Matthew
21-04-2003, 12:40 AM
"What's playing at the Roxy?"
a plea for the teaching of a critical study of the arts of film and television in secondary schools
F.E.G.A. Victorian Chapter.
By Brian Kavanagh, Chairman,
One only has to read the "letters to the editor" in some of the popular television magazines to realise why television programmes are so bad.
The viewer simply doesn't want anything better. He may claim that he does but, In fact, if he was presented with better programmes, would he really know the difference.
If you ask a cinema-goer why they think a certain film is good they are at a loss to tell you why.
"'The Sound of Music' was beautiful."
But why?
"Ar . . . dunno . . . It was just . . . beautiful . . . Julle Andrews was . . . beautiful. The camerawork was wonderful"
Most times they really mean the editing was good.
This, of course, is the Mums and Dads' level. But the Mums are trapped in the brick veneer from eight in the morning until ten (in Melbourne) and eleven (in Sydney) in the evening, and television is in there with them.
Seventeen hours a day. Three or four hours selling soap, and the remainder "entertainment."
Well, the Mums raised on Aunt Jenny's Velvet Soap aren't going to want anything other than what they've got, and young mothers with small children should be too busy to watch television, but If they aren't and if they do, what choice do they have?
MORNING MOVIE: Give My Regards to Broadway (1948). Starring Fay Bainter.
PEYTON PLACE: Rerun.
MAGGIE: Who/what ever she/it Is.
DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Professional and family life of a doctor.
NEW WORLD TEMPTATION: Tony Barber whistling Dixie.
By now she should be in the kitchen preparing the evening meal for her children, who, fortified by
THE SUPER FLYING FUN SHOW (don't they mean Nun?).
FRED BEAR'S BREAKFAST A GOGO.
HERE'S HUMPHREY (Hubert or Bogart?).
THE MARVELLOUS MUNCHKIN SHOW (so THAT's what MGM did with them!) have had a hard day's co-education behind the shelter shed, and are about to troop over the axminster to view
UNCLE NORMAN AND JOFFA, BOZO THE CLOWN, ARCHIE SABRINA SHOW (THAT sounds like the Myra Breckinridge of television), THE LUCY SHOW, THE VIETNAM WAR (as seen through Eric Pearce's eyebrows).
Having consumed their plastic evening meal, the kiddies are bound (sic) and gagged (sic), and mother and father (always assuming he is foolish enough to come home) settle down to watching two uninterrupted hours of
American crap, ending up with
GREAT MOVIES OF THE 30s,
or if you're partial to nightmares
HUNTER Reruns.
===========================
SLOW FADE TO BLACK.
FADE IN ON AUSTRALIA TWENTY YEARS FROM NOW.
Channel 9.
Programme . . . 8.30 p.m.
OZ TODAY.
90 minutes
A survey of the past twenty years since the enlightened Federal Government of Australia first introduced the critical study of film and television into Australian schools.
Many younger viewers may find it hard to believe that there once was a time when these media were not used as audio-visual aids in schools, and the idea of actually teaching film appreciation was laughable.
The programme uses film clips from the late sixties to show the type of television programmes and films popular at the time. People in those days viewed films indiscriminately and few bothered to take them seriously.
It was in the early seventies that young people discovered the cinema and, realising that it was the only true art form this century, embraced it and in doing so brought about the collapse of the American stranglehold on the industry. (Film clips include the last days of MGM, once a major film production factory, and scenes of Hollywood, a small American town that was once considered to be the only place to make films.)
The seventies also saw the introduction of film and television study into schools and colleges, and in 1970 there were 100,000 students studying film in America.
It was then that the forward-thin king Australian Government, realising that the public spent a high percentage of its leisure time viewing films, without having any real appreciation of them, introduced into secondary schools in all States, the teaching of critical study of film.
It also opened the Australian Film School, made grants for experimental films and opened the film fund with the then enormous sum of one million dollars.
The result is that today we have a thriving film industry making quality films for appreciative Australian audiences, and we're exporting films to the world that return dollars and present an image of Australian ideals.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING NOW THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA HAS AGREED TO BUY OUR MUTTON AND OUR FILMS.
