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F O C A L I N T E R N AT I O N A LFEDERATION OF COMMERCIAL AUDIO VISUAL LIBRARIES
THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OFFOCAL INTERNATIONAL
AUTUMN 2014 ISSUE NO. 91
The Archive industry source for
N E W S • F E A T U R E S • E V E N T S • R E V I E W S
100-year choices for archives
Eva Braun’s home movies – Mysteries in the Archive
FOCAL founder’s farewell – exclusive interview
Liz Fraser, Every Day’s a Holiday (aka Seaside Swingers), 1965
Clips from classic British films from Renown Pictures licensed by FremantleMedia
E: [email protected] T: 0207 6916733 www.fmearchive.com
1584FMI Archive Advert Aug 14.indd 1 13/08/2014 12:48
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EDITORIAL
Editor Michael Archer
Copy [email protected]
Advertising FOCAL International management +44 (0)20 3178 3535 [email protected]
ISSN 1471-0633
Layout Rob Linton [email protected]
Printing Premier Print Group
Archive Zones is the journal of FOCAL International Ltd, the Federation of Commercial AudioVisual Libraries and is printed quarterly for private subscription.
All opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the writers concerned and do not necessarily reflect the views of FOCAL International or its Executive. The editors reserve the right to edit contributions.
No material – whether pictures or copy – published in Archive Zones may be reproduced in any other publication without the express permission of the holder of the copyright for that material. This may be FOCAL International itself, a contributory writer or a picture library or agency.
Editorial
FOCAL International Ltd. 79 College Road Harrow HA1 1BD
Tel +44 (0)20 3178 3535
Email [email protected]
Website www.focalint.org
ContentsNewsIWM’s £40 million face-lift 4
Getty distributes NHK Video Bank
ITN opens Singapore office
Sony footage now via T3
Scorsese ‘bats’ for Kodak 6
EU initiative on Orphan Works
FeaturesEva Braun’s home movies 9
FOCAL International questionnaire – Global ImageWorks (USA) 18
TechnologyThe 100-year choices for archives 11
Keynote interviewJill Hawkins – FOCAL International founder 14
EventsWorld Audiovisual Day focuses on Archives at Risk 12
FOCAL International Training Week 19
Copyright update and Pitching Conference online 19
Workshop for “overlooked & underpaid”! 20
Jane Mercer Training Grant winner 21
The Arena Archive – online lecture 23
Sheffield Doc/Fest 23
FOCAL International’s winning pitch and competition 24
ReviewVoices of Remembrance – CD 26
Michael Archer
VE Day Revellers
Michael Archer
Martin Scorsese, Academy (of Motion Picture Arts) and FOCAL International Award winner, is, as you would expect, a passionate disciple of film.
“Film,” he says, “even now, offers a richer visual palette than HD. And, we have to remember that film is still the best and only time-proven way to preserve movies. We have no assurance that digital information will last, but we know that film will, if properly stored and cared for.”
Richard Wright, ex-BBC technology specialist, meanwhile, is more pragmatic than passionate about preserving film originals for as long as possible.
“There will be,” he writes, “a continuing need for film processing services, particularly datacine and (digital) film restoration. This work will be needed on a continuous basis to make access copies, and will be needed at least once per film for re-mastering.” This, he stresses, “needs to be done just before the film begins to deteriorate – a bit like telling someone on a bus to get off one stop before you do. However,” he adds rather whimsically, “people who run film archives develop ways to make
such judgements – by watching lots of people getting off lots of buses, I suppose!”
Two angles, then, in this edition of Archive Zones, on the issue that pre-occupies the thoughts (and bottom lines) of all the world’s archives – preservation. Which, in turn, strikes a familiar chord with the theme of World Audiovisual Archive Day 2014 – Archives at Risk.
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NEWS
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Sony footage now via T3Media
Sony Pictures Stock Footage have made T3Media their exclusive worldwide licensing destination for all Sony Pictures Stock Footage content. For the first time, the entire Sony Pictures Stock Footage
collection will be available for clients to search, preview, download, and license all in one place: T3Licensing.com.
The Sony team will continue to service Sony Pictures productions; any projects that
are not Sony Pictures productions will be serviced by the team at T3Media.
