Film and TV Technician (1957)

62 FILM & TV TECHNICIAN April 1957 LAB TOPICS — By A If Cooper At the first meeting of the Laboratories Committee after the A.G.M. Daphne Le Brun was again elected as Secretary, George Irons re-elected as Vice-Chairman and myself as Chairman. The committee also officially recorded their appreciation and thanks for the work put in for the Labs by Bessie Bond during the year. The Committee directed that the new General Council be asked to look into ways and means of pursuing a stronger and more vigorous campaign to remove the iniquitous regulation in the Unemployment Act which enables the employers to lock out employees and thus, with the aid of this Government regulation, starve the workers into submission because unemployment pay is not forthcoming. Strong Feeling As you know, all the Lab boys feel most strongly about this onesided Act. It is to be hoped that the new General Council, with the aid of progressive M.P.s and the T.U.C., will get this matter put right in the near future. It is only fair to state here that the General Council has made a lot of progress in this direction but it still has a long way to go. During the Lab Committee meeting, Alf Hunter, who has been attending the Committee on behalf of Colour Film Services for the last eighteen months, handed in his resignation because his wife's ill health makes it impossible for him to be absent from home during the evenings. The Committee expressed its regret at hearing this news and thanked Alf for the great amount of work and effort he has put in for A.C.T.T. during his period as Shop Steward at Colour Film Services. Alf has been with the Union something like twelve years and on leaving Technicolor soon found himself a Shop Steward's ticket. We all sincerely hope that his wife's health will soon improve. Some of the Committee members were invited to attend the next meeting of Colour Film Services. Bill Whittemore from Humphries, Laurie Ward of Kays, Finsbury Park, and I went along to this meeting on the following Friday evening and had a very enjoyable time among a bunch of good, loyal Union boys. At the moment our members at Colour Film Services are working without the protection of a full Trade Union Agreement. This is one of the points the meeting decided must be put right in the very near future and so, having elected a new shop steward and committee, they mandated them very force fully to get on with the job of preparing a document ready for joint signature with the management. Peter Booker was elected as Shop Steward and Alf Hunter as his deputy, Bob Catford was reelected Chairman and Ted Davies as Shop Secretary. We all wish the C.F.S. boys good luck with their Agreement and, as always, we will give them all the support and help that may be required. Shorts & Documentary Section STEVE COX WRITES : Our Section A.G.M. held at the Mezzanine Theatre, Shell Mex House, on March 26th, was very successful, and very well attended. The Secretary's report led to some discussion regarding advertising agents and companies making TV commercials. Helpful contributions were made from the floor and I am sure the new Committee, will note the points raised. New Committee The new committee elected at the meeting is as follows: Shorts Vice-President Max Anderson, Chairman; Eric Pask, Vice-Chairman, and Steve Cox, Secretary; Committee members : Ralph Bond, Gloria Sachs, Chris Brunei, Derek Knight, Ralph Sheldon, Lindsay Anderson, Joe Telford, Alun Falconer and Denis Segaller. It will probably be noticed that we have six new faces on the Committee to look after our interests for the next twelve months. On behalf of the Section I should like to thank the members who were not re-elected for their services during their term of office. Now, as Secretary, I want to apologise to Bessie Bond, our Organiser, for not mentioning in my report the assistance and guidance she has given us and all the work she has done for our Section. Thank you, Bessie, and please excuse my thoughtlessness. To wind up the meeting we had a viewing of Song of the Clouds, a colour film made by the Shell Film Unit and directed by John Armstrong. Sponsored by Shell, the film dealt with air travel on the major airlines of the world. It is intended for non-theatrical distribution. After the showing, John Armstrong took the Chair to be " shot at " during the discussion. The general feeling was that the commentary was poor, that the music didn't do what effects could have done, and that the passengers, or tourists, gave the impression of not leaving the ground. But the photography was first class. Personally, I also felt that dozens of aircraft were leaving the airstrip together, and it seemed a miracle that there wasn't a " pileup ". Didn't Come Off To sum up the discussion, it seems as though something big in Documentary had been attempted, but that it didn't come off. We also saw another Shell Film, directed by Denis Segaller, called Lubrication in Industry. This film had a " gimmick " of going alternately from black and white to colour. There was no time for discussion afterwards, but I did glean some points of view, which all boiled down to the fact that the " gimmick " wasn't necessary. "All or none ", was the verdict. Now for the News; and what a news flash ! For making this announcement I shall probably have my invitation withdrawn ! Many of our members in Shorts and in the Labs may be surprised to read this. Eric Pask, our Vice-Chairman, has decided that being a bachelor calls for paying too much income tax, so on May 11th he is going to the altar with a very charming Brummie lass, Joan Robinson. The wedding and reception will take place at Birmingham. Best of luck Eric and Joan (I say this on behalf of all of vou).