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| Issue 51: July 2003 |
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A National Resource
In April 2002 the public areas of the Film Centre on Wellington’s waterfront
were officially declared closed – the first outward sign of a period of
dramatic change for the Film Archive which is still not over.
When it was first opened to the public around six years earlier, the Film Centre
represented the fulfilment of a long-sought goal for the Archive, the third
part of its mission to collect, protect and project our film and television
heritage. By the time it closed it was hosting around 50,000 visitors a year.
Even more significantly, though, it had become the hub for a whole network of
public programmes which extended throughout the country.
Since 1996 the Archive has launched a national network of video access sites
which now extends to eight cities and is used by over 40,000 people a year.
Its school screenings are attended by around 10,000. The Auckland office’s
innovative street presentations stopped over 100,000 passers-by in their tracks
last year.
The Bank of New Zealand Reeltime project, launched in 2000, has opened the Archive’s
collections up to an even wider audience: the Travelling Film Show has presented
screenings to over 33,000 people in communities throughout the country; www.filmarchive.org.nz
has grown remarkably since its debut in December 2001 with visitors checking
in at the rate of 130,000 per year; and the new On Tape programme, launched
in April, has uncovered huge demand, equating to over 100,000 student viewings
each school year.
The circle will be complete again in 2004 when the new public facilities in
Te Anakura Whitiēhua are opened.
Detailed plans for a cinema, library, exhibition space, research facility and
video cafe will be announced in late July. Together with the other access programmes
these spaces will make the Film Archive a national resource for all New Zealanders.
— Frank Stark, CEO
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Media Rich
In December 2001 www.filmarchive.org.nz was launched as part of the Reeltime
Project, a partnership with Bank of New Zealand. A radical departure from the
Archive’s previous website, the new site contains video clips and essays
on New Zealand film as well as downloadable documents and information about
the Archive’s work and projects.
With the launch of the online catalogue in July 2002, the website expanded again.
The catalogue includes information from 6 separate databases, totals more than
40,000 records and took Archive staff more than a year to prepare for the web.
The catalogue, like the website proper, is designed to be rich in media and
is populated with video clips and still images.
Since then, the website has become a huge success, winning approval from the
public and industry alike. In October 2002, it received a highly
coveted TUANZ Interactive Award, putting it among the best websites
in the country. That same month, the internet magazine iMag
placed the Archive’s website alongside those of the Museum
of Modern Art and the Sundance Institute as examples of how information
on the web should be presented: "interesting, easy-to-find
information and great visuals".
Behind the scenes, managing the website is a highly technical task. Although
the website appears as a single site, it actually exists in two places: the
HTML pages and the video sit on a web server in Auckland, while the online catalogue
data sits on a Filemaker Pro server in Christchurch. Thanks to the seamless
construction of the site, however, visitors clicking from page to page are not
aware that they are moving from one part of the New Zealand to the other.
Digitising video is the most demanding aspect of web production and can take
several weeks from inception to completion. First, the selected extract is transferred
from its original format to digital video tape. The digital video is then saved
to a computer via a DV deck and a high rate data cable, then edited, compressed,
saved as a Quicktime file and uploaded to the Archive server.
Compression is crucial for web video as the process removes excess data from
files, making them smaller and quicker to view. A minute of compressed video
is only about 2.5 megabytes in size but uncompressed, the same video could be
as much as 212 megabytes – 80 times larger! On a regular 56k modem, a file
this size would take 9 hours to reach the computer.
The compression process can take some unusual turns, however. The first film
prepared for the Archive’s website was The Departure of
the Second Contingent for the Boer War (1900). Despite every
attempt, the 30-second film would not compress to a size suitable
for the web. It was finally discovered that the problem stemmed
from when the film was transferred to digital video. The film had
been preserved by the Archive and printed at 18 frames per second
(fps), but video requires a frame rate of 25 fps. Therefore, in
the process of transferring the film to video, occasional frames
– made from half of the preceeding frame and half of the following
frame – are interpolated. When watched on video, this gives
the impression that the film is a stable 25 fps. Unknown to the
web project team, however, the created video frames were being registered
by the computer as additional information and were inflating the
file size by megabytes. The solution was to reprint the film by
stretch printing, which duplicates occasional frames to lengthen
the film, allowing its projection and transfer speed to be increased.
