Filmed History

A forum for sharing views on the art of film, video and AV sequence making as well as on competitions, judging and festivals.
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Dave Watterson
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Filmed History

Post by Dave Watterson »

A common part of many a cine club programme was shooting a local newsreel each year, or recording an annual occasion such as a fete, miners' gala or celebration. It seems to be done less these days.

This thought was prompted by a look at the archive footage on this link http://www.ringtonscentenary.co.uk/ which celebrates the Rington's Tea Company in the north of England.

I know Willy has recorded some English traditional events such as the "Olimpick Games" in the Cotswolds but who else has made such valuable recordings of customs and events which will some day become a historical curio?

Dave
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen »

This is a good point Dave and is a real catalyst in local film/video groups to :-

1. attract new members
2. showing how it was done (!)
3. how things have changed in the local environment.

it is unfortunate that a lot of 'groups' do not show as much of the archive film as they should.

There must be tons of stuff out there !

Many of the skills used then are still relavent today...

I'm glad to say that my club (Newcastle ACA) does still hold an annual newsreel...


just a thought

Stephen
Stephen

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Stephen
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Post by Stephen »

Stephen

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It's much more important than that.
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Dave Watterson
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Post by Dave Watterson »

Stephen is too modest to point out that this is a newsreel from 2006 made by his own club. It is a fascinating piece ... watch 13 tons of boat fly!

I did notice that the last minute or so repeats! Shurely shomething wrong shomewhere ...

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Stephen
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Post by Stephen »

yep... sorry... it is in hand and will be sorted very soon !!
Stephen

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Brian Saberton
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Post by Brian Saberton »

Hey Stephen, thanks for sharing this interesting documentary, especially as some of my pals from Newcastle ACA were involved in the production. Will there be a follow up to show how the restoration progresses?
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen »

There is open invitation from the people involved with the restoration project to pop in and film the progress...new footage/updates will be available in the future...

there are many more newsreels available on a myriad of subjects (remember we at Newcastle ACA go back to 1927!)

when they become available I'll let you good folks know!
Stephen

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Willy
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Post by Willy »

Stephen wrote:There is open invitation from the people involved with the restoration project to pop in and film the progress...new footage/updates will be available in the future...

there are many more newsreels available on a myriad of subjects (remember we at Newcastle ACA go back to 1927!)

when they become available I'll let you good folks know!
Congratulations, Stephen, Michael and other Newcastle friends. Very interesting documentary. Such films are very important to attract other people. They can be used in a local film show where also fiction films and other ones are screened. I mean films produced by members of the local filmclub.

Funeral of 5 Australian soldiers
Next Thursday before leaving for Scotland I will film the funeral of 5 Australian soldiers in Passchendaele. Maybe you will see it on TV. Of course not my own shootings. They died in 1917 but were found last year. Amazing that they could be identified thanks to DNA. Now I'm a member of the Volunteer Passchendaele Society. I'm called "huiscineast". My shootings will be used as archive stuff. It's a favour in return for helping me with my new documentary that I could finish last week.

Cold winter months
The Battle of Passchendaele took place exactly 90 years ago. In the course of this year special events took place. Perhaps you also remember the visit of Her Majesty the Queen, but there was also the opening of 6 permanent museums in Passchendaele, a Scottish weekend, an Irish film and music show in Ypres. There will also be an ANZAC (New Zealand/Austrialian) and a Canadian weekend. All this to commemorate the Battle of Passchendaele. These shootings will be used to make a film of about 50 minutes, but there will also be a shorter version for BIAFF and other festivals. Thanks to my hobby I will be able to spend most of my free time on editing this "reportage" during the cold and wet winter months.
Willy Van der Linden
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FILM THURSO
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Post by FILM THURSO »

Filming local events is all part of what we do in Thurso. It's where our people learn how to film on the spot. We have an in-house larf at some other local photographers who fumble about with unbelievable over-equipment whilst we are in like lightning getting the shots and away before you can say treefishsmelloverlydonkeyishbehindthenorthendofmyauntiessabertoothdoormouse!
We've even amazed ourselves at some of what we get. Although we have only done one newsreel, (Picture House Gazetteer gets mentioned again) we've not actually set out to make newsreels. What is to happen to our topical footage is that eventually when we think it's old enough, we'll make an archive feature presentation like "Caithness At The Home Movies". A new move we're making is to put minitops on youtube. These are short topical fims like "Norrona Sets Sail" which are simple films that just show a slice of normal everyday things. The Norrona is a ferry from Norway which calls in at Scrabster on it's way to and from the Faroe islands. Next in line for this treatment will be a wee film showing how our 35mm Kalee 12 cinema projector works.
Souterman
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Post by Souterman »

Hawick Film & Video Group used to make newsreels as well but alas it has come to an end a great pity.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen »

Stephen

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Dave Watterson
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Post by Dave Watterson »

It occurred to me that you might not all remember there is an IAC group on YouTube set up by "Fraught" at

http://www.youtube.com/group/IACOnline

Any of you who wants to add their movies there would be very welcome.

Dave
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