Of Time, Work and Leisure

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 1963

Creator: National Educational Television Inc. (NET)

Complete Record: A survey of the way in which Americans spend their free time. Points out that in a society dominated by the clock, true leisure is unknown. The more time gained in our technological society, the less time we have. Shots: Sparkling field that as panned becomes the ocean or a body of water. Ducks on water. Trees bloom. Trains. CU man eating. Cop directing traffic. In silhouette, legs and feet going over lines of sidewalk grate. CU, putti spewing water in fountain. Tilting from clock on building to sidewalk to feet walking. People, legs and feet, debarking bus. Sebastian de Grazia (a scholar and political philosopher at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University) shown in his office at window. He gradually sits at this desk. Stills busts of Seneca and Thomas Jefferson. Aerial view of traffic moving on 6-land freeway: Three lanes in each direction. Still camera tracks cars moving at the level below the hood of the car. Shot of secretarial pool calculating numbers. Shot starts a MS of one worker then opens up to most of room filled with women working. Man in machine shop, then scene opens up to include a long machine with several men at work. Hands punching into time clock at work. Man at desk giving dictation to secretary. Camera slowly moves to man and then to his time management schedule. Then camera shot from the man’s POV looking at secretary. She rises and leaves room. Commuter train from above. Show curving tracks. Commuter reads magazine while seated in train. Camera looks down aisle to show many seated passengers and conductor coming through punching tickets. Two other commuter reads New York Times. Shot from above head of reading person so POV camera on newspaper and man holding it. Shot broadens to include another commuter or two sitting side-by-reading papers. Original commuter looks at his wristwatch. Train jostles commuters so that they are constantly being rocked by train. LS of a sill LS of silhouetted couple on a beach at sunset. MS of man repairing TV. MS shot of woman typing on a Royal typewriter. CS of man’s hand using calculator. There is a paper coffee cup on desk and papers that he is apparently working on. CS from above of hand using gasoline nose to fill car gas tank. MS looking down on tray of desserts. Follows waitress carrying tray to table. Cash register CS ringing up of sale. Bill board advertising the new Corvair as EXCITING. Montage of signs and billboards, cash registers ringing, luring people to buy. CS of clock face. A long enduring shot of the inner workings of clocks. Various views shown. Still shots from nineteenth century magazine or newspaper block prints showing factory settings that illustrate a worker needing to keep pace with machines. Another MS view of assembly line work. Same shot as LS. CS top of night stand. Alarm rings, hand moves to shut it off. Desktop includes ashtray with burnt out cigarettes, lighter, matchbook, empty glass, Kleenex box, pack of cigarettes, and magazine. Montage of: Street traffic; man handing out newspaper; feet and legs moving on sidewalks; hands holding straps in subway, Another montage of subway train going by iron fence so that image is broken up; CS from inside subway of window and outside whizzing by; bodies passing through turn stile; MS cafeteria interior with counter and server handing coffee to person; CS eating; conveyor belt with duplicate copies of something whizzing by; inter-cut shots of various types of outdoor clock faces; repetitious images of glassware with heeled shoes; family with baby carriage whose wheels move; rapidly moving legs and feet on sidewalk; inter-cut wristwatch POV wearer shot from above; man walking by iron fence surrounding grave yard, and his image is cut up as he moves by the fence, POV from graveyard side. Shoulder shot looking down MS of boy drawing clock. Shod feet moving out of revolving door; cut to CS of clock spring ticking of minutes. Montage of two-year old walking on lawn and then falling; ocean waves rolling in towards camera; tides ebb and flow around immovable rocks. Birds sitting on water suddenly take flight and swoop and swirl about. CS back to clock spring ticking off time; advertising billboard; passing subway in front of billboard; woman runs to catch train and conductor helps her aboard; pans on stove letting off steam; camera pans to clock on stove; table top seen from camera behind looking down as man puts his hand forward and wrist watch on his arm to pour tea. Multiple cigarettes are tamped out in ash tray. MS of persons walking on street, and camera tilts to clock above. Montage of signs. Man and woman dancing in robotic movements. Watch spring inter cut. Camera behind TV with rabbit ears, while man in easy chair sits in background looking at TV. More dancing then cut to man asleep in front of TV. Frenzy of some repeated images and machine produced commodities. Man lives by clock time. Clock and then glass on clock shattered. Front shot from alley of bowler getting ready to roll ball. Then reverse shot of pins going down in strike. Man and woman dining. He is smoking. Man in his woodworking shop pushing wood through saw head. Camera look POV at head of vacuum while someone pushes it. Group of visitors to museum hung with paintings listen to docent. More of bowling alley shots and bowlers in line in front of their alleys. Golf ball being hit. Tennis racket head moves across screen. CU man working at sawing in his wood shop. Image frenzy continues with camera at level and in front of mover moving. Shots inside museum. Repeat of images of man repairing TV, waitress with dessert tray, subway passing below camera (except this time the tracks are straight). Conductor taking and punching tickets on commuter train. Repeat of interior of commuter train images. Image through commuter train of sunlight and trees. Pigeons flying and park. Camera MS of men sitting in park looking depressed and contemplative. Man on bench regards his gold watch. Montage of assembly lines at high rates of speed. Cars on road moving rapidly. Tilting on buildings that show structures that cube the space. Mr. de Grazia moves from desk to take an easy stance beside a bookcase. Cut to pine trees by a lake shore. Shot zooms in on woman sitting on ground next to tree. Father plays with son. Some old men play Bocce ball in park; various angles by camera. Man sculpts bust of someone. Man sits in church (stained glass windows behind him?) and meditates. Various portraits of philosophers from Greeks and Romans to Thoreau. Footage zooming in on Greek temple ruins from old photographs (?). Greeks give us hope that a society can be built around leisure instead of work. Footage of cars and train on bridge and cars in parking lot below. With camera at midlevel, CU of midsections of cars zooming by and in background is park. Next to last shot of girl playing with pigeons.