That the Advisory Committee members be encouraged to initiate projects which the AFI will consider and work to develop. The committee members will also seek out the ideas and advice of their colleagues in the education community for worthy and useful projects in education. That the Advisory Committee aid in the selection of members of the education community for the implementation of these projects. We believe that this proposal for involvement and implementation can aid in the welding of strong bonds between the education community and the AFI and that it is essential to future cooperation in education between American scholars and teachers and the AFI. We believe that a maturing American film community must combine the knowledge and experience of the professional film artist and the professional film scholar. An enlightened study of film can develop out of this union-and from this can evolve more knowledgeable criticism, more productive research, more daring and creative filmmaking and, most important of all, an audience which will demand of our contemporary cinema not only that it continue to hold us enthralled but that it serve to illuminate the human condition. II. PROJECT PROPOSALS: TOOLS FOR FILM TEACHING It is appropriate to begin our proposal for joint action in education with a project designed to create practical tools for the teaching of film. These "tools" can take many forms. They might be significant motion pictures made more accessible to the scholar, films-on-film, or excerpt scenes from selected films. They could be recordings of previously unobtainable film scores, oral histories, monographs, or films saved from destruction and made available to the teacher. Abore all, these tools must be flexible. If we are to supply the teacher with a “wrench," it must be a wrench with a range of interchangeable sockets so that the user may suit the tool to his needs and his individual style, his own unique vision of the role of educator. It can also be observed that tools mold the craftman; we will have detailed analysis of film when we place these films in the hands of film scholars and create a climate in which those scholars are confident of a means of communicating their ideas throughout the community of film. In this, the help of the AFI is essential. These initial proposals may be seen as pilot projects which will suggest many more. At this time, however, we will center our efforts on the following: A. Films-film.-A comprehensive, up-to-date catalog of films-on-film must be prepared, published, and distributed to film teachers in universities and seeondary schools. Robert Wagner and David Parker's A Filmography of Films About Movies and Moviemaking, James Limbacher's Movies About Movies, and the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)' Films on Film, among others, can serve as a basis for this project. Once a definitive list has been estab lished, it must be kept up-to-date. Sources for new films must be explored. The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Davidson Films' James Wong Howe, Texture Films' Italian Neorealism, and BMI's The Score, are examples of useful works obtainable through commercial sources. A systematic attempt must be made to obtain, catalog, and distribute the promotional films presently produced on the making of feature films. Visual-lecture presentations such as David Raksin's on Film Music, Linwood Dunn's on Special Effects, and Slavko Vorkapichs on Film Editing should be adapted to and preserved on film. The AFI-produced, Peter Bogdanovich-directed, film Directed by John Ford is an example of the sort of film that is needed by educators, a combination of interviews, criticism, and examples drawn from the filmmaker's body of work. There should be films covering all major directors of the international cinema. the significant craftsmen of film, and such areas as general history, aesthetics, and theory. (Vlada Petric's The Language of the Silent Cinema is an excellent example of the last category.) B. Core film list and nontheatrical film distribution surveys.-The AFI and UFA are currently distributing a list of 800 narrative feature films released between 1913 and 1973 to university film teachers in order to determine which films are most frequently used in cinema study. The AFI-UFA is at the same time distributing a detailed questionnaire to these teachers regarding their rela tionship with non-theatrical film distributors and their use of film in the class room. The results of these surveys will be published in the UFA Journal and American Film. Proposed budget, April 1, 1976 to March 31, 1977 Program funds for regranting_ Program development funds____ Total Administrative Costs: (1) Director's salary, full-time---. (3) Fringes for personnel__ (4) Telephone at $150 per month__. (2) Secretarial services, part-time, 1,300 hrs. at $3.75 per hour___ (5) Travel, in State, staff, average 2,000 miles per month X 15 $175,000 25,000 200, 000 18, 000 4,875 2, 200 1, 800 (6) Per diem, staff, average 3 days per month at $25 per day- 3, 600 900 1,800 sons $4 per meal X 10 meetings (8) Postage (9) Office supplies (10) Council meeting expense, business luncheon meetings, 20 per (11) Office space_. (12) Fiscal agent.. (13) Consulting services-- 1, 200 800 800 1, 200 2,000 825 Total 40, 000 DONALD STAPLES, UFA PRESIDENT, WINSTON