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| Issue 53: Winter 2005 |
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Collywobbling
Dunedin businessman and
filmmaker Fred O’Neill began making
animated films in 1957. Using stop-motion
photography and all manner of modelling
material, O’Neill created imaginary
worlds of myth and fantasy. His
first attempts were simple puppets made
from odd shaped vegetables but Claude
Carrot and Karl Kumara were so popular
that O’Neill was inspired to more
ambitious projects. Within a few years,
he was winning awards, both local and
international, for his animated films,
including the National Centre of Cinematography
Cup at Cannes International Festival
of Amateur Films in 1960 with his film Phantasm.
In 1987, the Film Archive received
the first items that would become known
as the Fred O’Neill collection.
Included in the collection were the
separate components for a thirteen-part,
animated TV series, The Court of
King Collywobble, made by O’Neill
in 1965. There was a title sequence
with separate audio, as well as the
eleven existing 16mm mute prints. The
sound for each was contained on ¼-inch
magnetic tapes that were designed to
be played as the films were screened.
In order to be viewed as the filmmaker
intended, all these parts had to be
brought together, and at the time of
deposit, no technology was suitable
for the task. Recent developments, however,
have made digital reconstruction possible
and Film Archive technical staff were
able to begin putting the series back
together. The process began with conserving
the mute prints, then transferring the
picture and sound to a digital format
and, finally, reconstructing them using
digital tools.
Film Archive conservation staff began
the process of restoration early in
2005. Film conservation involves manually
checking and repairing the film, frame
by frame, over a workbench and can take
many months. Assistant Conservator Louise
McCrone worked on the Collywobble films
and described them as being in good
condition and likely to have been prepared
for a public screening at some stage. “I
worked on The Space Twins,
another Fred O’Neill series, and
those films were much less polished.
They still contained clapperboard shots
and didn’t have credits – unlike The
Court of King Collywobble.” This
meant that the Collywobble films
were good candidates for a newly developed
digital reconstruction process.
The next stage of the reconstruction
process was to transfer the films to
digital video (DV) tape by Bruce Anderson,
the Archive’s Telecine Operator.
Bruce transferred all eleven episodes
and added the separate title sequence
to the start of each one. “The
advantage of DV is that you can lay
sound and picture tracks down separately,
giving you a better chance of synching
the two.” The problem that Bruce
faced in transferring these films was
that the soundtrack and the picture
had to be transferred at different speeds.
The audio was transferred at the correct
speed, but the picture was not. This
comes about because of the difference
between how film and video are perceived
by the naked eye. The Collywobble films
were made to be viewed at 24 frames
per second, but to transfer film to
video without flicker, it must be transferred
at 25 frames per second, meaning that
after transfer the sound and the picture
are out of synch. To overcome this problem,
an even more technical solution is required
and the digital video of the Collywobble series
was passed to Julian Millar, the Archive’s
Digital Services Manager, for processing.
To synch the sound and picture, Julian
first had to upload the digital files
to Final Cut Pro, a professional editing
application. Once loaded into the computer,
Julian chose to leave the picture component
of Collywobble untouched but
manipulate the audio slightly to fit.
While most episodes simply required
that the audio be shifted to start at
the beginning of the picture and end
when the picture stopped, others required
the audio be either slowed or sped up
to fit the picture and still others
required that dead sound be removed
altogether. Julian also added audio
to the title sequence and added those
to the beginning of each episode. When
completed, what had been 24 separate
components were now eleven complete –and
sound-synched – episodes. His
task complete by May, Julian was able
to export the films from Final Cut Pro
back to DV tape and from there to DVD
for the public to view in the medialibrary.
Some 40 years after the films were
made, and as the result of four months
work by Archive staff, Fred O’Neill’s
animated series was ready to be seen
again.
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They Live by Night
July is film festival
time. This year the Film Archive will
be collaborating with the 2005 Telecom
New Zealand International Film Festivals
on two live cinema presentations and
a Nicholas Ray retrospective.
Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship
Potemkin (USSR 1925) has consistently
ranked amongst the greatest films of
all time and has been essential viewing
on film study courses and film society
programmes. This latest reconstruction,
supervised by Enno Patalas, premiered
at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival accompanied
by Edmund Meisel’s original score,
recently rediscovered and restored by
German composer/conductor Helmut Imig.
Imig will conduct the Auckland Philharmonia
in the first performance outside Europe.
The handsome new print from the Bundesfilmarchiv,
Berlin, was restored to its fullest
known length with the assistance of
the British Film Institute.
