Help Yourself
Help Yourself is a short film from 1939 released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.
18:01:26:00 VS CU Film projector; man stands up and opens projector showing spinning film reel; pan down projector, RCA Photophone label, disembodied hand opens up round container revealing spinning film reel, film reel is removed; CU disembodied hand places film in film can, then places cover on film canister with title Pabst Brewing Company The Brand of A Champion Reel 4, disembodied arms removie the four stacked film cans out of frame.
18:02:01:14 Pabst Blue Ribbon beer posters stack one on top of another, final poster is for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition; various Pabst adds continue to stack up.
18:02:28:14 CU Cosmopolitan magazine in man s hands shot from over man s shoulder so that blurry side of man s face is along the left edge of the frame; CU low-angle shot of Country Life magazine held in woman s hands, top of woman s head visible above and beyond the magazine; CU Life magazine held by woman, back of woman s head in frame; CU man smoking cigar and reading Time magazine advertising Current Events Test on cover; CU man reading Collier s magazine
18:02:45:10 Map of the United States, white dot appears over Chicago, image of Chicago expands out of the white dot on the map filling the frame; map of U.S., white dot identifies Milwaukee, picture of Milwaukee grows out of the white dot on map and fills the frame; U.S. map, white dot appears over Providence, RI, still image of Providence shown; Trenton, NJ shown on map, Macon, GA, Longview, TX
18:03:24:20 Great stop-motion animation begins with frame divided into 10 images of the same house divided by black lines, various popular magazine slide into frame eventually occluding most of the background images: Fortune, The Spur, Collier s, Newsweek, Liberty, American, Business Week, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Country Life, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Time
18:03:41:09 CU printing press rapidly printing on continuous stream of paper; CU newspaper rolling off the press; shot with array of magazine covering pictures of a house, stop-motion animation of various important newspapers entering frame and covering up the various magazine, newspaper include: The Washington Post, The Houston Chronicle, The Boston Herald, The Birmingham News, Oregon Journal, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Chicago Daily Tribune, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Time, etc.; stop-motion animation shows various Pabst Blue Ribbon ads enter frame and occlude the newspaper spread, one ad shows man in tuxedo beside glasses of beer with text Smart Calls for Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer
18:04:11:26 Various Pabst Blue Ribbon beer billboards with slogans promoting Pabst as a sophisticated beer, The Class of them all Pabst Blue Ribbon , Class in a Glass
18:04:18:21 Late 1930s greyhound bus with destination sign over windshield for Washington drives up muddy city road; low-angle shot train speeds past camera at angle; great shot late 1930s cars driving down wide street cut out of rocky wooded hillside, cars dispersed over wide road on lane-less street in what would be about 4 lanes.
18:04:30:02 Great tracking shot passing 1939 New York World s Fair grounds; great aerial shot passing over the 400 foot Tower of the Sun at the San Francisco World s Fair site on Treasure Island.
18:04:38:01 Pan over various Pabst billboards advertising Pabst as sophisticated: Smart For keener refreshment Pabst Blue Ribbon , Keener Refreshment that s Pabst , Smart America Calls for Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer ; VS of Pabst paper advertisements with images of Pabst in bottles and cans; VS Pabst beer ads on and in menus
18:05:56:25 CU sand hourglass; VS superimposed over hourglass of older men in their sixties working in factory, words Experience and Quality superimposed over shots; CU hourglass with Pabst Logo and word Prestige superimposed over shot, disembodied hand flipped through booklet of various Pabst ads superimposed over hourglass.
18:06:43:18 CU drawing of a wood ladder, text appears on each rung of the ladder as camera pans up ladder: 95 years experience, highest quality, bottles cans draught, point of sales publicity, Pabst Motion Pictures, Advertising of the trade, magazine advertising, newspaper advertising, outdoor advertising, distributor planning, drawing of a moneybag on top of ladder, top two rungs of ladder missing, top rung of ladder appears beneath floating money bag along with text your earnings
18:07:30:07 Cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer bottles stacked up, several bottles out of case on top of box; VS LS man working in warehouse stacked to the sealing with cases of Pabst Beer, man taking inventory of Pabst, worker loads cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer onto dolly; pan down cabinet of Pabst advertising material, mostly signs, woman enters frame and picks out various Pabst Beer signs;
18:08:08:10 LS man wearing cap rolls keg of beer toward camera over sidewalk away from restaurant with Pabst neon sign in window, older man stands by restaurant door wearing apron around his waist calls after beer man; VS man rolls beer keg to late 1930s small Pabst Beer delivery truck, wipes to Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer delivery truck pulls up to curb, VS man rolls keg of beer over sidewalk to restaurant waiter outside, window with neon Pabst On Draft, VS waiter and Pabst delivery man chat
18:08:57:26 VS pan over document listing names and addresses on beer distributors list; great stop-motion shows document crumble then stuff itself in a nut shell, paper rises back out of shell and un-crumbles itself; VS beer distributors documents
18:09:38:26 Great shot CU one man handing various documents over desk to another businessman, camera situated between the two men s heads so that side of each man s face is along one side of the frame.
18:10:01:00 Split frame shot shows two fields of grain, right side of frame shows only half of the farms acreage under cultivation, trees in background, left side of frame spreads right taking over the frame showing farm of grain under full cultivation, 100% superimposed over shot.
18:10:49:07 Double Exposure shot shows various Pabst Blue Ribbon beer bottles, various advertising shot of Pabst beer bottles and cans superimposed over double exposure background of Pabst Beer bottles.
18:11:33:07 Low-angle Pabst On Tap neon sign, pan over to CU of Pabst beer tap in fron of bar tender; CU bar tender pouring Pabst beers from tap
18:11:50:21 CU antique wood beer keg; CU pan down cross-section of antique wood beer keg; superimposed line drawn along bottom of keg indicating where the hole of the keg tap rod does not reach, pointer enters from bottom of frame indicating lost beer; CU metal keg; CU cross-section of metal keg, pan down cross-section of metal keg; CU man takes tap out of keg and turns keg upside down then removes keg from frame, only a few drops are left from the leg on the concrete floor
18:12:44:29 Window of a tavern with Pabst On Draft neon sign in window, men and women in late 1930s fashion walk across frame along sidewalk passing the tavern; CU Pabst On Draft neon sign in tavern window
18:13:00:05 Pan up the Palace Hotel, 1930s cars parked along street; CU wood door with sign for room 331 George Green Wine Steward, man enters frame, knocks then enters through door.
18:13:48:28 CU Andecker tap, disembodied hand enters frame and pulls back on tap handle; VS two men in fancy office, one seated at desk smoking cigar discussing Pabst new draft beer Andecker.
18:13:57:21 CU disembodied hand holds pamphlet for Andecker beer brewed by Pabst, hands open pamphlet; VS beer salesman talking to man seated at desk about Pabst beer and Pabst s new more sophisticated continental-type Andecker beer; man seated at desk says cheerfully so you re going high hat eh
18:16:52:09 CU three different size Andecker Beer glasses.
18:17:33:00 Disembodied hand flips through Pabst advertising booklet
18:18:03:27 CU tilted-angle shot of five Pabst Blue Ribbon beer bottles, zoom out showing projecting of shot shrinking into black background, same shot repeated with four Pabst beer cans then a keg.
18:18:25:12 CU two Pabst Blue Ribbon beer bottles, superimposed S drawn over shot; CU zoom in on Pabst Breweries logo| Help Yourself | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Castle Films |
Production company | Castle Films |
| Distributed by | Castle Films |
Release date | 1939 |
| Language | English |
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