LOCAL EVENTS SCREENED WITHIN AN HOUR OF HAPPENING!
Chester people have now the opportunity of seeing local events filmed and shown on the screen within an hour of their happening. This is due to the enterprise of the management of the Theatre, Foregate Street, Chester, who have inaugurated a news-filming unit under the direct supervision of Mr Frank Chilton. The unit has the most up-to-date equipment, which includes three 16mm cameras of American and English make, capable of holding 100ft of film and a battery of telephoto lenses. One of the cameras is fitted with sound
apparatus and, in view of successful experiments, it is hoped it will be in use within a month.
To give some idea of the rapid and efficient way in which the strip of film is handled an Observer reporter was invited to see the process from the actual shooting of the event to its projection on the screen. He writes: “After the film has been exposed, it is developed and then placed on a wooden frame and rotated over an electric drying machine. This stage of the preparation over, the film is taken to the editing department, where every section is carefully scrutinised for flaws, scratches, etc. It is here that the film is put in order before projected on the screen. The whole of this process takes about fifty minutes and thus patrons may have a surprise of having something thrown on the screen, which has taken place while they were sitting in the theatre.”
Although the film that our reporter saw was not an actual news item but that showing his entry to the theatre, it proved how quickly happenings can be brought to the screen by local news enterprise.
….Cheshire Observer – 9 April 1938
Tatler’s indoor colour local newsreel. From Cheshire Observer 7th January 1939
