How Fake Newspapers in Movies Get Made!
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- čas přidán 24. 12. 2023
- Remember newspapers? At The Earl Hays Press, Adam is introduced to one of the most reused props in film history: the fake newspaper that's become the standard prop anytime a newspaper is seen being read on screen. But beyond this prop that's been seen in over 10,000 productions, Adam also learns how custom fake newspapers can be made, using templated print blocks of generic text arranged and typeset for any production's needs.
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Shot and edited by Joey Fameli
Music by Jinglepunks
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#adamsavage #props - Věda a technologie
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Is off set litho using lead characters, numbers & shims rare these days? At school I did a printing class laying up documents in the standard reverse & up-side-down using characters, numbers, special characters, shimming each line so that the formatting & kerning were correct. All of them were from layup cartridges full of bins each full of whatever characters were needed. Learning how to block text using a wood & key, is hard because Lead is a soft metal. So easy to screw up the block by overtightening. But heaven help you if you forget to lock it down & caused even just a section be dropped on the floor. Like everything it takes ages to get faster & the pros are just insane. Believe me the switch to imaged hot metal changed everything!
My uncle was the production manager for a newspaper. There were a few times when he would change out stories for special occasions. One in particular, he replaced a story about a local murder with a story about my aunt tuning 40. He then ran the press to create several copies. She didn't know it was fake and thought the headline story was her 40th.
Huh
Great story.
That's so damn cute. lol
I would've loved such a birthday gift, whether it was the headline or not. That's awesome. ❤❤❤
Did your aunt have a nice birthday
One of my all time favorite facts comes from a type setter/printer at the Cowtown Museum in Wichita, KS. The boxes that hold all the letters are called cases. When typesetting, you need the regular letters a lot more than the capital letters so the case of capitals would be put on the upper shelf. The case of regular letters would be put on the lower shelf where it is easier to get to. That's why we still call them uppercase and lowercase letters.
Look up the origin of the phrase "all out of sorts"....
That's amazing!!!@@shphotocouk
Shoutout Wilhelm scream
When I went to Marina Jr. High School in 1965, I took print shop.
We used to set lead type that poured into a mold, clamped it into blocks and ran the school paper and notices for classes off of a Gutenberg Press.
We also used a Varityper to do large & small text & had another device that would print the pictures we had to use.
If I saw a press like that today I could still print a small newspaper and I was 13 then and 71 now.
Thanks for doing this video.
Spent the better part of my career making up newspaper pages. Always hated when prop newspapers were designed "wrong" -- headlines that dont fill out, etc. Interesting to hear that old ink-stained wretches were involved in this venerable Hollywood institution.
Same. I yell every time I see a poorly designed page on screen. It's as if they've never even looked at a newspaper before.
The Earl Hays videos yall have been putting out have been a real treat! Printed media has always been so interesting to me, so finding out about how they actually do it fascinating
Watch how a Linotype works, some time. On the Roku is available a channel called Joe Screwdriver's Retro Tech Time Machine, which has old, short industrial films. The Linotype melted lead and cast lines of text with no electronics. They made some complicated machines in the past.
A Linotype machine? Seriously? I've been to both the Linotype company (Chicago, still existed as of a couple decades ago) and in the 60s, the Los Angeles Times typesetting and press rooms, a grade school field trip. The linotype is about the size of a small car and emits lead fumes. And I used to work in pre-press, composing film. I have a roll of amberlith they may be interested in.
Fascinating. Earl Hays Press should devote a room to a museum. I'd pay to see some of this in person.
I work for a media company and they are planning to move from printed magazines/newspapers to fully digital in the next 5 or so years. Printed media of daily/weekly/monthly publications is dying out...
I can just imagine in few decades people looking at a movie and thinking "they're reading news on paper things, this story takes place before 2030's".
'They are planning...?'
@@random22026 Yes. Physical printed media still exists. Most companies are just doing it alongside digital.
