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The Home Movie Road Show


DaveH

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Some of you may be watching this show tonight.

After the "Norfolk School Film" made by Man Smith in 1972 which was shown in Sheffield 2 years ago (there is a topic by Karen Marsh on here somewhere from late 2008) I got talking to the TV tech guys about digitising some 8mm films of my own.

After another topic on here about how to do this I did it the simple way by refilming it off the screen in Easter 2009.

Several of my 8mm films starred my younger brother who I gave copies of the digitised films to.

He put some of them on YouTube.

Earlier this year he was approached by the makers of this series who were interested in showing some of it after seeing them on You Tube.

Cutting a long story short, a clip of one of our films, "Dr. Dave & Mr. Big", made in 1976, should be in tonights episode, and the FULL version of the film (all 5 minutes of it) should be shown in an uncut version after Newsnight on Friday 13 August (unfortunately while I am on holiday out of the country).

The film is basically my brother messing about with 2 of his mates for 3 minutes.

It was filmed at my grandads on the Herdings.

It is black and white with sound.

Interestingly we shot the film, developed it, edited it, added a magnetic sound stripe and put sound on all by ourselves. Quite an achievement at the time to do with conventional film.

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Forgot to mention,

Just like in the series "You've Been Framed"

We should be on for a £250 hand out between us.

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Cutting a long story short, a clip of one of our films, "Dr. Dave & Mr. Big", made in 1976, should be in tonights episode, and the FULL version of the film (all 5 minutes of it) should be shown in an uncut version after Newsnight on Friday 13 August (unfortunately while I am on holiday out of the country).

Trust the BBC to give us the wrong broadcast information, especially as I was off on holiday and had to set the recorder to get a copy of the show.

There was no clip in the Friday 6 August show.

The uncut version was NOT broadcast on Friday 13 August after Newsnight but WAS broadcast, without us knowing in advance at 12:20 in the early hours of the morning on Thursday 12 August, much to the annoyance of my mum who stayed up all night to see it.

Fortunately I was able to see it myself when I got back from holiday on Virgin Media's watch again facility and on BBC iPlayer.

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It is black and white with sound.

Interestingly we shot the film, developed it, edited it, added a magnetic sound stripe and put sound on all by ourselves. Quite an achievement at the time to do with conventional film.

Trust the BBC to wind me up.

1)

They had removed my original sound track and replaced it with their own.

I suppose this is fair enough for 3 reasons

Firstly, I had used the Tornado's recording of "Robot" as the musical soundtrack, produced by Joe Meek in 1963. This music will still be in copyright (but the BBC can deal with that)

Secondly, the actual dialogue, by me, my brother and his mates, was in the broadest Sheffield dialect and accent it may not have been understood by a national audience.

Finally, due to the way we had to record the sound, it was "noisy". It was dubbed onto the film while we were watching it to overcome synchronisation problems and so it contains clatter and noise from the projector.

2)

They used their own subtitles

OK, they replaced my soundtrack with their own, well chosen, background music.

But they then put on some silly subtitles.

Having being told the film was made in 1976 they made an irrelevant reference to the hot summer

They then compared the way my brother and his mates dressed to the BAY CITY ROLLERS!!!!

My brother, a Bay City Rollers Fan :o , I don't think so! :angry:

3)

They got me mixed up with one of my brothers mates, also called Dave

Their subtitles called us "enterprising teenagers", my brother and his mates were 15 at the time, but I was already in my 20's so not exactly a teenager.

It said that Paul (my brother) went on to be a manager at a print works while his image was on screen.

It then said that David (implying me) went on to be a science teacher, but while the other Dave (Dave McEndry) was on screen

(as far as I know he went on to be a long distance lorry driver). I never appeared in the film, I filmed it!

Well, that's the BBC for you.

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Trust the BBC to wind me up.

1)

They had removed my original sound track and replaced it with their own.

I suppose this is fair enough for 3 reasons

Firstly, I had used the Tornado's recording of "Robot" as the musical soundtrack, produced by Joe Meek in 1963. This music will still be in copyright (but the BBC can deal with that)

Secondly, the actual dialogue, by me, my brother and his mates, was in the broadest Sheffield dialect and accent it may not have been understood by a national audience.

Finally, due to the way we had to record the sound, it was "noisy". It was dubbed onto the film while we were watching it to overcome synchronisation problems and so it contains clatter and noise from the projector.

2)

They used their own subtitles

OK, they replaced my soundtrack with their own, well chosen, background music.

But they then put on some silly subtitles.

Having being told the film was made in 1976 they made an irrelevant reference to the hot summer

They then compared the way my brother and his mates dressed to the BAY CITY ROLLERS!!!!

My brother, a Bay City Rollers Fan :o , I don't think so! :angry:

3)

They got me mixed up with one of my brothers mates, also called Dave

Their subtitles called us "enterprising teenagers", my brother and his mates were 15 at the time, but I was already in my 20's so not exactly a teenager.

It said that Paul (my brother) went on to be a manager at a print works while his image was on screen.

