Lost Films of WWII

IAC General Discussions
Post Reply
tom hardwick
Posts: 914
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:59 am

Lost Films of WWII

Post by tom hardwick »

I just happend to channel-hop onto BBC 4 last night (Monday) where they were showing really wonderful home movies shot in WW2, some of which are really amazing quality. Most seem to be Std-8 but I suppose some are 16 mm, and some are colour. Lost Films of WWll they call it, but they're not lost any more.

Of course the fact that they're 'real life' rather than German propaganda films makes them especially interesting, and the research in finding them and weaving them into history is beautifully done. How can the TV licence of 43p/day (or whatever it is) pay for stuff like this?

Anyway, as a lot of us are film transfer nuts the programme holds further fascination in that the films have been transferred in their entirety. In other words you see the image that often extends into the perforation and sound track area, and you see the gate's frame line all around the picture.

Seeing all this - the dirty gates an'-all - shows when film transfer post processing image stabilisation has been used. The images remain steady as the frame bounces around its perimeter.

Lots of the footage holds up remarkably well on a 65'' TV, and the sharpness, cleanliness and sometimes the lack of grain are exemplary. Know what? I was pleased that there was no arty differential focus and bokeh nonsense in the footage, as everything within the 80 year old frame now has significance.

It's not on iPlayer at the moment I see.
User avatar
Dave Watterson
Posts: 1872
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:11 pm
Location: Bath, England
Contact:

Re: Lost Films of WWII

Post by Dave Watterson »

You can buy the films - at least I think they are the ones - on Amazon on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Post Reply