@@random22026 Most media transfer their content to digital platforms either on a website, an official account on Social Networks such as Facebook or X or with their own app for smartphones and other smart devices.
The development, design and maintenance of such platforms (as they must be constantly updated to post the latest news and in some cases, be the archive of old publications ) costs money.
Long after we have stopped consuming Newspapers, Earl Hayes will still be printing them for period pieces. That's beautiful .
Being an old, long since laid-off newsroom support staffer for The Des Moines Register, this makes me teary eyed. The one thing I enjoyed so much for my first decade with the paper was feeling like a custodian of history.
Another brilliant episode.
Seeing the old galleys and proof press brings me back to when I started my apprenticeship in the late 80s’. They showed us this old tech at the government print shop including the machines that made the Monotype and Linotype slugs. Across the roof were metal splashes from when it sometimes squirted out of the machine during casting the slugs. Glad this is still around. I used to melt down the old metal billets for diving weight belts
Somewhere I have a lead cast of my name from the paper in small town my parents grew up in. Visited as a kid and the staff fried up the old machine in the back and made me one to show how things used to be done. Very cool to see how Earl Hays makes the papers
Filmmaking is one of the few places it makes sense to keep that sort of thing alive. For most stuff, we have cheaper, better ways of producing newspapers, whether it's small runs or mass production. But, if you want an authentic look and feel for stuff set during the times that equipment would have been used, the best way is the way it would have been done.
I used to work in the print industry, so I'm quite familiar with this process, but I love to hear that they are still using this traditional process in our digital age. Makes me happy that we are not losing these skills
I can't help but think of that time Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood animated an entire coherent and relevant newspaper page that appeared on screen for maybe a few frames
Sixty years ago, when I was in the Cub Scouts, we visited our last cal newspaper and watched the typist make lead slugs of our names that would later be printed in the newspaper story of our visit. I still have mine at home somewhere.
In America, the newspaper name at the top of the front page of a newspaper is not the "masthead." It's the flag or nameplate.
The masthead of an American newspaper is a list of names, such as of the publisher, top staff people, etc., who work for the newspaper. It's usually published on an inside page.
Christmas Day. Discovery Channel. 12 hours of Myth Busters with the whole crew in their prime. Greatest TV show ever made and happier times. As a bomb technician, I loved the show because you did all the "wonder what would happen " conversations we had on the bomb range.
Keep these coming! The on-screen chemistry and geeking out between these two is incredibly fun to watch.
Letterpress still has a place in the 21st century. I am one of a handful of people still casting “lead” type at home. 👍😀
Enjoyed this thank you! I'm still in the industry, 15+ years in and we're now moreso digital but I adore the origin, the artistry, the craft and passion.
What's in a name
@@random22026The significance, history, value etc. Named objects and such are given extra meaning from it.
This is so cool! I really like the level of detail that this provides on screen. Also side note: I just got one of your aprons for Christmas from my wife and it’s so awesome! Can’t wait to put it to use!!!!
Many of the old "Letter press" machines from the days before modern "off set" are still in use. I ran some of these machines, having been modified for the print finishing industry, to make folders, and other "steel rule" die products. They can be easily reused to do the printing shown here. All you have to do is to reinstall the inking mechanisms.
Great little video. ;-)
this props guy is fantastic. ive really enjoyed seeing the old catalog of stuff he has pulled off the shelves. its alot of fun
My dad learned printing in the sixties when workers still had to learn typesetting. I smiled when I saw the blocks of type with string around them. My dad ties up everything like that.
Really enjoyed this series on Earl Hayes' mind boggling props. Happy Holidays Adam and all the Tested bunch, and all who read this...
Merry Christmas Adam and the rest of Tested.
This has been an excellent journey through the production of news papers for the movies, I'm so amazed, thank you. I love production and your videos, thank you too Michel.