Re-transferred to video, the film compressed to a suitable 1 megabyte
and was finished in time for the website launch.
Digital technology has become an important part of how the public access the
Archive. Information Services staff, especially, have noticed the difference
the website and the online catalogue have made to the nature of enquiries they
handle. According to Registrar Virginia Callanan, "many visitors to the
Archive have already found a lot of the information they need before they contact
us. Information on depositing, how to contact staff members, what’s on
around the country and much more. The online catalogue in particular has been
incredibly successful — I think the public appreciate having access to
it at any time, from anywhere. The catalogue is also supported by full staff
assistance and should a web visitor want more information on a particular film,
we’re only a click away. "
"One of the most powerful things about digital access is how much control
a visitor can have over what they see and learn", says Miranda Kaye, the
Web Coordinator. "All the information is laid out in front of them, and
they can choose their own path through it."
With the lessons of the website in mind, a new kind of public access is being
developed for the Archive’s Mediaplex. Digital delivery will draw on the
strengths of the website and the online catalogue, but with added features and
an even richer media experience.
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Trail Blazing
Rudall Hayward’s The Te Kooti Trail (1927) screened
in May at Whakatane and Tauranga as part of the Travelling Film
Show.
On its release the film caused a sensation as New Zealand’s first home-grown
censorship controversy. The censor, WA Tanner, requested that two intertitles
be changed before he would pass the film for general exhibition. The subsequent
storm of publicity surrounding the film ensured it played to full houses. Since
then the film has remained in relative obscurity.
The Te Kooti Trail was part of the National Film Library collection
transferred to the Archive in 1984. At that time decomposing sections
of the original nitrate were removed and transferred to safety film.
Subsequent preservation work was carried out as need and finance
dictated and, with support from UNESCO, the preservation process
was completed in 1994. In 2000 the Film Archive won the Haghefilm
Award which enabled the full restoration of The Te Kooti Trail to
its original tinted glory.
As part of the Haghefilm Award, the premiere of the restored print was held
at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Italy in 2001. Since then local screenings
have reawakened New Zealand interest in the film.
After a year of consultation with Wellington, Whakatane and Te Teko based kaumatua,
and executive members of Te Haahi Ringatu, a screening for whanau of the characters
portrayed, cast and crew, was organised for Wairaka Marae on Sunday 30 March
2003.
Two days prior to leaving Wellington the Archive received news that a tangi
was being held on Wairaka Marae. Within a few short, if not tense, hours the
screening was transferred to Te Hokowhitu-a-Tu Marae. However, news of the new
venue spread quickly and people began arriving two hours before the scheduled
start. Ngati Awa representative, John Simpson, and Ringatu minister, Te Taute
Eparaima, accompanied Archive staff at the screening.
The Archive was especially delighted by the presence of Tihei Algie, Te Kooti’s
90-year-old grand-daughter and matriarch of her whanau who had made the 240km
trip from Manutuke. As soon as the first frame appeared on the screen, Te Kooti’s
mokopuna said "I’ve already seen this!"
The screening was a huge success and appreciated by whanau who had travelled
from as far afield as Auckland, Wellington and Gisborne. Over 130 people packed
into the wharenui and greeted the film enthusiastically with laughter and applause.
Following the success of the whanau screening planning began for Travelling
Film Show screenings of The Te Kooti Trail in Whakatane
and Tauranga.
Capacity audiences filled two screenings held at the Whakatane Memorial Hall
on 28 May. From Whakatane the Travelling Film Show moved to Tauranga
for another well attended screening at the Tauranga Baycourt Arts
Centre. Pianist Tama Karena who first accompanied The Te Kooti
Trail in Italy has played at all subsequent New Zealand screenings.
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Going South
In June the Travelling Film Show visited Christchurch for a special
live cinema presentation of South (UK 1919). Australian
filmmaker Frank Hurley’s record of Shackleton’s 1914 expedition
to cross the Antarctic is testimony to a remarkable episode in the
history of human endurance.
