River Of Gold - Tobacco (1969)

Basildon. Carreras.

Reception area of smart offices, deserted at night. Interior tobacco processing factory.

James River. USA



Drifting past Cypress trees growing in water. American Indian cutting tobacco leaves.

Williamsburg. Horse and buggy rides past old Colonial houses. A soldier in colonial dress stands guard. Plantation house in Virginia owned by George Washington. Street of houses. Tobacco plantation being harvested and sorted. Hung on sticks the leaves are put into curing sheds. The dried leaves are removed and driven to town. Lumberton N.C. and tobacco warehouse signs. Inside a tobacco auction is going on (fast talking) with buyers looking at the leaves. After purchase the tobacco is regraded and cured further. Tobacco rammed into 900lb hogs heads and driven away in large trucks.



New Basildon, Essex.

Old part of town with pretty cottages. New Basildon with modern shopping mall and high rise buildings including Carreras. Staff in the canteen. Tobacco in hogsheads driven into the warehouse . Bonded warehouse Intr. as fork lift piles up the hogsheads. Check to customs for £250000 (one days worth of tax). Leave Dept. Tobacco is unpacked and graded. A probe is inserted and moist air passed through the tobacco. Tobacco is stored in stainless steel boxes until it achieves the correct moisture level.



The tobacco is put onto the production line, threshed, rested in silo's to even out the moisture, and cut. More samples are taken from the conveyor belts of tobacco. After drying in revolving drums the tobacco is carried along tunnels of air to more silo's. Shots of filter making. Long filters are cut into shorter lengths

.

In the quality control area, lots of high tech. machines and glass tubes of cigarette smoke being analyzed. Some guilt emphasis on how careful they are. Looking through microscopes and machines "smoking" and analyzing the smoke. State of the art computers of the day.

Enormous factory floor of the "making machines" turning out 2000 cigarettes a minute for just one machine. Lots of wheels turning, conveyor belts, and fags on the move. More quality control shots. High tech. machines with dials and needles. Masses of cigarettes appearing in collection areas being fed down into single cigarettes for packing.

Cigarettes being packed into packets and cartons of "Piccadilly" and "Guards", more high speed production shots. Men moving pallets of cartons of cigarettes in large warehouse for distribution. Two lorries marked "Piccadilly & Guards" leaving the factory.
FILM ID:2701.01

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