Share
clip 2Clip description
This clip shows the harvesting of peanut plants. The harvester’s blade cuts the tap roots of a line of plants, which are then removed from the soil by hand and stacked in stooks to dry. A newly picked peanut kernel is filmed in its soft, green condition. The stooks are left in rows and a dissolve shows the drying process. Two workers lift the dried stooks onto a trailer and then drive up to a threshing machine which separates the nuts from the plant. The residue is discharged onto the field and the nuts are fed directly into large hessian sacks.
Curator’s notes
Documentaries like this need to comprehensively present a large amount of information in a short space of time. This clip condenses days of footage – the harvesting, drying, threshing and packing of peanuts – into a neat three-minute sequence by breaking down the process into key steps, each of which is explained in voice-over. The narration is supported and reinforced by the images, which use a combination of medium shots and close-ups to detail the processing of the peanut plant at various stages.
