Air Transport of Films

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21735, 17 August 1940, Page 5

Air Transport of Films

WAR NEWSREELS HURRIED TO SCREENS OF THE WORLD

To “the man in the street” reports of giant flyingboats spanning the Pacific on regular schedule may sound impressive, but, in most cases, he thinks it is of no great concern to him because he, the average man, just does not hop off to America. These advancements in aviation, however, most definitely do concern the man in the street, apart from the aspect of the regular mail service. The film industry is greatly interested in rapid air services.

To-day one may walk into a movie . theatre and see on a newsreel an | event which occurred thousands of miles away and which is still in the headlines of his newspapers, for the

newsreel makers have kept pace with the march of events, and have taken advantage of every known medium to get news to the screen as rapidly as passible. The Pacific Clipper will undoubtedly be used to bring newsreels to Australia and New Zealand as the Atlantic service has been used for the transport of films. Newsreel makers have used transoceanic plane services since the days when a successful overseas hop was a newsreel story in itself. To-day, by means of aviation, they are not only able to get expert cameramen quickly to the scene of news when and where it is breaking, but are also able to expedite enormously the transportation of the cameraman’s pictorial stories. While the utilisation of the clipper planes has become an expensive item in the newsreel’s budget, definite satisfaction is gained in a swifter and more extensive service to the motion-picture theatres of the world and to their patrons. Panay Bombing The first important use of the aeroplane in flying a filmed front page story home was in connection with the bombing, by the Japanese, of the American gunboat Panay in the Yangtze River in December, 1937. After the sensational pictures were rushed by emergency routes to Hong Kong (a matter of but a few days) it required only a week for them to reach the United States via clipper plane. A new era for the newsreel was established, making it possible at last for subject 1 ’ of vital significance occurring in remote parts of the world to be seen on the screen simultaneously with their presentation in the American Press. From America prints we”e dispatched to other of the world, including New Zealand oy air. The trans-Pacific aeroplane service enabled newsreel producers to bring vivid camera depictions of the SinoJapanese battles, many of which were filmed by the famous Chinese cameraman, H. S. (“Newsreel”) Wong, to American audiences a few days after they had been taken. Several years

I ago, weeks, perhaps even months, elapsed before theatre patrons were able to see such pictures. The civil war in Spain followed by the general war now in Europe has brought further opportunity and responsibility to the newsreel. Much of the material now being filmed by newsreel cameramen in the war zone is “shot” from aeroplanes, and after inspection by a censor, is rushed to Lisbon for trans-Atlantic aeroplane shipment. All pictures that reached America from the Western Front and from the Scandinavian front were shipped by clipper planes. Now and then bad weather and censorship problems delay the arrival of the films, but in the main pictures reach New York a few short days after they have been taken. Thus, the important element of timeliness is preserved The war in general is considerably more productive of newsreel representation than the Great War of 1914-18 in a corresponding period of time. Governments have become more alert to the tremendous value of newsreels in the presentation of a graphic pictorial account of wartime activity. The film showing the dramatic evacuation of Dunkirk is an example. Theatre patrons have had prompt os well as comprehensive and thrilling film records of the Nazi invasion of Poland, of the scouting and patrol and artillery action along the Maginot Line, of the struggle of the Finns against Soviet invasion, to say nothing of innumerable scenes of preparation on the home fronts, in London, Paris, and other cities. Invasion of Finland The Russian invasion of Finland provided an unusually vivid story of world interest, cameramen getting films of the bombing of Helsinki, of

the manoeuvres of the Finnish whiteclad troops amid frozen wastes, and the capture of Russian troops and supply trains. These pictures, as soon as they were passed by the Finnish censors, were hurried by plane to Lisbon for shipment on the clipper planes. The timeliness with which historic events in Europe are transferred to the screen is held largely responsible for the interest which American motion

picture patrons are manifesting in the war. It is this interest, obviously, which justifies the newreel’s editorial staff in featuring in each edition the European conflict. The element of timeliness even enters into the assignment schedules of the newsreel editors. Cameramen sent to cover some new phase of the European war invariably travel on planes rather than steamships.

The naval battle between British warships and the Nazi raider Graf Spee off Montevideo could not be anticipated, but w ? hen the Graf Spee, ordered to leave her Uruguayan haven, was scuttled by her crew in Montevideo Harbour the cameramen were ready. This news had not cooled in the headlines of the Press when films flown by special aeroplanes from the Uruguayan capital brought the pictures of the scuttling to the American screen.

The newsreel’s dependence upon the aeroplane for delivery of prints has also become more and more marked with the passing months. Not only are the prints of all newsreel issues shipped by aeroplane to the key cities of America, but air lines are used to carry them to Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

In the days before aeroplanes made distances shrink, a month would be required for a newsreel print to reach Australia and New Zealand from New York. There have been instances in recent months of “News of the Day” releases presented on Sydney screens within 10 days after they were shown in New York.