Fully restored by the National Film & TV Archive, London,
South screened courtesy of ScreenSound Australia. Pianist
Margaret Ogilvie accompanied the film.
Since 1999 Bank of New Zealand Travelling Film Show has travelled
over 35,000 miles to screen 211 programmes to more than 33,000 people.
The Travelling Film Show wraps up 2003 in the Otago/Southland
region and Stewart Island from August 13-21. Check local newspapers,
or the Archive’s website, www.filmarchive.org.nz for screening
times and venues.
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At the Film Festival
The annual New Zealand Film Festival circuit kicks off on 11 July
in Auckland. Once again festival organisers have brought together
a rich selection of archival and retrospective programmes.
Pride of place in Auckland goes to the live cinema presentation
of The Phantom of the Opera (US 1925), directed by expatriate
New Zealander, Auckland-born Rupert Julian and starring the incomparable
Lon Chaney. There have been many subsequent versions of Gaston Leroux’s
novel, but none have surpassed this 1920s classic. The Festival
presents Phantom in this definitive restoration that includes
the full-colour "Masque of the Red Death" sequence that
had Jazz Age audiences gasping in their seats. The Auckland Philharmonia
will accompany the film performing Carl Davis’ thrilling orchestral
score.
Wellington joins Auckland for a Lon Chaney silent double-feature,
Tod (Freaks) Browning’s The Unknown (US 1927)
and Victor Sjostrom’s He Who Gets Slapped (US 1924).
Long-time festival collaborator, Tama Karena, provides piano accompaniment
in both centres.
Kevin Brownlow’s comprehensive study, Lon Chaney: A Thousand
Faces (UK 2000) and Rick Schmidlin’s 2002 reconstruction,
from still photographs, of Tod Browning’s lost 1927 collaboration
with Chaney, London After Midnight, also screen.
Following much negotiation Auckland and Wellington audiences will
at last be able to experience the unique world of the great French
cinema comedian, Jacques Tati. Starting with his first feature Jour
de Fête (France 1948) this year’s major festival
retrospective also brings together the trilogy, Mr Hulot’s
Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958) and Tati’s hallucinatory
jewel of comic abstraction, Playtime (1967), all featuring
Tati’s alter-ego Mr Hulot. A programme of Tati shorts rounds
out the retrospective.
Fritz Lang’s masterpiece, Metropolis (Germany 1926)
makes a welcome return in its latest incarnation. The work of a
consortium of German archives, it runs a full two hours and uses
every scrap of available footage, and from the best possible sources.
Digitally restored, cleaned up and given an imposing orchestral
soundtrack, the newest Metropolis may still be shy of the original’s
running time, but it is the longest, fullest version that anyone
has seen since its Berlin premiere 75 years ago. Best of all, Metropolis
screens at all four major festival locations.
Audiences also get the opportunity to see almost everyone’s
nominee for the best movie musical of all time, Singing in the
Rain (US 1952). And in a better print than almost anyone has
ever seen, digitally re-mastered from the three-strip Technicolor
in Warner Brothers’ new Ultra-Resolution process.
The Festival also offers up Nicolas Ray’s In A Lonely
Place (US 1950) in a near-perfect restoration from Columbia
archivist Grover Crisp; the first big-screen outing for Melvin van
Peebles inflammatory Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
(US 1971) and DA Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop (US 1968)
the model for all subsequent rock concert films, and still one of
the best.
For full details, including session times and booking information,
refer to the relevant Film Festival brochures or visit www.nzff.co.nz
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Teaching On Tape
The Film Archive Bank of New Zealand Reeltime Project aims to put
New Zealand’s film heritage "on screen, on tape and on
line" through three major programmes: the Travelling Film Show,
the Archive website and On Tape, a national video library for schools.
On Tape was launched nationally in April this year. Diane Pivac
talks to Education Coordinator, Alex Burton, about the new project.
Tell us about the Archive’s education programmes
When the Archive opened the Film Centre in 1995 programmes coordinator
Barbara Blake recognised the potential of linking films into curriculum
topic sequences for school screenings.
