
This is a whimsical item from a newsreel segment that shows the road and pedestrian traffic around the Flinders and Swanston St intersection in Melbourne, as well as a ride on a South Melbourne tram. It ends with a comedic sequence about learning to drive.
Summary by Poppy De Souza
This series of vignettes experiments with visual effects achieved through various camera techniques that change the speed and mood of the action we see on the screen. In the first few setups around Flinders Street Station, the camera films from a fixed position and captures the crowds in super-fast time (almost time lapse appearance), then slow-motion. This effect was probably achieved in-camera at the time of the original shoot. Filming at a speed of less than 24 frames per second and then projecting it back at conventional speed could have accelerated the apparent speed of the traffic. The slow-motion scenes would have been filmed at faster than 24 frames per second and projected at conventional speed. Older film cameras were 'hand cranked’ meaning the film was wound by hand while filming, hence the expressions 'overcranking’ or 'undercranking’ to achieve slow or fast motion effects.
The intertitles in this clip address the audience with a clever use of humour and directly influence the way in which the audience interprets the images on the screen. The married men who ‘bustle’ their way home in slow-motion is an example of this.
Other simple effects employed in this clip include filming with the camera upside down and then rotating it 180 degrees; and playing the film in reverse so the action appears to be moving backwards.
This film was donated to the National Film and Sound Archive by Roy Driver, a cinematographer from the early part of last century.
This whimsical item is probably from an Australasian Gazette newsreel. It shows the road and pedestrian traffic around the Flinders and Swanston St intersection in Melbourne in the 1920s, as well as a ride on a South Melbourne tram. It ends with a comedic sequence about learning to drive.
The fascination with the moving image (present even in the prehistory of cinema) has, and continues to, invite experimentation, exploration and new ways of seeing the world. This newsreel item is a strong example of the ability of simple camera techniques to dramatically alter the appearance and mood of the scenes that are filmed.
In this segment, various camera techniques are used to change the speed of the moving images. In the final vignette, the car appears to drive backwards. This is achieved by playing the segment of film in reverse. As a novelty item, this Australasian Gazette segment would have brought delight to contemporary audiences, but the effects also capture beautifully the atmosphere and modernity of the bustling 1920s city of Melbourne.
Experimentation with in-camera effects and the possibilities of cinematography can be seen from the first days of moving images (going all the way back to French pioneer George Méliès). At the turn of last century, ‘trick films’ or short comedies were being made which used stop-motion effects (where the camera is turned off, the visible objects are altered and the camera turned on again) and under and over-cranking. Audiences in Australia were exposed to some of these films when travelling exhibitor and entrepreneur Leonard Corrick and his family toured them around the country in the early 1900s. Amateur filmmakers and home movie-makers also found they were able to play with how the image was displayed when projected.
Australasian Gazette was a weekly newsreel produced between 1913 and the advent of the ‘talkies’ in the early 1930s. In that time, over 1,000 weekly editions were produced.
Notes by Poppy de Souza.
This black-and-white silent film shows pedestrian and road traffic, including trams, cars, motorcyclists and a few horse-drawn vehicles, in Melbourne’s city centre in the 1920s. It begins with an intertitle, 'City Traffic in variable moods’, and then features shots of the South Melbourne tram and Flinders Street Railway Station. The film incorporates humorous intertitles: 'Observe the married men bustling their way home’ (followed by slowed-down film), 'As seen by a gentleman after a convivial Saturday afternoon’ (followed by inverted images), 'He would of course insist on a front seat on the tram’, and 'MELBOURNE Learn to Drive Drive Wellington Parade South is now the Mecca of the future motorist’. The clip concludes with a comic sequence about learning to drive that features a car going around in circles.
Education notes provided by The Learning Federation and Education Services Australia.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.