The same year, 1925, a continent
and a world away in style, American
Harry Hoyt directed The Lost World,
the first film version of “the
dinosaur-inhabited land that time forgot.” Featuring
wonderful early stop-motion animation
by Willis O’Brien and based on
a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, live
accompaniment will be provided by Jan
Preston on piano and Peter Boyd on saxophone
and bass clarinet. The Lost World screens
courtesy of FIAF colleagues, George
Eastman House.
One the greatest of the 1950s directors,
Nicholas Ray’s films were characterised
by a dynamic, visual style and an instinct
for social alienation as drama. In the
popular imagination no film captures
the traits of youthful alienation deeper
than Rebel Without A Cause (USA
1955). Fifty years after James Dean’s
death it is fitting that the film is
the centrepiece of a seven-feature retrospective
of Ray’s work. The other titles
are Ray’s directorial debut, They
Live By Night (USA 1948), On
Dangerous Ground (USA 1951), The
Lusty Men (USA 1952), Bigger Than
Life (USA 1956), Bitter Victory (France/USA
1957) and Party Girl (USA 1958).
Wellington and Auckland audiences
also have the opportunity to catch Elia
Kazan’s searing adaptation of
John Steinbeck's East of Eden (USA
1955) which, with Rebel, helped
define the 50s cinematic anti-hero.
Audiences will have the opportunity
to see another anti-hero, James Stewart,
in Anthony Mann’s The Man
from Laramie (USA 1955), the final
chapter in a series of uncompromising
westerns that brought a new psychological
complexity to the genre.
Battleship Potemkin (Auckland
only), Civic Theatre, Sunday 24 July
The Lost World (Wellington
only), Paramount Theatre, Sunday 24
July
For further information on the films
times pick up a free film festival programme
or visit www.nzff.telecom.co.nz
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The Guv’nor
New Zealand features
screen on Wednesday nights at the New
Zealand Community Trust mediatheatre.
Presented as short seasons and selected
by film industry personalities, the
series aims to screen all of our surviving
features – from rarely seen silent
dramas to popular kiwi classics.
“Most of our features are seldom
seen again after their initial release
and many of them are too good to be
left in the vaults. The Film Archive
wants to make new connections between
our films and to increase overall awareness
of the tenacity of our industry,” says
Feature Project Coordinator, Diane Pivac.
Beginning in early August is a season
selected by Lindsay Shelton of Film
Commission fame. As Marketing Director
for the Commission for over 20 years,
Shelton was responsible for selling
more than 70 features overseas. Shelton
began his tenure at the Commission with
a marketing campaign that branded New
Zealand film and promoted it to the
world. Asked by Philip Matthews in a Listener (June
9, 2001) interview, what does ‘New
Zealand’ say as a brand? Shelton
replied “It’s a rote answer,
but it’s true: it describes a
country with a small population which
regularly produces filmmakers with extraordinary
talent.”
Shelton’s season begins with
pioneer filmmaker Rudall Hayward’s
film Rewi’s Last Stand (1940).
The first of Hayward’s films to
get an international release, the film
was cut to meet strict requirements
imposed by the British quota system
and was released as The Last Stand.
Only the British version is known to
survive. Hayward’s last feature, To
Love A Maori (1972) will also screen
along with the 1973 film Rangi’s
Catch starring a young Temuera
Morrison.
Exclusive to the season is episode
one, ‘The Reverend Traitor’,
from The Governor, the controversial
1970s television drama. Outraged by
the $1.3 million price tag (for all
six episodes) then Prime Minister Robert
Muldoon, instructed Parliament’s
Public Expenditure Committee to set
up a special investigation. The series
went on to win the 1978 Feltex Award
for best drama. The remaining episodes
will ultimately screen at the Archive,
in partnership with the New Zealand
Television Archive.
Shelton will introduce his season
with a talk about his career and soon
to be released book Selling New
Zealand Films. Further information
on the season is available on the Archive’s
Events Calendar
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New Projects
The Film Archive has
successfully negotiated financial backing
for two important new projects.
The Government’s Budget, delivered
on May 17, included support for the
transfer of Robert and Noeline Chapman’s
collection of news and current affairs
television to digital storage. The Chapman
Collection, which was deposited into
the Film Archive by the Chapman family
and Auckland University in 2001, contains
up to 20,000 hours of programmes dating
as far back as 1980.
Around 400 hours of the earliest
programmes have been remastered to Betacam
video with funding from NZ on Air. However,
the sheer size of the collection has
compelled the Archive to adopt new technology
to preserve the balance of it and to
open it up for research and public use.
