Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 21418 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
USING THE CAMERA: A LESSON ON CINE BY GROUP B | 1968 | 1968-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: Standard 8 Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 4 mins 54 secs Credits: Organisation: Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers' Association Genre: Amateur Subject: Education Architecture |
Summary Everyone thinks they’re an expert in this amusing amateur instructional film with staged scenarios, which illustrates some do’s and don’ts of cine camera use. Includes footage of Newcastle’s new Civic Centre. This small-gauge film was produced by members of the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA). |
Description
Everyone thinks they’re an expert in this amusing amateur instructional film with staged scenarios, which illustrates some do’s and don’ts of cine camera use. Includes footage of Newcastle’s new Civic Centre. This small-gauge film was produced by members of the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA).
Title: Using the Camera: A Lesson on Cine by Group B
Title: Saint
Title: or Sinner
A man wanders along the forecourt of the Newcastle Civic Centre. A woman...
Everyone thinks they’re an expert in this amusing amateur instructional film with staged scenarios, which illustrates some do’s and don’ts of cine camera use. Includes footage of Newcastle’s new Civic Centre. This small-gauge film was produced by members of the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA).
Title: Using the Camera: A Lesson on Cine by Group B
Title: Saint
Title: or Sinner
A man wanders along the forecourt of the Newcastle Civic Centre. A woman wanders past a demolition site, probably off St Mary’s Place. She suddenly spots the Civic Centre and begins to film using a small gauge cine camera. A man is wandering towards her, also looking around.
An erratic panning shot across the Civic Centre building follows, as we see what and how the woman is filming with her camera. Portrait shot of the woman with her camera is intercut with her footage. She smiles with satisfaction and nods her head. She believes that she’s got a great shot.
A portly man is setting up his Bolex cine camera on a tripod. He looks through the viewfinder. He uses an exposure wheel, or meter, to work out his camera settings. The woman filmmaker comes up behind him nosily, sees what he’s doing and shakes her head.
Close-up of the man adjusting the lens aperture of his cine camera. She disapproves and shakes her head again. He begins to shoot film. He looks up. The woman is now filming him filming the Newcastle Civic Hall. She backs away as she shoots and bumps into a young woman walking behind her. As the young woman hops around injured on one foot, the woman filmmaker begins to take footage of her too.
The portly man is now slowly panning along the length of the modernist Newcastle Civic Hall building. He looks up and spots the prominent Civic Hall carillon, or bell tower, topped with seahorses designed by John McCheyne. He tilts his camera to start filming this architectural feature. We see the frame as he zooms out. He looks through the camera viewfinder to film.
The woman amateur filmmaker is now sitting on a bench, still looking around for suitable film subjects. She spots something and begins to film again. She walks forward. She moves off camera.
The portly man with the Bolex and tripod now unscrews his camera. He uses a bench to steady his camera as he shoots more footage. He’s happy. He walks away with his equipment.
The woman is dashing here and there, filming the Church of St Thomas the Martyr from the park on St Mary’s Place now. She looks up a tree, still filming. The portly man walks up to her, and hands her a leaflet: “Camera Technique by Ann X Peace”. She looks at it and flings it over her shoulder dismissively. She continues to film something up the tree. The man walks slowly away through the park.
Context
A crash course in cine
Queasy cam versus slow cinema? A comic cine club primer on the art of amateur cinematography.
Everyone with a Bolex thinks they’re an expert in this jokey instructional film on the do’s and don’ts of cine camera use, filmed by the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association around one of the city’s new architectural gems, the brand new, no-expenses-spared Scandi-style modernist Civic Centre.
The Newcastle Civic Centre was officially opened by King...
A crash course in cine
Queasy cam versus slow cinema? A comic cine club primer on the art of amateur cinematography. Everyone with a Bolex thinks they’re an expert in this jokey instructional film on the do’s and don’ts of cine camera use, filmed by the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association around one of the city’s new architectural gems, the brand new, no-expenses-spared Scandi-style modernist Civic Centre. The Newcastle Civic Centre was officially opened by King Olav of Norway in 1968, the year of this cine club production. At the time, “Newcastle was looking north - not south to London” for its vision of a post-industrial future for the city. The construction project was supported in its early stages by the controversial political figure known as ‘Mr Newcastle’ in the 60s. A politician with a vision, T Dan Smith was the son of a miner from Wallsend who became a charismatic Leader of Newcastle City Council from 1960 to 1965, and later faced corruption charges and jail in the Poulson affair that rocked British politics. The Civic Centre still stands proudly on the Haymarket and attracts the attention of lens-wielding admirers. |