Sony Contacts:US & Canada +1 866 275 6919
Outside US & Canada +1 310 244 3704
ITN Source opens in Singapore
ITN Source, the footage licensing division of ITN in the UK, has set up a sales office in Singapore. Caroline Clarke, based in Sydney for the last ten years, has relocated to head up the new office. She joined ITN Source in February 2012, having previously
worked for Paramount, CBS and Warner Brothers. ITN Source has operated a sales office in Tokyo for more than ten years and they retain a sales presence in Sydney. The opening of the Singapore office follows the recent licensing of two documentary
channels in China – DocuTv (in Shanghai) and Beijing Documentary, which is expected to fuel demand for archive footage.
www.itnsource.com
Imperial War Musuem unveils its £40 million ‘new look’
After a six-month closure for a £40 million refurbishment, London’s Imperial War Museum has re-opened with a sensational new atrium, designed by architects Foster & Partners, featuring nine iconic objects entitled Witnesses to War, including a Harrier jumpjet, a Spitfire, a V1 rocket, a T34 tank and a Land Rover damaged by a rocket attack in Gaza.
Coinciding with the centenary of the start of World War I, new terraced galleries rise
up on either side of the atrium, telling the story of conflict from 1914 to the present day. Objects new to IWM London include the wreckage of an X7 midget submarine sent to attack the German battleship Tirpitz, a Japanese Zero fighter abandoned in 1943 and re-discovered 50 years later in the jungle, a Desert Hawk ‘Drone’ and a suicide bomber’s vest.
The theme Total War explores the Battle of the Somme ( July-November 1916) in which a million men were killed or wounded and the original Battle of the Somme film is being shown with its original musical accompaniment.
The sheer terror of war is vividly recreated in a World War I trench with a Sopwith Camel fighter plane swooping overhead and a Mark V tank looming above. Visitors hear the scream of shrapnel and shells as they come face-to-face with a French 75mm field gun, one of the new ‘quick-firing’
guns which contributed to the deaths of a million European men in just four months’ fighting in 1914. The ‘multi-sensory’ experience features everything from thunderstorms through to gas attacks.
The museum also presents Truth and Memory, the largest exhibition of British WWI art for almost 100 years – over 120 artworks, including the war’s most iconic images.
Admission to IWM London is free and visitor information is available at:
www.iwm.org.uk
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Getty Images to distribute NHK Video Bank worldwide
Getty Images is partnering with NHK International, Inc. – NHK’s video licensing business – to distribute NHK’s award-winning video content to its network of over 1.5 million global customers. The new collection, NHK Video Bank, includes NHK’s HD material, news and feature programmes, documentaries, drama series and animations.
It includes special collections such as the
renowned Silk Road series, and features the world’s first HD footage of the moon’s surface captured from the Kaguya moon-orbiter, and Nippon News, an invaluable record of the Pacific front during WWII, available in HD with English scripts and metadata.
This follows the announcement of Getty Images’ exclusive global distribution partnership with BBC Motion Gallery.
Getty Images now offers video content from over 400 well-known collections, including partnerships with leading media houses including Sky News, Universal Studios, AFP and Bloomberg, as well as Getty Images’ own video offering.
www.gettyimages.co.uk/footagewww.nhkint.or.jp/footage
www.bbcmotiongallery.com
NBCUniversal Archives.com
@NBCUArchivesfacebook.com/NBCUArchives [email protected]
a universal sourcea universal source
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NEWS
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Other archive world news stories
are available in extended form on the FOCAL International
website at www.focalint.org
FORWARD – the EU’s new audiovisual Orphan Works Registry
What is FORWARD? It’s a three-year EU funded project (2013-2016) aiming at creating an EU-wide, automated system to assess the rights status for all types of audiovisual works, including Orphans. The system will search, harvest and process the information necessary to define the rights status of an audiovisual work. This way, cultural institutions, commercial entities and all potential users will get a clear indication whether a work is in public domain or in-copyright, and in this case, whether it is orphan, and under which conditions it can be used across Europe. FORWARD will take into account all national legislations deriving from the application of the Directive 2012/28/EU on Orphan Works.
Why FORWARD? Hundreds of thousands of audiovisual works preserved in European archives are inaccessible because their rights status is not clear. These audiovisual works cannot be used either for commercial distribution, or for educational and cultural purposes, for example in the context of large digitisation projects. Rights clearing for AV works is a complex process while, at the same time,
the resources of archives in identifying and locating rights holders are limited. The most relevant problem is the lack of structured and reliable EU-wide information resources. FORWARD will provide an innovative solution to respond to this need.
