ghana, 1964/1965,1968. 52Book development in Asia. A report on the production and distribution of books in the region,1967. The role of film in development

by Peter Hopkinson

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distritutor for all publica- UNIPUB. INC.isthe cxeItisive1j E. tions of the United NafIols Ettil.ntirmal.Scientific and Cultural Agency Organization (UNESCO ):the International Atomic r:nergy oftpo; the F00;2,qt:dte,ci!..,;!170, .0:11:tnizAion (FAO). the World end General Agreement on Metcorolectir.niOri;a117:4i (V,,f,tt:), Tariffs and Trado(GArr).

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Printed in 1971 in the Workshops of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Place de Fontenoy, Paris 7e

COM/71.XVII/64.A Printed in France Unesco 1971 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface 1

Introduction 7

How film makes a moving picture 9 How film telescopes timewhich is what we want to do in development 10

Why film can help in development 11

The case history of a development film 14

Lessons from audience reactions 19

Development films can be entertaining too 57

Old and new ways of showing films 25

Film and television 28

New shapes and forms of filmelectronic production and projection 30

Conclusion 33

APPENDICES

I. A postscript on production, establishment and costing ,37

II. The training of a film-maker 40

A glossary of film terminology 43

IV. Shot-listed and timed outline script of a development film 44

3 PREFACE

Film, as a medium of entertainment, is now i.tore message that matters, and the style, technique, than a century old.Only comparatively recently methods and medium of its communication must however has its great potential as an instructional be subordinated to, and dictated by, its substance. and motivational instrument been realized. FIe sets out to show that young film producers com- Developing countries, anxious to accelerate ing to film-making in this area of their own na- the processes of economic and social change which tional development must learn to exercise a far will offer their people a better life, have turned in- greater self-discipline, if not self-subordination, creasingly to film as a means of supplementing or than possibly in any other field of motion picture replacing traditional communication forms.And activity. despite the advent of radio and television even In the developing countries where the greater Space communicationthe possibilities of film in part of the people live on the land and are further development have only begun to be exploited. isolated by lack of transport and illiteracy, effec- This manual is therefore addressed to those tive communication is essential to ensure the par- connected with film-making in the developing coun- ticipation of the scattered population in the life of tries, to students of film, and perhaps more espe- the country.Although radio has hitherto often cially to all officers of government andother agen- proved to be the most effective medium of com- cies concerned with the urgent and central work of munication in such conditions, we shall attempt to development and who need some knowledge of how demonstrate here that the film can make as great, films are made and the many ways in which they if not a greater, contribution than radio to national can be used in development. development. As the author points out, the most The new wave of so-called "factual" film- effective film technique in this field has in fact making very often offers the viewer a sensory ex- evolved from radio, radio reporting and documen- perience rather than balanced judgement on the tary programming. Even television, which is a stimulus for change which is inherent in develop- synthesis of film and radio, and the most power- ment. Too many have come to believe that it is ful and universal form of communication yet de- enough merely to turn the cameras on, without vised, still needs film to suppy its raw material. worrying too much about technical details such as We must consider then not only the basic na- focus and lighting.Sharp, shrewd film editing ture and the recent history of film and its techni- which can make point after point has too often been ques (fundamentally unchanged since the first replaced by a "cinema-verite" that substitutes im- projection of photographically recorded motion pressions for points.People with problems, or pictures three-quarters of a century ago) but also victims of conditions, are encouraged to talk about how these must now be adapted to presentation by them endlessly.Hardly ever is it considered what television.For television is fast becoming the might be done about the problems or conditions. pre-eminent method and means of film projection: Emotion has often come to replace editorial per- The paper argues, too, that in the develop- spective. Those of a new generation called upon ment process films should be regarded as an in- to work in film'in the field of development might tegral and essential element in any economic and well take a leaf out of the old-style - but not neces- social development planfrom the initial concep- sarily old-fashionedbook of the documentarist, tionand not as an isolated detail. who dealt with cause and effect. Unesco has a twofold interest in this field:it This publication expresses the opinion of the is concerned with the establishment of film pro- author:that communication is not to be confused duction facilities and the training of personnel as with communications, that the medium is not the an important element of the mass communication message.In the field of development,it isthe media it is pledged to promote; it is also anxious

5 that the fullest potential of this medium should be from Abroad. on Foreign Affairs". His film "African used in the service of development on behalf of its Awakening" was the United Kingdom's choice for Member States. the Unesco Kalinga Prize. He recently servedas The author Peter Hopkinson, is a documentary a consultant for the second regional script-writing and instructional film producer, director, writer course Organized by Unesco at the Government of and cameraman who has filmed and made films in India Pilm and Television Institute at Pouaa. The every continent.For his work on the American opinions he expresses are based on his broadex- "March of Time" television series he was nomi- perience of film-making; they are not necessarily nated by the Overseas Press Club of America for those of Unesco. its award of "The Best Photographic Reporting

6 INTRODUCTION

Development, in the broadest sense, means making What is the fascination of a picture which raore fully productive the huge but hitherto under- moves? utilized potential wealth of a country's human and Man has always desired to imitate reality as natural resources. nearly as possible. The wild boar painted on the No country in the world stands out of the race wall of a cave at Altamira in Spain may not move, for development. The motivating force is man's but in the drawing the animal has been endowed desire to reach a healthier, happier and easier with extra pairs of forelegs and hindlegs and the way of life, from which spring invention, higher result, far from being an impression of an eight- technology and better methods. The urgency of legged beast, doessuggest a four-legged animal the problem in the developing countries is a con- with its legs extended in a stride indicative both' sequence of their late start, and there is the fur- of movement and speed.The drawing is 25, 000 ther difficulty of the distance that has to be covered years old. to bring reasonable and improving standards of In an organized succession of pictures which living to the people. move, reality cannot only be recreated, it can be It is a racera- race to catch up. A race, as reinterpreted and even reordered. H.G. Wells once remarked, between education This urge to control and order existence is as and catastrophe where time is of the essence. At old as mankind itself.Seven thoUsand years ago a low level of semi-subsistence and agricultural screen plays were being produced in Indonesia. existence, the people in the countries of most of Figures were cut from buffalo hide and mounted the developing world have to achieve in a few short on canes.With the sun as a light source these years the balanced degree of industrialization movable figures were cast in sharp dense shadows which in others has taken centuries.Their tre- onto a thin tightly-stretched parchment mounted mendous task is in fact to telescope time. on a frame. These were the forerunners of the Here there is an important role for film, shadow plays which to this day travel the rural which, by its very nature and definition as a mo- areas of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia. tion picture, exists and can only be apprehended Manipulating his puppet projections of ancient myth in a period of time. A still photograph occupies and folklore, the Dalang still instructs, amuses, only the size and space of its shape. The parti- and motivates.. But up the road now is a cinema, cular nature and quality of a film is that, unlike and more sophisticated fare.While in the villages other forms of visual representation, it exists visited by the Wayang Kulitthe Shadow Play both in space and in time:the space of the two- Rama, the peerless prince, and his staunch ally dimensional screen (or screens) on which it is Hanuman, the immortal white monkey, may still viewed, and the third dimension of the actual seg- vanquish all evil between sunset and moonrise and ment of time that it occupies in the viewing. And the Ramayana be reduced in running-time to a this segment of time can be literally a recorded couple of hours, a few miles away, on the screen image of its exact contentfor example, a mo- of the local cinema, the Roman Empire could now tion picture of a piece of machinery in action, be seen to rise and fall in eighteen reels of film. from starting to stopping - or it can dramatize The motion picture, either in th.e form of the the story of a millenium in minutes. Through earliest shadow play or the latest film, is a calcu- this ability to control, to manipulate, to dominate lated period of controlled time, a primarily visual time film can make a vital contribution to develop- experience shared by a group, a community. ment. Properly appreciated and understood,it On the modern screen in ten, twenty, fifty could and should be an organic element in the pro- minutes a person can learn about his own and his cess.For film can telescope time. family's origins; a tribe, the history of the nation

7 into which it is uneasily evolving;a nation,the important of all the arts, it is fir3t of all neces- story of mankind.But in order to understand and sary to understand the nature of film itself:why master the technique of what Lenin called this most it makes things move and time leap.

8 HOW FILM MAKES A MOVING PICTURE

Film, the motion picture, is really an illusion, an lantern. Each slide of the horse in motion in turn optical illusion.All that happens is that twenty- occupied the place usually taken by a single trans- four still photographs of the subject are taken in parency. By a simple ratchet device, Muybridge sequence every second on a band of film from the caused each picture to come into place and to be same viewpoint, developed and printed on a trans- blacked out before giving place to the next.Per- parent base, and, with a light source behind the sistence of vision did the rest. The horse galloped. moving strip, projected on to a screen.In each Its four legs were seen to be, at one point, off the individual picture the movement within the frame' ground. The Governor won his bet. has advanced tha: fraction of a second.Die to a What was needed before we got a motion pic- phenomenon called persistence of vision, the pre- ture projected on a screen was someone to come ceding picture is retained on the retina of the eye up with the idea of coating photographic emulsion while the following one is br:.1.1g received.The not on glass, but on lengths of pliable, plastic, result is an impression of actual movement within and transparent film which, perforated down its the frame of the picture. sides, could form and retain in motion the series Since a Stone Age artist tried to convey the il- of individual still photographs needed for the illu- lusion of movement by drawing a boar with eight sion of projected movement. This was to be the legs on the wall of his cave, man has made many American, George Eastman. And this has been attempts to make a picture that moved, or appeared the basis of the motion picture, of film, as we to move.Success had to await the coming of the have hitherto known and used it since the closing industrial revolution, and by the end of the nine- years of the nineteenth century. Accompanying teenth century inventors in many countries were and synchronous sound arrived on the scene in demonstrating their machines and their methods. 1928; this is carried and supplied from a band In France, the brothers Lumiere; in Britain, Friese called the sound-track running down one sideof Greene; in the United States, Edison ... and each the pictorial series on the celluloid base. When one of them really had a horse to thank for his printed optically the soundrtrack reproduces the success. vibration of sound in terms of light. In 1872 a Governor of California had set out to On this optical and mechanical basis fortunes prove that a horse had all four legs off the ground can be made, as they were by the Hollywood mo- at one time during a gallop. An enterprising in- guls in the heyday of the cornmercial cinema; but ventor named Muybridge set up twenty-four still at the same time, a man learns to understand cameras in a row alongside a race track, their why and how he should plan his family, and a com- shutters triggered first by threads, and then by munity can discover how to grow more food. electrical contacts, as a horse galloped by.The It is all a question of time, or rather of the pictures were then mounted around the circum- absence of the space-time continuum which is ference of a wheel, and the wheel was placed in unique to film.Let us see Show it works. an early form of slide projector known as a magic

9 110W FILM TELESCOPES TIME - WHICH IS WHAT WE WANT TO DO IN DEVELOPMENT

In real life every experience or chain of experience Although the film shares with the still photo- is enacted for every spectator or participant within graph the values of two-dimension-al composition, definite limits of time and space. A man may be it progresses beyond that by makint.; the composi- seen digging an irrigation ditch.The viewpoint tion mobile. The film moves. The design moves. may be twenty feet away.The spectator can alter The lighting changes as it falls on and across people the distance between himself and the mat- he is and objects which move within the frame. And not watching.He can get closer.But this cannot be only do the essentially mobile elements within the done abruptly.He may have decided to view the frame move, but the viewpoint can !Jove and change action from a distance of only five feet, but in or- position and perspective within the time-span of der to do this the spectator must himself move through the individual scene taking place on the screen. the intervening space, and to do this he uses up the The camera can be moved while it is recording the time involved it the actual physical movement of this images; it can be turned horizontally on its 'axis change to a nearer position. A man may get up from a to survey the scene panoramically, or follow some- chair and leave a room. But he cannot be suddenly then one or something in motion as a marksman does in the street. He has to open doors, walk down stairs. through the telescopic sights of a rifle.It can be Much as we would often like to see what will happen in moved back from a detail to show the whole environ- ten minutes time, we have first sometimes to endure ment, and an image taking in everything as far as those ten minutes of time before it is revealed to us. the eye can see, it cpn move iri to a close-up of Those ten minutes must slowly pass in all their en- smallest element within the original frame. Mounted tirety. There are no short cuts in time or space in on wheels, or held in the hand, it can dart about real life. Time and space are continuous. Eke an eager participant in the action, or accom- This is not the case in film.The period of pany and identify with someone involved in the time that is being photographed maybe interrupted scene. at any point.It may be followed immediately by a Each picture, while mobile in itself, has in scene of something taking place at a totally dif- addition an extra-dimensional relationship to the ferent time and at a totally different place, for the preceding and succeeding pictures. The individual continuity of space may also be broken up in films images may be likened to the words, their editing in the same way as the continuity of time. and the relationship of one to the next as they are The screen may show an entire street, then, finally assembled would be the syntax of motion without transition, the picture shows just one house picture narrative. at the far end.At one moment farmers are seen A FILM then, as opposed to just film ( the harvesting cocoa - then immediately sacks are band of which the original images are recorded) shown being shipped from a West African port - is a collection of short scenes, each in itsel. f a and a fraction of a second later a small boy some- segment of action first visualized and then cap- where else in the world is eating a bar of choco- tured in time.The totality of these scenes in late.In order to telescope time in this manner interrelated movement, association, and assembly the different strips of film of these three separate can create an emotional and didactic experience. images were merely joined together.This un- This quality, this technique of film, can motivate, limited potentiality of film is primarily one of inform, influence, instruct. technique.In practice, the only restriction and For example, it can show illiterate fariners discipline - is dictated by the subject of the film the way to get water to previously non-irrigated itself, generally an account of some action. There- land at virtual?.y no extra expense 2..o themselves. fore, in the construction of the film. as a whole a And, moreover, it can persuade them to do it certain logical unity of time and space must be in ten minutes; Appendix 4 to this paper outlines observed, into which, after they have been vis- how this can he done. ualized, the various scenes are fitted.

