BFI

Like all of the newsreel companies, Topical Budget (or the Daily Sketch Topical Budget, as it was at this time) wasn't above a bit of self-publicity, but it wasn't often that it turned the spotlight on its own cameramen.

This concise item shows the annual day out of the Kine Cameramen's Society. Formed in 1918 more as a 'social organisation' than a guild or union, the Society was nevertheless a kind of predecessor of the later Association of Cinema Technicians (ACT), and most, if not all of Topical's cameramen were members. Clearly one of the day's highlights was a spirited competition in which the rivals race to assemble their cameras and sprint with them to the finish line. It seems that an unnamed Topical cameraman emerged the winner, which the newsreel gleefully offers as evidence that Topical is "First with the News Race".

The jovial intertitle helpfully informs us that despite this being the lensmen's 'one day off', Topical's are 'still working'. Evidently the same can't be said for their title-writing colleagues, who seem confused about what to do with their apostrophes - "Quite human are'nt they?", reads the final title, introducing a line-up of cameramen winding away for our benefit.

Mark Duguid

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