The Partnership FORWARD will be implemented through a collaboration of 13 institutions from 11 EU countries, among them 11 Film Heritage Institutions (FHI) and commercial AV libraries (FOCAL International is also a part of this collaboration). Europe’s FHI play a crucial role in the process of rights clearing, because they provide the most extensive information resources. Thanks to the direct involvement of partners ARROW who have created a comparable system for the book sector, both the FORWARD and the ARROW system will be fully inter-operable and accessible to queries from all users across the EU.
FORWARD goals are to:
zz Analyse existing information resources (filmographic databases, catalogues etc.) that can be used to define the rights status of an AV work.
zz Harmonise the rights status definitions across Europe.
zz Design and implement a technical platform to perform data harvesting and data processing.
zz Create a registry of audiovisual Orphan Works and of the diligent searches performed.
zz Support Europe’s Film Heritage Institutions to implement the Directive 2012/28/EU on orphan works.
zz Establish a network of ten national clearance centres across Europe.
zz Ensure the inter-operability of the FORWARD system with ARROW.
zz Develop a sustainable business model.
FORWARD is co-ordinated by the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique and co-funded by the Community programme ICT-PSP.
FORWARD c/o Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique
[email protected]+32 (0)2 551 19 00
www.project-forward.eu
Clarification
In the Summer edition of Archive Zones, we included a News story with a misleading headline. It read:
‘Share Getty footage for free on social websites’.
Getty have asked us to underline the point that “the embed functionality is for imagery only – not our video or music catalogue”, as the headline suggests.
Our apologies – Editor. press.gettyimages.com
Scorsese and ‘team’ batting for Kodak
Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Judd Apatow, and J.J. Abrams have teamed up to lobby major studios to commit to purchasing a set amount of film stock per year from Kodak to ensure that the legendary photo company continue manufacturing film stock, while also ensuring that the format still has a place in the machinery of big studio moviemaking that’s increasingly becoming dominated by digital photography.
Martin Scorsese issued a statement in support of Kodak’s decision to continue making film stock in which he said, “I’m not suggesting that we ignore the obvious: HD isn’t coming; it’s here… So, we could
easily agree that the future is here, that film is cumbersome and imperfect and difficult to transport and prone to wear and decay, and that it’s time to forget the past and say goodbye – really, that could be easily done. Too easily.
Film is also an art form, and young people who are driven to make films should have access to the tools and materials that were the building blocks of that art form. Would anyone dream of telling young artists to throw away their paints and canvases because iPads are so much easier to carry? Of course not.
In the history of motion pictures, only a minuscule percentage of the works
comprising our art form was not shot on film. Everything we do in HD is an effort to recreate the look of film. Film, even now, offers a richer visual palette than HD. And, we have to remember that film is still the best and only time-proven way to preserve movies. We have no assurance that digital information will last, but we know that film will, if properly stored and cared for.”
Martin Scorsese at the FOCAL International Awards
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Ceremony 21 May 2015Lancaster London Hotel
www.focalint.org
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FEATURE
16mm colour images of Hitler and his Nazi entourage at work and play, shot by his legendary mistress Eva Braun, are the subject of Director Serge Viallet’s latest project in his long-running series Mysteries in the Archive.
The series, which began in 2009, has already covered 30 controversial subjects in 20th century history, including the Yalta Conference after the Second World War, the first moon landing in 1969 and the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Serge and his team set out to find new insights and meaning from all the footage they use – sometimes familiar, sometimes never seen before.
In Serge’s own words, “Meticulous investigations are undertaken. Film is sifted through and sorted, examined frame by frame and analysed until, finally, its secrets are revealed.”
The Eva Braun project is a collaboration with INA and ARTE and most of the original footage under close scrutiny for the final cut comes from the National Archives and Record Administration in Washington, DC – 183 minutes delivered on four Digital Betacam tapes, originally discovered by the US army (probably in Berlin).
The principal camera operator was Hitler’s mistress but the shots in which she featured herself were presumably shot by her sister, Gretl, and those featuring both sisters by Hitler’s official photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, who introduced Eva Braun to Hitler in 1929. The principal location was the Berghof, Hitler’s residence in Berchtesgaden.