Brian Kavanagh,
May 1970
a plea for the teaching of a critical study of the arts of film and television in secondary schools
F.E.G.A. Victorian Chapter.
By Brian Kavanagh, Chairman,
One only has to read the "letters to the editor" in some of the popular television magazines to realise why television programmes are so bad.
The viewer simply doesn't want anything better. He may claim that he does but, In fact, if he was presented with better programmes, would he really know the difference.
If you ask a cinema-goer why they think a certain film is good they are at a loss to tell you why.
"'The Sound of Music' was beautiful."
But why?
"Ar . . . dunno . . . It was just . . . beautiful . . . Julle Andrews was . . . beautiful. The camerawork was wonderful"
Most times they really mean the editing was good.
This, of course, is the Mums and Dads' level. But the Mums are trapped in the brick veneer from eight in the morning until ten (in Melbourne) and eleven (in Sydney) in the evening, and television is in there with them.
Seventeen hours a day. Three or four hours selling soap, and the remainder "entertainment."
Well, the Mums raised on Aunt Jenny's Velvet Soap aren't going to want anything other than what they've got, and young mothers with small children should be too busy to watch television, but If they aren't and if they do, what choice do they have?
MORNING MOVIE: Give My Regards to Broadway (1948). Starring Fay Bainter.
PEYTON PLACE: Rerun.
MAGGIE: Who/what ever she/it Is.
DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Professional and family life of a doctor.
NEW WORLD TEMPTATION: Tony Barber whistling Dixie.
By now she should be in the kitchen preparing the evening meal for her children, who, fortified by
THE SUPER FLYING FUN SHOW (don't they mean Nun?).
FRED BEAR'S BREAKFAST A GOGO.
HERE'S HUMPHREY (Hubert or Bogart?).
THE MARVELLOUS MUNCHKIN SHOW (so THAT's what MGM did with them!) have had a hard day's co-education behind the shelter shed, and are about to troop over the axminster to view
UNCLE NORMAN AND JOFFA, BOZO THE CLOWN, ARCHIE SABRINA SHOW (THAT sounds like the Myra Breckinridge of television), THE LUCY SHOW, THE VIETNAM WAR (as seen through Eric Pearce's eyebrows).
Having consumed their plastic evening meal, the kiddies are bound (sic) and gagged (sic), and mother and father (always assuming he is foolish enough to come home) settle down to watching two uninterrupted hours of
American crap, ending up with
GREAT MOVIES OF THE 30s,
or if you're partial to nightmares
HUNTER Reruns.
===========================
SLOW FADE TO BLACK.
FADE IN ON AUSTRALIA TWENTY YEARS FROM NOW.
Channel 9.
Programme . . . 8.30 p.m.
OZ TODAY.
90 minutes
A survey of the past twenty years since the enlightened Federal Government of Australia first introduced the critical study of film and television into Australian schools.
Many younger viewers may find it hard to believe that there once was a time when these media were not used as audio-visual aids in schools, and the idea of actually teaching film appreciation was laughable.
The programme uses film clips from the late sixties to show the type of television programmes and films popular at the time. People in those days viewed films indiscriminately and few bothered to take them seriously.
It was in the early seventies that young people discovered the cinema and, realising that it was the only true art form this century, embraced it and in doing so brought about the collapse of the American stranglehold on the industry. (Film clips include the last days of MGM, once a major film production factory, and scenes of Hollywood, a small American town that was once considered to be the only place to make films.)
The seventies also saw the introduction of film and television study into schools and colleges, and in 1970 there were 100,000 students studying film in America.
It was then that the forward-thin king Australian Government, realising that the public spent a high percentage of its leisure time viewing films, without having any real appreciation of them, introduced into secondary schools in all States, the teaching of critical study of film.
It also opened the Australian Film School, made grants for experimental films and opened the film fund with the then enormous sum of one million dollars.
The result is that today we have a thriving film industry making quality films for appreciative Australian audiences, and we're exporting films to the world that return dollars and present an image of Australian ideals.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING NOW THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA HAS AGREED TO BUY OUR MUTTON AND OUR FILMS.
Brian Kavanagh,
May 1970