I had a table-top press (the Adana) from 1951 when I was 12 and used it to print letterheads for friends and relatives. Kept it until I went to university in '59. Bought the larger 8x5 and ran this as a hobby for many years, then bought a second-hand British Thompson platen (roughly about same size as the Heidelberg). Still a hobby, but earning good money with it. Hand-set all the type. Eventually sold the machines and 12 cases of metal type, printing blocks etc in 2019, just before Covid struck. Kept copies of everything I printed, and city museum now have them as a record of local history. Retired now. Loved the smell of ink and of the wooden type cases.
This has been a great series, interesting on so many levels!
Merry Christmas Adam
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!!!! Another great informative video 👍
Pure genius how those papers are done, truly fascinating. Thank you for this.
This was pre-internet: A friend of mine, to win a bet, had a printer typeset and print a fake dictionary page with an incorrect definition of a word. She had bet a guy on the definition and found out she was wrong, so rather than lose, she enlisted a printer with whom she did a lot of business to create the fake. She presented it to the guy as a torn-out page from a dictionary. It was years later that she revealed to him what she had done. He was amused.
He should’ve gotten a real dictionary
No
I've been lucky enough to have a couple of opportunities to make fake documents for a friend's indie projects, and those have been consistently so fun to do I thought someone was gonna come along and tell me to knock it off. Especially the fake newspapers for The Slow Poisoner's Hotrod Worm video. That one gave me latitude to just turn the goofy-weird dial up to 11, and I had complete creative freedom.
The Slow Poisoner's Hotrod Worm says it all, really
@@random22026 It truly does.
Excellent video. Thank you so much
My first HD TV had a zoom button on the remote. I could pause the DVR and then zoom in on a newspaper and pan to read it all. It’s fascinating to know how they did this and I never noticed on old broadcast analog television because the resolution was so low.
And after watching the entire video I have a hankering for a Smeat sandwich.
I'd have a field day running around browsing through those cabinets. Can you imagine how good they must feel on your hand?
Seen a Linotype machine in operation in Baltimore, it was awesome to watch an operator who used to type up print for the Baltimore Sun. Awesome video here on how they are still making prop newsprint the same way for nearly 100 years.
Thanks Adam. Super cool content! Have a nice Christmas season. 🇨🇦
Adam: "Every time you look over someone's shoulder in a movie, nine out of ten times you're going to be looking at this spread, am I right?"
Me [thinking]: Sort of like the Wilhelm scream...
Adam a moment later: "This has been like an endless stream of Wilhelm screams."
That parallel thought process with Adam was a wonderful and unexpected Christmas gift.
I'll admit that hearing about the Wilhelm Scream in a video about paper stuff caught me by surprise.
Movies are so big part of my life, so seeing props like these is amazing.
I have sometimes wondered too who makes these newspapers that you see..
Thanks Adam!
That is a nifty piece of history to touch!
Happy Holidays Adam !!!
I love printing presses and the mechanical BRILLIANCE of the "linotype" machine.
I started in newspaper layout and production in the early 90s so am delighting in seeing the classic broadsheet sizes.
I learned lead typesetting at the art academy, but with lead letters and copper plates (Pica). After that I understood the software much better!
Thanks for this contribution and happy holidays!
This has been a fascinating series at Earl Hayes
Absolutely fantastic! The most cool things I've seen, like, ever....
As someone who has worked for newspapers for 45+ years as a photojournalist, I enjoyed the look back into the past. Thank you!
Pretty cool! I hope you guys had a great Christmas! 🎄🎅
That's so cool! Thanks for this one especially! You answered an age old question of mine
This stuff is AWESOME
I'd love to know if Earl Hayes did the newspaper for the montage in the 1999 Inspector Gadget movie. There's a hidden message expressing some strong feelings toward the production company! You couldn't have caught it in the theater, but I'm sure somebody giggled at the thought of a home viewer freezing on that one frame!
Excellent series! 🤠👍
I absolutely love the old school method like this.
Yeah… this ol’ local newspaper boy geeked out on what’s happening here… fantastic episode.