Eva Braun’s amateur cine of the Nazis at work and play gets the Mysteries in the Archive treatment
The Mysteries in the Archive team employed Pierre Commault on a lengthy internship on the project and he is the author of a 60-page study, which is accessible on the FOCAL International website at:
www.focalint.org/news-and-journal/member-news/news/ 1847/mysteries-in-the-archives-looks-at-eva-braun
The text is available in English, French and German. It contains timecode references of all images on all four tapes; a detailed bibliography and the credits and email addresses of all the producers, directors, advisors and translator involved.
Serge Viallet writes, “Mysteries in the Archives has been produced by and at INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel) since 2007. ARTE Television has also been involved in the production since the early days and, apart from the vital support of those two major pillars of the French audiovisual establishment, the financial and editorial support of YLE (Finland) and RSI (Switzerland) has been very important. Up to now, more than 300 persons worldwide have contributed in one way or another to the making of the series.”
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Adolf Hitler, Galeazzo Ciano and Joachim von Ribbentrop
Adolf Hitler with Arno Breker and Walther Hewel
Serge [email protected]
FASTER FOOTAGE Unrivalled research experience
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FEATURE
Storage, re-mastering, restoration, bit depths and datacine… the 100-year choices for archives are tricky but Richard Wright points to some of the answersThe question in my mind isn’t the future of film, or whether “film is dead” (or not) or whether Kodak is going bust. My real question is: what is needed for the film currently in film archives?
This question divides into preservation needs and access needs. We should try to actually think about film, rather than just emoting about film. Emoting isn’t hard – everyone loves film – but it isn’t necessarily useful either.
What are the needs of film currently in film archives? Here is my list:
1. The ‘film on shelves’ needs to be conserved as long as possible. This means cold storage, which is why the BFi spent about 80% of a one-off £20 million chunk of preservation funding on bricks and mortar (and refrigeration and humidity control).
2. The film in archives needs to be accessible. Playing the masters is definitely the road to ruin, so either prints are needed (for viewing and projecting film as film) or telecine/datacine equipment is needed to make digital access copies.
3. Film on shelves may last 100 years, but 100 years is not forever, so ‘re-mastering’ will be required. Here is where people argue and where emotions fly. Is digital really 12 times as expensive as film, over 100 years? Is scanning at 2K (or 4K or 6K or…) adequate for a digital re-mastering? What about bit depth and colour space – can even the best datacine equipment fully capture everything from film? What about shrinkage and colour decay? Will datacine equipment even be able to scan shrunken, warped and twisted film?
Restoration – the choices4. What about restoration? How much should be applied to
archive originals? Damage can be corrected, to some extent. Colour spaces can be expanded back to something like the original – whatever that was! Flicker can be reduced. Why not go the whole hog and take out the camera shake as well, even though it’s there in the original?
Restoration is a key issue, because so much is now possible, and most of the technology is digital. Also, if restoration is going to be undertaken, then the kind of scanning may need to be reconsidered. Wet-gate printing has long been the analogue approach (to re-mastering while removing effects of physical damage), but wet-gate is little used in the datacine equipment. For the digital world there is ICE technology (in various forms from various companies) using infra-red scanning as well as standard scanning, which allows removal of scratches and other physical damage – at least for colour film.
There are some answers. Regarding Question 3 – digital is NOT 12 times as expensive as film (for the 100-year storage problem). If access costs are added in, digital is cheaper. Also, making a film copy
of a digital master and then putting that film on the shelf for 100 years means that 80% of the cost is spent in the first year – which few accountants would favour.
Scanning at 2K is adequate, with sufficient bit depth, for most 16mm sources, and 4K should be adequate for most 35mm sources. But the bit depth should be 14 bits (linear), and many datacine services only offer 10 bits. Eleven bits on a log scale is probably an acceptable compromise, providing they are 11 ‘good bits’ – meaning properly scaled. So the work of grading and colourists remains relevant to datacine transfers. Finally, really shrunken and warped film is a problem for any process, analogue or digital.
Given that people will commit – as the BFI has done – to preserving film originals as film for as long as possible, there will be a continuing need for film processing services, particularly datacine and (digital) film restoration. This work will be needed on a continuous basis to make access copies, and will be needed at least once per film for re-mastering.
Judging the momentRe-mastering needs to be done just before the film begins to deteriorate – a bit like telling someone on a bus to get off one stop before you do. However people who run film archives develop ways to make such judgements – by watching lots of people getting off lots of buses, I suppose!
