Aero Stills (1961)

Kensington, London. M/S of a small barrage balloon being unloaded from a trailer in a mews (a street sign seems to read ’Jay Mews’); a man holds onto the balloon’s strings; M/S of a lead from the balloon being plugged into a hand winch. One of the men attaches a stills camera to a metal ring hanging from the base of the balloon and removes the lens cover. Commentator tells us the men are a “highly specialised team of cameramen who use balloons to get some remarkable photographs of practically anything you care to name“. M/S of the man crouching beside a remote control box; he works the controls to make the camera tilt back and forth and move around. M/S and L/Ss of the balloon rising up onto the air; on the side of the balloon are the words ’Aero Stills Ltd’: M/Ss of the winch winding to let out the cable and one of the men looking up. C/U of some black and white aerial photographs that have been taken with the contraption; a hand lifts each picture off the pile to show the next one; they include