Thousands of VHS tapes will be converted
to digital video over the next three
years and ultimately made available
through the mediaplex and other public
programmes.
The result will be a mammoth resource,
providing access to a unique record
of public life in New Zealand over more
than 25 years and launching a new era
of digital preservation for the Archive.
The other major new initiative contained
in the Budget was the increasingly urgent
task of locating and preserving the
products of New Zealand’s feature
film renaissance in the 1970s and 1980s.
Almost 100 features were produced
between To Love A Maori in
1972 and An Angel at My Table in
1990. While the Film Archive holds material
from most of them, many vital elements,
including master negatives, are either
lost or scattered. The project aims
to track down and collect as many of
these items as possible and ensure that
they are in the best possible condition.
The second stage involves the selection
of a small number of titles for restoration
and possible re-release in the cinema
and on DVD.
The Archive anticipates working closely
with filmmakers and the New Zealand
Film Commission to complete the project
which will bring many classic New Zealand
features back from the brink. It will
also provide an opportunity for more
of our film heritage to be available
on general release again through DVD
distributors.
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The Early Years
The Film Archive will
celebrate its 25th anniversary next
year. A founding board member, and past
president of both the Wellington Film
Society and the Friends of the Film
Archive, Ron Ritchie has been involved
with the Archive since its establishment
in 1981. Diane Pivac spoke to Ron about
the early years of the Archive.
Discussions for an Archive started
as early as 1901. Why do you think it
took so long?
Largely because there was no one knowledgeable
enough or enthusiastic enough to preserve
our film heritage – the size of
which was unknown. Very few people realised
that the nitrate stock on which all
film was recorded was deteriorating
and shortly would be lost forever.
When the time came the idea was that
the Archive should be governed by a
board of representatives from interested
parties: NFU (National Film Unit), Education
Department (their inspired film library),
National Archives, the Department of
Internal Affairs, filmmakers’ organisations,
as well as the film-going public.
How did you get involved?
I was asked to attend a meeting – the
inaugural one as it happened – with
David Fowler (Film Commission) and John
O’Shea (representative for the
Minister for the Arts), Judith Hornabrook
(Chief Archivist), Doug Eckhoff (NFU),
Frank Mahoney (Education Dept) and Ken
White (Broadcasting Corp). We became
the original trustees. I was invited
to the meeting to represent the film-going
public as evidenced by the Federation
of Film Societies. Because I was an
accountant I was appointed Treasurer.
Was it a hard task to establish
an Archive, what were the major obstacles,
who did you have to convince?
Finding an operation base, securing
funding and establishing rules for the
operation of an archive. The first thing
we did was to lease a small room in
the Film Federation offices, then to
appoint the first director, Jonathan
Dennis. We had to convince the Government,
the film industry and potential financial
backers that establishing the Archive
was worthwhile.
How long were you the Federation
representative on the Board?
From the beginning, March 1981, until
it was decided to depart from the representative
arrangement and appoint members on merit
or usefulness to the Archive operation.
[In 1999 the Archive adopted a new constitution
and established a larger group, the
Convocation of Trustees, who elect a
working Board of six members].
The Archive has undergone a number
of changes over the years. What do you
see as some of the biggest?
Moulding a group of enthusiasts into
a vibrant team of staff and coping with
growth (the John Chambers building was
expected to accommodate the collections
for 10 years but it proved too small
in half that time). Overcoming the early
uncertainties of finance and accommodation
and establishing our relationship with
other heritage institutions. Gaining
major sponsorship from the Bank of New
Zealand for the Last Film Search project.
The adoption of the unique “Collect,
Protect and Project” model (1994)
that integrated the Archive’s
operations.
Over 25 years the Archive has
hosted numerous film screenings, exhibitions
and seasons, both internationally and
here in NZ. What are the stand out events
for you?
There are many but particular highlights
include: hosting the 2001 Film and History
Association of Australia and New Zealand
Conference; the 1993 silent film programme Aotearoa
and the Sentimental Strine, at
Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto festival
in Pordenone, Italy; attending the Cork
Film Festival where a NFU film Water by
Ron Bowie won the documentary section
(the prize was a silver statue of St
Finbar, the patron saint of Cork); the
raising of the tapu on the John Chambers
building at 6am one winter morning in
1992 before work began on the new Film
Centre.
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New Video Access Site
In March the Film Archive
opened a Video Access site at Te Whare
Pukapuka, Te Wananga o Raukawa.
