Filmstrip

The filmstrip is a form of still image instructional media, once widely used by educators in primary and secondary schools (K–12) and for corporate presentations (e.g., sales training and new product introductions).

It was largely made obsolete by the late 1980s by newer and increasingly lower-cost full-motion videocassettes and later on by DVDs.

From the 1920s to the 1980s, filmstrips provided an easy and less expensive alternative to full motion educational films, requiring little storage space and being very quick to rewind for the next use.

A filmstrip is a spool of 35 mm positive film containing a series of images (often thirty-two to sixty-four) in sequential order.

Later technical improvements allowed higher-end projectors to advance the film automatically through the use of inaudible recorded tones.

By the later part of the 1960s, firms such as Warren Schloat Productions, CBS, The New York Times Company, Scott Education, Coronet Films, Sunburst Media, and Guidance Associates were producing titles featuring photographs by famous artists and of notable events with a synchronized audio track.

Many filmstrips were produced by "cinematographic studios" in former Soviet bloc countries such as Poland and Hungary during the 1950s and 1960s.

Videotape instruction combined the ease of the filmstrip with automatically synchronized audio and full motion video.

By the early 1990s, the vast majority of filmstrip producers that were not equipped to compete with video either closed or sold their businesses.