Clip description
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.
Curator’s notes
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.