Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This silent black-and-white clip shows a group of workers at the Sydney Morning Herald unloading the metal plates of each page from the lift into the printing room. The workers furnish the large printing machine with a roll of paper and the metal plates. The clip uses an intertitle to introduce the stage of production: 'FURNISHING ONE OF THE SIX BIG MACHINES IN THE PRESS ROOM WITH PAPER AND PLATES’.

Educational value points

• The clip illustrates an aspect of the production of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in 1911, specifically the process of 'furnishing’ a large printing machine with paper and stereotypes (metal printing plates). A roll of blank newsprint, approximately 1 tonne in weight, is lifted by a mechanical hoist and inserted onto a reel in the printing press. The printing cylinders are fitted with the curved stereotypes and when the paper runs through the press, the cylinder presses the stereotyped image into it.

• The footage is from an industrial documentary produced for the Commonwealth Government and made when cinema was becoming a mass medium for information as well as entertainment. These documentaries, screened in Australia and overseas, were intended to show the progress Australia had made since European settlement. Intertitles, which were frequently used in silent cinema, were particularly useful in industrial documentaries, where the audience may not have been familiar with the technology or process being shown.

• The Sydney Morning Herald began as the Sydney Herald in 1831, when it comprised four pages and had a weekly print run of 750 copies. John Fairfax bought the newspaper in 1841, beginning a dynasty that lasted almost 150 years. It was Fairfax who renamed the newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald. The newspaper went into receivership in 1990 with debts totalling $1.7 billion. After changes to its ownership structure, the Fairfax group was relisted as a public company on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1992.

• The 35 mm cellulose nitrate film used to shoot the film has become damaged over time. This type of film was first used as a base for photographic film by George Eastman in 1889, and was used for 35 mm motion pictures until the 1950s. Nitrate film is highly flammable and, as partially decomposed nitrate film can spontaneously ignite at temperatures as low as 49 degrees C, archival material shot on 35 mm nitrate film needs to be stored in controlled conditions and handled carefully in order to be preserved. Many films shot on cellulose nitrate have been lost or damaged.

• The original Pathé logo of a crowing rooster, which features at the beginning of the clip, was used at the beginning of film reels to identify Pathé as the producer. The company was founded in France by the three Pathé brothers, and became the largest film equipment and production company in the world. It was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1897, and in 1902 acquired the Lumière brothers’ patents to design its own improved film equipment and produce its own stock. The company captured a significant portion of the international market and expanded its production facilities and chain of cinemas to other cities throughout the world. It is estimated that prior to the First World War (1914–18), 60 per cent of all films were shot with Pathé Equipment.

This clip starts approximately 12 minutes into the documentary.

Workers at The Sydney Morning Herald furnish one of the main printing machines in the press-room with curved plates and large rolls of paper. An intertitle introduces the stage of production:

Furnishing one of the six big machines in the press room with paper and plates