10 WHY FILM CAN'HELP IN DEVELOPMENT

Filmthe motion pictureis only one of the mass the race for development this is sometimes in media available to government in the development danger of being pushed to one side.Fortunately, drive. From the beginning the spoken and the writ-. just as the portable tape recorder may be used to ten word have invariably been used throughradio, preserve the unwritten myths and legends of folk- (No one doubts their lore which may be lost forever with the passing the press and periodicals. picture efficacy. )Often all three are the responsibility away of the story-teller, so the motion of a Minister of Information and Broadcasting, or can capture forever the dance and thedrama of a a senior civil servant. people,s very originsand preserve them for fu- Indeed no Minister of Information and Broad- ture generations in spite of their changed environ- casting in a developing country can ignore the ment. The intellectual climate which is essential range and application of contemporary massmedia to development depends on participation in thecul- to development, nor can any member of hisminis- tural past and also in the present life of the country try or department.In the quest for national unity and the world; there must be a synthesis of tradi- and in preparing public acceptance of a forceful tional forms of cultural expression and the modern policy towards essential change, the media enable means of expression which point the waytowards political leaders to reach and inform all social the future. strata and every region of the country.In coun- We have demonstrated how, in ten minutes, tries which lack a single common nationallanguage, film can tell a million farmers how to get water the use of media to spread and to teach a common onto their land at little extra expense.It can do language is a further important contribution towards all this and much more.It can promote the cir- national unity. Participation in political government culation of knowledge both vertically across all on the national and local levelsrequires continuous social strata and horizontally across the length information, accessible to all. and breadth of countries which lack an infrastruc- Alongside radio, the press and periodicals, ture of transport and communications.This very film can create a climate for practical innovation, elementary and fundamental spread of knowledge stimulate the thirst for knowledge and provide in- and information is the essential basis for any de- struction in particular fields, such as agriculture velopment effort.It can link all parts of a country, and health.The developing countries where there bridge the gap between rural isolation and urban are not enough agriculturalextension agents, health life, establish bonds of common outlook among the workers, social workers, vocational and literacy people of one nation and help them to see themselves instructors, the motion picture is indispensable in as part of the world at large, thefamily of man. spreading practical knowledge and instruction.In It can establish channels of communication essen- common with the other media, the motionpicture tial to the workings of a modern political state, possesses the ability to improve thequality of edu- which requires decision-making by all the people. cation in existing institutions through directinstruc- Vital in an age of mass participation in the process tion or enrichment.It can make education available of government, the motion picture is pre-eminent uni- in the area of mass communication.It can provide to those not able to attend regular schools or of thinking versities.It can provide pre-service and, in par- a stimulus to modernization, new ways ticular, in-service training to teachers at their and behaviour.It arouses and stimulates curiosity With- place of work.It can introduce new subjects and about the unfamiliar, the distant, the new. methods into the curricula.It can teach new skills -out curiosity in the first place, no one can learn to adults, and even reorient theirsocial behaviour. anything. All societies, whatever their stage of develop- All I, a writer, need to convey, in order to ment, possess their own indigenous culture, but in communicate to you, a reader, this data,this

11 information, these recommendations on the role So wrote John Grierson, more than a generation of film in development is the pen in my hand and ago.Grierson, and the school he founded, set paper on which l write.( A printing press is re- out not so much to make films for the sake of quired to mass produce copies, but a simple ma- making films, but to change the world. They were chine which I could purchase and operate myself, social activists first and foremost.Their docu- by cyclostyling sufficient copies at the turn of a mentary films of the reality of the British social handle, could assure me of a wide audience. ) scene as P was during the first decade of the sound But the pr 3duction of a film requires an indus- film - which coincided with the uneasy breathing trial process. The large capitalization needed can space between world depression and world war only be forthcoming within the framework and in- contributed as much, if not more than anything to frastructure of an already industrialized ( or part- crystallize the climate of opinion and attitude that industrialized) society, or by direct government created a welfare state in their country when that investment of public funds.But few developing Second World War was over. countries possess like India a highly developed It was the purposeof film that mattered then, and sophisticated film industry (the second largest and in the field of development today it is still the commercial film producing industry in the world). purpose of a film that must dictate its approach, Many have little more as yet than the nucleus of a its style, its method, its technique. simple and short informational film-making unit. Listen to another major film-maker of that Since the purpose of government is to develop same era. An era which although already historic the country, the governments of most developing is far from being no more than merely academic. countries have for some time used quasi-official The guidelines and principles established by those film units in support of the development process. early practitioners pf the so-called documentary They call uPon them to communicate and stimulate film are as valid in a 'developing' country today interest in their plans.They hope their output of as they were and still arein the then 'developed' films will help to integrate, build, and carry the country of their origin. whole nation forward. But to be successful, those responsible must "Documentary", Basil Wright has stated,is realize what the motion picture - film - can do, only a word, not a magic symbol: During the thir- and HOW it should go about doing it. What sort of a ties, in fact, the Grierson group felt dissatisfied person must a maker of films for development be? with it and tried to change it to 'Realist' or 'Fac- What manner of man? What is required of him? tual' .Unfortunately we had publicized the word To be a film-maker? Certainly, and of course. so vigorously that it was already embedded in But what is really required is a social engineer. A peoples' consciousness, and we had to abandon social engineer who has chosen film as his tool, the attempt. and totally mastered its methods. 'Documentary' is a method.It is a method of approach to public information.It is concerned HI look on cinema as a pulpit, and use it as a with, and is a part of the machinery of mass com- propagandist; and this I put unashamedly because, munication which, of course, includes all the mass in the still unproven philosophies of cinema, broad media, without exception.Historically the film distinctions are necessary. Art is one matter, and happened to be the medium most suitable for em- the wise, 2s I suggest, had better seek it where phasis during the thirties and the forties.Were there is elbow room for its creation; entertain- documentary to begin today instead of then, the ment is another matter; education, in so far as it emphasis would undoubtedly be on television. concerns the classroom pedagogue, another; pro- 'The Motion Picture' is a medium of communi- paganda another; and cinema is to be conceived as cation similar to Printing.Within the covers of a a medium, like writing, capable of many forms book you may find philosophy, poetry, religion, and many functions. A professional propagandist fiction, mathematics, geography, cookery and a may well be especially interested in it.It gives thousand other things.Within a motion picture generous access to the public.It is capable of you may find an equal variety of subjects, no more direct description, simple analysis and command- and no less.In devising a film or a television pro- ing conclusion, and may, by its tempo'd and imagi- gramme the documentarist will no doubt make a stic powers, be made easily persuasive.It lends conscious selection from certain areas, such as itself to rhetoric, for no form of description can instruction, training, classroom-teaching and add nobility to a simple observation so readily as propaganda.( To forestall the usual criticisms a camera set low, or a sequence cut to a time-beat. aroused by this word, let me recall that it comes But principally there is this thought that a single originally from the Jesuits' definition of their say-so can be repeated a thousand times a night method and purpose in religious instructions. ) to a million eyes, and, over the years, if it is good One could perhaps say that he is selecting from enough to live, to millions of eyes.That seven- an area covered by the word "Education" used in leagued fact opens a new perspective, a new hope, its broadest sense. to public persuasion. " The Fiction or Feature film is made to en- tertain with the ultimate purpose of making money.

12 The documentary film is made to inform, with the But, asks that Minister of Finance, can de- ultimate purpose of furthering social progress. veloping countries afford to use them? More to The clocumentarist will always be something the point is the counter question: can they afford of a revolutionary, because he is using the wonder- not to do so?For their impact on the promotion ful medium of the motion picture in an attempt to and implementation of change is so profound that improve the living conditions, spiritual as well as it is difficult to imagine how rapid results can be material, of his fellow men. obtained without the use of these media, in view of the general shortage oe skilled personnel, of con- So whether he be a commercial producer contr ventional communisations systems, of educational for the purpose, or the government's own instructions and materials. ted and salaried films officer, the prodk,r of As informational film-making in a developing government's films of it,-; development pr., ., country can never be a commercially viable is a revolutionary.But like all good and tiLit'i proposition in itsen, it nas to oe largely financed olutionaries he must accept discipline, the discip- out of public funds.Responsible for the execution line of social responsibility.It is his job not to of the film programmeand the spending of this editorialize, but to interpret, to. instruct.To in- moneywill be the man in charge, more often than terpret the needs and requirements and priorities not,of a government film unit.So our films of- of the national interest as expressed and defined ficer, the government's executive producer, gets through the machinery of government; and, by re- in turn his budget for the year.He has then to definition in the motion picture which is his parti- assess with the various ministrit.;: and departments cular province, render these into action, coherent just what and how many can be made in that twelve- and manifest, with and to the nation as a whole or month period.This should be the outcome of a in part.But self-discipline does not mean self- dialogue and a decision between himself and the abnegation.Just as our producer of motion pie- adjudicating minister or official in the ministry, tures of a development programme must respect or dePartment of information, who must take the his masters in the ministries, so government, in reponsibility of co-ordinating the entire programme the form of its individual film commissioning per- of film with the simultaneous and parallel use of sonnel, must in turn respect the specialized and its associate media. unique talents of the film-maker, and be aware of The film programme is then set.Films on the contribution that he can himself make. He is health, agriculture, literacy, family planning; as- no mere carrier-out of briefs and must not be de- pects and examples of rural and industrial develop- nied the opportunity to initiate.He is,in fact ( or ment; the coverage of great national occasions ... should be) a two-way channel of communication; With the resources at his disposal the producer his cameras are out in the grass roots all the time then draws up his own programme and schedule. whereas ministers and civil servants cannot often He does not go away and then come back twelve get away from their desks. months later with the completed films.At every Government may have a five or a seven-year stage the sponsoring department can, and should development plan.It budgets the national purse be part of the production process. accordingly.The Ministry of Information anu Whatever the subject, there should first of Broadcasting has its own share of the budget. all be an outline of the intended approach set down This in turn has to be broken down yet again into on paper.This is known as a "treatment".This so much for radio, so much for press and periodi- document should be easily and quickly comprehen- cals, so much for film (and perhaps television). sible to the busy non-film-making civil servant How any government arrives at the proportion of who has commissioned the project. its national iria-eime'to be spent on its informational Let us take as an example once again a film services is something that can only be decided in on rural irrigation.(This is an actual brief, pre- cabinet.Not enough for this vital area is worse pared by the Department of Agriculture in the In- than nothing at all, for there can no longer be any dian State of Maharashtra, and developed into doubt whatsoever about the significance of mass treatment form by the author.) media as instruments of development.

13 THE CASE HISTORY OF A DEVELOPMENT FILM

THE BRIEF has to be informed about the possibilities of the utilization of water.This is the area in which the A FILM IS REQUIRED TO DEMONSTRATE film should concentrate. TO RURAL AUDIENCES THE UTILIZATION Since 1962 there has been development in the OP WATER IN VILLAGES IN MAHARASHTRA area of minor irrigation projects of the following kind: The region has hilly terrain, and rainfall issea- sonal, confined mostly to the monsoon months June, July, August. Dry farming, i. e. the system 1. IRRIGATION BY WELLS of growing crops entirely on the basis of sub-soil water ( with no additional irrigation) is fraught with The local method of raising water from a risk.Only 7-8% of the total agricultural land in well, with bullock power and leather pouch Maharashtra is irrigated, the rest is under dry or tin containers.This can help irrigate farming.With the bulk of the population depend- about 2-3 acres of land. ing on farming, the irrigation of crops to ensure Medium range cultivators install an oil en- stability of agricultural production assumes high gine pump ( where electricity is not available) priority. costing about Rs. 3300/- ( with a life of about The introduction of high-yielding varieties of 20 years) and irrigate up to 5-8 acres of land. seeds calls for even more effort in the area of Where electricity is available, an electric irrigation.The high-yielding seeds can improve pumping set of 5 H. P. costing Rs. 1800-2000 yields from the usual figure of 100-200 kg, of grain can be installed, irrigating up to 10-15 acres per acre to 1,000 kg. per acre when used under of land. proper conditions (with irrigation, coupled with fertilizers and use of insecticides).The irriga- tion facilities in case of use of hybrids have to be 2. LIFT IRRIGATION improved two to three times, hence the impor- tance of improvement of utilization of water for The water in a nalla (seasonal stream - local irrigation purposes in the area.The major irri- nameodha) is usually at a lower level than the gation projects involve the building of a big ma- fields. A well is dug by the side of the nalla with sonry dam in the upper reaches of a river, and sufficient capacity for water. A 50-100 H. P. mo- connecting this reservoir with sub-dams at lower tor is installed and with the help of a pipeline, the reaches and a system of main canals and distribut- water is lifted to the level of the fields.Depending ing canals for irrigation purposes. These irriga- on the size, such installations can irrigate up to tion projects can irrigate thousands of acres. 50-200 acres of land.The investment for such These are high cost projects, involving a great deal installations is of the order of Rs. 50,000/- to of technological knowhow and do not directly in- Rs. 100,000/-.This is done through co-opera- volve the initiative of the local villagers.If the tive societies and government loans. village happens to be in an area served bya big dam system, it will automatically get the advant- Percolation tanks age of canal irrigation after paying irrigation charges of nearly 200-300 Rupees per acre per In a natural catchment area, for rainfall, which year. is higher than the level of agricultural land, tanks For minor irrigation projects involving use are made to catch rainwater.This water seeps of local resources and local initiative, the villager down through the soil and raises the level of the

14 sub-soil water, so that the water level in the. wells dried-up soil.He comes to a river, and sits in the villages lower down is raised, facilitating clown to rest on its bank. the lifting of water from the wells. He stares at the reflection of himself in the water and heand we the audience as well - hear Katcha Bandhara ( earth d_ a voice.It announces itself as the voice of water, and tells him that it can help him.That there is Two to four cultivators combine to make a small enough of it to irrigate his land, if ortly he knew earth dam to divert a seasonal water channel for how to make it go round. cultivating the winter crops, covering about 10 -20 Find out what others are doing with me, the acres. The cost is nearly Rs. 200/-.to Rs. 500/-, voice of water tells the farmer. Go and see your uncle in his village. Vasant Bandhara At this first village of Kamthadi, the farmer These are minor stone dams (with water I iss) is next seen with his uncle, who is showing him constructed on small rivers on nallas for irriga- the Bandhara (earth dam) that has been construc- tion of winter crops.Set up with the help of govern- ted.Another voice, which could be the uncle's is now heard describing it.The diverted water ment and Zilla Parishad (District Development is shown irrigating nearby fields where Hybrid Council) these installations cost nearly Rs. 10, 000- Jowar and Hybrid Maize are growing.But the 20, 000/- and are capable of irrigating 50-100 acres. uncle's voice explains that this method of ir-figa- tion can only be seasonal.Once the main stream Possible locations dries up after the monsoon rains are over, so of Wells: Village Vehu ( 13 m) /lift irrigation. course does the supply of diverted water.So he Village:Khopi (17 m) /Katcha Bandhara: village; suggests our farmer go on and see what has been Kamthadi (24 m) /Vasant Bandhara: vil- done in the village of Kikwi. lage; At Kikwi the stone and concrete dam is shown, Kikwi (28 m) /canal irrigation: Bhor and our farmer is seen to appreciate that such a (40 miles). structure is an obvious improvement on the earth- For percolation tank: Sonachi Alandi (on Loni work of a Bandhara.But the voice of the villager side, 12 miles) or Urali Kanchan (17 miles). with him again points out that this still only ensures a seasonal supply of water for irrigation. Consultants Our farmer moves on, and we next see him at Velhu.Here he is shown bullocks raising 1.. Professor S. S. Thorat, Agriculture College. water up from a deep well in buckets. He knows 2. Dr. W. B. Rahudkar, Agricultural Informa- all about this, and it has no lessons for him. But tion Officer.( Or his nominee specialist in Irri- wait, says the voice of this third villager, take a gation.) look over here.The same sort of well is then The film should be in one reel, of a running time seen, but no bullocks.The water is raised by of approximately ten minutes, a, cI employ simple means of an electric pump.It is explained to the commentary narration in order. that versions could farmerand our audiencethat if a village is be prepared in languages other than Maharastrian not electrified, then an oil-driven pump would do for possible utilization by other Indian States. just as well.The cost of installation could be born by the villagers forming themselves into a This was a very good brief.It was clearly co-operative, and then on that basis obtaining a and concisely written.It told the film-maker what loan. government wanted.It gave him all the informa- But none of these methods of lifting water tion he needed to initiate and undertake his own re- would work on our farmer's land because, we are search and investigation. told, his land is on .a higher level than the river The locations listed were then visited.The which would be the source of his water.So with various methods of irrigation described in the him we now go to the village of Hiware.Here is brief were studied at first hand. The film-maker shown the deep well dug by the side of the nalla. met the farmers of the area and discusSed their The voice of the villager he is now seen to be with problems.He sought their opinions. The reports tells him that here in Hiware they dug this well on of the State Irrigation Committee were then read the higher ground by the river, and when it reached and the plan documents relating to irrigation col- a certain depth water seeped in. With money loaned lated and assimilated.Then, and only then, was to the Co-operative Lift Irrigation Society which the following Treatment prepared and submitted. they had meantime formed, they bought a pump and the piping necessary to lift the water and dis- tribute it into the fields on the higher ground. Each TREATMENT FOR IRRIGATION FILM one of twenty-eight cultivators contributed a hun- dred rupees towards the basic capital. A farmer is walking in barren fields,in which Our farmer is impressed. On his way home nothing is growing.His feet move over the he sees the percolation tank at Sonachi Alandi, and

