Using the Camera: A Lesson on Cine by Group B

Queasy cam versus slow cinema? A comic cine club primer on the art of amateur cinematography.

Anyone with a Bolex thinks they're an expert in this jokey instructional film on the do's and don'ts of cine camera use, filmed by the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association around one of the city's architectural gems, the brand new, no-expenses-spared Scandi-style modernist Civic Centre.

The Newcastle Civic Centre was officially opened by King Olav of Norway in 1968, the year of this cine club production. At the time, "Newcastle was looking north - not south to London" for its vision of a post-industrial future for the city. The construction project was supported in its early stages by the controversial political figure known as 'Mr Newcastle' in the 60s. A politician with a vision, T Dan Smith was the son of a miner from Wallsend who was a charismatic Leader of Newcastle City Council from 1960 to 1965, and later faced corruption charges in the Poulson affair that rocked British politics. The Civic Centre still stands proudly on the Haymarket and attracts the attention of lens-wielding admirers.