Thanks for that video. Very informative... like many of the videos from that age. There's something about training videos and physics videos from the 50s / 60s that makes them much better than what people produce today; it's hard to say exactly what it is, but they do feel cruft-free.
Educational videos today tend to go to one of two extremes. Either they're a talking head with PowerPoint, like most of the "massively online" courses. Or they have way too many jump cuts, like theatrical movies which want your attention, not your understanding.
There's also an annoying tendency to have distracting music and irrelevant graphics during narration.
Here's an old Jam Handy film, "Spinning Levers", on how a transmission works.[1] There's a whole series of these Chevrolet films on the Internet Archive, covering major vehicle systems. Things to note:
- There's a narrator and a demonstrator. We never see the narrator, and the demonstrator never talks. So the viewer can focus.
- The demo models of parts are really good. They start with a simple version and add features until a full transmission has been built up.
- There's some simple animation. Animation is used to point out how power flows through the gears. This is much clearer than someone using a pointer.
- The editing and narration are very well synchronized.
- There's an entertaining part at the beginning and end, so you don't feel like they're beating you over the head with the boring stuff.
Oh yes, that's legendary! I forgot it was pre-war! Speaking of war, I also recall pretty well-made video explanations for bomber pilots, about how to fly the planes to avoid anti-aircraft fire.
So I guess I should extend my original statement to the 1930s-1970s range.