It then said that David (implying me) went on to be a science teacher, but while the other Dave (Dave McEndry) was on screen

(as far as I know he went on to be a long distance lorry driver). I never appeared in the film, I filmed it!

Well, that's the BBC for you.

Which episode was it on? I seem to have missed it

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Which episode was it on? I seem to have missed it

It was on episode 1 of home movies road show (uncut) broadcast at 12:20 am on BBC2 Thursday 12 August 2010.

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It was on episode 1 of home movies road show (uncut) broadcast at 12:20 am on BBC2 Thursday 12 August 2010.

I missed episode 1 but saw episode 2 on Friday the 13th evening. Are these the same shows on Friday's

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I missed episode 1 but saw episode 2 on Friday the 13th evening. Are these the same shows on Friday's

No, not the same but related.

The earlier show (called home movie roadshow) has only shortened clips of the films and 4 people talking about them.

The later show (called home movie roadshow, UNCUT) has longer / complete versions of the films with others not shown previously (like mine) but with no talking experts, - hence the need for the added subtitles as many of the films are silent.

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No, not the same but related.

The earlier show (called home movie roadshow) has only shortened clips of the films and 4 people talking about them.

The later show (called home movie roadshow, UNCUT) has longer / complete versions of the films with others not shown previously (like mine) but with no talking experts, - hence the need for the added subtitles as many of the films are silent.

I've had a look on iplayer and I can't find the uncut version.

I think that (as a contributor) the BBC will put the program on a disc for you Dave. I'm sure a relative of mine has a VHS that a TV company sent him years ago when he was featured ont'telly

If anyone gets it can they post a link or copy or whatever.

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Managed to find the clip Here, 39 minutes and 29 seconds into the programme. I suspect today's the last day it will be up though.

That's the clip Bayleaf.

I had viewed itmyself on iPlayer, in its gloriously restored HD digital image quality.

The problem with iPlayer is that DRM management system that lets you view it for 7 days and only keep it for 30 days.

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I've had a look on iplayer and I can't find the uncut version.

I think that (as a contributor) the BBC will put the program on a disc for you Dave. I'm sure a relative of mine has a VHS that a TV company sent him years ago when he was featured ont'telly

If anyone gets it can they post a link or copy or whatever.

Bayleafs link in the previous post takes you straight to it vox.

I have managed to recover a copy of the program, but due to technicalities it is now on an analogue VHS tape. I have redigitised this but there is some unavoidable loss of quality (which there wouldn't have been if I could have kept it digital)

However, what I would like to do is compress it to less than 55Mb and put it on my free 55Mb of web space, currently www.sheffieldsteam.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk but no longer maintained as sheffield steam societies web site with a link to it from this topic.

I will have a think and a play around with it.

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Bayleafs link in the previous post takes you straight to it vox.

I have managed to recover a copy of the program, but due to technicalities it is now on an analogue VHS tape. I have redigitised this but there is some unavoidable loss of quality (which there wouldn't have been if I could have kept it digital)

However, what I would like to do is compress it to less than 55Mb and put it on my free 55Mb of web space, currently www.sheffieldsteam.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk but no longer maintained as sheffield steam societies web site with a link to it from this topic.

I will have a think and a play around with it.

OK I hope this works.

After a lot of fiddling around with file formats, file size, picture quality and the ability of software to run stuff I have come up with this.

The file is around 37Mb so may take a while to load before playing, depending on connection speed

It is a .mov file, so tends to open in Quicktime, although other players will play it

On my computer, the Quicktime web page plug in opens automatically, but won't let you scale the video to full screen, however I do get the option of downloading it to RealPlayer which will.

The file is currently stored on my own personal webspace. I will leave it there for now and alter the link if I have to use it.

Let me know if it works,- it worked for me but the file is on my computer hard drive anyway!

Dr Dave & Mr. Big, 2010 BBC Version

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OK I hope this works.

After a lot of fiddling around with file formats, file size, picture quality and the ability of software to run stuff I have come up with this.

The file is around 37Mb so may take a while to load before playing, depending on connection speed

It is a .mov file, so tends to open in Quicktime, although other players will play it

On my computer, the Quicktime web page plug in opens automatically, but won't let you scale the video to full screen, however I do get the option of downloading it to RealPlayer which will.

The file is currently stored on my own personal webspace. I will leave it there for now and alter the link if I have to use it.

Let me know if it works,- it worked for me but the file is on my computer hard drive anyway!

Dr Dave & Mr. Big, 2010 BBC Version

For comparison, here is a version of the film with it's original sound track taken from my brothers YouTube site which he uploaded last year after we had refilmed the film from the screen. (hence poor picture quality and need to add "digital bits")

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk2a_ruYVJ0?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk2a_ruYVJ0?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

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Here are a few extras that the BBC didn't get, or got wrong in their captions!

A few "production stills" as it were.

Firstly, here is my brother in grandads kitchen making up the monster.

Further to the BBC captions the monster was made from a bucket, a bongo drum (for the head), one of dads decorators dust sheets (a clean one), grandads old coat, a pair of gardening gloves, a pair of swimming goggles, a dust pan and grandads cloth cap.

