Tune in and Watch a Good Book
By: Adrienne Schure Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2003-08-13 15:55:00-04:00
by Adrienne Schure
Kristine Larsen
At 85, Mort Schindel still loves to tell a good story, which makes sense, given that he's been an avid storyteller his whole life. Schindel is the founder of Weston Woods, one of the first companies to convert children's books into an audiovisual format. Although he sold the company to Scholastic, Inc. in 1996, Schindel continues to weave his story magic from the Weston Woods Institute, his nonprofit foundation. A gracious and talkative man, he enjoys recounting stories about himself, the history of Weston Woods, and his plans for future projects.
Schindel traces his roots as a professional storyteller to a trip to the library. He was just entering the job market. Being drawn to film and wanting to do something for children, he had been looking for a position in children's television. After a chance to work on Captain Kangaroo fell through due to his lack of experience, Schindel decided to make his own children's films and showcase them on television.
He sought advice from educators and they sent him to the Central Children's Room at the New York Public Library. There, the head librarian gave him a stack of children's picture books, including such classics as Make Way for Ducklings and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Schindel took the books home and read them to his children. They were entranced. Schindel was delighted and deeply moved by their reaction. "When I was a child, the adults around me were very strict," he says. "They forced music lessons and other cultural things on me, but nobody ever read to me. These books gave me back emotions I wasn't allowed to have as a child, and they served as a bridge between me and my kids."
The experience inspired him to make a children's television program directly from one of these books. Working with librarians and other educators, he compiled a list of books considered to be the best literature for children. He started negotiating for the rights to titles such as Millions of Cats, Georgie, Hercules, Stone Soup, Andy and the Lion, Make Way for Ducklings, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and The Story about Ping.
Schindel wanted to film books in their entirety—the illustrations as well as the stories—to capture the wonderful experience of being read to. But bringing the books to life on film was no easy task; his first attempts were disappointing. Eventually, he tried holding the camera still while turning the pages of the book. He tested the idea on a group of librarians. Their enthusiastic response confirmed that he had finally succeeded. Schindel coined the term "iconographic" to describe the technique. It became the signature style of Weston Woods.
He went on to produce many titles using his iconographic technique, paying careful attention to the audio as well as the visual. Paul Gagne, one of his young sound editors, watched and learned. "Mort listened to what he felt wasn't working," says Gagne. "He never compromised quality and always respected the intelligence of the audience—budgets be damned. ‘Good films aren't made, they're remade,’ he used to say."
In the 1960s, Schindel realized that his iconographic style was not the best way to showcase every book. He began using a variety of filmmaking techniques, choosing the one that most complemented the look and feel of each book. The Snowy Day, his first production using full animation and an original sound track, won the award for Best Children's Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1965.
Today, Weston Woods is still the world's largest producer of audiovisual adaptations of classic children's picture books—but much has changed. Gagne now oversees production in the company's new studios in Norwalk, Connecticut. The expanded product line includes DVDs, videos, audiocassettes, CD-ROMs, and CDs, and distribution is being handled by Scholastic Entertainment, Inc. But Schindel's vision of re-creating the storytelling experience for children remains the guiding force behind the productions. And he continues to serve as the company's muse.
In 1994, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he had earned a master's degree decades before. The citation described him as the only graduate "who never earned a dime as a librarian or as a classroom teacher" but nonetheless became "a teacher to millions."
Schindel now dedicates much of his time to the Weston Woods Institute, a nonprofit foundation whose mission is to develop innovative educational and cultural communications for children. "It took me a while to realize I get my kicks out of doing things nobody has done before."
In the 1970s, after meeting with parents of inner-city children, he realized how much their opportunities were limited by their lack of transportation. Schindel took it upon himself to offer a solution. Before long, his "caravans" (old school buses transformed into mobile, multimedia theaters for children) were hitting the roads throughout the country.
Currently his caravans are bringing the latest literacy solutions to preschoolers in major cities with large Hispanic populations. But this is only the beginning, Schindel says. "How about making caravans to showcase different world religions? We could have a caravan on Islam, and another on Judaism."
The ideas keep bubbling up, one after another. If he's interested in something, he figures that plenty of other people share that interest.
Retirement is not on his agenda: "Retire? Why? This is fun."
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