SHARPLES, UFA CONFERENCE VICEPRESIDENT, A PROPOSAL ON EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES TO THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE FROM THE UNIVERSITY FILM ASSOCIATION "We will create an American Film Institute bringing together leading artists of the film industry, outstanding educators, and young men and women who wish to pursue this 20th Century art form as their life's work" -Lyndon Baines Johnson. "AFI's program of Education Liaison monitors the film education field in order to develop programs of national service that will meet the real needs of teachers and students. If the activities of Education Liaison are to be expanded, they should be done so according to a systematic and objective sense of priorities. It is proposed that a study that would provide these priorities be conducted to define the current needs and areas of concern." -From the AFI proposal to the National Endowment for the Arts for a Study/Survey on Education UNIVERSITY FILM ASSOCIATION EDUCATION PROPOSAL TO THE AMERICAN I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE We see the establishment of the AFI Education Liaison as an important step toward communication and cooperation between the AFI and the university film community. As AFI's study/survey moves forward, we offer to the institute a proposal for a realistic course of joint action which will complement and provide additional input into the Education Survey. We see this action as a series of individual projects which will grow out of a coherent AFI Program for Film Education, a series of efforts acknowledged and encouraged by the education staff of the AFI. We believe the following course is essential to the effective working of this joint University Film Association to aid them in determining priorities in film education and in implementing the projects which derive from this effort. We beleve the following course is essential to the effective working of this joint effort. That the AFI should move to establish an Advisory Committee for Education, comparable to those for the Archives, Catalog, Theater, and Center for Advanced Film Studies. That AFI-initiated projects for film education be brought to this committee for consideration and development at early stages of planning. That the Advisory Committee members be encouraged to initiate projects which the AFI will consider and work to develop. The committee members will also seek out the ideas and advice of their colleagues in the education community for worthy and useful projects in education. That the Advisory Committee aid in the selection of members of the education community for the implementation of these projects. We believe that this proposal for involvement and implementation can aid in the welding of strong bonds between the education community and the AFI and that it is essential to future cooperation in education between American scholars and teachers and the AFI. We believe that a maturing American film community must combine the knowledge and experience of the professional film artist and the professional film scholar. An enlightened study of film can develop out of this union-and from this can evolve more knowledgeable criticism, more productive research, more daring and creative filmmaking and, most important of all, an audience which will de mand of our contemporary cinema not only that it continue to hold us enthralled but that it serve to illuminate the human condition. II. PROJECT PROPOSALS: TOOLS FOR FILM TEACHING It is appropriate to begin our proposal for joint action in education with a project designed to create practical tools for the teaching of film. These "tools" can take many forms. They might be significant motion pictures made more accessible to the scholar, films-on-film, or excerpt scenes from selected films. They could be recordings of previously unobtainable film scores, oral histories, monographs, or films saved from destruction and made available to the teacher. Above all, these tools must be flexible. If we are to supply the teacher with a "wrench," it must be a wrench with a range of interchangeable sockets so that the user may suit the tool to his needs and his individual style, his own unique vision of the role of educator. It can also be observed that tools mold the craftman; we will have detailed analysis of film when we place these films in the hands of film scholars and create a climate in which those scholars are confident of a means of communicating their ideas throughout the community of film. In this, the help of the AFI is essential. These initial proposals may be seen as pilot projects which will suggest many more. At this time, however, we will center our efforts on the following: A. Films-film.