15 the voice of this last villager continues in explana- many days of filming will be needed. How many tion of this water catchment system. clays of travel.The costs of accommodation and While we see on the screen a great vista of subsistence of the camera crew in the field.The the countryside as it were from the farmer's eye- number of technicians required.Will there be in- line and point of view, this same voice goes to door filming, in which case he must allow for ar- make the fundamental point of the film:"With ir- tificial lights and electricians.How many days of rigation you don't have to wait for rain to sow. sound recording will be required on location. Could With irrigation the healthy growth of your crop is money be saved by doing all the recordings after assured.With irrigation you can afford to buy the filming, back at headquarters. How much film pesticides and grow still more again." will be needed. The costs of its processing. The "This", the voice of the last villager goeson list goes on and on, and finally he must add an to say, "is what we have been doing in our differ- overall percentage for ,contingencies and the per- ent ways to improve irrigation,With you, the pro- manent overheads of operating the film unit itself blem may be differentbut there is an answer. ( or the production company, if he is acommer- Go and talk it over with your Gramsevak." cial contractor). Our farmer is now and finally seen back where The film then, at last, goes into production. he started.He has travelled far and wide in search With the director, the camera crew go off into the of enlightenment. He is hot,dirty, and tired. He field.And they should now be left alone.Only bathes in the riverand jumps up startled.For the producer should be in contact, viewing the the original voice of water interrupts his ablutions, batches of film as it comes back for processing, and tells him not to waste any more time. They assessing it in the light of the concept as a whole. have got work to do, together. He, and he alone, can give guidance. and if need The farmer rushes off to act on this advice, be criticism at this stage. and the film ends on the water, alive and spark- Finally all is shot, and then assembled in the ling, and flowing in every direction. right order.The narration is written and tried out alongside the picture.Not yet recorded how- A treatment for a film, written in this man- ever.It is only read out loud while the still si- ner, is understandable to the non-technical mind. lent and roughly-cut film is projected on a view- The layman, which in this case means the non- ing screen. film-making agronomist, is able to visualize how The sponsoring department are now shown it would be on the screen.He can see where, and their film for the first time on a screen, but still how, the points of emphasis will fall. in this primitive and completely adaptable state. The producer then discusses the treatment of The relationship of scenes can be altered.They the film with the representatives of the develop- can be taken out, put back,The whole order pos- ment authority which has commissioned it. Changes sibly rearranged. Additional scenes can be made, may be made. Paper is cheap. Once all are agreed should it be considered necessary. The words can with the approach and shape of the film, as outlined be changed.Completely rewrittenif need be. and indicated in the treatment, a script is written. Paper is still cheap. And only when all concerned This is a greatly expanded and much more devel- are once again satisfied that what takes place on oped document in which all the action is broken the screen before their eyes is right for the ulti- down into its separate and salient scenes;their mately intended audience, and only when all con- type and nature is described; the methods of tran- cerned are convinced that the words, which at sition from the one to the other are enumerated; this stage still only exist on paper and are merely and the accompanying sound narration, and possibly being read to the picture, are right for that aud- dialogue, set opposite on the right hand side of the ienceonly then does the producer say:"Right, page.(Very much a blue-print of a film that now the film is approved, record the sound and cut already exists in embryo, this is virtually the same the negative". format as the full scene-listed outline of the irri- Up to this moment change is still possible in gation film included in Appendix 4 of this paper. ) every dimension of the motion picture. Back the producer now comes with this script. And so, when government commission a film It is discussed.It is debated. And only when all or films, they need not be afraid that they are just concerned are satisfied that it incorporates what handing over money for the making of something is required, in a manner most suited to the parti- over which they have no control.They have open cular audience for which the film is intended, does options at every, stage.Checks and balances exist it go into actual production. which can be exercised all the way along the line, But there must now be a breakdown of what it from the drafting of the treatment to the sound re- will cost.Enter the film unit's Production Mana- cording of the finally edited film. Both sponsor and ger.His all-important task is to ensure that cam- producer can, and should consult one another con- era crews are in the right place at the right time, tinually, from conception to completion. and that the proportion of money allocated to the This two- way collective process can only work, particular film from the unit's total and annual however, if sponsor and producer understand and budget is not exceeded. He must calculate how respect each other's areas of creativity.The film

16 producer would not presume to tell the agronomist films,it focuses on "the little picture", and not how to irrigate a field,By the same token, the a vast great impersonal panorama requiring cam- agronomist should not attempt to tell the producer eramen to cross and recross the same territory how best to make the film ( even if he has his own during its filming.A basic reason why the making 8 millimetre camera and rather fancies himself of films can take so longand therefore cost so with it) . much moneyis often the sheer inability of the This is a problem which has increasingly be- film-maker to visualize the finished film on fie devilled sponsored documentary film-making. screen of his own mind before he has sent a foot Eighteen years ago the British film-maker and of film through the camera. The old-style tradi- critic Paul Rotha saw the threat quite clearly: tionalist documentary method of shooting miles "The business of interpretation," he wrote, and miles of film around and on the subiecq "enters in at all points.In particular,it is the he was eventually recalled by a harassed ability to interpret convincingly what is increas- fice, then to spend month after month in the cut- ingly the business of the expert, which determines ting room attempting to make some sort of sense the status both of the individual film-maker and out of it all, with the claim that this was the true the organization of which he is part. J. B, Priestley "creative" process, is just no part of practical has said that,'an artist has to be a technician but film-making any more; let alone in a developing he also has to be something more than a technician'. country ( even if it is still a luxury enjoyed by At the moment there is a grave danger of the docu- some of television's documentary prima-donnas). mentary film-maker turning out something less. It is not only too personalit is of course quite The danger was there from the beginning but it has uneconomic. become more acute. There are today, in a major- What distinguishes the director from all other ity of countries, permanent peace-time film in- members of the film-making collective is -or formation services. Yet other countries have fully should bethis talent, this ability to carry in his nationalized film industries. Whatever the relative own head, at every stage, all the time, the entire differences, one common problem at least exists. film as first visualized and as eventually to be Under such conditions the creative worker can completed.For the producer it is one of many easily lose any effective part in determining what film-subjects he is fitting into the country's over- shall be said and how it shall be said.This is not all and annual film-making programme. For the meant in narrow, individual terms, but collectively. cameraman it is an assignment during which he Unless, for example, a government film office has is called upon, by the director, to set up his camera some power of initiation over its film programme, and make a series of single and separate motion it quickly finds itself in the position of having to picture shot-images, so far as he is concerned work within the narrow requirements of individual complete and separate entities in themselves.It ministries.This can mean not only a real danger is the director, and only the director, who knows of losing the wider national perspectives, but an and has already seen on the screen of his own mind even greater concentration on the more specialized the interrelationship of all these parts to the whole. instructional and informational films.If at this If he does not, or if he cannot, then he is a bad di- level there is no initiative allowed and therefore rector; and no editor, however talented he maybe no authority, the whole creative side of film-making in the manipulation of all the separate stripsof loses status proportionately. By being subordina- film images when he, in turn, gets his hands on ted to the departmental expert, which is what this them, can save the film as a whole.Here is means in effect, the film-maker is easily stripped where the money is saved, here is where the film of any power of interpretation not only of subject- should be made:in the director's mind in the first matter but of the actual medium itself.The expert place.The task of a film director is to visualize, will in effect direct the film." and then organize, the subject of his assignment But in point of fact neither the sponsor or the as a film, commit it first to paper via treatment producer are ever in a position to direct the film and script, and then regard the subsequent sched- ( even if they might want to).Only one "expert" ule and cost breakdown of its filming as just as can do 'his.That is the man beside the camera. much a challenge to be met and responsibility to The man who, faced with it all happening, or wait- be accepted as anything else in a commitment ing on his word to happen, must control the situa- which should be total, as well as creative. tion.Shape it.Film it.The man whose name is This is the type of film-maker, director, that on the number board, photographed at the begin- film schools of the future should aim to train and ning of everyscene and set-up alongside the word the attitude they should encourage. DIRECTOR. Much of documentary and informational film- Unless a film's production schedule is some- making in the past was never truly costconscious. thing dictated by the actual time-cycle of its sub- We were the film-makers, they were the money- jectsuch as the breaking of the ground to the lenders.The producer did not have to show a putting on of the roof of a new factorythere is "profit"; it did not seem to matter very much if no intrinsic reason why it should take very long. he operated at a"loss", so much expenditure could Particularly if, as in the case of most development always be "lost" somewhere along the line of

17 industrial or governmental sponsorship.There appropriate minister is away on an overseas trip? was never any urgency, always plenty of time. The producer, and the minister or his deputy, This is no longer the case.The sponsor nowa- must evolve a working arrangement which stream- days wants something that will do the job he has in lines the channels of approval and minimizes the mind, for the amount of money he has available. number of people involved in the process. To be cost-conscious does not necessarily mean But even with proper planning and exact cost- impotence for the film-maker, or that he cannot control, filmrmaking is Atli'rt expensko create his film. business.""hri Fr' t,literprise or in- By the nature of its method, television (as dependent producer, in some instances, can be uti- opposed to airerely making films which might be lized in a development context.He could undertake It-,:levised) has now imposed a much stricter dis- to finance a development film, providing his approach cipline.Both individual plays and the episodes of and method is acceptable to government, in return series are generally restricted to a minimum of for a share of whatever profits might result from locations and cast.A television script exists in the subsequent sale and release of the film, or two versions: the dialogue and the camera scripf., series of films. The latter has every movement and set up of the Countries within a particular region might al- cameras planned, plotted, and exactly positioned. so consider the sharing of costs, and facilities for There is aot time or money to waste once they a,'e certain projects amongst themselves: films de- switched on and recording the action.( There igned to meet a need and having an appeal for no also a strict timetable and deadline to meet. )The ,Dne single country in the area.In any case, there film-maker can learn a lot from this. To pre-plan should be regional co-ordination of development does not necessarily mean to inhibit. .q1m-making. Every country needs a viable and The other factor which ,can delay and lengthen professional sixteen millimetre film operation as the production of films - and hence increase their the basis of its motion picture development pro- costsis the very body-that should be trying ib gramme. This is as, important as script and cam- speed it up and save money: and that is govera- era.But in the same way as not every developing ment. Granted that, an efficially-sponsored film country needs or canafford:its own national airline, has to receive approval from the appropriate of- neither shcionld it be calledupon to invest in its own ficials and experts at its various stages of produc- sixteen millimetre aim processing plant.(And tion, this process rshould none the less be reduced, there are notiall that number of trained laboratory to a minimum. A film cannot afford to be held up trhniciane:mmilable. )Surely the answer here is at rough-cut stage just because the necessary com- tor the smaller nations within a particular region mittee cannot be assembled to view it.Must we to share in the.costs and operation of such a plant? wait for commentary approval merely becausethe

18 LESSONS FROM AUDIENCE REACTIONS

Fresh from teaching film at the University ofCali- an instructional film on the plantation andcultiva- for,-nia; and on the eve of taking up his appointment tion of the new high-yielding rice. The fourth was as Director of the BritisbNationalFilm School, an informational film which, in cartoonform, set Colin Young summed it up in a sentence."Film out to explain the need for development planningin training", -he said, "is basic research into the ne- general, and India's current five-year plan in par- m:re of the industry and the nature ofthe audience." ticular, DREAMS OF MAUJIRAM. In this our lit- It is the nature of the audience that decides not tle turbanned hero had his personal dreams, while mtly the choice of subject matter but also the man- in Delhi the planners dreamed-up development on a goer and technique of its telling. TheAmerican mo- much grander and national scale. qion picture industry now caters primarily forthe The author has seen all four of these films, -Linder twenty-fives, the boys and girls who leave in the comfort and isolation of a projection room their parents to watch old films on televisionat at the Film Institute of India.In his view the first home, jump in an automobile, and take in their was a brave try but an unfortunate failure.It star- movie at a drive-in. What they see on the screen, ted with a "typical" family in a village, trying to what the industry now tries to put on that screen, make ends meet and worrying about where the next is what it thinks reficts the attitudes of this new meal was coming from; and then, from time to generation which rejects what it regards as the time, jumped into a film studio "heaven" where, false and stifling world of the consumer society surrounded by patently artificial clouds, bevies of that its parents have built, and in which itregards children were seen to be in this happy state of lim- them as trapped.They want, as they put it,out. bo instead of becoming just so many more problems Brought up on the television commercial while in the population explosion. These two worlds of their parents were brought up on nurseryrhymes, those born and those unborn were linked by the ap- they accept a deliberate discontinuity and stylistic pearance of a sadhu - a seer - whom itcould be syllogism in the films which many of them are mak- presumed was already deep into his own personal ing, and in which all of them feature. cycle of birth and rebirth. For although misguided, But the film-maker in a developing country has this film was a genuine attempt to acknowledge and a different audience entirely.His audience is, in face up to the crucial problem of birth control in the main, illiterate and for them a photographic re- Hindu society, a society in which reincarnation production is a novelty, let alone a motion picture. an endless cycle of birth, death, rebirthis Perhaps we should. now turn once again to ex- fundamental to its faith. MY WISE DADDY was ample and experience.In what follows we are a pleasant little cartoon film in which alittle girl, greatly indebted to a study carried out by the Indian the younger of two children, kept worrying her Institute of Mass Communication. The impP.ct of just father to give her another little brother.Her wise four of the hundreds of films made tr inform, in- parent refused.But the film must have failed in struct, and motivate India's five Ir.; itlred nnllions its objective, because inevitably an audience iden- was followed up and evaluated. Thefilms were tified and sympathized with the little girl, so ap- produced by the. Government's Films Division, at pealing was she, and not with the less attractive its Bombay headquarters. The were shown to figure of the father. villagers, in villages, by mobilo projectorunits. HIGH-YIELDING VARIETY OF PADDY suf- The following day the villagers trere questioned fered from the common curse of so many spon- as to thettrealtctions.The first two films, ALL sored films - the sponsor, the expert, had obviously GOD'S CHILDREN and MY WISE ,')ADDY wei-.-e mo- insisted that the whole textbook of the subject be tivational, on the need for family plaziang.The forced into the one short film. The result was con- third. IFILIGH-YIELDING VARIETY OF PADDY, was fusing. Too much happened too quickly for even a nimble mind to grasp.

