The Production of a Map

Worlds within worlds: a maps and globes factory, expertly charted on celluloid

Worlds within worlds: this WWI-era visit to a leading globes and maps manufacturer is informative and entrancing. Specialising in non-fiction 'interest films', production company Kineto had an especially well-honed mastery of industrial process films. A 20th century upgrade of the traditional onsite factory tour, it was a formula that could be applied to almost any industry: a lucrative trade, as increasingly many firms could see the publicity value of film.

This film, shot at and presumably sponsored by mapmakers George Philip & Co, is a nigh-perfect example: filmmaking that's economical and engrossing, meticulous and mesmerising. Step-by-step, workroom-by-workroom, the doors open on a world that looks fresh and current through the eyes of 1917, extinct and archaic through ours. You'll never look at Google Maps the same way again.