@tested - You are aware what took place at 10:40?
The leading (thin plate) that dropped from the headline was stuck to the headline - by what?
The answer is "typesetters' glue". And what is that, you may ask.
Well, it is saliva!
Yes, when the form was composed from elements such as this headline, the line separation was accomplished with these thin plates by placing them in-between individiual lines of text. Now, image a 0.3 mm wide metal plate standing on its 0.3 mm wide edge. It will fall over easily! So what the typsetters did was that they spit on the side of the leader plate and press it against the text line. The saliva will "glue" the leader to the text line long enough that the next line can be added without fear that the header will fall.
And now, at 10:40 when Adam lifted that old headline from the Case, the "typesetters' glue" finally gave up and the leader fell off.
Hope he washed his hands afterwards - and not only because of the lead...
(Note: If I am using some incorrect terminology here, that is due to language barrier. I just did a lot of reading to find out the English equivalents for the Finnish terms I know - e.g. 'välike' (leading), 'formu' (form) etc.)
Learned how to set type some 50 years ago while a senior in high school. I was writing sports for the local weekly as as aand was told to learn the business. Learned how to operate a linotype machine, set the type, set the pages up, etc. Also worked i the pig room, making bars of lead to set type. Melted down the old type and poured into pigs for use on the linotype machines. Very hot work in an non-air conditioned room. It was an art and learned from two employees who had done ifor 50 years and another for 60 plus years.
Wow, something in propmaking I actually know more about than Adam. Adam would be a great enthuser to get a tour of a normal old-style letterpress shop. Or a monotype or linotype typecaster. They do still exist. There are even a few of the production model typecasters from American Type Founders still running under the care of a few mad geniuses.
I'd have suggested you reach out to Tom Scott but alas his video series (I think it's been 10 years) is ending this week. He has gone bopping around the world to different places and showing everybody all sorts of thing we never knew about but were thrilled to learn about. For all I know, he did visit such a shop prior to me subscribing to his channel, so I will have to search it to see what comes up. Good idea, thank you.
Even on old Three Stooges shorts from the 1930s, you can freeze-frame on close-ups of newspapers, and the stories almost seem to come from events of that time. Surely the producers of such films never counted on us being able to zoom in at high resolution to see what was written. But it's fun to try!
This was my grandfather's career after he got out of the Navy. He still had lots of printing materials in his home when he died and I have some lead type that spells out my dad and uncle's names.
I grew up in the printing industry, so this was 🥰🥰🥰
I've used their newspapers in countless stage shows. It's always fun to make up a prop based on the era and needs of the show. We'd reuse them until they were too beat up to work anymore. Actors will ultimately destroy any prop you hand them; some times it takes just seconds!
Just last week I discovered for the nth time just how fast a few actors can destroy the entire set.
@@kensherwin4544 At my theatre, it's slamming doors. Even if the scene doesn't call for it, when they exit, they want all eyes on them. Slam! Until they slam it so hard that it won't open for their next entrance!
Seems like a great business model for Earl Hays. If all the props are destroyed you have to buy new ones!
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 Do you think the actors are getting kickbacks to destroy my props??? I've never thought of that before...
This was especially interesting to me because, I love everything to do with making movies. For that reason, I always freeze frame movie and TV scenes where you can see the newspaper well enough to read the headlines (you can very rarely read the smaller print), just to try to figure out exactly the secrets that were revealed here. Now I know what I've been looking at!
As a side note, you didn't go into the type of paper used. I noticed that in movies and TV shows, when the light is right and the page is held at certain angles, the paper has a slight "shine" to it, meaning a smoother surface, so obviously not news print, but most likely something a little more durable.
yeahhh... Let's go ahead and film some more @ that place.... Thanks
"Hard-pressed (pun intended)," hahaha!
This is very cool!!
Received the Back to the Future newspaper a few days ago from EHP. It's amazing!!!!