The Archive and the Wananga have
had a close relationship for many years,
the Archive having organised screenings
for students, tutors and the wider Otaki
community. This relationship grew when
the Wänanga expressed interest
in preserving their video collection
at the Archive.
The collection, mainly on VHS, includes
footage of past graduations, hui rumaki
(total immersion hui), interviews and
classes from the early years of the
Wänanga. The Archive agreed to
preserve and store the collection and
to make research copies for the Wänanga
library. This in turn led to a conversation
about how best to share information
and developed into a proposal for a
video access site at the whare pukapuka.
As with all the Archive’s video
access sites, content for the Wananga
was selected to reflect the local area
as well as general New Zealand film
and history topics. Staff and students
at the Wananga represent many tribal
areas and Wänanga staff assisted
Video Access Developer, Diane McAllen,
with the selection, resulting in a collection
that is a fantastic and varied study
resource.
The opening of a new site always
involves commitment from both institutions.
As the Archive duplicated hundreds of
hours of video the Wananga refitted
an area of the whare pukapuka to house
the collection. Work continued up until
the last minute!
On March 17, the Video Access site
was officially opened. After a brief
mihi to Archive staff a screening was
held for students, tutors and whanau.
It was a very relaxed atmosphere and
the screening of Otaki taonga was well
received. The new site assures that
the Archive’s relationship with
the Wänanga is strong and continuous.
It also gives the wider Otaki community
access to its moving image heritage.
In December 2004 the Video Access
site, formerly at the Waikato Museum
of Art and History, reopened in the
Archives Reading Room at the Central
Library, Hamilton. The Archive now has
eight sites around the country, from
Whangarei to Dunedin.
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Final Credits
Diane Oliver-Zhal (1949-2005)
Di Oliver-Zhal was a Wellington-based
producer who had worked on projects
as varied as Bread and Roses, Tu
Tangata: Weaving for the People and Eau
de la Vie (Official Selection at
Cannes). Graduating from the Christchurch
Film School in 1992, Di enjoyed much
success in her relatively short film
career and had recently graduated from
Victoria University with a Masters of
Communications. Inspiring many people
with her energy and optimism, Di consistently
supported the work of the Archive, consulting
on the development of the education
programme and depositing material into
the collection.
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News Clips
International
Conferences
Jamie Lean (Collection Development)
attended the 9th annual conference of
SEAPAVAA in Brunei in May, where he
was elected Secretary-General. In June
Huia Kopua (Kaiwhakahaere) presented
a paper and screening at the 61st FIAF
annual conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia,
on the theme of Ethnographic Film and
Documentary Practice.
Comings and goings
The Archive
farewells Lissa Mitchell (Documentation),
Richard Lomas (Projectionist) and Yorick
Brown (Front of House). And welcomes
Rebecca Adams (Publicist), Jakki Newton
(Education Programmes), Phil Greig (Projectionist)
and Tanya Fretz (Front of House).
Study trip
Louise Lawrence,
student from the University of East
Anglia MA programme in Film Archiving,
spent her 4-week placement with the
Film Archive in May.
Wairoa Maori Film Festival
The Archive provided support
to the inaugural festival supplying
a large number of films, including Broken
Barrier (1952) for the gala launch.
Ramai Hayward was presented with a Lifetime
Achievement Award for her contribution
to film and the Archive curated a retrospective
of her work.
Metropolis
Michael Organ,
Archivist at University of Wollongong
recently examined the Archive’s
nitrate print of Metropolis concluding
that it is an original, first generation
positive dating from the initial 1928
Australasian release. The print is significant
in that, like an identical print in
Australia, it contains elements not
found in other surviving prints or negatives.
RW Paul
The Archive has contributed
three films, not surviving elsewhere, Cupid
at the Washtub (1897), A Camp
Smithy (1899) and a ‘missing’ fragment
of The Magic Sword: A Medieval Odyssey (1900),
to the British Film Institute’s
DVD release of the surviving films of
British pioneer filmmaker RW Paul. Words and Pictures
Dr Chris
Pugsley presented ‘Diggers Day’,
a screening of World War One films from
the Archive’s collection, during
a lecture tour for the 90th Anniversary
of the Gallipoli landings. Pugsley has
been nominated for a 2005 Montana Medal
for his book The Anzac Experience and
is currently finishing a book on New
Zealand official films in World War
One.
Congratulations
Alun Bollinger
was made a Member of the New Zealand
Order of Merit for services to cinematography
in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
list.
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