BIG EDUCATIONAL POTENTIAL FOR TELEVISION PREDICTED

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28479, 8 January 1958, Page 7

BIG EDUCATIONAL POTENTIAL FOR TELEVISION PREDICTED

The use of television in the education field had a great potential and would be a great help to children living in the country far from a school, said a former Christchurch photographer, Mr Kelvin J. Duncan, in Christchurch yesterday. Mr Duncan is a television film photographer and director for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. and is spending a holiday in New Zealand. “It is. the medium of the future and in Ganada. with its adverse weather, it helps to brighten the homelife,’’ he said. “Farmers living away from the cities are finding it a great medium of entertainment. “In the cities it tends to keep the families at home in the evenings,’’ said Mr Duncan. “Persons can become a slave to it and in some homes when they invite guests in the evening they will sit all night and watch television and will hardly talk until the programmes finish.’’ New Field of Employment

Television had opened up a vast new field of employment and many artists who would have only been painting signs were now employed doing title illustrations for the introductions to programmes, he said. There were also good opportunities for set designers. There was a heavy demand for writers for television. “It is like a great monster, the way it yses up the material supplied for features,’’ said Mr Duncan. Television had given a great boost* to the repertory societies and there was a demand for actors to appear in television productions, he said. Their standard

of acting had vastly improved with more regular acting and many more repertory members were now taking an active part. “New’ Zealand would certainly not lose by having television, said Mr Duncan. “It promotes a greater news interest and it caters for everyone.’’

Motion picture theatre attendances had dropped, but now television had led to the production of bigger and better movies, he said. Many motion picture companies were making films for television.