This is so cool. As formal newspaper publisher I love this
I was the pressman on a King, 6 unit, 4 color, web press, right out of high school, for 5 years. Not as old as this, but I still love newsprint. Great stuff! 😀
I worked for an Envelope manufacturer here in mi.
We never used that type of press but I used to run machines that were built in 1946. Wonderful experence. I also ren a printer from the late 50s early 60s that used a rubber printing plate
Honestly fascinating ❤
Love it!
Note that this is NOT how newspapers are made anymore. Everything is designed digitally and then laser etched onto aluminum sheets (4 of them, for CMYK), which are wrapped on rollers so they can put an entire roll of newsprint through and then cut it into papers at the end.
a printable PDF link for the papers sections would be fun
Great video sir
Wow!! Cool stuff! I risk to say that those newspapers, used in movies, may contain more true and interesting things, than some of the newspapers we read today...
Earl Hayes should be declared an historic site by California and never let anyone destroy any part of it
So the owners should never be able to retire, rebuild, retool, or sell. Yep, that's the California way.
Cool stuff👍
I do enjoy the wrap up to 27 Dresses where the camera pans from image to image in a newspaper (for the credits). The "stories" were custom (with some lorem fillers), to the story, but replicated so you see the same story (with different layout) again and again. Still, fun and effective.
Ah. 'Lorem fillers'
I'm kinda surprised streaming and just the general simplicity of being able to pause and skip frame by frame through a show or movie hasn't affected these kinds of "looks real but is actually nonsense" props.
As Spock would say, "fascinating". All I can see is Batman/naked gun spinning newspapers. :)
THAT paper!
Just use a regular newspaper. It's essentially fake.
I disagree with the assertion that it couldn't be replicated faster in Photoshop, but it's still really cool that it's all done the old-fashioned way with an actual printing press.
As a media artist & old news paper guy I cherished this video. I just wished I could've seen the behemoth run.
Naked Gun 3 newspaper: "Dyslexia for cure found"
Would love to do this at my studio. Part time film newspapers, part time zine printing. Looks like fun.
My granddad started his career as a typesetter in the early 30's, learning manually, and the newspaper he worked for aquired some variety of hot-type machine when he demobbed in '46. When he retired in the early 80's, he'd been working with computerised typesetting for a while.
Demobbed. Well, there's a word I learned today.
Good video ❤❤
I had a now retired Earl Hayes employee teach me how to make prop license plates. They made 80% of the prop plates used in productions since the late 60’s.
I'm sure there's another component: the paper itself. IIRC, studios now want "silent" paper so the foleys can create the right sounds. Though, this might be done on site.
I think I'm going to watch a Mythbusters Chrimbo special tonight. 👍
Merry Christmas everyone!🎄🎅🦃
In my youth there was the "Omni" magazine shown in plenty of the movies (and shows?) of that time. I assume that was also an Earl Hays invention?
When I first started at a big newspaper 35 years ago they still had a proof reader and a person in the plate room until last paper was delivered to the mailroom. Can remember them holding the presses a hour for important events like the Miss America local late playoff games etc but stopped. They were supposed to perform a stop lift ( stop one press at a time and install new plates with latest news ) but would hold off to save a dollar God forbid in overtime. Had to love when they purchased trailer loads of newsprint at a good price. They received a few 3000# rolls of newsprint ( paper ) from Russia. Was about average quality. Then they received trailer loads of garbage Russian newsprint that was only fit to wrap fish in. Had to run rolls around 70% of normal speed or steel hubs broke or started smoking. All of the vendors hated gannett because they always wanted things for free.
You can see that one page - Ed O’Neill read it twice. Once on Married and again on Modern.
I worked at a lead smelter for 7 years. We a lot of times would get "scrape" lead to melt down. One time we got a couple of steal drums full of printing press letters. One time we got a BIG box of scrap and in it (because we had to go through it to look for aluminum because aluminum and lead don't mix) was a beautiful beer stein that had horse's on it. But it was made of lead and we had to melt it
That's savage