Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER DECEMBER 1940 policy remains a poor one, and it commands little respect outside its specialised field of promoting the use of the film in education. Heaven knows, the film in education needs every resource that the Institute can command to defend it, yet it is rare for the Institute to come out publicly and fearlessly on such vital issues as the damaging tax on sub-standard films, administered by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise. For the Institute to call officers of the Films Division "fledghng Civil Servants whose little spell of brief authority seems to have gone to their heads" is a case of a pretty dirty pot calling a fairly clean kettle black. The reason for the outburst is that the Institute claims that the Films Division has paid too little attention to the report of the Select Committee, discussed in the October issue of D.N.L. One of the main recommendations of this report was, incidentally, the heavy curtailment of the public use of non-theatrical films, a system which the Institute has made it its business in the past to foster. Though the various suggestions made by the Institute since the outbreak of war for improving the film situation have been largely ignored, this is no excuse for bad temper. The spectacle of one publicly financed body attacking another which, by Civil Service etiquette, is debarred from reply is disagreeable. If the Institute, through Sight and Sound, is to dip into inter-Civil Service politics, it might direct its critical vigilance towards the Board of Education. Fair gams, since the Board is deeply concerned with the Institute's well being. BRITISH NEWS The old, old story THOSE DEPARTMENTS who have been in charge of our film propaganda have long advocated, and have concentrated on, newsreels as the spear-head of our overseas propaganda. It is true that for speed and for recording of day-to-day happenings, there is an excellent case to be made for them. Unfortunately, there has been a reticence in official quarters concerning their distribution and their composition. British newsreels have never been noted for their progressive thinking nor for their progressive film technique. There are some who have said that British newsreel compilation and technique still has its roots in "silent" days. Compared with the imagination of the French and German newsreels, and the showmanship of the American newsreel, the British newsreel compares unfavourably. An opportunity has been taken of seeing six of the more recent reels of British News issued by the British Council. This newsreel is made up of items culled from all the newsreels. The work is done in rotation by each of the newsreel companies working under the supervision of a films committee of the British Council. It is apparent that all the faults associated with the individual British newsreel are even more exaggerated in the composite reel. From the film point of view, its technical qualities are poor. The sound recording, the cutting from one item to the next and methods of presentation are crude, and in sending a newsreel to countries dominated by the American newsreel, this fault is unforgivable. The standard opening is dull and pompous. A musical recording has been attempted, similar to the opening of feature films. It has the pomposity of feature film opening music without any other merit. This musical opening covers shots of six trumpeters blowing a fanfare, which dissolve to a picture of Windsor Castle which, in turn, dissolves to a picture of the Houses of Parliament and then back into the trumpeters. We are given the full benefit of the very dull shots, which are badly photographed and much too long. The reels we saw then opened with the doings of royalties or with the bomb damage of London or the two together. The handling of all the items is extremely superficial. There is still the same patronising attitude towards ordinary people — a common factor in all British newsreel treatment ; and because the individual items are at least twice as long as those normally shown in this country, one has time to ponder on the appallingly bad photography, direction and treatment. It has been said that Americans have expressed high praise for the editions of the reel shown in the World's Fair. It is to be wondered whether this praise was due more to kindness than conviction, because British News does not in any way reach the standards of the American newsreel. One can imagine the praise is that of a tolerant parent. As the Select Committee* suggested that British News should be the only newsreel issued, and that the Ministry of Information should withdraw its own reel, one can only assume that the Ministry's newsreel is a shade worse. That is, provided that there was no wire pulling, and that the Selection Committee had an opportunity of seeing both versions, and was composed of people capable of achieving a reasonable standard of criticism. For if British News is the best we can do, it would be better to have no newsreel propaganda at all, and to sacrifice speed for the more considered or specialised film such as London Can Take It. *See D.N.L. for October.