Business School Division Makes 15 Minute Film for 'Case Study'

The cameras rolled yesterday as members of the Division of Audio-Visual Education in the Graduate School of Business Administration completed filming their seventh movie since 1955.

Earlier films, ranging in length from 6 to 45 minutes, have been bought by 50 colleges and more than 50 industrial firms in this country, and are being used in Europe and South America. One, in the field of organizational management and communication, won a top award at the Cleveland, Ohio, industrial film festival in 1958.

The main use of the films is in the Business School. The case method of teaching initiated by the school lends itself naturally to movies, especially in cases involving personal relations.

Introduces Case

A film is used to introduce a problem or situation which the students then discuss. "We try to take the students as close to actual reality as we can," says George W. Gibson '31, director of the division.

The case filmed in the Coop was suggested last month by John B. Matthews, Jr. LLB '37, associate professor of Business Administration. Matthews and Gibson wrote the script, Bruce E. Harding, assistant director of the Division, directed the filming. Employees of the Coop and unwitting customers "acted" in the production.

In the picture above, customer, store manager, and salesman discuss the sale of a television set. The film's plot concerns store's use of advertising "comeon" which turn out to be fictional or misleading.

This 15-minute film will cost about $1000, while a similar black and white sound picture would cost 15 times as much from a commercial firm, Gibson estimated.

The movies have been successful, but Gibson predicts that not more than 10 per cent of the Business School's 20,000 cases will ever be on film. In addition to the limit placed on movie-making by financial considerations, many cases are not suitable for movies.