The Ford Age - PT 1
The Ford Age - PT 1
Silent corporate industrial film produced by and for the Ford Motor Company, 1923. Beautiful archival footage documenting the multifaceted innovation of Henry Ford including: auto assembly,, coal mining, lumber & recycling.
The Ford Age - PT 1
DO NOT USE: Opening titles & credits.
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading: "Over one-half of all the passenger cars in the world today are Fords." High angle LS urban parking lot full of Ford Model T automobiles. Title card: "Henry Ford is one of the greatest idealists in the world today...The First Ford Plant...His ambition was to make a light durable car..." Dim MS though doorway of man working on quadracycle in workshop. MCU quadracycle motor. MS industrialist HENRY FORD driving quadracycle (quadracycle, quadrocycle) on snowy grounds outside industrial building. Title card: "He concentrated his efforts on producing a universal type of car..." GV Ford Model A automobile in front of mansion, the car drives away.
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading: "The Ford plants in Detroit are situated on 965 acres..." Excellent establishing exterior pan of the Ford Motor Company Highland Park, Michigan plant. Great establishing GVs Ford Motor Company Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan: smokestacks, steel mills, pollution, buildings, etc. Title card: "The greatest industrial organization of all times, makes possible the daily production of...7000 cars a day". Excellent high angle LS massive streaming crowd of employees walking along street from the Highland Park factory (lunchtime or end of shift).
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading: "Iron ore, fuel & lumber are supplied by Ford mines & forests..."IRON ORE-Imperial Mine, Michigamme, Michigan." Establishing LS Imperial iron ore mine in Michigan winter.
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading: "COAL MINES-Nuttallburg & Twin Branch, West Virginia. Kentenia, Pond Creek & Kentucky...Twin Branch, W.Va, supplies a low volatile smokeless coal." Establishing high angle LS pan company coal mining town of Twin Branch, West Virginia, shot moves from mansions to stilted shacks. Title card: "Imagine the enormous amount of coal it requires a day to keep this industry supplied." Nice TLSs steam engine locomotive train hauling cars of coal through countryside. Brilliant POV from top of coal car as train moves through the winter landscape.
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading: "LUMBER-Iron Mountain & Sidnaw, Michigan, One half million timber acres." MS/CUs lumberjacks using a gas powered saw to fell tree in snowy Michigan forest. TLS timber being hauled off by Ford Fordson tractors along snowy terrain.
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading: "...low prices are made possible by efficiency & elimination of waste." MS white male workers inside Ford plant, large gears traveling on overhead conveyor. Title card: "Waste lumber is made into parts boxes" MS Ford workers making wooden boxes from waste lumber. Title card: "The waste metal is baled & melted with other metal.." Slightly out-of-focus MS white male workers sorting through scrap metal. Slightly out-of-focus MS white male workers using industrial tongs to lift molded block of scrap medal. MS three male African-American workers tossing metal in furnace.
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading "Great Furnaces prepare the raw material for use in the building of Ford cars." Exterior tracking of Rouge plant showing steam/smoke rising from furnace. Title card: "Think of the tons of ore, coal and limestone used in the foundry daily." Exterior TLS Rouge plant showing piles of coal, limestone, ect. Title card: "Vast quantities of steel are required to keep the daily production balanced." Interior MS filthy grimy white male workers working in foundry, moving ladle of hot steel on pulley. Title card: "The manipulator is capable of handling a 5-ton ingot."
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading "The 54 miles of conveyors, by their various performances... make possible this remarkable daily production of cars." Great GV automobile parts traveling along overhead conveyor system, man pushing broom in FG, truck drives by. GV automobile parts traveling along overhead conveyor system, male workers in FG. Title card: "All the wearing parts are accurately machined for close adjustment." MCU automation machine in action.
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading "The body frame being assembled..." Excellent MS white men constructing wooden body frame of Ford Model T. Title card: "The metal parts of the bodies are shaped by powerful presses." Elevated GV man driving forklift. Title card: "The axels are forged out by powerful machines." MCU men installing body metal, one man holds the sheet metal while other tacks it in place. Title card: "The bodies are painted." Great MS men working in paint department, spraying car bodies.
The Ford Age - PT 1
Title card reading: "Tops are made of waterproof covering..." Elevated MS men working at bench, cutting leather strips. GV male worker on the assembly line, installing soft waterproof tops onto car bodies. Title card: "After all the thousands of parts are perfected the various units are assembled." MS men on the floor, using drill press, making crankshafts. High angle GV of factory floor w/ overhead conveyor & employees at drill press. Title card reading: "The transmission." MS Caucasian & African American men on the line assembling transmissions.