Which brings me to Cinelab www.cinelab.co.uk. For literally decades we have been seeing the shrinking of the number of film labs, and the number of services that each offers. Suddenly a new lab has opened in the UK – how can this be? My view is we’re seeing a correction: too many closures, too little on offer to meet the real needs as just described – and so former staff of companies that have closed (or are closing or are downgrading their commitment to film) have reassessed the situation in film, and launched a new film lab specifically to address the continuing needs of film, particularly the needs of film archives.
This is a technical article and is not supposed to be a “puff piece” – but all FOCAL International members should welcome Cinelab: a new source of solutions to the continuing needs of film and film archives.
Richard Wright
R D Wright +44 (0)7724 717 981
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FEATURE
The Coordinating Council for Audiovisual Archive Associations(CCAAA) working with UNESCO has chosen the theme Archives at Risk for World Audiovisual Archive day 2014 on October 27 and is marking it by launching its website for Archives at Risk. This is a wonderful project that is pledged to help audiovisual archives that think they are at risk from lack of funding, aggressive climate, lack of interest or investment etc.
The organisers hope the project will put them in contact with potential sponsors and experts from its members – FOCAL International, International Federation of Television Archives
(FIAT/IFTA), International Association of Sound Archives (IASA), Association of Moving Image Archives (AMIA), International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), International Council of Archives (ICA), International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA),Association for Recorded Sound Collectors (ARSC) and the South East Asian Association of Audiovisual Archives (SEAPAVAA)
The website is www.archivesatrisk.org
UNESCO and the CCAAA are eager to learn about all the celebrations that are planned in audiovisual archives around the world.
The celebration is being managed by Belina Capul of SEAPAVAA.
Belina Capul SEAPAVAA
The Editor of Archive Zones would be delighted to receive reports and pictures of your events at: [email protected]
World Audiovisual Day focuses on Archives at Risk
14
FEATURE
Jill Hawkins, founder of FOCAL International and, until recently, Chair of the Membership Committee of the Association of Commercial Stock Image Licensors (ACSIL), has decided to retire. She was a founder member of ACSIL and Executive Director from 2002 to 2014. Her career at BBC began at the same time as FOCAL International Chair’s, Sue Malden and now – in this exclusive interview with her ex-colleague – she remembers the lucky breaks she needed as well as charting the not always encouraging developments she has seen in the archive industry
“Not enough financial support to protect archives… maybe FOCAL International’s ultimate role is as ‘tentpole’ for the
recognition of great archival endeavour”
SM: Well Jill is this an end of an era? What causes are you pursuing now?
JH: Unfortunately I’m on a bit of an unplanned hiatus. Right after I made the decision to get on with the next stage and Matt White ( Jill’s successor at ACSIL) was in place, I got pretty sick for the first time in my life. It’s getting better gradually but, as I’d planned to focus on photography and some related voluntary work at the University of Arizona that could draw on my experience as a media consultant, I have to wait until the autumn to resume, hopefully.
SM: We go back a long way. Do you remember our first day at the BBC Library back in 1973? What had attracted you to this job?
JH: I certainly remember that first day very well. There were Daleks in the carpark at teatime! Wimbledon started around that week. I joined from the Victoria and Albert (V&A) library, after I dropped out at Wimbledon School of Art, so I had no formal library qualifications. I intended to either become a film critic or a photographer at that point.
I left the V&A because it was impossible to get promoted without a library qualification and to be honest it was a serious ‘boys’ club. Brilliant times I have to add, I always call the V&A days my Masters degree! But I had to leave in the end. I found the ad in The Listener, back page, last day for an application. I called the Beeb (BBC) and got an interview right away.
It was perfect. Cataloguing television programming was almost as good as being a critic. No library qualifications needed, just an ability to write really, using visual skills. The V&A was a perfect stepping stone. I think the whole process took six weeks.
SM: You had an incredible career through the BBC library and BBC Worldwide (formerly Enterprises) Library Sales. What were the high spots?
JH: It was amazing. I have incredible memories. Sometimes it’s just luck. You went on to be the first Archivist, then I found I couldn’t move on in the Library because I wasn’t qualified, so when Janet Andrew joined the newly formed Enterprises she poached Keith Owen and then interviewed me for what was to be called Film Library Sales. There was already a small department but Enterprises itself was suddenly reformed, expanded and eventually separated completely under Brian Parkin (Managing Director). Janet re-organised and put Keith and me into Library Sales.