19 DREAMS OF MAIJJIRAM was another cartoon paddy mentioned in the film, the insecticides, fun- film.Maujiram day dreamed instead of helping his gicides or fertilizers suggested, nor the stages wife in their day-to-day struggle.His dreams at which the fertilizers and chemicals should be took him off to the big city, where the funny little applied.It would be wishful thinking, she says, folk of cartoonland demonstrated with their own to expect anyone to remember the proportions or peculiar lack of linear logic what planning was all combinations of the fertilizers, insecticide and about:that Maujiram would enjoy a better life fungicide mixtures or manures given in such de- only by virtue of their respective needs to plan. tail in the film.The film carried all its informa- It was pleasant, entertaining, informative.But tion in the commentary. The information-content did it work for the mass audience for which it was registered by the audience in DREAMS OF MAUJI- intended? RAM was also poor. No one could afterwards tell Let us listen to what an enthusiastic and dedi- what the National Development Council did, what cated worker on the field of audio-visual aids to its membership was, or who was its chairman. education has to say.Saulat Rahman tramped the No one remembered the process of preparing a villages on the heels of these films, and prefaced draft plan, while to some persons the Planning her report by first stating that her observations Commission was an office located in the city nearest were based on these personal impressions. (But the village.It was doubted if anyone established how many film-makers follow her example? Did any connexion between the dreams of Maujiram the directors of these four films ever leave their and the dreams of the five-year plan makers. The apartments in the city and go out and watch them reduction of all these abstracts in cartoon form with a village audience? ) was just too subtle.There were no points of ref- First of all she reminds us that the rural aud- erence. ience is not, after all, a captive audience. Not all On the basis of this evidence, it seemed to therequests made ever so politely bring the vil- Miss Rahman safe to conclude that film fails as lagers all together to view thefilms,when the show a medium of conveying information to rural aud- starts.Children will always be first, but no one iences when it rests heavily, if not entirely, on can ever tell who will be the last to arrive, or the commentary being grasped and recollected. when. The film show, like most such things in The commentary is either just not heard or,if village life, is a social event.People come and heard, just not understood; either because of dif- go when they please. Mothers arrive with infants ficulties of language, or difficulties created by in their arms, for they cannot come otherwise. the rapid pace at which it puts across new ideas The infants, like babies all over the world, cry, and arguments. and sometimes yell.Attention wanders. The older On the other hand, there was no difficulty in people smoke and gossip- perhaps where a point getting across the message of MY WISE DADDY. in the film has set them talking.Even without The commentary was brief, simple, and direct. these distractions, it was doubted if the audience The opening sequences, spoken clearly and slowly could have been able to absorb and comprehend the by a child, caught the interest and attention of the commentaries of the films.Commentaries which audience right from the start. argue out a point of view such as the need for limit- If this is the general reaction to commentary, ing families to avoid population increase; commen- asks Miss Rahman, what is the fate of the visual taries packed and overloaded with information con- image? And here she is happy to report that the cerning the cultivation of a new strain of rice; or answer is positive. Much of what is retained is the need for planning and the manner in which five- the impact of the visuals.The films are"seen" year plans are made. in engrossed attention.The brain as it were It therefore did not surprise our field researcher closes itself to the messages directed at the ear that ALL GOD'S CHILDREN and HIGH- YIELDING but the eye continues to see, incapable of resist- VARIETY OF PADDY failed to convey the reasons ing the fascination of moving images projected on for limiting families in one case and the method of the screen. "We did not hear what was said; we cultivating a new variety of rice in the other. ALL only saw the film", was the response of many GOD'S CHILDREN failed to convey anything signifi- people to her questions. cant.The complexity of its construction confused The audience enjoyed HIGH-YIELDING VARIETY the audience. The conversation of the sadhu with OF PADDY, but for the wrong reasons. They en- the villagerS, the indecisions of the farmer regard- joyed it because in it they saw other farmers do- ing his marriage, his trials and tribulations, the ing the sort of work they did themselves.In a reasons for population increase - all failed to regi- way they were able to recognize themselves on the ster.With the rice film, Miss Rahman reports, it screen. A woman who had her own rice fields re- must have been a rare farmer indeed who was able marked with confidence that she had fully under- to recognize the straight fact that the film showed stood the film.On being questioned further, she the method of cultivating the particular new variety narrated the various essential processes_in field that it was supposed to be featuring. No one in the cultivation with which she was in any case herself audience she afterwards questioned remembered familiar."The film" said she, "showed sowing, the names of the other high-yielding varietiesof planting, irrigation, mixing of manure.All this

20 we do.When the crop is ready, we harvest it and toil.There was no connexion between the film winnow the grain".That was the sum total of all show and the realities of life.It was all very nice, that she gained from the film. some said, specially as so much trouble had been The cartoon films left no such vivid impres- taken to arrange it.But some embittered souls, sion, though comic scenes such as the father unrol- perhaps tired of having spent a lifetime in tilling ling his moustaches in MY WISE DADDY and the such an unrewarding soil, were not so polite. "Why turbanned Maujiram smoking a hooker caused pleasant ask us questions?" was their response. "When comment. DREAMS OF MAUJIRAM kept the aud- the stomach is full, everything will appear nice." ience engaged when it was just an amusing story of The responses from illiterate adults, men and a somewhat lazy but likeable character but only women, were not very expansive.They were nega- up to the point when the message of the film was tive, but none the less eloquent, for their very si- brought out with his arrival at the Planning Com- lences provided a key to their reactions. The re- mission.Thereafter the interest lagged, only re- sponses of children, particularly from those enrolled viving when Maujiram returned to his village and in school, were more vivacious.There was surprised his wife at the change which had been greater recall, and a sense of greater involvement worked in him.Here, albeit in cartoon form, in in what they saw in the films. However, even among the village scene once again, the audience had an children there was no comprehension of the mes- area of identification.In the rice film, only a very sage of the films.The best responses came from careful study of the text of the commentary revealed young adults who had acquired a degree of literacy, that there were three stages of fertilizer applica- and this pointed to a clear' correlation between the tion and six of insecticide and fungicide spray in a level of literacy and the response to film. growth process of about sixty days.Visually these Miss Rahman concludes that it is impossible stages were not distinguished at all.The recipes to escape the feeling that it is therefore necessary for fertilizer application and differing spray mix- to devise special kinds of films for non- or neo- tures were just "told" to the audience by the com- literate rural audiences. An important factor is mentator.Little wonder, says Saulat Rahman, the ability of unlettered audiences seeing films that nothing of all this left an impression on the for the first time to recognize and comprehend audience. certain kinds of films:those which are forceful, The morning after the film show, she revisited clear, and pertinent to their experience.In the each village.In the sunshine the village appeared view of this field worker, it follows that films made as it must always have been since times immemo- for rural audiences should make a much greater ef- rialstill, quiet, unaffected by change. The open fort to use the camera, as she puts it,effectively. space,where the evening before an excited crowd of The essentially narrative character of communica- men, women, and children had thronged to see- the tion should be exploited to tell a story in pictures film show was deserted.Except for a few children at a slow pace and in a simple manner. As far as and the barking of dogs, her arrival went unnoticed. possible, special effects and techniques should be People were at their daily work, in the home or in avoided.Force and clarity, says this lady,not the field.Miss Rahman overcame her hesitations, technique and sophistication, should be the essen- and tried to elicit responses to the film show. Gen- tial quality of film.Her final conclusion and mes- erally speaking there was no reluctance on the part sage to those of us who have not had her opportun- of the villagers to answer questions, but the man- ity to follow-up our work, as it is shown and received ner in which the answers were given indicatedthat in the rural areas of the developing world, is blunt the film show of the previous evening had no rele- and to the point:The producers of documentary vance or meaning or significance to their way of films must take into account the very special needs (so life.It was something that had happened, and was simple at times that our sophistication is itself a seen when there was nothing else to do.The film barrier) of the rural audience.Indeed, it is time show was an experienceshortlived, ephemeral, that a set of special documentaries was produced folded in the darkness of the evening and gone for only for our rural areas." ever.The daylight brought pressures of urgent

21 DEVELOPMENT FILMS CAN BE ENTERTAINING TOO

Hitherto we have concentrated very much on film The answer is the magazine film, the news- for the rural audience, for the great majority of reel in depth and perspective, if you like.Not the the population in a majority of developing countries usual frenzied shots of a minister cutting a tape to live in relative isolation in the rural areas. But open a newly-built bridgebut what the opening up none the less millions do live in cities, and for of that new artery of communication means to the them the motion picture in cinema halls has long people on the other side of the river.Not the fa- been a reality of their everyday lives. The staple miliar coverage of politicians and pundits at a diet of their programme fare is the entertainment conference called to promote regional unitybut feature film, in many'cases imported from the pro- an investigation and report on what common inter- duction studios of economically more advanced coun- ests and shared problems do genuinely unite the tries.There is little here that reflects life as aud- peoples of the area.Not just a rally of a youth iences in developing countries know it, much that movement doing a march past - but the story of is escapist and dreamlike. And this is of course how, before he joined, a boy from the bush was true of the commercial entertainment film every- almost destroyed by the city. where. In this way mere events and occasionswhich Can "development" be reconciled with "enter- only reflect the surface of the real forces and pres- tainment"? And can the screens of the urban and sures at workare developed in depth, made in- commercially-owned and operated cinema halls be formative, inspiring and entertaining in the very made to reflect the realities of national develop- real sense of the word.' ment, be made part of the process, and keep their The ordinary run-of-the-mill straightforward audiences in their seats while they do so? Govern- newsreel is even more valueless to the mobile pro- ment legislation can force cinema halls to show an jector unit touringthe rural areas. Away from base official short documentary film in every programme, for weeks at a time with his single package of films, but they can't force the audience to stay in their a newsreel as such will have been overtaken by seats during the screening. And even if someone events and be out of date before the operator has ..remains in front of a screen on which a film is being even reached the second village on his list. projected, nothing on earth can stop his mind wan- In its place, and alongside the national news- dering away except that film itself.It must grip magazine for urban audiences, why not a rural and hold his attention and interest totally. news-magazine series as well? The one could Not every country has its own feature film pro- feed and supplement the other, and in the process duction industry, but few developing countries are help to overcome the division between country and without cinema halls in their cities, and few of them town. do not produce some sort of a newsreel.It is the And not only the division between town and coun- oldest, most widely accepted, and was once the trybut also the conflicts of interest between dif- popular format for the informational motion picture. ferent regions of the same national state. The news- It is also the one of the least value. magazine must always be rooted in a truly national With its more instant and immediate news round- concept.Reflecting as it must do the drive towards up the evening of every day, wherever it is established national development and nationhood, its approach television has driven the newsreel off the screens of must never be parochial, but should be focused al- cinema hallsand,killed it.But if a country does ways on the national interest: on what binds and not yet have an extended television service, and if unites and is in the interest of alland is seen to the peoples of the cities still flock to the cinema, be so. how else to use those screens in the cause ofna- The straightforward filming and coverage of tional development as well as pure entertainment? news should be left to television.Meantime one

22 unit within the national film unit might concentrate in step-by-step detail, pausing long enough to en- entirely on the making of such a news-magazine. sure that the contribution of each detail to the over- Once a month, in two reels and twenty minutes, it all progress and pattern is quite clear and fully could develop and report and interpret an event or comprehensible on the screen.If the photography an issue in real depth, relating its approach tothe is not crisp and clinical, getting to the heart of the terms of reference and experience of the audiences matter in close-up after close-up, then no amount who will be seeing it,in the cities, only as a preli- of spoken commentary will tell the audience any- minary to a full length feature film of escapist en- thing.Then show the whole sequence of events yet tertainment. Who knows, in time, in the course once again,just to remind the audience of what it of the development process, they may even come looks like and now how it works and performs in to prefer the shorter film which reflects the reality actual practice. of their own world- but entertainingly. Involve them, make them feel that they are Such a series of films as part of the entertain- there, make them feel that they are themselves ment programme in the cinema halls of the urban participants. industrialized sector demands an extremely disci- In the case of a combination motivational-in- plined approach and co-ordinated production opera- formational film, such a8 the example of an irri- tion.But if developing countries can report, write, gation film used as a case history in this paper, set up, print and distribute a newspaper every day, search for a device which will enable the audience why should they not produce a twenty-minute mo- to identify with the image. What sent them off tion picture news-magazine every tnonth?For with our farmer in the film in his search for an this too is journalism, responsible journalism as answer to his problems? The'water that he was Walter Lippman, dean of American journalism, looking for.We used an imaginative but perfectly has defined it: /Facts have become so inordinately acceptable device herethe voice of water itself' complicated that they are by no means self-evident told him what to do and where to go.This was to readers or reporters. More and more, we have made possible only because of the peculiar nature come to realize that fact-finding is inevitably an of sound motion picture.Here was an offscreen interpretation, and that there is often no single or voice used not to rattle off a stream of statistics sacred version of the fact.The best reporters and instructions, but to motivate the man in the have not merely to note down what has happened. film, and the audience. They have to explain how it happened. And so the Many developing countries look to tourism as boundaries between fact and opinion are no longer a source of foreign exchange. Poor in everything quite sharp. As for opinion, it must of course be except natural resources and beauty of landscape, free.But I think we have to add that if it is to re- they are busily building up a tourist industry. Not main free, for the long run it must in a very spe- only do they build modern hotels, they alSo make cial sense be responsible.In serious matters it films to advertise the attractions and amenities of cannot be merely a kind of subjective utterance, their land.In the case of a country like Kenya, and expression of personal feelings The hallmark this is no problem, even for the least imaginative. of responsible comment is,I should say, not to Plenty of wildlife, good climate, organized safaris. sit in judgement on events as an idle spectator but But over on the other side of Africa, how about a to enter imaginatively into the role of a partici- country like Ghana? Here the accent could be on pant in the action.Responsibility consists in shar- .Ghana as the first dependent country to achieve ing the burden of men directing what is being done, independence in Africa after the Second World War. or the burden of being an opponent of what is being Despite her own share of subsequent setbacks, done, or the burden of offering some other course Ghana has continued to be very much a pace-setter. of action in the mood of one who has realized what As well as her own quota of dramatic scenery and it would mean to undertake it." newly-built hotels, she has an honourable and unique There is no subject which cannot be expressed record in the entire continent's struggle for free- and treated in film.It is simply a question of the dom. A Ghana film could show the burial place of trained, and imaginative mind perceiving the line that great Afro American, freedom fighter, Doctor and method of approachand the facts - in terms W.E. B. Dubois, in the wall of. Accra's Christian- of a motion picture, and as related to the particu- borg Castle, whose dungeons were once way-stations lar audience concerned. for his people's tarbears on their way into slavery The keynote is always simplicity. Strip every- on the other side of the Atlantic. thing away until you get to the heart of the matter. Whether £t be in the field of tourism, community Isolate, and then elaborate, the essentially filmic development, family planning, literacy, agricul- element in the, subject. ture, fisheries, forestry, mining, waterways, Ina straightforward instructional film, show health, co-operatives, social services, industrial the process, then go back and show it again, then engineering, productivity, vocational and manage- go back and show it yet once again. The firsttime ment training there is a filmor more often than to acquaint the audience with what it looks like, not, a series of films which can inform, instruct, what it does.Then go back again to the beginning, and motivate; which, in the aggregate, can de- and show each stage of the process and its mechanics velop, and build, and unify a nation.

23 Look for the heart of the matter, film-maker made. From the moment you askto have it made and film user.Put yourselves down in front of and are asked to make it.That is both your start- the screen, with your audience, before the film is ing and your finishing point.