In 1997 we successfully bid for a share of the Ministry of Education’s
Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom contestable fund. Since
then we have curated 75 programmes from across the curriculum and
over 60,000 kids, primarily from the Wellington region, have enjoyed
our screenings.
Film has been used in education before hasn’t it?
In New Zealand, film has always been the poor cousin compared to
other source material. Of course, the National Film Library used
to supply 16mm film to schools, but there was little analysis of
how film could be effectively used. Generally, New Zealand film
wasn’t considered seriously as an educational resource.
A typical "film day" at a primary school in the 60s
or 70s might have included a nature film from Britain on the life-cycle
of a frog, a Disney animation, and an American film on teenage body-odour...
that kind of thing.
So how did you get from screening programmes to a national
video library for classrooms?
Initially, like the Film Library, we had to use complete films.
Technological change has meant that we can now use edited sequences
on video. Apart from being easier to handle, it also means better
topic precision and the ability to pause, question and replay means
better teaching potential.
There was always a nagging guilt – our success was numerically
gratifying but geographically constrained. The obvious answer was
to get our Wellington-based programmes on tape and create a video
library for all New Zealand secondary schools.
With the Bank of New Zealand Reeltime project we were able to
realise this plan. We began with a pilot scheme in the Hawkes Bay
which commenced in Term Two, 2002.
Logistically this was no easy matter. Design work, an exhaustive
depositor, copyright and kaitiaki clearance schedule, programme
creation and refinement had to be completed. We started with 20
programme options and a catalogue.
Hawkes Bay teachers responded enthusiastically and in six months
the pilot realised over 50 programme orders with a viewing audience
of 2,000.
The pilot scheme was really useful, especially the feedback we
received from teachers. Programmes were revisited in terms of content,
back-up material and the number of copies each would require. We
expanded the curriculum areas to include Music and Art and increased
the number of programmes on offer from the original 20 to the present
44.
How is On Tape going?
Phenomenally. We launched the programme at Wellington College on
9 April and opened for business at the beginning of the second term.
We expected there might be some serious interest by week two or
three; we didn’t anticipate the avalanche we were met with
on day one.
In the first four weeks we received 256 programme orders –
that’s an audience of more than 10,000. In the first month
On Tape exceeded the total Wellington-based viewing numbers for
all of 2002!
The demand for programmes continues to increase. The response definitely
confirms the need.
And the response from teachers?
The feedback has been excellent – and it’s necessary for
future programming. The positive responses from teachers in area
schools, so long isolated from resources available in the main centres,
has been a huge buzz.
Rod Dowling, the Head of English at Lindisfarne College, Hastings,
sent us a typical response: "Kids start to learn from where
they are at – and New Zealand is where they are at. These programmes
are instantly relevant. It is marvellous to see that someone has
had the initiative to do this. We are growing, slowly, as a nation
to identify who we are and New Zealand film is the ideal medium.
Well done Film Archive and well done Bank of New Zealand."
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Auckland Update
any second now...
any second now, an exhibition of intermedia/timebased art
curated by artist Nicholas Spratt is on at the Auckland office until
6 August. The exhibition of works by students from Elam School of
Fine Art, University of Auckland is the third to be hosted by the
Archive.
A mixed media show, any second now features an eclectic
mix of people with mixed ideas and mixed feelings: masked men, kitsch
pop music, suburban architecture and more is represented through
moving image, sound, computer, performance and installation. Spratt
presents his selections on a series of videos and CDs leaving the
viewer to choose what they will watch.
any second now features work by Wanda Gillespie, Tyler
Fox, Briar March, P.Westbourne, Terese Storey, Fuyuko Akiyoshi,
Kylie Duncan, Michelle Menzies, Sahie Sylvia Zang, Chris Cudby,
The Gladeyes, Clinton Watkins, George Chang, Dianna Brinsden and
Monica De Alwis.
Time In Motion: The Pictures On Sunday
Time In Motion, a screening project in collaboration with
the Auckland Museum, has continued into a third year. Six programmes
were curated for the series, two have already screened, the remaining
four are:
That’s Entertainment: nightlife in Auckland, from
the Easter Show to ballroom dancing, the mighty Civic and Dame Kiri
Te Kanawa - Sunday 29 June, 3 pm, Manaia Room, Auckland Museum.
