The working up of our Films organisation followed the normal course. On 3rd August, 1940, a Films Officer was appointed, and since then the Film Section has succeeded in carrying through the job it set out to do - to present to all types of audience, urban, rural, specialised and industrial, wherever and whenever such audiences could be got together, news, facts, views and information of the Battle Fronts and the National and Allied War Effort.
General shows to the general public - of which there were many hundreds - in addition to meeting the need for news also did a valuable morale job. The fact that shows were “Admission Free” played little part in attracting audiences, since whilst people will attend a free show once, they will only continue to attend again and again - as they did attend again and again - if the shows are worthwhile and giving the sort of thing people want to know and see. Quickly the public discriminated between M.O.I. and ordinary cinema shows. To the latter they went for entertainment, to the former for facts, news and information of the war in all its aspects. The M.O.I. film show tied up with Press and Radio in giving the visual background to much of the news.
Particularly outstanding jobs were the widely spread series of C.D. and N.F.S. training shows, for which type of work the film is the outstanding medium.
On the broad principle as to whether or not a film section ought to have its place in the scheme of things, should a similar emergency again arise, the answer is certainly in the affirmative.
Over five years of valuable experience has been gathered up and from time to time transmitted to the appropriate departments. The ideal programme length should not exceed 90 minutes. There is still room for improvement on the technical film printing and sound recording side on sub-standard film. Programmes have tended to be perhaps a little too much on the heavy side. A touch of humour here and there would have helped. On the whole, however, the material has been consistently good, as indeed it must have been repeatedly to hold audiences for over five years.
Much more could have been done, had equipment and manpower been available. Had pressure not been so heavy, more time could have been allocated to the showing of a specialised programme to specialised audiences, such as farmers, teachers and so on. A vast field for this type of constructive work remains hardly touched.
There can be little doubt that the scheme was, and continues to be, a valuable side of this Ministry's work.
