Film and TV Technician (1957)

December 1957 FILM & TV TECHNICIAN 169 PROBLEMS OF THE NEWSREELS CINCE the close down of Para^ mount News earlier in the year there has been considerable comment in the industry about the future of the remaining cinema newsreels. Most people have adopted a pessimistic attitude and on the face of it with some justification. There is no doubt that the newsreels in their present form are no longer in the fairly strong position they were about ten years ago. The usual reason advanced, of course, is that it is because of the rise of television news. This is not altogether true. From the point of " up to dateness " in news, the cinema newsreels, for obvious reasons, have never tried to compete with television newsreels any more than television itself has seriously tried to compete with news broadcasts on sound radio. They would disagree Some of my TV colleagues would strongly disagree with this. The tendency among international TV networks is to get their news pictures out, if not by hours, by minutes ahead of their rivals. But in this country, between B.B.C. and I.T.N., the emphasis is gradually shifting to the presentation of news. This brings us back to the cinema newsreels. They are designed to form part of a cinema programme. They have been hit financially for more or less the same reasons that cinemas have been hit. A lot of people are convinced that the cinema industry was fundamentally wrong in the way it handled the rise of television. First, it pretended that TV did not exist; secondly, that it was not much good as an entertainment medium, and thirdly, that it would not last. It is not the purpose of this article to discuss what should have been done or what steps are now being taken within the industry, but the newsreel companies, to a very large extent, identified themselves with this attitude of the exhibitors. True, they did not have much option, but now with the falling of box-office takings and the closing down of cinemas them by TERRY O'BRIEN selves, they are financially badly hit. There is a definite resistance on the part of exhibitors to show a This Freedom One of our members writes : We Tories recently encouraged the G.P.O. to increase the telephone charges. Thus the demand for telephones has decreased or, to put it more positively, UNDER THE TORIES THE SUPPLY OF TELEPHONES HAS INCREASED. The direct result of this businesslike policy is my telephone: the number is . We (the Tories) are busy organising a slump, or, again more positively, increasing the supply of labour. If it is my labour that is increased and in case you hear of something at which I might earn a crust, please make a note of my number. TORY FREEDOM PAYS! newsreel. The excuse is usually that it costs too much for the programme time involved, and in any case, " everybody has seen it on television already ". The cost of producing a newsreel has, without any doubt, risen enormously, and revenue has not kept pace. How these losses are offset by the parent companies of the newsreels or by other methods is something we cannot go into here. However, within newsreel circles the talking point is "presentation". Pathe News are now, from time to time, devoting the entire reel to some controversial topic of news or to some news story which warrants a longer pictorial presentation than would normally be given. It has been reported that Movietone, later next year, may be producing a black-and-white CinemaScope reel. The Rank Organisation is considerably developing along certain lines and how G.B. News will fit in is, at the moment, purely guesswork. Obviously, considerable re-thinking on presentation will have to be made. The formula which has been in existence for nearly thirty years will be inadequate. Have we the people in the newsreels who are capable of producing a new style of reel, or are they so inbred that they have got into a rut? Can the newsreels risk the financial cost of experimenting or will they just fade away? Finest in industry Our newsreel technicians are among the finest in the industry. Not only have the cameramen to be technically proficient under all kinds of difficult conditions, but they must be first-class journalists as well in order to provide a complete pictorial report of a news event to editors who only have a few hours to sort out the material and present it in a comprehensible form. It is a wonder that there are any pictures at all ! The standards, efficiency and discipline are there — what are we going to do with them ? This article is necessarily brief. It would be impossible to go into the problem in detail, nor is it called for. It's purpose is to provide a fairly informative background to any discussion our members may have. That dog again 1 ". . . in between the big debates, Conference found time to flay the present Government for its present economic and financial policy, including raising the Bark Ftate."Misprint in George Elvm's report on the Labour Party Conference.