24 OLD AND NEW WAYS OF SHOWING FILM

Hitherto, and for quite a long time to come, the such films have grown more and more out of touch projection of film on a mass basis in the develop- with their audience.Just compare the approachto ing countries has been and will continue to be opti- the film on new high-yielding varieties of plant by cal.That is in the form of the travelling projector these genuine missionaries thirty-five years ago unit vans equipped with film projector, loudspeaker, (in their case it was coffee) to what has been told screen, and of course a package of some four or us was. the complete failure of something similar, five assorted films such as Saulat Rahman evaluated. but more than thirty years later, on rice. Ever since the first of these units set off on its Notcutt and Latham describe their one-reel travels in East Africa back in 1935, this has been film as beginning with some shots of research work the accepted method and mainstay of bringing film in progress in the laboratory and in the field, fol- to a majority rural audience.But those original lowed by scenes of coffee being harvested, pulped pioneers were aware of a basic factor which seems and measured. Under six similar-looking coffee meantime to have. been overlooked or forgotton. plants the yield from each was placed in cellophane That is that the films which are shown must be bags, enabling it to be clearly visible. This showed made for this audience, and net be just smaller that most of the crop had come from two out of six sixteen millimetre copies of films originally made of the plants.The film then went on to demonstrate in thirty-five millimetre for cinema halls or urban that seedlings grown from the high-yielding plants educational establishments. resulted in high subsequent yields. It is worth a look back at that pioneer experi- Simple, direct, and VISUAL. The picture, ment in Kenya, Uganda, and what was then known not the commentary, clearly made the basic point as Tanganyika. that seedlings grown from high-yielding plants re- Two Europeans and four Africans travelled in sulted in higher subsequent yields.The audience a two-ton Ford truck, with a petrol-driven electri- could SEE this, on the screen, in close-up demon- cal generator to power their projector towed in a stration. trailer behind them.In five months they covered Every one of the eighty-five reels of film pro- 9, 000 miles, and gave over 90 screenings of films duced by this so-called Bantu Educational Cinema to more than 80, 000 people, most of whom had Experiment thirty-five years ago was made by the never seen a motion picture before.The films same handful of people who then took them out into they showed averaged twenty minutes in length, the field and screened them. Those who made the and in subject ranged from the causes and cure of films showed them'.Those who showed the films hookworm and malaria, to infant care and nutri- made them.Evaluation of audience reaction was tion; from soil erosion to co-operatives;from therefore an instant and integral part of the pro- coffee-marketing to egg preservation; from the duction-projection process. Here is indeed a post office savings bank to the artificial insemina- lesson. tion of cattle.Miss Rahman would doubtless be The basic packaged programme of some four interested, if not surprised, to know that another or five assorted films on different subjects has one of their subjects was entitled HIGH YIELDS been followed to this day.But is this format ne- FROM SELECT ED PLANTS.In thirty-five years, cessarily the right answer to rural needs? nothing has changed. The subjects of the films are To.a rural audience a film evening is a unit still the same, the needs are still the same - only in itself, however different the subject of the films now more pressing and urgent. may be, however interrupted by an introduction What does seem to have happened meantime is the screening of each film may be.It is difficult that while equipment .ias become more developed for the audience to remember or recall with any and producers more sophisticated, the makers of confidence or clarity the number of films they'saw

25 in the previous evening's film show, much less the forge.After seeing this film three times one of titles.One film tends to merge into the other, and the village craftsmen departed to make a similar if therc is a break in projection, the audience views knife for himself. After several hours he returned. the second part of the film as if it is a new film. He showed Ombredanne his handiwork.It was Even in urban cinema halls the reels of film some- the same knife alright, correct in every detail, times get mixed up. How many of the audience spot but he had made it four times as big as the ori- this right away? The medium, it has indeed been ginal, because this was the relative size as it had said, is the message, To the unsophisticated and appeared to him enlarged on the screen, But audio- inexperienced viewer, the beginning, the end, or visual communicationin the form of film had the middle of the film has no meaning,It is all taught him how to make a knife. one continuous flux.The swiftly moving images On a day in April 1967, a mobile cinema visi- hold his attention as if in a dream, and in this ted a village in the Eastern province of Cuba, state he does not question what comes and goes, most of whose inhabitants had never seen a film The presentation of film is therefore every before.In a film of this event, made by Octavio bit as important as the nature and the projection Cortazar, they were interviewed as to what they of film.The person in charge of the mobile pro- thought a film might be. They had no conception, jection unit must be a great deal more than a mere only an eagerness to discover. One woman sup- driver-mechanic, capable of 'setting up the equip- posed it must be "a very beautiful thing", "like a ment and showing the films, using the time theyare party". And what does one see, a manwas asked'? on the screen to enjoy a smoke or catch up on his "Beautiful girls and snakes" he suggested, hope- sleep.He must himself be an agent of development fully.This took place thirty years after that pioneer change and process. projector unit first set up a screen in an East Afri- What has gone wrong in many countries, given can village, and here, in a Caribbean island, mo- a poor reputation to the mobile projection unit, and tion pictures were still a mystery. Thirty years worried Miss Rahman, is that these travelling units on from now, at the turn of the century, it is dif- have been used by personnel other than thosein ficult to believe that this will still be so, anywhere. charge of the local development process and pro- For no longer is it necessary for the apparatus jects or without their help.The common practice of film projection to be physically transported to has been to send out these vans with a driver- those remote and inaccessible regions 'where so projectionist, possibly an "Information Officer", many still live,Its image can now arrive in a whose prescribed jobs are simply to screen so flash, through the ether, like radio, anywhere, many films in so many villages each week, naturally any time. "introducing them to the audience".Usually the Six thousand years ago, in the land of the two mobile van personnel have originally been instruc- rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the Sumerians pio- ted to organize the showing with the local extension neered pictographic writing.Today we talk glibly worker, health officer, nutritionist, depending on of post-Gutenberg man, but the bulk of humanity the case.In fact, however, this seldom happens, in the developing countries are still living in a because the whole operation of the mobile unit is pre-Gutenberg era.The printed word has yet to separate from the actual local development infras- penetrate these huge areas of illiteracy. tructure. Fifteen years ago a new form of pictorial com- Film can only become effective in development munication flickered in the corners of cafes along situations when it is used by or in tandem with Baghdad's Rashid Street. An industrial and trade trained, locally working development personnel. fair had just been held in the Iraqi capital. A com- They alone can effectively introduce the films and mercial company had set up and demonstrated a then follow-up with discussion,It is these local complete closed-circuit television installation.It "agents of change" who know what stage of "aware- had been the hit of the show. Other exhibits and ness" the villagers have reached; what their pro- pavilions had folded their tents and moved on, but blems really are; what their objectives or doubts this electronic complex remained. Taken over by are; and they alone have a chance of enjoying, if the government, it- was now installed in a large not the confidence, at least the neutrality of the house on the east bank of the Tigris as the first F audience.Used and programmed in this way, mo- television service in the Middle East, in the Arab bile projection vans can still be both extremely world. effective as well as cost-efficient. Within less than five years the first in Africa Some twenty years ago the late Professor was on the air in Western Nigeria. From studios. Ombredanne, of Brussels "Universite Libre", in Ibadan were originating moving and talking pic- carried out some interesting experiments amongst tures which taught not only the elements of literacy, people exposed to the power and influence of the but also demonstrated its mastery in the dramas motion picture for the first time. He took a mobile and plays of such playrights as Wole Soyinka. projector unit into an African village.For the WNTV, as the trail-blazing channel called itself, villagers he screened a film which depicted a step-by- did much to stimulate, encourage and commission step illustration of how a knife measuring approxi- the work of Nigerian writers who might otherwise mately six inches long was made on a blacksmith's never have had their work performed.

26 Every new country is under some pressure to to make such a purchase is infinitesimal.Most install television.It is a badge of prestige and viewing therefore will take place around communal an invitation to entertainment.But a developing sets in public places.This implies school use, country's first problem with television is to decide adult centre use, viewing groups, teleclubs, and when to start to use it and in the course of making so forth.Utilization for this type of audience surely that decision, it must decide what kind of television. calls for a practical and serious kind of program- Some hard policy decisions are called for. ming, for television's effectiveness in a public af- The considerations are much the same as those fairs and instructional context is accepted and for radio, which already always exists in one form acknowledged.But the question remains when is or another, but the costs are much greater.Trans- a nation ready to make maximum use of it?One mitters, studios, and studio equipment, programmes, or 4- vo hours a day is a wasteful use of such an ex- receivers, all cost several times as much as cor- . per. lye tool as television.School. broadcasting by responding items for radio.Maintenance is more day, adult education and rural broadcasts in the costly and operation in general requires more skills. late afternoon and early evening something of If television is to be installed in a country, these this order and nature would be a reasonable use costs and training needs must be faced frankly in to expeCt.--uf a service newly installed in a develop- advance, and plans made.In fact the establish- ing country. ment of television to assist in development is in Television has never yet been used to its full itself another degree and stage of development. capacity in support of development. The cost may The e3sential question is where television be- be prohibitive.But what if the full power and vivid- longs in national development.It is more, much ness of television teaching were to be used to help more, than a device eventually to take over from the schools develop a country's new educational the mobile film projector vans. What the people pattern? What if the full persuasive and instruc- who clamour for television are usually asking for tional power of television were to be used in sup- is the succession of entertainment programmes port of community development and the moderniza- that they have seen when on visits to countries that tion of farming?Where would the break- even point are further advanced economically. These are the come? Where would the saving in rate of change "Westerns", the crime mysteries, the situation catch up with the increased cost? comedies, the variety shows, the sporting events. Television has an insatiable appetite for pro- A far cry from the necessity to plant and cultivate grammes. No country wants to see on its screens high-yielding varieties of paddy. On the other hand, only imported programmes or merely the faces of in a given country it may be desirable, at a certain one or two of its own citizens as they read the news point in development, to offer some such relaxing or speak in panel discussions. It .wants to see, and programme fare; and it could be argued that the examine itself, in all its infinite variety.It can bonus of news, public affairs and instruction mixed do this on film.Television transmits film.Tele- in with the entertainment programmes might be vision loves film.It devours it.Film will be the enough to justify the expenditure for television in basic raw material of any developing country's development terms as well as entertainment terms. newly established television service. Receiving sets in a developing country are We must now examine the role, and the nature likely to cost something in the nature of 300 Ameri- of film in television. can dollars apiece. The number of families able

27 FILM AND TELEVISION

A hallmark of development, television is pre- business of the audience's having to gather to- eminently a product of economic progress and gether in large halls or open spaces, to watch technological achievement.In the advanced coun- the pictures projected on large screens by cumber- tries it has now become the medium of mass com- some mechanical-optical process? Or does tele- munication.Politicians plead for time on it.A vision demand a new type of film-making, a reval- whole new generation has been rear-:.:d on it.And uation of the motion picture within its own terms what is it,quite literally, so far as the viewer, of pictorial reference? the audience is concerned? There is indeed an essential difference. A There was a time when homes did not have film shown on television must achieve a much windows.Indeed, in many developing countries closer personal identification with its mass aud- this is still the case.People who live in huts, ience, all watching as separate individuals.It is caves, tents, have no window on the world outside, not a collective experience.It is much more a other than the entrance to their shelter from its personal two-way mirror. dangers. Now,within a single generation, the The Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray tells a home in the more developed countries has acquired charming story of being taken by his mother, at a new window of incredible magic powerthe tele- the age of seven, to visit Tagore. The great Indian vision set.What once seemed one of the most ex- artist-philosopher wrote in the small boy's auto- pensive luxuries has become, in what is historically graph book something he said he would not under- a twinkling of an eye, one of the basic necessities of stand then, but would when he grew up:"I have life.The television antenna mounted above even travelled all round the world to see the rivers and the poorest slum-dweller's shack in the economically the mountains, andI have spent alot of money. I advanced country is a true symbol of our times. have gone to great lengths, I have seen everything, There is significance in the fact that during riots but I forgot to see just outside my house a dewdrop in the United States one of the first targets of looters on a little blade of grass, a dewdrop which reflects is the colour television set in the store window. in its convexity the whole universe around you. " What the book was to a tiny majority in earlier Ray goes on to remark that in order to ex- ages, the television set has now come to be for press the larger thing it is necessary to perceive all the world. As Buckminster Fuller has remarked, and be aware of the essential thing in a very small the present is the first generation to be reared by detail.This quality of perception is traditional in three parents. And all future generations will be Indian art, in Rajput miniatures, in Ajanta, Ellora; reared by these three parents. The Director-General it is also traditional in the classics, in Kalidasa, of Unesco, Rene Maheu, recently surmised that Sakuntala; in folk-poetry, in folk-singing. this may be one of the real reasons for the genera- And it is the essence of television. tion gap. We now have a discontinuity in human Television is in many ways a synthesis of film history.For the first time there is a generation and radio.It is a moving picture, like film; it that knows more than its parents, and television is transmitted through the air, like radio.We is at least partly responsible for this state of af- have talked a great deal about film as such, but in fairs. order to appreciate its application to television we What then of film in television, film on tele- should perhaps go back to take a look at radio and vision?Is television just a convenient electronic its contribution both to documentary and develop- method of transmitting already made and tradi- ment. tionally conceived motion pictures to millions of A seminar on mass media and national family viewers in one single transmission of a single copy, planning held by Unesco in Paris during the fourth doing away with the whole cumbersome and expensive week of June 1969 reported that., "while recognizing

28 the special advantages of tele--4 ,sicui,'fIns and terms of reference before it went into production, other media, the meeting feltsraaradtr,,,,-uperses let alone on the air.This was See It Now, the mo- other mass media in its ability-rearlargennm- tion picture development of the Edward R. Murrow- bers of people in vast areas of tibe Ind!t.d, Fred Friendly radio series Hear It Now. Four years for many people in remote 1.s adevelcng after they first went on air, Marrow summed countries, radio is the only meizzrs.cf.,-czunmunica:;_- it all up:"It was.,our olactive to use :camera and tion with the outside world.Mr,,,:rtio noteoii microphone as a mirror We learned that part however, that TV presents a greNatintential of our job is not to get between the story and the field and could be used more effectimOyz as faciia camera ( and therefore the audience) ._.It must ties are made available". be the language of speech, sparing of adjectives, It is also worth thinking about the developfl letting the picture and the action and the indigenous countries before the coming of tiedeirls-'11c-, whe= sound create the mood, and then maybe a few words, even radio was in its infancy. When'American the fewer the better ..." commercial and network radio besianiin 11926, That sounds familiar, doesn't it? What did Saulat was little understanding of hoW themacliumcote** 1-- Rahman report of films shown to Indian villagers? deal with reality in a dramatic wanc. cert7P-Fri, "The audience remembers sequences which that radio could serve important_infor:orationalfurrc- ,are related to its own experiences .... As far as tions, and very soon a number vt",mewszand news- possible, special effects and techniques should be commentary programmes were tithe: air.Six avoided The documentary fails as a medium years later the publishing empirevf themagazines of conveying information which rests heavily, if Time and Life launched The March of Time,a not entirely, on the commentary ... " radiO series which dramatized news events, using One feels that Saulat Rahman would have been actors to play the parts and speak-the words of an ideal reporter for See. It Now. Certainly Ed- real headline figures.This was not a deliberate ward R. Murrow was a great communicator. and arbitrary choice of style and format, but one What this surely does mean for us today is forced on the producers because at that time no that the model and example for the film made for portable recording equipment was available to per- audiences in developing countries, whether it be mit broadcasters to move to actual locations. The brought to them by television or mobile projector, film camera however could move and in 1935 The is the personally orientated, personally narrated March of Time became a talking motion picture TV programmewhich has evolved as much from which, at the height of its achievement, played to radio as it has from cinemaa.id not the imper- audiences of over 20, 000, 000 once every four weeks sonal anonymous-voiced film festival documentary throughout the world.This was the first "docu- of the past. mentary" film series to play to mass audiences Not the entire textbook of how to plant and cul- throughout the world. tivate high-yielding varieties of paddy in just three The March of Time was made for cinema reels, but six close-ups of the difference in yield screens in large cinema halls, but by 1951 it was from examples of old and new - followed by a talk out of business, killed by television.It had failed by an agronomist, in the colloquial language the to adapt to the demands of the small screen. Ithad audience uses.Not a technical survey with a suc- continued set in its ways, telling its stories on large cession of shots of different methods of irrigation, canvases on the scale of the pictorial essays in its complete with diagrams and animation, but a trip parent periodicals, narrated by an impersonal and recounted by a fellow countryman, as he goes out off-screen voice. and has a look and listens to how it is done, as des- Its true successor was another series. A series cribed and shown on screen by people we recognize. which also had its origins in radio, but a series In short, what Murrow and Friendly called which started with television, in television, realiz- the little picture; Tagore's microcosm in a dew- ing that it had to rethink completely all pictorial drop outside the back door.

