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News on the Screen
The development of the " News-reel " has been one of the most marked of recent developments in the film world. Sound has considerably increased its interest until to-day there are theatres devoted entirely to news pictures. The fascinating history of the rise of the news-reel is told in this article.
by J. Smith-Ross
ALTHOUGH organized efforts to keep the public supplied with newsfilms could not be made until the cinema was established as a place of amusement, the news-film itself began its career soon after the motion picture camera was invented. One of the earliest subjects to be covered by a screen reporter was Queen Victoria's funeral. This film, in common with others of the time, had to depend for its sales on peep-shows and one or two enterprising music-halls. It was nothing more than a badly-produced stunt and could be run through in a little over three minutes.
People did not then expect the popularity of films to last. Everyone said they were just a novelty. Financiers and business men, who might have placed the industry on a sound footing, at first ignored it entirely. The progress of the news-films had thus to depend on the effort of a few showmen who took them when and how they could and invariably for their own side-shows. There was no fixed object or policy in the minds of those pioneers ; if their films dealt with news at all, it was only because the means provided them with a cheap method of showing spectacular scenes.
The first company to devote the whole of its activities to the making of news-films was Pathe Freres, founded in 1910. At first this company had all its reels developed and printed in France, and films depicting British news could not be shown to audiences in this country until about three weeks after the events. Such news-films, however, proved an instant success with cinema-goers, many of whom had by then developed the habit of paying a weekly visit to their nearest cinema.
For technical developments the news-reel has depended largely on other branches of the industry, but in questions of celerity it has had to learn its own lessons. Its first achievement in this direction was the release of a weekly news-reel. Later, two editions a week were sent out and, finally, events of national interest, such as the Derby, were filmed and shown the same day.
The introduction of sound greatly enhanced the fascination and scope of the news-film ; it brought greater reality to the screen, introduced cinemagoers to the voices and views of world-renowned men, lent greater emphasis