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Here's Dave Mac as the monster fully made up in the kitchen.

Dave told us that it was difficult to play the part of the monster "Mr. Big" because he was working blind, there was no way for him to see out to see where he was going and he kept walking into things.

Fortunately, as the film was shot silent, we could give him "Golden Shot" type instructions during the filming (Left a bit Dave, stop, OK, foreward 2 steps..." etc).

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The monster (Mr. Big) in a still shot from the making of the film

It took a lot of direction to direct him blind through that front door, but then we hit another problem.

The whole structure was top heavy and was supported from inside by Dave. It frequently wobbled about, leaned in awkward directions and threatened to topple over.

He had to lean back in one scene as a response to being sprayed with "nerve gas" and nearly toppled over backwards.

In the scene where Paul hits the monster with a stick he didn't hit him particularly hard, dispite the impression given by the later added soundtrack(s) and the fact that, having hit the monster the stick disappears out of his hands within a single frame. However, having been hit the monster reels backwards from the impact without direction, Dave having great difficulty in remaining on his feet and keeping the top half of the monster from falling off.

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Another still shot from the film.

Here my brother Paul attacks the monster with a can of nerve gas

It's amazing what effect you can achieve with an old gas mask obtained from an army surplus store and a can of Right Guard antiperspirant relabelled in crayon with the words "Nerve Gas"

I'm sure if we tried to refilm that scene today with my brother dressed like that he would be arrested and charged under the new anti terrorism legislation! :o

We also relabelled an old bottle of my grandads heart tablets as "Mr Big Solution". It got thrown over Daves shoulder and broken at the end of the film but I think grandad wanted it back in one piece! :rolleyes:

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The final still picture is one taken by my brother showing, left to right, me at the camera, "Wigger" and Dave as the monster

The camera is a Bolex H8, the 8mm version of the professional H16. It can handle standard 8mm film on a 100foot spool rather than the usual 25 foot. This gives up to 16 minutes of film rather than 4, and allowed the use of the Ilford FP4 black and white film not available in shorter lengths. It also has the features of the H16 and can do slow motion, speeded up, stop frame, animation, fade in, fade out, dissolve, etc. The camera is fitted with a 3 lens turret holding Kern Paillard Switar lenses for wide angle, normal and telephoto views.

Even when Super 8mm film came out in the mid 1960's this camera could still outperform almost all of them, it's main disadvantage being its size and weight making a tripod essential.

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Some "then and now" movie locations.

THEN is September 1976

NOW is September 2010

So a 34 time difference

All of the film was made at grandparents house on the Morland estate at Herdings.

This estate consists of "town houses" which are in terraced blocks of5 houses which run perpendicular to the road rather than parallel to it.

This means that both front and back door are on the same side of the house, both opening onto a footpath

There is another "back door", usually called the "kitchen door" which goes out into a back garden behind the house.

The arrangement of houses like this means it isn't possible to park your car outside your house, - although both my brother and myself did manage this with motorcycles.

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1 FRONT DOOR SCENES

Same front door 34 years apart.

My grandparents lived there until my grandfather died in 1982, now probably a privately owned ex council house.

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2 EXIT STAGE RIGHT

When Paul runs off to the right he passes several houses in the same terrace before reaching the road

In 1976 all the houses were council properties and all had that white painted wooden fencing across half the house frontage to divide the back and front doors and to hide the dustbin behind (or your motobike)

Today most of these houses appear to be owner occupied and most of them have removed the fencing. Any remaining now appear to have been painted dark green by the council.

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3 EXIT STAGE LEFT EVEN

When characters run off or approach from the left they come around a short bend.

This is because there are 2 blocks of 5 terraced houses between 2 roads (Morland Road and Leighton Road) with 1 block addressed to each road.

The blocks are both perpendicular to their respective road but the roads are not parallel, so the blocks have to meet at an angle.

Notice that telegraph pole to the left of the path.

It was wooden in 1976 but has now become a metal one.

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4 THE DIVIDING WALL

When "Wigger" gets zapped by the monster (and later reappears) he is up against a short wall which divides one house front from the next.

Although almost all the wooden fences have gone, these dividing walls, as they are shared by 2 properties and help to both mark a property limit and maintain a bit of privacy, still remain.

On some blocks owners have built their property outwards to the path using this wall as part of their property extension.

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4 THE DIVIDING WALL

When "******" gets zapped by the monster (and later reappears) he is up against a short wall which divides one house front from the next.

Although almost all the wooden fences have gone, these dividing walls, as they are shared by 2 properties and help to both mark a property limit and maintain a bit of privacy, still remain.

On some blocks owners have built their property outwards to the path using this wall as part of their property extension.

Most of the privately owned houses have done away with the wooden wind breakers now because they were such a pain in the a**e to maintain.

Did you ever notice the design cock-up regarding the positioning of the "separating wall"? The black soil pipe and 2" dia. drain by the front door actually belong to the house next door (No.1) :rolleyes:

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