29 NEW SHAPES AND FORMS OF FILMELECTRONIC PRODUCTION AND PROJECTION

For three-quarters of this century of its existence, communications techniques and applications since film has hardly changed in the basic essentials of the invention of the printed word. its manufacture, production, and projection.But Television, however, does not mean that single we are now already well into a revolution.The medium in'isolation, but the whole range of audio- film-maker of tomorrow will operate as much in visual resources which have previously been too electronics as his predecessors have done in op- costly or too complicated for most of the educa- tics, if not more. tional world to use for themselves.Television Electronics is of course electricity, and in a recordings, film in many forms, programmed country's development there is no more important sequences of slides, graphics techniques, learn- point of take-off than the coming of electricity to ing laboratories using audio tapes or even compu- the rural areas. In time, everywhere, the villagers ters - all these, as well as the new thinking they will get electricity; and then, hard on the heels of make possible, collectively constitute what is be- the electric light bulb and the electric pump will coming known as educational technology. come a television set. No need then for a mobile They largely derive from technical innova- optical projector unit to travel thousands of miles tions originally developed for mass communication, to isolated audiences with a single package of films. but now they are being increasingly shaped and Throughout the land the same simultaneous trans- designed for more intimate use by the hundreds mission and viewing of the filmsthe national mo- of thousands of small groups of organized learners tion picture screen programme - will be possible throughout the world.The viewing screen, in one from one central source. Here is the greatest uni- form or another, is becoming as normal and de- fying and nationbuilding potential yet. pendable a source of learning as the book. It may Meantime, even though the majority in the be more expensive but it is also often more flexi- rural areas have yet to see electric light, let alone ble, more stimulating and more effective. television, those in the cities have long taken the All this derives of course from the background first for granted and in many countries are begin- of the motion picture on film, which has been with ning to accept the latter as just another aspect of us for a little over seventy years, and television everyday life.It does not have to be merely a broadcasting which first went on and over the air source of diversion and entertainment.Closed- a quarter of a century ago.In the economically- circuit television, that is a single system trans- advanced countries, both these massive media mitting a person or a programme to several re- have spent, and spend, fortunes on the creation ceiving sets tuned to its reception in one general of product intended mainly for the widest possible location, is increasingly coming into use in schools audiences they can attract.They have appealed and universities. To developing countries facing chiefly to the emotions and very little to the intel- a grievous shortage of trained teachers and spe- lect. Now film and television screens are being cialists, this can be an invaluable educational tool. used to convey material, more purposefully con- One teacher can talk and comment on a film he ceived, for more precisely defined and limited may wish to showand be seen and heard doing audiences. The techniques are almost the same, so on screens in any number of separate class- but the motives and the philosophy are not. rooms at the same time. All the major groups of professional communi- Closed-circuit television, as an organized cators have had to come to terms with the mass central facility in universities, colleges, and mediapoliticians, playwrights, advertisers, schools is a new dimension of contemporary visual journalists, actorsbut the educator, responsible culture.In many parts of the world it probably for shaping and training minds, has felt poorly represents the greatest growth point in new served by those who deal mainly in the exciting

30 impact of real events or the suspense created by delivery and variable demand.. The principal furic- contrived ones.So he so far has been a _little wary tion of the laboratory would then be to transfer the of the proclaimed benefits of new communications final completely mixed and graded videotape to systems and instead clung too long to the established film, and manufacture prints in the various formats cornerstones of the spoken and written word.But required for release. now, pressured as never before by ever larger Tomorrow's motion picture communicator will numbers of learners, by new curricula, by the need to be just as familiar with electronics as he whole technological environment and by rising ex- is with optics.He will need to be practised in, pectations as to the quantity and (more important) both film and television.Already there exists_an the quality of education, he begins to add visual electronic camera no larger than an eight milli- imagery to his resources, and to do so on his own metre film camera, coupled to a videotape recorder terms. no larger than and just as portable as the average The teacher senses no affinity with the broad- sound tape recorder with which a great many people casters or the film-makers who developed the tech- are now familiar. Used as the motion picture re- niques and whose expertise he needs. He is more corder in the rural areas, this could revolutionize concerned with the modes of sensory perception the whole practice and method of film-making as that animate his pupils.He is anxious about the hitherto and traditionally undertaken for the rural passivity that seems to be induced by viewing and audience. he is seeking to use film and television and other Portable VTR (video tape recording) equip- display techniques in ways that involve the active ment will make it possible for the people of the participation of his small audiences. isolated rural areas to participate in the produc- Photographed by a cinematograph camera and tion of their own motion pictures about themselves: transmitted on television, the motion picture can simple, image-making and image-storing equip- be recorded optically and projected electronically. ment, immediately played back on a screen, sub- It can now also be recorded electronically and pro- sequently mixed and edited and transferred to film jected optically. as may be required.This will mean a shared ex- The electronic television camera captures and perience in instant visual creation and awareness, stores its moving picture on tape, videotape. Mo- a revolutionary step forward to be able to show tion picture processing laboratories have now de- people immediately, on the playback television vised methods of transferring colour videotape to screen, what has been "filmed" and solicit their optical film by su.ch processes as Vidtronics, Video active and conscious collaboration. printing, and Chromabeam. Motion picture production in this manner The use of such methods in place of negative could restore film and audience participation. film in film cameras could transform the function Film-maker, film user, and audience would be- of the laboratory, and no so long ago a similar come, at last, one collective unity.Thus film revolution took place in sound methods. At one can be used not as a preaching medium built around time laboratories were as much concerned with dramatic effects, but rather as a medium for dia- negative developing and printing the optical sound logue in which people become directly involVed. tracks as they were with picture film, but for the In other words, they can watch themselves in dis- last twenty years production stages to the final cussion dealing with issues that are of greatest sound mix are carried out on magnetic tape, and importance to them, and crystallize their own ideas it is not until this very last step is approved that through the editing and feedback process. a laboratory is required to process and print the The mobile motion picture unit of the future optical track in its final form.Will this history will be a combination film and videotape van. be repeated in picture recording? Equipped to project carefully made and correctly A high-definition colour video-recording sys- orientated films, with one or several operators tem could provide immediate playback from the trained in the whole electronic motivational in- results of camera operation so that a practically formational process, it will be able to.go into a instantaneous "rush print" service would be avail- village and shoot material during the day for in- able.Video editing, mixing and transfer techni- stant playback or screening in an edited form that ques are already developing rapidly, and compara- same evening. For extension workers and trainers tively large screen presentation can be shown in in all fields of development this will provide tre- specially equipped preview threatres.Electronic mendously valuable support material that would methods can provide most elegantly many special otherwise be unobtainable,so quickly, effects shots that can only be achieved on film by Such direct and actual.experience of "film" expensive use of time and materials, and conven- creation and audience reaction, such combinations ient "grading" procedures are possible for the cor- of electronics and optics, will be "film-schools" rection of colour balance from scene to scene. in themselves. Not remote institutions teaching With such a system many of the conventional primarily film art, in three-year courses, but mo- laboratory services might disappear: rush print- . bile and genuine miniaturemotion picture univer- ing, breakdown and storage, preparatory work sities in which teachers and students, audience and and negative cutting, with all their problems of creators, are all so thoroughly. and indistinguishably

31 participants in the entire process that the fatal di- all will learn from each other, and be the better vision between town and country, academic and il- for it.Here indeed is a vision of a great cohesive literate, teacher and student, melts completely and collective educational endeavour. away. With their roots in the soil of the country,

32 CONCLUSION

In the end it all comes down to the communicator, the orientation.Film is equally a force of emotional individual film-maker, serving the extension officer satisfaction and liberation. inthe field, the teacher in the school - the film user. Development cannot be contained within a single Film-maker, film user: both communicators, colintry;it is of world-wide scope. No country, seldom one and the same person or organization. whether industrialized or not, can develop in isolation. Pbit a sense of identity needs to be established. Societies depend on each other for knowledge, re- For whom does the one make films, the other show sources, and attitudes.But interdependence calls them? The answer must always be the same same for material and intellectual communication gromp of people, individual or communal, the popu- between countries. Trade and investment are the lation of the country, the human beings who are what ingredients of the former, travel and media of is =ailed a "developing country". Some, a very communication components of the latter. During few, are in positions of power and government; the decade of the 1960's, the total circulation of others are the managers of newly established in- newspapers in the world increased by 25%, re- dustry; the great majority are still on the land, in mained stationary in Africa and South America, conditions unchanged for centuries. but nearly doubled in Asia. The number of news Development is a total process which involves agencies increased from 19 to 24 in Asia and from government, administrators, public and private 5 to 27 in Africa; the number of radio transmitters enterprises, the nationta.s a whole, the local com- doubled in South America, Asia and Europe; and munity and the individual.Such total involvement the number of, receivers increased by 100, 120 in development is impossible without a continuous and 150% respectively in South America, Africa two-way flow of communication between all levels and Asia.Television marked the big leap, with of authority and knowledge, and across the entire fourfold increase in Africa and threefold in Asia, fabric of society.Film is part, but only part, of Europe and South America. Among African countries a total communications process whichincludes all only four had television in 1960, but in 1967 twenty- forms of inter-personal communication. The indi- two had television services; in Asia the number vidual is moved most profoundly by communication rose from twelve to twenty-five in the sameperiod from those whom he knows and respects personally: and all need and use film. but inter-personal communication which leads to Communication satellites came into regular reflection, awareness and learning by the indi- use, transistorized receivers were distributed vidual becomes more effective when it draws upon world-wide, and low-cost video-recording, cas- and is influenced by the media. Development im- sette tape recorders, 8 millimetre loop films, photo plies changes in attitudes, outlook, knowledge and composition, computer type-setting and cable tele- practices.This calls for motivation, information vision were brought into the scene with promises of and instrue4-1J,x1, per.,kaps through inter-personal faster, more flexible, more economic and more ef- communicati.Q.7 aidc .1 by media-based communica- fective use of communication technology in the 1970's. tion: for example a teacher who uses film.Or the The mass media began to be looked upon as media may be the central source of communication, an essential element of production and development for example, a motivational film on literacy, which processes. In 1962 the GeneralAssembly of the Uni- is then translated into individual and community ted Nations adopted a resolution recognizing "that the awareness and practice. Development is not only information media have an important part to play in economic; it is also social,cultural, and even education and economic and social progress gene- moral. Communication addresses itself to the rally'', and invited governments to include adequate -whole man. Film is of the essence to development provisions in their economic plans for the develop- since it appeals to both the mind and the heart. Film ment of national information media. is not only a source of knowledge and reasoned 33 Television caught the imaginationof innovators in education, abandoning the But civil servantsfrom down the corridor narrowly-conceived in the central government, "audio- visual centre" ideafor "systems approaches" out to provincialgovern- ment, and on down todistrict and village level involving the full potentialitiesof all media and seldom get this information techniques.Broadcasting authorities venturedup- when new development on new responsibilities in the fieldof educational programmes are launched. Mostof these pro- programming and the European grammes have been launchedthrough civil service Broadcasting Union networks by issuing little convened no less than threeworld conferences on more than a set of stencil- the educational role of radio led instructions.If there has also been and television. of key officials at briefing Prompted by improvedcommunication links ings, that briefingdifferent levels in specialmeet- and awareness of the costsof modern communica- has usually been fromand with tion production, a systemof regular programme stencilled papers at most;and those briefed get exchanges came into being through nothing else to takeaway to help them bodies such as their crucial roles of carry out Eurovision and Intervision.International film and further briefing at thenext television festivals and prizes level down theadministrative ladder. By the proliferated, and this quite vital information time the 1960's saw the birth ofseveral regional organi- process in even launch- ing a new project hasreached all the way to zations of broadcasters in Africa,Asia and the Arab level of the local extension the States, of regional unions ofnews agencies in Asia officer or nutritionist and Africa as w ell as new or community developmentworker, much of the professional associations. dynamic as well But although the idea of usingcommunication as the differential detailhas been for development and educational lost along the line. purposes has gained Very many of the weaknesses general acceptance, the mediahave not yet been in project im- integrated into overall plementation that are ascribedto such problems development programming as "lack of co-ordination and given the structures ofexpansion which would al- between departments", low them to play their full and "poor logistical support",and "inadequate rOle. While vast sums of understanding by outposted money have been spent on ambitious andsometimes officials", could quite unrealistic equipment andplans, the developing likely be traced in realityto this complete lack of countries are still struggling to special, planned civil-service define the infrastruc- Civil servants communication. ture of nation-wide communicationin terms of in- are not in reality unimaginativeor dividual and development-orientedneeds. deliberately slow-moving. If theyfail to co- ordinate, From the day a developmentproject is approved for example, it is oftenbecause no one ever really in the offices of oneor more of a country's central informed them as to whatto co- ordinate with whom, where, when, andhow government departments, includingits plan of op- to do so. or authorized them erations, budget and schedule,the entire project begins to depend for itssuccess on information- In development, civilservants are 'being asked communication. not merely to administerknown "static" services, In order to appreciatethis, it is but to undertake special, enough to take the plan ofany sizeable project, and revolutionary-change then ask the following series functions on an intensiveand time-compressed of questionsconcern- scale.They need special, intensive ing its objectives and statedmethods: tion help. communica- To what group of people isit aimed, where, In the design of any majordevelopment in what order of time; project, it may benecessary to plan a whole first what specific information stage in which there is and techniques are to beconveyed, by what media, no mass communication to with what special informationmaterials and aids, the communities involveduntil a planned communi- produced by whom; what willsuch information- cation programme withinthe civil service has begun communication cost - and is this to take effect. for? latter budgeted Next in the sequence should ing - of the specific cadres come actual train- At once it should be emphasizedthat this:criti- of civil servants and cal path methodology of specialists who must thentrain other cadres, who not solely for "mass communication appraisal is must in turn act as directagents of development communication by mass media". and change in interpersonal It is often enough to ask theabove questions, communication usually as it in rural communities;or who must Work with the were, immediately outside theoffices of the few people in technical senior civil servants whodrew up and are in charge construction or other material of the project to understandthe need for appraisal. inputs in the project. Avery large number of Long before mass communication strategic studies have pointed by mass media, this training component out that failure in a whole series of echelons ofcivil servants and has been one of themost associated institutions, radiating serious, and neglected,weaknesses of many de- offices, must have quite out from the top velopment projects to date. specific, planned informa- in planned support This is also zaE. failure tion about (and even motivationfor) this project communication. the need for it, its objectives,its channels of imple- The aids which developmentworkers:Under mentation, its time-phases, etc.(In many countries instruction - extensionworkers, nutritionists. so many civil servants may be involved animal health field assistants,forest rangers that reaching take away will be used - them is in fact the first "masscommunication". ) bythem for direct communi- cation in the community.From this a vitalpoint 34 may be seen to emerge. The total Support Com- frighten those engaged in the mass-media and pro- munication Programme of a major project needs ject support communication of a developing country. to be designed as one programme of interrelated While everyone knows the press, radio, and now parts.Training instructors need to have, in their increasingly television, the productions of a film training or briefing courses, samples of the ma- unit do not materialize every day like those of the terials that will be used for the popular communi- other media.But, correctly conceived and pro- cation stage; and these materials have to be de- perly produced as an integrated element in the signed in time for the training stage. Support overall infrastructure of total communication, film Communication is an exacting, planned discipline can be even more effective.In the words of Jean- it cannot work on subsequently improvised and vague Luc Godard, film is "a blackboard between the dif- "publicity" concepts. ficulties of life and the actions to change that life". The third broad stage and level of communica- And development - what again is that?It is tion is to the national community itself.Here, it not, as Malcolm Adiseshiah has reminded us, just is important to note what mass communication by and merely economic growth."Development", he mass media can, and on available evidence cannot, has written, "is Man. Man who is the beginning, be counted upon to achieve. Mass media of com- the end, the objective and finality of all ...". municationfilm, radio, mass-distributed posters, On 21 July 1969, millions of people in what other simple publicationscan indeed vitally help we call the developed world watched one of their to create a popular sense that change may be pos- emissaries step on to the moon. Millions more sible; or in other words, an awareness of innova- in what we refer to as the developing world were tion.The mass media are extremely important in unaware of "this one small step for a man, but stimulating a sense of "involvement". But most of one giant leap for mankind". They possess neither the available research and monitoring evidence to the television sets on which it was simultaneously date indicates that to take the development process projected, or the capacity even to decipher its re- to the stage of implementationwhich is innovation port in a newspaper which only a handful can read. adoption by the people concerned themselves mass To bridge this seemingly ever-widening gap media must be combined with ground-level inter- between the choice between a walkabout on the moon, personal communication by trained and communica- and lifetime after lifetime of going no further than tion-equipped development specialists. the village well with a water pitcher on your head, For example, farm broadcasting has so far is certainly development. proven itself as an impetus to innovation adoption To bring to all the world the words and reac- where - and only where - the programmes are tions, the sights and the sounds, of the first man methodically planned and produced in synchroniza- on the moon is certainly communication. tion with ground-level motivation and instruction of It was the purpose of this paper to attempt a farmers in the specific techniques. Results depend definition of how one particular form of communi- equally upon answers to individual localized ques- cation - filmcan assist in development. How tions being supplied by extension workers who are film can help to narrow the increasingly fearful adequately equipped with communication aids and division rim confronting the world. A division in who have been trained how to "build" on the farm which some are preparing, and are able, to voyage radio programmes and feed back into them. still further out into space, while for more and Films, the relatively higher cost of their pro- more the challenge is mere survival. duction notwithstanding, can be immensely power- And out there now in space there are already ful in rural development support communication, the tools and vehicles which can bridge this gap: provided certain key conditions are met. As with man-made satellites which can beam in an instant all other communication materials, and as we have a picture, a programme, a film, to an entire con- seen, the films must be devised, directed, and scrip- tinent stationary and waiting below. ted by professionals who understand development By 1975 India will have her own satellite, fixed and development support communication, and who in her own orbit, high in her own sky.Up to it, are sensitive to rural and agricultural life.Films from a single ground relay station at Ahmedabad, made by thoroughly urbanized personnel are vir- will be beamed a national television programme. tually useless for rural audiences as support com- In turn, the satellite will retransmit the picture, munication aids. with its synchronous sound in three different lan- To sum up, a planned project and community- guages, to half a dozen ground relay stations in designed support communication aid such as film different parts of the sub-continent.Specially de- becomes effective only when it is used by or in signed receiving sets will by then have been estab- tandem with trained, locally working development lished in five thousand villages throughout the country. specialists.They alone can effectively introduce Half a world away, at Balcarce, in the province the films and integrate them into the particular local of Buenos Aires, Argentina, another land station community development environment. for satellite communication came into operation This paper began with definitions.Film was the very month Neil Armstrong stepped on to the seen to be in essence a motion picture which tele- moon. Below Balcarce,s slave satellite, whichis scoped time.It is still something which seems to at an altitude of more than 30, 000 kilometres above

