Educational film
Encyclopedia
An educational film is a film
or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.
Many schoolchildren in Britain
in the late 1980s and early 1990s watched hundreds of episodes of British-made educational films (all very similar in style and production) over the course of their primary school careers. As a result, the delivery-style and distinctive colour-palette ("scientific" looking neutral-blue backgrounds etc.) of these films is instantly recognisable to any child of the appropriate generation. This was used to great effect by the series Look Around You
which parodies these films.
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.
Cultural significance
Many educational films shown in schools are part of long series - for example, films demonstrating scientific principles and experiments tend to be episodic, with each episode devoted to a specific experiment or principle.Many schoolchildren in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the late 1980s and early 1990s watched hundreds of episodes of British-made educational films (all very similar in style and production) over the course of their primary school careers. As a result, the delivery-style and distinctive colour-palette ("scientific" looking neutral-blue backgrounds etc.) of these films is instantly recognisable to any child of the appropriate generation. This was used to great effect by the series Look Around You
Look Around You
Look Around You is a British television comedy series devised and written by Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, and, in the first series, narrated by Nigel Lambert...
which parodies these films.
List of notable educational film producers
- Bell SystemBell SystemThe Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
- Centron CorporationCentron CorporationCentron Corporation was an industrial and educational film production company. Founded in 1947 in Lawrence, Kansas by Arthur H. Wolf and Russell A. Mosser, Centron would come to the forefront of the industrial and educational film companies in the United States. Centron competed with large...
- Coronet FilmsCoronet FilmsCoronet Films was a producer and distributor of American educational films from 1946 to the early 1970s founded by David A. Smart...
- Encyclopædia Britannica FilmsEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
- Jam Handy
- Media Education Foundation
- James MyerJames MyerJames Myer is an American documentarist and educational filmmaker. He produced Multiple Personality: Reality and Illusion, a documentary that chronicled the life of Chris Costner-Sizemore. Ms. Sizemore, who was depicted in the book and film The Three Faces of Eve, was diagnosed in the 1950’s...
- Landmark Media
- National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of CanadaThe National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
- Schlessinger Media
- Sid DavisSid DavisSidney Davis was an American director and producer who specialized in social guidance films.-Early life:Davis was born to a housepainter father and a dressmaker mother. The family moved to Hollywood, California when Davis was four years old. He began working in the film industry as a child,...
- The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
- Sandeep Marwah