British Instructional Films Ltd presents a Classroom Film. Acknowledgements made to “The Times”.
Shots of a burning building. Firemen tackle the blaze. C/U of policeman checking newspaper reporter’s press pass. The policeman imparts information to the journalist. Shorthand is taken down. Reporter phones in his report. Woman on other end of phone in News Room takes down the details. Sign on front of desk saying “Reuters” another sign on desk saying “The Exchange Telegraph Company Ltd, 64 (?) Cannon Street, London EC4” and a label P.A.L.I. Woman typing a news story. Takes to news editor who telephones the police to check details. C/U of the typed report. Sub-editor is given report. He writes notes on the report which is then inserted into a metal tube and sent to the composing room by means of a pipe. In the composing room metal letters are placed in order in a rack. A test print – proof – is made and checked. One proof is sent to the Reading Room for checking by means of a strange metal pulley system.
More news about the fire leads to the report being changed. Shots of the fire and the reporter phoning in. Changes are noted down on the proof and the metal letters are altered. A whole page of the paper is set in metal letters. It is put into the “Gigant” Press. Shot of a pressure gauge. Page is checked. Printing procedures are shown. Machine Room. Rolls of paper go through the machines. Pages are unloaded. C/U of the finished page with the article about the fire highlighted. Machines carry the papers through the building. Papers are packed in bundles and loaded into a van which drives off into the night. Clock shows a quarter to one. Presses stop and a thirsty worker drinks a big mug of water.
Note: there is a short version of this film which does not have the Reading Room section and a few other shots – approx 5 mins shorter. Transferred on PM1645.
FILM ID:1641.03
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British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website.