35 the equator, lies Brazil. B7 this means, in the also be able to share in the problems of control- South American continent, two great countries and ling rainfall on the slopes of the Andes.Thus, their peoples can share the same visual experience mass audiences throughout the world can be linked at one and the same time.Soon the coverage will and motivated by a common awareness and under- be wider and even intercontinental; and during the standing. next decade it will become increasingly interna- It is possible now; and in the storage, retrieval, tional.The day is not far distant when the lAdian and projection of moving pictures by electronic farmer sitting in front of a television set in his means in future, a major and indispensible part village teleclub will not only participate in an ins will still be played by film. structicinal programme on crop rotation, but will

36 APPENDIX I

A POSTSCRIPT ON PRODUCTION, ESTABLISHMENT AND COSTING;

STAGE ONE writer/director/cameraman can be found, who is able to combine all three functions successfully) PRE-PRODUCTION For the average film, shot silent with sound added afterwards, writer/director works with The decision taken to make the film, a writer (and cameraman; and each has his own assistant with preferably a writer/director) must then be assigned him in the field. to the subject. For synchronous sound filming on location in His task is to travel to the various locations, the field (argued in this paper as the method best and to question and listen to the particular experts suited to audience involvement and participation) suggested and introduced by the sponsoring au- sound recordist (with possibly assistant) must be thority. added to the unit. All available literature and documentation on If some filming is required indoors, for ex- the subject must be made available to him. The ample, in hospitals, schools, health centres, etc., production manager must arrange for transporta- portable lighting kit, and maybe mobile generator tion for the writer/director during his research/ must be added to camera and sound equipment. survey, and accommodation wherever necessary. Cameraman, with assistant, can set up lights, Writer/director then returns and writes firstly driver of camera-truck towing generator can ope- a TREATMENT and then, once this has been ap- rate the latter. proved, a SCRIPT. Location field expenses will have been asses- Production manager then breaks this down in- sed from schedule and budget, and the director is to a schedule which compacts its filming in a series then responsible for correct expenditure and ac- of locations as closely consecutive as may be prac- counting. tical, so as to minimize the amount of time and Maximum amount of negative rawstock and money that the production unit will have to spendwhen sound recording tape will also have been assessed out in the field filming. from script and budget. The amount of money available for the entire For a major film involving much travel, syn- film is the determining factor in scheduling and chronous dialogue, and even actors, a deputy pro- costing, and a detailed BUDGET of itemized costs duction manager should be assigned to work with has to be prepared within this total figure at this the director and his assistant in the field, handling stage. all arrangements and monetary transactions.

STAGE TWO STAGE THREE

PRODUCTION POST-PRODUCTION On the basis of the agreed script, budget, and Editor, or assistant if director cuts his own film, schedule, writer/director now takes his unit into will have been assigned at an early stage of pro- the field and shoots the film. duction.Cutting room made available at head- Minimum technical requirement could still be quarters base of operations. one and the same man as the writer/director who, Costs of negative film processing and printing if he possesses the additional skill, could serve as of selected satisfactory "takes" of each scene his own cameraman: an ideal method for very sim- filmed will have been assessed at pre-production ple, silent film shooting (but only satisfactory if a planning stage, also costs of final fully synchronous

37 "answer" print of completed film from labora- film and "rush" prints in transit; personnel, equip- tory. ment, and all special risks that the filming might Costs of transportationof exposed film ship- entail with regard to anyone or anything involved in ments an, maybe airfreight to laboratory will have production. been calculated within overall cost budget also at It is to be hoped that the reader is by now con- pre-production stage. vinced that, correctly conceived and integrated in- Amount of time the film is in the cutting rooms, to the whole concept of the developfnent plan and amount of time of director involved in editing will procesS, film can immeasurably assist and accel- also have been calculated and budgeted along with erate the whole nature of change.But compared that of cutting room staff.Editor ( and assistant) to other media, it cannot be denied that it is a rela- also should be costed and charged as the case maybe. tively expensive tool. After approval of edited film, with commentary Can it be afforded? How much will it cost? read aloud during projection, final sound "dub" How can it be done? These are fair and reason- (mix) of commentary after recording, dialogue, able questions. music (if any), sound effects, now takes place In order to be truly effective in the develop- all of which must be costed within framework of ment process, it is preferable to make a series original budget. of films each related to the other and to the devel- Total budgeted cost of film should include the opment plan as a whole.But for an integrated final quality acceptable combined "show- copy" programme of this kind,if the country has no pub- print of the completed film from the laboratory. lic service film organization, a body should be set up under the national development administration. We have dealt above with the three stages of PARTICULAR ITEMS TO NOTE IN BUDGET production and the requirements by way of person- nel and costing. Now in determining the appropriate PRE-PRODUCTION size and scope of the public service film produc- tion organization, a communication planning ap- Salary of writer/director during research, travel, proach should be adopted.This would include: and writing period.Cost of his transportation and (a) An assessment of the need for film:is film field accommodation.(Calculate on a per diem what is required; will it best perform the task; basis. ) is the country prepared to bear the cost of pro- ducing its own films and to what extent;and PRODUCTION how will film integrate with other media in the country? Salaries of director, cameraman, assistants, (b) An assessment of the present capacity of the sound crew, as may be necessary.Costs of their unit, if one is already. established. transportation and field accommodation. Hire of ( c) A definition of the gap between need and pre- any equipment which may be required and not al- sent capability. ready available and owned by the public service film (d) Planning to fill the gap, which should include production organization itself.Costs of negative manpower, equipment and material require- films and sound recording tape, processing trans- ments. fer.Fees and gratuities possibly payable to per- (e) Training and implementation. sonnel and institutions for their assistance in pro- A correct evaluation can only be made, of viding facilities. course, by a professional who is knowledgeable Consumption of electricity for lighting interiors and experienced in the whole area of contemporary on such sites (if not mobile-generated). mass communication. Telephone calls, telegrams, shipment of ex- It is therefore most strongly recommended posed film from the field to the laboratory. Ideally, that at this stage a mass communication consultant shipments should be made every day or at least in film be called in to prepare a comprehensive once a week in order that a report may reach the study.This would incorporate all the points men- director in the field. tioned above, in the particular context of the stage of development reached, the needs, and the aspira- POST-PRODUCTION tions of the country concerned. On the basis of such a report, an informed decision could then be Period of time editorial and cutting room staff re- made by the government. quired.Period of time sound recording staff and In a country where a commercial film-making studio needed to record commentary, sound effects, operation already exists, the production of a de- if not already done by unit in the field, music if re- velopment film or series of films can be contrac- quired, plus final and complete sound mix ("dub"). ted by the development authority to a local producer Transfer of this ultimate mixed and combined sound of recognized standing and integrity.Carefully track from tape to optical film.Salaries of sound scripted and correctly costed, produced by techni- recording technicians for these periods of time. cians aware of the particular approach and methods INSURANCE from the beginning of negative called for in this field, and .carefully and creatively

38 checked at each and every stage of the production production unit as such, the training of technicians, by a sponsoring authority aware of what film can and the expenditure of currency on the purchase of or cannot do, this can provide in certainindividual equipment already available in this private, com- instances a satisfactory method of production. mercial sector. It would obviate the need to establish a

39 APPENDIX II

THE TRAINING OF A FILM MAKER

It is the job of the producer to produce the films mankind; it is something with which they should required by the development authority. In any one try to serve and help everyone in our ever smaller year there maybe twelve or more, on as many dif- world.It is an instrument with which they can ferent subjects, depending on the nature and scale help make it one world.This is the test of film. of the operation.The research, writing, filming, This is the challenge of development. editing, recordingas well as the various check- A word from that veteran French film-maker, ing and approval stagesmay average three to whom many a young film-maker professes to ad- four months in each case.One man, one mind, mire, Jean Renoir:"I prefer the idea of digesting must stay with each particular project, locked in- the world, observing it and trying to transform one's to it, and living with it all the way.This person observation into something personalbut with ob- is commonly called the director, and a film pro- servation as a starting point. duck.g unit geared to a government's development If a film-maker wishes to contribute and be a needs ;.rould need at least four directors to con- part of developmentpositive and creative develop- ceive and carry out the separate films under the mentthen it is his task to observe his world, not overall guidance and supervision of a producer. indulge himself. (It is assumed, and it certainly should be the case Development is a dynamic process, and its in this type of informational and motivational film- films for the remainder of this century will be making, that the director writes his own treatment made by a new generation, one that never knew and script: that he is in fact a writer/director, a. colonial rule. A generation who find their fathers' film creator, a film-maker. )The producer is talk of the struggle for independence a bore. A engaged in the general the general film pro- generation caught up all over the world in a crisis gramme as an integral element in the development of identity. plan.The director is involved in the particular - These young people will increasingly learn the particular subject to which he is assigned in their trade and their craft, not on the job appren- that programme. To this he should be totally com- ticed to an expatriate cameraman or director, but mitted.Whether it be drainage, birth control, in a film school. transportation, crop rctation, nutrition, or the in- What is needed in a film school? What form structiori of rural youth in development orientation. should it take?Ideally it should consist of an in- This last is indeed a vital subject for our writer/ tegrated complex of at least two sound stages, director, our film-maker, in a developing country. with one or another now equipped for the electronics But he himself is as often as not very much in need of television.There should be a recording studio, of such instruction and orientation. cutting rooms, and laborator:.. These self-contained It is also important to remember that the orien- premises should be situated close to the country- tation and attitudes of the writer/director, film- side, to enable film-making exercises' to be car- maker who is himself a product and a creature of ried on in exterior locations nearby. There should development, will reflect all the personal pressures be a library devoted to the cinema and television. and conflicts Gf the development process itself. There should be an archive of film classics and It is so very easy for a film-maker to get de- copies of major and significant television pro- lusions of grandeur for he fashions a world himself grammes (if such a source of supply does not al- and people look at him in awe.Film-makers go ready exist in the country itself).In developing everywhere; they are accepted everywhere, by countries, where there is inevitably a shortage of poor people, by rich people.But the motion pic- housing there should be a residential block for the ture camera they aim at all and sundry does not students, their numbers depending on national cir- confer upon them the right to judge the rest of cumstances and international affiliation. The students should be enrolled for three year courses in technique are now standard and perfectly accept- on screenplay writing, direction, motion picture able.He will be shown examples of the latest and photography and electronic camera-work, sound the most modish. Works which depend more on recording and sound engineering, photographic technique than on content; cutting that is frantic film and electronic tape editing; and, if the school and almost subliminal.At this particular moment is in a country with a developed, or developing com- he could be told, and shown, that the use of a zoom mercial film industry, film acting as well.Each lens as a single long-focus telephoto unit does away of these faculties should be headed up by its own with the "old- fashioned" need to make first a mas- professor or instructor, professional experts in ter shot, then a medium shot, then a series of their respective fields, either on permanent staff close-ups.Other voices would whisper to him or short-term contract.There should be frequent that the writing of a script is inhibiting, that spon- visits, lectures, and demonstrations by working taneous and improvised filming is all the thing now. practitioners in these respective crafts of film- He will of course be given a basic grounding in the making from the outside and practical world of grammar of film, but how Many of his teachers professional film and television. will tell him that technique which calls attention Students should be selected on the basis of a to itself is bad technique? How many even know, country-wide competition, consisting of a written that for the audiences awaiting him back in his own test held in the country's main cities.(Onlyin the country the most simple and straightforward style - already developed countries could applicants be even elementaryis essential? His real audience expected to submit an example of their own inde- has not had the privilege of a three year course of pendently made apprentice films. )Lnterviews motion picture art and history.In many cases would follow.Scholarships could be awarded on they haven't even yet got a cinema within miles the basis of merit and the economic circumstances of the dirt road outside their village.Is our young of the student.Government grants would have to student told that his task, his challenge, is not to underwrite the school, international assistance make films to .impress his fellow film-makers, from organizations like Unesco could be forthcom- centred on himse',7:and his own subjective reactions, ing, and if a commercial film industry already but to inform, instruct, and motivate the illiterate exists in the country concerned, it too should con- millions of the country which has given him this tribute in the form of a levy on its own receipts. opportunity, and that this is what he should be Students should not specialize too much. A learning to do? student wishing to specialize in editing, for example, Between the study of film as an art in its own should also take'orientation courses in direction, right and its purely instrumental use as an audio- motion picture photography, and sound recording. visual aid there now exists a whole range of other In their first year, students should carry out sim- uses including film as cultural product, film as ple film-making exercises with simple synchronous stimulus, and film as evidence.While the study sound.In their second year, they would go on to and application of film as stimulus is of particular make short films with dialogue.In their third and use and significance to developing countries, it is final year they would make ten to fifteen minute true to say that film schools have hitherto diploma films complete in all respects.In this concentrated much more on film as art, as a me- final stage the students should form their own pro- dium of self-expression rather than as a tool for duction crews. As a result, the entire creative teaching, instruction, and community development. work of direction, photography, editing, sound re- Like all people, and all institutions in the developed cording and re-recording would be donE by them- world, film schools must develop closer links with selves. And then off they would go into an environ- the needs and aspirations of the developing coun- ment and an industry which must be geared to re- tries, otherwise our orie world will become more ceive themand give them employment. and more fragmented, both materially and intel- But from the point of view of the developing lectually. countries, it is not enough that their young repre- While every new technique, style, and method sentatives gain admittance to such schools, study, which might be effectively employed to tell a film make their apprentice films, and even graduate story and give it urgency and force needs to be en- with honours. They might know how many frames couraged, there must be a reconciliation between there are to Eisenstein's re-enactment of the mas- the claims of film as art and the demands of film sacre on the steps of Odessa, they may know all as function. about Jean-Luc Godard and other fashionable film- A very important part of the producer's-task makers of the moment, but do they know how to is to resolve this conflict which can frequently make a film about rural sanitation and, more im- arise between his director and his sponsor. The portant, will they care to? sponsor wants a film for a purpose, a function. During his period at the film school, the ap- The young director, more often than not, regards prentice film-maker will be exposed to a plethora his assignment as an opportunity to make a film of films, almost without exception made by city- for its own sake.The measure of a producer's based people for urban audiences, developed and talent is his ability to harmonize, and reconcile, relatively sophisticated, and for whom short-cuts these two sometimes antagonistic points of view and out of their synthesis produce a work went on to create a further symphony out of fact. which is both artistic and functional. In New Earth, from the prosaic subject of the re- We don't expect our film aesthete to become clamation of land from the waters of the Zuiderzce, an expert on soil erosion. We don't demand that he made a poem. After a few more films in his na- our agronomist become a talented film-maker. tive land, he went east, and settled in Vertov's We call for the creation of a new breed ( or a re- country.There, in the Soviet Union, he developed turn to a very old one). A film-maker who has not only a new sociological outlook but also a more so mastered technique that he has refined his own functional and less formalistic technique.This till he has reached an essential simplicity. An in- served him well in such films as The Spanish Earth 'terpreter who subordinates himself to the facts. ( the civil war in Spain), The 400, 000, 000 ( the war The simple and straightforward recording of in China), and Power and the Land (the electrifica- fact is said to be the province of the newsreel. in tion of an American farm).But his most interest- a manifesto, back in 1919, a Russian maintained ing film, albeit flawed, is possibly an attempt at a that this was opportunity and stimulus, and need composite film of the peoples, and the developing be far from uncreative. countries, of Eastern Europe after the chaos and "The lens of the camera has the power of the destruction of the Second World War. The First moving eye.It can and does go everywhere and Years was filmed in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugo- into everything.It climbs the side of a building slavia, and Bulgaria; and the lesson in this brief and goes in through the window; it travels over digression into the past of left-wing factual film- factories, along steel girders, across the road, making is the state of affairs in Bulgaria today. in and out of trains, up a chimney stack, through Before World War Two, Bulgaria produced a park ..'. into the houses of the rich and poor; it only a few newsreels and shorts, and a very oc- stands in thestreet, whilst cars, trams, buses, casional feature. Today the Documentary-Studio carts flash by it on all sides ... it follows this per- alone, producing over seventy films a year (as son down that alley and meets that one round the well as a weekly newsreel) employs thirty script- corner ... writers, eighteen directors, and twenty-one camera- This Kino-Eye technique of Dziga Vertov made men. use of all the particular resources of the cinema; Note well that proportion and range of techni- of slow-motion, rapid-motion, reversed movement, cians.There are more scriptwriters than there composite and still photography, one turn - one are directors or cameramen. The man with a picture, divided screen, microscopic lens ... movie camera is no longer sufficient as such, more than fifty years ago.It involved the camera however much he might personally enjoy expres- itself in the action.It preceded our now contem- sing himself with it. What is required in the develop- porary and universal acceptance of the ever-present ing world today are informational and instructional camera as recording instrument by half a century. films thoroughly researched and most carefully Aptly titled indeed was Vertov's most famous film, written before those men with movie cameras go The Man with a Movie Camera. abroad in the land. Twelve years later, the Dutchman Joris Ivens APPENDIX III