-A comprehensive, up-to-date catalog of films-on-film must be prepared, published, and distributed to film teachers in universities and secondary schools. Robert Wagner and David Parker's A Filmography of Films About Movies and Moviemaking, James Limbacher's Movies About Movies, and the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)' Films on Film, among others, can serve as a basis for this project. Once a definitive list has been estal‣ lished, it must be kept up-to-date. Sources for new films must be explored. The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Davidson Films' James Wong Howe, Texture Films' Italian Neorealism, and BMI's The Score, are examples of useful works obtainable through commercial sources. A systematic attempt must be made to obtain. catalog, and distribute the promotional films presently produced on the making of feature films. Visual-lecture presentations such as David Raksin's on Film Music, Linwood Dunn's on Special Effects, and Slavko Vorkapichs on Film Editing should be adapted to and preserved on film. The AFI-produced, Peter Bogdanovich-directed, film Directed by John Ford is an example of the sort of film that is needed by educators, a combination of interviews, criticism, and examples drawn from the filmmaker's body of work. There should be films covering all major directors of the international cinema. the significant craftsmen of film, and such areas as general history, aesthetics, and theory. (Vlada Petric's The Language of the Silent Cinema is an excellent example of the last category.) B. Core film list and nontheatrical film distribution surveys.-The AFI and UFA are currently distributing a list of 800 narrative feature films released between 1913 and 1973 to university film teachers in order to determine which films are most frequently used in cinema study. The AFI-UFA is at the same time distributing a detailed questionnaire to these teachers regarding their rela tionship with non-theatrical film distributors and their use of film in the class room. The results of these surveys will be published in the UFA Journal and American Film. C. Film-in-the-classroom project.—This project is an outgrowth of the information derived from the above surveys and the AFI's Education Study/Survey. Beginning with the fifty most frequently used films and proceeding through all films used in film teaching, fifty-by-fifty, a catalog of information on these films should be co-published by AFI and UFA and should include: non-theatrical rental-lease sources, availability of definitive print, special rate for rental for cinema study, long-term leasing rates. A basic study guide could be prepared for each film. For each film, set of excerpts and slides should be prepared, cataloged, and distributed for use by cinema teachers. D. Oral history project.—A valuable resource of the AFI is the material contained in the Louis B. Mayer Oral History Program. Transcripts of much of this material will be published in the spring of 1976 as part of the New York Times Oral History Program, including some 160 AFI Seminars on Films and individual interviews with industry figures. We urge that further steps be taken both toward the dissemination of these acquired materials and the active continuation of the project. A catalog of the materials on hand should be published and made available to film scholars. The tapes and their transcripts could be made a starting point for scholarly research and written history. Future interviewers should be professionals, carefully chosen, supervised, and trained. The information on hand, once cataloged, must be made part of an information bank, with the AFI functioning as a clearinghouse for this and other useful information. E. Translation project.—An AFI project to pool, circulate, and encourage the execution of further translations of film material for which there are currently no English translations available should be re-established with the involvement of members of the university film community. F. Publication.-Many works lacking mass popular appeal are needed to improve the quality of film scholarship. An American equivalent to the British Film Institute's multi-volume series on the British Cinema should be initiated. Study guides should be prepared for all significant films used in cinema teaching. The monograph, seldom published by commerical firms, could find a place in such a program. Significant works on the history and aesthetics of film music are needed, as are books on particular areas of special effects, lab techniques, and the craft of individual film artists. Works on new or neglected directors must be published. Important leadership in the research, preservation, and reproduction of motion picture scores has been made by the Elmer Bernstein Film Music Collection. This project should be supported and its goals enlarged. G. Research grants.—A program of grants and royalty-advance funding should be established by the AFI to aid scholars and researchers who are working in areas of little commercial viability but of significant importance to cinema study and scholarship. H. Reference and information service.-The UFA has begun a research and reference service under the direction of Professor Calvin Pryluck of the University of North Carolina. This could serve as a basis for a project to be developed jointly by the AFI and UFA which would create an information bank and a clearinghouse for information for film teachers and students. An up-to-date list of current research in progress must be maintained. Lists of films, scripts, scores, and all film materials in archives must be maintained in this national resource for film scholars. III. PROJECT PROPOSALS: THE CENTER FOR ADVANCED FILM STUDIES "The basic component of the idea for starting the Center for Advanced Film Studies was that it would be a place for advanced learning about filmmaking but not simply as a place where the small number of people who are studying