London’s Screen Archives enables Londoners see their past come alive on film. Managed by Film London, we are a unique network of historic film collections that cares for, collects and screens heritage film across the city. Together we preserve London’s rich film heritage from feature films to home movies, public information films, newsreels, and records of the capital’s many different industries.
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Visual Training Part One, Why Things Are Seen, Merton (1947)
Wonderful, informative military training film about vision, which features shots of south London having been made at Merton Park Studios.
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Overview
Starting with a caption that states “lives were needlessly lost and many opportunities missed for killing” in WWII because of poor visual training, this Army film attempts to teach soldiers the principles of seeing: contrasts of colour, dark and light, texture, silhouettes, shapes, shadows, movement and size. Illustration comes partly from the streets of south London near Merton Park Studios, with shots of shops, pubs, toilets and a No 604 trolleybus.
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