r7TF-DSSARY OF FILMTERMINOLOGY

( Based on the fundamentalprocs.and technique analysed and described in Chapter Three)

Viewpoints are generally defined and described as shot of its principals, and then separateclose-ups long shot, mid shot and close-up. of its details. A long shot embraces the full field of a large For these standard changes of viewpointand area, whether it be the planetearth as photographed perspective, lenses of differing focal length are traditionally used in each case. By mechanical from an orbiting spacecraft, a field sownwith crops, its as- or a family seated around a meal onthe floor of adjustment of the optical arrangement of ZOOMlens incorporates all the dif- their hut.(Abbreviated in scripting toLS. ) sembly, a A close-up is a detail which fills the screen, ferent widths of angles of the full rangeof separate whether it be the head and shoulders of an astro- lenses.By adjusting its focal length while the camera is running the imageban be made to ZOOM naut, an ear of corn growing in the field, or the the full bowl of rice from which the family is eating. (Ab- into or out from a close-up detail within breviated in scripting to CU. ) frame. A mid shot falls somewhere in between, and To move the camera laterally across the scene for a person the figure will be framed from the of action is to PAN the camera. To TRACK the .camera is to move it onwheels waist up.(Abbreviated in scripting toMS. ) with- In formalfilm-making the technique is to make towards, or away from something or someone first a long shot of the entire action, then a mid in the frame, or sideways with or across the action.

43 APPENDIX IV

SHOT-LISTED AND TIMED OUTLINE SCRIPT OF A DEVELOPMENTFILM

A film on how, for example, to irrigate land which nothing is growing.Then,step by step, cheaply and in terms of s elf-help should start with shot by shot, scene by scene, segmentbysegm.ent what is instantly recognizable and of the essence of of captured, mobile, and organized time the film the story - the dried up barren land itself. And so proceeds. therefore this does, with a close-up of earth in

Surface of dry land. PAN to LS fields and farmland. There is little growing, the surface is dry and dusty. A farmer is approaching. (15 seconds) MS The farmerGanu walking through the dry field (13 seconds)

CU Feet of Ganu walking over hard, dry soil. ( 8 seconds) CU Face of Ganu, walking Morose, dissatisfied. (8 seconds) CU Water in nearby stream. PAN up to LS Ganu approaching. (12 seconds MS Ganu sitting down on the, bank of the stream. (8 seconds)

44 CU Feet of Ganu dipped in the water. (6 seconds) CU Ganu, depressed. A voice is now heard: "Hellow there.Cheer up All is not lost yet you know."

Ganu looks around, "Don't you know me. puzzled. I'm your friend. I can help you. Here I am, right at your feet."

He looks down. (10 seconds) CU Water, swirling round Ganu's feet. "I'm water (6 seconds) I know you're worried.Let me help you."

MS The face of Ganu is seen reflected in the water, as he peers in to see where the voice is coming from. ( 7 secondW) "Not enough water to irrigate your fields?' Actually there if only you'd know how- to make it go round."

CU GAT1UrS face, reflected in the water "So many of your Amer friends - your unc7F- for instance - haverput me to excellent use. Why not go to therni,and find out?"

The surface of the water CONE E ON GEMPUP ,. is abruptly disturbed, and the reflected face of Ganu disappears. (11 secon..tis) CU Water in stream. at KAMTHADI village, PAN up LS Ganu and uncle walking up to an earth dam built across the stream. (15 seconds) MS Ganu and his uncle stop and look at the earth dam. (12 seconds) CU Ganu. (8 seconds) We now hear the voice of theuncle: "By building this earth dam across the stream, we are able to divert water from it and into our fields." LS The earth dam. PAN along it and ZOOM into the diversion channel at the end. (15 seconds)

CU Water in side diversion "We are planting the channel of earth dam. new- high-yielding PAN up to LS as it flows variety of seeds here, into the_nearby fields. and as they need more (10 seconds) fertilizer, so in turn they have to have more water." CU Hybrid, corn and:Hybrid maize grown and irrigated "But:this is of course in the 'fields. only seasonal.It is only good for as long ( 9 seconds) as the water lasts during the rainy season of June to October." CU Ganu looking aLlhe "If you want tosee an earth dam an id:ZWening. improvement on this system, (9 seconds) you'd better go-to KIKWI." CU Water flowing larrrof side channel at"the end of the stone darrrt .KIKWI. Zoom back to .1,Szstone and concrete danracross the stream at KIKWI. (17 seconds) LS The stone dam:and the stream at KIKWI. Ganu is walking-towards the bank with a villager in the distance.Behind him is an animal-drawn cart which could have brought him here. (14 seconds) The voice is now heard of the KIKWI VILLAGER: "Your uncle was right. This is certainly an improvement. We built this stone and concrete dam across the stream with the help of the government, from whom we got a loan."

MLS PAN water into the "With this system we are adjacent fields. fable to irrigate fifty (10 seconds) to a hundred acres Tiff farmland." mCUWater in irrigation ditch "But of course, this is in field. still only a seasonal ( 8 secOnds) system." CU 'Gann "What you are looking rnapressed, but naot yet "for is something that convinced. lasts all the year round." Be nods. ( 7 seconds) CU Feet of bullocks plodding forward. ZOOM slowly :back to MLS bullocks drawing water up 'from well in ticket at 'VELHU village. ( 15 seconds) Trom below, and inside the 'well, the bucket being =ais ed. ( 9 seconds) Olt :Water tipping out of ±Ucket into trough beside well. (6 seconds) CIEs Water racing down tile gully towards die fields. (18 seconds) The-voice of a VELHU VILLAGER is now heard: "From the well we do,get water all the year round."

Ganu, "Oh! I know you know till unimpressed. all about this (9 seconds) traditionaLmethod of getting water out of a well." MS Back to camera, Ganu and "We don't have to use animals the VELHU villager are any more." seen walking away from "Come and see what we've the well towards the done with our other well, village in the background. over here." (12 seconds) LS VELHU village and surrounding countryside. (8 seconds) CU Electric power-line against the sky. PAN down to the second well, and the two men approaching it in the background. (12iconds) CU Water gushing out of the pipe at the end of the electrically driven pump at this second VELHU well. "Now we use electricity (8 seconds) This pump is electrically operated to lift water to irrigate our fields. And if there is no electricity, an oil engine can be used. With this a man can be his own master. Alone, he can irrigate when he pleases." CU Water running into "Such a well can irrigate another irrigation ditch. some three to four PAN to LS general acres all theyear round. cultivated area and water The land is constantly flowing in through therefore in fruition." irrigation channels. (11 seconds) CUs Of the different types "You see, after our main of cash crops. crop we grow tomato, ( 15 seconds) peas, sugar cane," LS Main street in VELHU village. PAN to exterior village shop. Villagers buying consumer "There are cash crops goods in the Velhu village shop, and that means money," (15 seconds) CU Water poured into a cup. ZOOM back to reveal it io be in the hand of Ganu as he and the villager sit under a tree on the out- skirts of VELHU village. The villager is seated with his hack to the camera. (12 seconds) "Yes, I know you still have a problem. Your land is on a higher planea higher level - than the source of your water.You'd better visit HIWARE and see how they've solved that problem there." CUGanu. Deciding to go, he drinks the water and puts the cup down. (10 seconds) CU Surface of water. ZOOM back to LS the deep well at HIWARE. In the distance, Ganu and a member of the Hiware Farmers' Co-operative are approaching a group of farmers working beside the well. (17 seconds) The voice of a HIWARE villageris now heard: "Just like you we have a river flowing by our fields at a lower level, and this is what we did. We dug this well by the side of the river ourselVes. There are twenty-eight of us cultivators here in Iliware and we each contributed a hundred rupees towards the purchase of a pump and motor."

MS Farmers in the group talking together. ( 11 seconds) Ctis Other farmers in the "We formed a co-operative group by the well at lift irrigation society, HIWARE. through which we then ( 12 seconds) borrowed the balance of the money needed to complete this system. We find it quite cheap. We can irrigate all the year round."

CUs Water seen to be pumped out of the well dug near the river at HIWARE, and running into the fields. ( 12 seconds) CU Surface of water. ZOOM back to reveal large percolation tank. (13 seconds) "And if water comes to your door, this is what government can do. M a natural catchment area, make a Percolation Tank. LS Percolation tank. These tanks catch rain water. PAN over surface. The water seeps down through (15 seconds) the soil and raises the level of the subsoil water - which of course then makes it easier for us to lift water from our wells." CUs Various close-shots of water running through different irrigation systems into fields. ( 12 seconds) CU Ganu looking at the fields, and pondering. ZOOM slowly back to LS of him standing alone in the fields. ( 13 seconds) "With irrigation you don't have to wait for rain to sow. With irrigation the healthy growth of your crop is assured. With irrigation you can double crop. Then you can afford to buy pesticides and grow still more again." LS Fields and countryside. "This is what we have been Ganu a tiny figure, all doing, in our different ways, to alone in the distance. improve irrigation. With you, PAN across landscape. the problem may be different- (14 seconds) but there is an answer. Go and talk it over with your village headman." LS Ganu walking towards camera over his own dry fields. (10 seconds) MCS Ganu pauoes by the bank of the nearby stream once again. (11 seconds) MCU Ganu. He has walked a long way. He is hot.He is tired. (8 seconds) MS Ganu gets down into the water of the stream and starts to wash himself. 9 seconds) MCUGanu's face, and water streaming over it as he washes. 7 seconds) And the voice of Water is now heard again: "Come alongdon't waste time. can do ,e great deal more for you than just wash the dirt off your face." CU Ganuagain amazed to hear the voice of the water streaming over his face. 7 seconds) "Hurry up we've got work to do TOGETHER." MS Ganu scrambles quickly out of the stream, and out of frame. Camera stays on the surface of the water. (11 seconds) Quick close-ups of water, flowing in different directions.Quick, active, busy. (20 seconds)

With sixty moving pictures (each a segment of ac- yardstick must be cost-effectiveness.Supposing tual time) combined and in associationon the our case history irrigation film cost 35, 000 rupees . screen for a total running time of ten minutes, we It would be seen by more than a million farmers. have taken our audience on a tour of more than The cost therefore- of showing these farmers how fifty miles. to improveat little cost to themselves or any- The actual time needed to take one man to all one else - their methods of irrigation and thereby the locations would be at least three days. changing their whole way of life, and, moreover, To have taken the film's total audience of a persuading them to do so, works out per head at million farmers around the villages to see, and less than a thirtieth of a single rupee. have explained to them, the various methods would Worth it, don't you think? take years - and is of course impractical and physi- cally impossible. (Adapted from a film produced by the author with But film can do this.For film can telescope students at the Film Institute of India in the autumn space as well as time. of 1969. ) With film, as in any investment, the final, UNESCO PUBLICATIONS: NATIONAL DISTRIBUTORS

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