Film Record: Prelude to Spring

Prelude to Spring pictured in the PSA Journal, Nov. 1957, 32.

Date produced: 1957

Filmmaker(s):

John W. Ruddell

Languages:

English

Length:

600 ft

Format:

16mm

Colour:

Kodachrome

Sound Notes:

Optical

Awards/Recognition:

Ninth Annual Canadian Film Awards, 1957 - Best Amateur Film
PSA Cushman Sound Trophy 1957, PSA Ten Best 1957

Description:

"Spring comes for John W. Ruddell and nature unfolds its little power plants of color and our cameraman has captured these beauties for us. The seed catalog heralds the coming of spring. The housewife busies herself with the new, pretty pages of flower pictures and goes into a bit of slumber. Then followed the results of a tremendous effort in filming single frame, time lapse growth of seeds, plants, trees, and flowers. This is not just another effort to make time lapse photography. The picture is sprinkled with unusual and amusing photographs of plant life and flowers, leaves grasses, carefully timed to the music. The choice and use of music in this picture does a great deal to enhance its effectiveness. A beautiful and delightful prelude to spring." PSA Journal, Nov. 1957, 32.

Prelude to Spring stands as the Canadian Film Awards' de facto Film of the Year for 1957 after the judges did not select a winner in the professional category.

Subjects:

• Nature
•      Plants
• Seasons
•      Spring

Genre:

• Documentary

Form:

• Short

Screenings:

• Screened at the Hart House for the annual Christmas party for the Toronto Guild for Colour Photography, Dec. 16, 1957: Toronto, Ontario

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