When We Were Young: childhood and schooling over the decades
- Sunday 27 July, 3 pm, Manaia Room, Auckland Museum.
Travelling Through Time: planes, trains and automobiles...
caravans, ships, motorbikes, jet boats … the transport that
has kept the nation moving - Sunday 31 August, 3 pm, Manaia Room,
Auckland Museum.
Happy Holidays! the great Kiwi escape, from snow to sand,
and sea to bush - Sunday 28 September, 3 pm, Manaia Room, Auckland
Museum.
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Vaccess Success
The Film Archive’s Vaccess network is expanding with a new
site at the Central Library, Whangarei.
Vaccess (video access) is a free research facility designed to
make the Archive’s collections accessible to the widest possible
audience. Launched at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 1996, the
popularity of Vaccess has seen it grow to sites nation-wide. Accessible
during the opening hours of the host institution, each site includes
a public access database (PAD), viewing facilities and up to 300
videos.
Videos selected for each site focus on local and historical interests
and include many titles made popular by the Travelling Film Show.
A range of general-interest films is also included and the selection
is regularly updated. Where possible, interloans can be arranged.
Coordinator, Diane McAllen, describes Vaccess as an ideal place
to research the Film Archive’s holdings. "With Vaccess
and the interloan system, almost any film can be made available
to people outside Wellington," says McAllen.
Links to host sites are on our website.
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Irihapeti Ramsden (1946-2003)
Irihapeti’s support for the Film Archive dates back to its
earliest days, particularly in the development of its bicultural
policies and practices. Appointed to the Board of Trustees in March
1995 and later to the Convocation, Irihapeti tirelessly gave of
her time and energy to encourage and support Film Archive staff
in their work.
No reira e te whaea Irihapeti haere. Kua mutu ou mahi rangatira
i waenganui i a matou te waihotanga iho. Ko koe i tetahi o nga kaitohutohu,
o nga tauira mo te hunga Maori me nga kaimahi katoa o Nga Kaitiaki
o Nga Taonga Whitiahua.
Haere ra e te tamahine o Ngai Tahu me Rangitane ki tua o te arai,
ki te kainga tuturu mo matou mo te tangata. Haere, haere, haere
atu ra kua wheturangitia. Kapiti hono tatai hono ko te hunga mate
ki a ratou, ko tatou te hunga ora ki a tatou.
Ko nga tatai whetu ki te rangi, mau tonu mau tonu. Ko nga tatai
tangata ki te whenua, ngaro noa ngaro noa.
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News Clips
International Relations
Mark Williams (Project Developer) recently spent a week in San Francisco
meeting film and video-makers and curators to discuss programming
opportunities for the Mediaplex. Highlights included visits to Pacific
Film Archive, SF Cinematheque and meeting Craig Baldwin, the man
behind Spectres of the Spectrum.
Katharine Cruikshank from the Film Archiving masters course at the University
of East Anglia chose New Zealand for her 4-week work placement. Katharine worked
with staff in Conservation, Acquisitions and Education programmes, fitting in
a trip to the Film Buffs AGM in Foxton.
Life Member
Pat Downey, founding member and immediate past president of the Friends of the
Film Archive, was presented with a life membership at their AGM on 25 June.
Retrospective
In June, acclaimed filmmaker Merata Mita was invited to present
a retrospective of her works at Terres en Vues/Land InSights First
Nations Festival in Montreal. Screening in association with the
Cinémathèque Québécoise, the Film Archive
supplied prints of Bastion Point-Day 507 (1980), Patu!
(1983) and Mana Waka (1990).
Sacile screening
GWR Presents, directed & edited by Leonie Reynolds,
is a nostalgic portrait of amateur filmmaker, Tom Gibb, who made
a number of 8mm films with his friends in Onehunga during the late
1930s, several of which are in the Archive’s collection. GWR
Presents has been selected to screen at Le Giornate del Muto
Cinema, Sacile, Italy this year.
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