Editing John Grierson (section)

=== General Post Office ===
Grierson's boss at the EMB moved to the [[General Post Office]] (GPO) as its first public relations officer, with the stipulation that he could bring the EMB film unit with him. Grierson's crew were charged with demonstrating how the Post Office facilitated modern communication and brought the nation together, a task aimed as much at GPO workers as the general public.  During Grierson's administration, the [[GPO Film Unit]] produced a series of groundbreaking films, including ''[[Night Mail]]'' (dir. [[Basil Wright]] and [[Harry Watt (director)|Harry Watt]], 1936) and ''[[Coal Face]]'' (dir. [[Alberto Cavalcanti]], 1935). In 1934 he produced at the GPO Film Unit the award-winning ''[[The Song of Ceylon]]'' (dir. [[Basil Wright]]) which was sponsored jointly by the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Bureau and the EMB.

In 1934, Grierson sailed on the ''Isabella Greig'' out of [[Granton, Edinburgh|Granton]] to film ''[[Granton Trawler]]'' on Viking Bank which is between [[Shetland]] and the Norwegian coast.<ref name=":0" /> The footage from his voyage was handed over to [[Edgar Anstey]], who pulled footage of when the camera had fallen over on the deck of the boat to create a storm scene.<ref name=":0" /> ''Granton Trawler'' was a favourite film of Grierson's, he saw it as a homage to the ''Isabella Greig'' that was sunk in 1941 by German bombs when it went out to fish and was never seen again.<ref name=":0" /> ''[[The Private Life of the Gannets|The Private Life of Gannets]]'' was also filmed on the ''Isabella Greig;'' the film was shot on [[Grassholm]] with Grierson shooting the slow-motion sequence of the gannets diving for fish which took only one afternoon to shoot near [[Bass Rock]] in the Firth of Forth.<ref name=":0" /> The Private Life of Gannets went on to pick up an Academy Award in 1937.<ref name=":0" />

Grierson eventually grew restless with having to work within the bureaucratic and budgetary confines of government sponsorship. Grierson resigned from the G.P.O. on 30 June 1937, which gave him more time to pursue his passions and the freedom to speak his mind on issues around the world.<ref name=":0" /> In response, he sought out private industry sponsorship for film production. He was finally successful in getting the British gas industry to underwrite an annual film program.  Perhaps the most significant works produced during this time were ''Housing Problems'' (dir. [[Sir Arthur Elton, 10th Baronet|Arthur Elton]], [[Edgar Anstey]], [[John Taylor (documentary filmmaker)|John Taylor]], and Grierson's sister [[Ruby Grierson]], 1935).
[[File:John Grierson (left), Chairman of the Wartime Information Board, meeting with Ralph Foster, Head of Graphics, National Film Board of Canada, to examine a series of posters produced by the National Film Board of Canada.jpg|thumb|John Grierson (left), Chairman of the Wartime Information Board, meeting with Ralph Foster, Head of Graphics, National Film Board of Canada, to examine a series of posters produced by the National Film Board of Canada|alt=Two men looking at a film poster on a desk against a background of movie posters]]