10 RMHO TIMES, ISSUE DATED JULY 23, 1937 THE WORLD WE LISTEN IN LISTENERS' LETTERS LOOKING AT TELEVISION (Continued from previous page) S. John Woods discvisses die tech• feeling of actuality is an absolutely fundamental Something for a Change part of television. MAY some of the splendid pianists we hear nique of television and contrasts it Intimacy and actuality, then, are two funda• be asked to play some of the works that are with that of the cinema mentals. A third, just as important, is person• never played ? I instance: Mendelssohn's ality. On the stage we have the living actor Concerto in D minor ; the Rondo Brillante before us, and conversely the actor has a living The Editor does not necessarily agree with by the same composer ; Schumann's Concerto audience before him and can gauge its reception the opinions expressed by his contributors in A minor ; Moszkowski's in E major, and of his acting. In television we have a similar many others. sense of having the actor before us, but for him It is quite true that you cannot have too VERY week some 250 million people visit it is more difficult; instead of having an audi• the cinema. Every year 750 million pounds much of a good thing but, as there are other E ence which he can reduce to laughter or tears, good things, why cannot we hear them played are invested in the production of films. Cinemas there is a forbidding, grey camera and a battery hold from 500 to 3,000 spectators and there by these experts ? One hears the announce• of hot lights. Just the same, the actor has to ment of a piano concerto and, sure enough, out are 88,000 cinemas in the world. get his personality over in very much the same These figures give some idea of the ground comes the ' Emperor ' by Beethoven or some• way that he does on the stage and much more thing similar. Why do these performers con• covered by the film industry. For the last five cleverly than he has to on the films. years, while television was being developed centrate so much ? Surely to suggest that these and finally made practicable, the magnates of Less Possibility of Movement virtuosi have a limited repertoire is bordering this industry have been having periodic heart- For the film depends on movement ; the on the insulting.— (Rev.) Richard T. Arscott, attacks at the thought of this unforeseen danger. director and the cameraman play as big a part Alderney, C.I. Now that television has started and is rapidly in building up the personality of a screen Languages Wanted finding its feet, we are beginning to realise star as does the star himself. In television that the film magnates don't have to worry ; there is obviously less possibility of movement. Is it not possible for the BBC to spare one that television will have little effect on films, For one thing, scenes must follow immediately short half-hour per week for language courses, for between television and films there is a vast upon one another, whereas in a film there may as they did until last year? If they would just No Man's Land. be weeks between the shooting of two scenes realise for a moment that many thousands of which are together when shown in the finished their listeners (I am one of them) are tucked At first sight this may- seem odd, because away in some quiet country corner where there both are viewed on a screen in black and white, film. Similarly the television camera is less free than the film camera. It can give close-ups and are no facilities for adults to rub up their and accompanied by sound. There, however, German, French, or other useful languages, the similarity ends. The ordinary commercial medium shots and long shots and it can do a lot of the other things a film camera can do, but they would understand that the necessity for us is film is not suitable for transmission by tele• infinitely greater than for the people who live in vision. The reason ? Because in television the it is also bound by the fact that each scene follows in its logical order and cannot be London and other large cities, who fortunately most important part of any film is lacking: have every opportunity of taking advantage of the audience. A film appeals to several hun• divorced from that order to obtain more fluent effects. classes or of private tuition in any subject or dred people at the same time ; a comedian language they desire. cracks a joke and there are several hundred In a film there are two kinds of movements : laughs ; the heroine sheds a tear and several the movement of the camera and the cutting, If the delightfully instructive German Les• hundred eyes are moist; at the shot of a gun and the movement of the action in front of the sons which we had with Herr Max Kroemer in several hundred hearts stop beating. Mass camera. The second of these is just as import• 1933 and 1935 cannot be continued, could emotion. It is far, far easier to make a crowd ant in television as in the film. For instance, it not be arranged to have German poetry of people laugh or cry than to produce the same talks are the most difficult side of television at read to us by him, even occasionally ? His effect on a solitary person. the moment. Views of the speaker, even when rendering of German poetry is a treat that no varied from long shot to close-up and from one could miss if once they heard him. Why not give us in the small towns a chance ?— Freedom v. Intimacy close-up to medium shot, quickly pall, and it is obvious that as a consequence only certain (Mrs.) M. A. Jones, Walney Island, Barrow- The film enthusiast may say, ' All right, in-Furness. you can't use the ordinary commercial film kinds of talks are suitable for television, talks in television. Why not, then, make your own that can be illustrated with movement, such as [The BBC has never ceased to broadcast at least one a craftsman explaining his work and carrying foreign language talk a week during nine months of films with these special conditions in mind ? the year. This year there has been a regular French Then you would at least have the freedom the it out in front of the camera. talk on Wednesday evenings, and next year there will film gives you to move from place to place, Success of Ballet be regular German readings and talks.—Editor, to show outside scenes and inside scenes and Ballet on the other hand, is singularly RADIO TIMES.] moving scenes and daytime scenes and night successful on the television screen and has pro• Variety in Variety scenes all in one programme instead of being vided many of the most entertaining moments Kaleidoscope was one of the most delightful tied to the studio or to one locale as television in the programmes. The plays given have musical half-hours I have ever heard. The is at the moment.' mostly been shortened stage plays and have variety of tunes was most refreshing, and not Admittedly by making films for television varied enormously in effect and quality. With only have the Lally brothers pleased themselves, we should be able to travel about, as our the expansion of television a separate dramatic but also, I'm sure, a great many listeners.— imaginary film-enthusiast has just said, but we technique will doubtless emerge employing the N. Oppenheimer, Ealing. should lose an essential part of television : its medium to the full. intimacy. Perhaps the most important part of And probably one of the most important Cathedrals in Edinburgh television is the feeling that the action that is roles to be played by television is that of the A BROADCAST was announced in the RADIO taking place is actually happening at the outside broadcast. The biggest single event TIMES from 'St. Giles Cathedral'. This build• moment you are watching it in your home. since the beginning of television was the trans• ing is not a cathedral and should be described In films the scene is rehearsed time and time mission of the Coronation procession from as ' St. Giles Church ' or ' High Kirk of St. again until the action has the precision of a Hyde Park Corner. This showed viewers what Giles '. The two cathedrals in Edinburgh are machine, everything just so, every moment was possible ; it was a tremendous success and St. Mary's Cathedral, Broughton Street, the accounted for, every movement calculated. In it did a lot for television. Soon we shall seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. television there is the delicious knowledge that probably be able to see the Derby, the Boat Andrews and Edinburgh, and St. Mary's Epis• at any moment something may go wrong. The Race, prize fights, and all the other events that copal Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican leading lady may get hiccups, the hero may are news, as they are happening and in our Bishop of Edinburgh; the Presbyterian Church trip up, the lights may go out. These things own homes. There are even hints, already, has no bishops, therefore it has no cathedrals. don't happen. But they easily might, and this of colour. —' Murray field ', Edinburgh. 16 RADIO TIMES, ISSUE D/^ED AUGUST 13 TELEVISION OF THE WEEK Transmissions by the Marconi- 9.10 MARIONETTES.