here would benefit directly, but where a laboratory could exist, where the knowledge of the filmmaking process could be brought in, recorded, refined, and made available throughout the country to the colleges and universities where film and filmmaking are taught... an excellent case can be made for the kind of funding that's necessary to begin to create books, films, and whatever is needed to make the learning process an easier and more effective one for people who are studying film... there is a common base of knowledge that is necessary and useful for people undertaking any of these pursuits, and what we are dealing with here is trying to define what that knowledge is, how it can be organized, and how we can set out over a period of years to create it." -George Stevens, Jr. 66-053 0-76-27 We believe that AFI's education training programs, primarily represented by its Center for Advanced Film Studies, could serve an important purpose for the educational community as a whole. The Center should not be "just one more film school," but a unique conservatory/laboratory, where innovative teaching methods may be tested and where tools for film teaching can be produced. A. Expansion and Establishment of Cinema Study and Research: We suggest that the AFI training programs be broadened to include areas of cinema study— history, theory, and aesthetics, criticism-and to deal with the documentary film and the experimental film as well as the narrative feature. We urge that the research and reference programs, at one time administered at the Center, be re-established within AFI and expanded so that they may serve the educational community at large. B. Conference program.—We urge that the Center consider the establishment of a Conference Program, bringing educators to the Center on a regular basis to discuss common problems and common goals. Special intensified courses in areas of education could be offered for the university and the secondary school educator, under an Intership for Teachers Program. One specific proposal is offered as part of the Greystone Conference Program. We of the UFA would work together with the Education Liaison of the AFI toward a "Greystone Conference on the Message of the Frame," a thorough examination of the contemporary methods of visual analysis-structuralist, semiatic, vidistic. The conference would stress the interdisciplinary origins of these approaches to cinema study. IV. PROJECT PROPOSALS: AREAS FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT A. Students.-The role of the student in university film programs should be examined. Too many schools are run only by and only for the faculty. An attempt must be made to define the specific needs of the student in the areas of film history, theory, criticism, research, and production. The relationship of education to the important question of career choice must be examined. An exploration should be made into the possibilities for a "year abroad" exchange program with foreign film schools as well as a "semester away" program of exchange within the American film school community. Such student-oriented activities as the Washington National Film Festival, presently co-sponsored by the University of Maryland Film Division and the AFI, and the Conference on Visual Anthropology, sponsored by Temple University Anthropology Department, should be supported. The AFI's program for scholarships to film students entering university study should be resumed. In addition, a program of scholarships should be established which would enable the outstanding graduates of university film production programs to spend a year at the Center for Advanced Film Studies. B. Women and minorities.-We wish to work with AFI in a positive program to further the scholarly and professional goals of women and minorities, as students, teachers, filmmakers, and professionals in the field of cinema studies. We applaud the AFI's Women's Directing Workshop and the establishment of the Ralph Andrews Scholarships for Women and the Center for Advanced Film Studies. We believe that such programs should be established in other areas of AFI education. C. Scholar award.-The AFI Life Achievement Award has been an inspired contribution to the American film scene, offering a well earned reward to the distinguished professional filmmaker while making known to the country at large the vision and the role of the AFI. We ask that now, in its maturity, the AFI establish a new additional award for outstanding contribution to film scholarship in the area of research, original theory, criticism, archival work; or teaching. The recipient of this award should then stand side-by-side with the honored filmmaker, symbolizing the solidarity toward which we must work, expressing the importance of the film artist to film study-and of film study to the art of film. It is fitting that these two should be honored together, for each has indeed made an "extraordinary contribution to the art of film." D. Membership.-The current AFI Guide to College Courses in Film and Television lists 2,622 faculty members teaching courses in film or television in United States universities. Of these teachers, 1,179 are full-time. Current active (teaching) membership in the UFA is 355, up 7% from 1974, with 82 schools represented as institutional members. There are 163 student members, up 13% |