300% rise in Library SalesWe were incredibly successful as a team. Not just Library Sales but all of the new Enterprises. Keith and I discovered unique sets of skills which we brought together almost at once. We improved income by 300% in the first year in Library Sales. Eighteen months later we were on sales trips to New York, building the new Library Sales business; in LA helping to grow a new BBC Enterprises as part of the new management team.
Within five years we had created News and Current Affairs Sales, Sports and Library Sales as a standalone with £5 million in sales. For the first time BBC sales teams were proactive and we realised how the BBC name opened doors but then it was up to you.
I found I had a natural skill for negotiation. Never saw a problem that I couldn’t reasonably resolve. It wasn’t quite Wolf of Wall Street, but it was definitely a new closely bonded Enterprises under Parkin. And yes, maybe a little Wolfish on reflection! We negotiated the first ever transmissions of BBC drama on one of the commercial terrestrial channels. And then we aced several satellite deals and developed Gold; and even made the tabloids. Public outrage but privately it was all approved and endorsed.
Personal highlights?A million... I remember taking a helicopter ride to Monte Carlo from Nice Airport on my first business trip, then in New York, then LA, Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Barrier Reef, being chauffeured in Hong Kong to the New Territories in the early morning with the mists rising over China; years later driving out to Redmond and negotiating a multi-million dollar deal with Microsoft at their campus; flying 12 hours from LA to London to go straight to a huge commercial Charter renewal meeting and practically passing out after waiting five hours to speak for Television Sales. By then, I had, in quick succession, left Library Sales for Business Development at Woodlands, then as Television Sales Director in charge of marketing investment – too many really.
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FEATURE
“Not enough financial support to protect archives… maybe FOCAL International’s ultimate role is as ‘tentpole’ for the
recognition of great archival endeavour”It’s easy to think in terms of the professional success. From Assistant Librarian to Head of Business Affairs to Television Sales Director – the brief version – but still I think more about the times, the days themselves. A very close management team of maybe ten of us, who really experienced the growth of the young BBC Worldwide. And all the time the changes in technology.
SM: Then the transfer to work in the US. How did that happen?
JH: The Charter review of the 1990s put the pressure on the commercial arm to increase and grow income. The financial demands were huge. BBC Enterprises became BBC Worldwide and was replaced by a very different culture – different players completely. As Director of Television Sales, our team was merged with Co-Productions and basically everyone was made redundant and let go – except for me really.
I was fortunate – I had always focused business on the US and Sarah Frank and Maq Jawed who ran the commercial arm in New York always wanted to open a Library Sales branch but didn’t have the expertise.
Serendipity. The cards were still playing out. So the break-up of the old division despatched me to New York – to open a new Library Sales. Within a year we had offices in Toronto and LA. I was going to stay for six months and 21 years later, I’m still here! Though, sadly, Library Sales which became BBC Motion Gallery is not.
The new worldYears later, as a media consultant, it was clear that the new world had arrived, bricks and mortar sales operations gone, digital transmission the new model: archives as physical places, cumbersome and isolated from their potential users unless we could fund the digital future. This was the new world, really the only way to manage access to archives. Consulting really became huge projects on how to manage the process of change as much as it was about how to improve income.
The birth and temporary death of the Dot.com players clouded that horizon for a bit but there is no future without it. Just more of it. Until the internet becomes viable as a resource for the original digital files to be moved through pipes the size of sewers, access will always have limitations of choice, speed, meta data and ownership and the smart data recognition software we need to bring it to potential users has not yet been truly identified.
SM: Now to FOCAL – what was the inspiration for establishing FOCAL International?
JH: We were in Sweden. My BBC colleague Jeremy Cantwell and I were on a business trip through northern Europe. We were visiting colleagues and contacts for News and Current Affairs and basically discussing the business in general; experiences, why we had remained as a cash business and actually why we couldn’t work together as a kind of investment machine – where producers could acquire footage in a kind of investment/mortgage arrangement.
Pay so much on the dollar, with profits divvied up among investing libraries... other smart ideas which involved above all raising the profile of stock footage, copyright issues, how to use archives, what was involved in cataloguing, archiving, etc.
So low key
All of which would shed light on an industry that was so low key you couldn’t call it an industry, all of which might actually move footage to a new place. We started to talk more about a lot of similar ideas and well one thing led to another and Sten Fryckholm, SVT became the first committed “joiner.” The idea for idea sharing anyway took hold.
It took a while to get off the ground. Persuading Keith that I wanted to start a Trade organisation needed the BBC’s blessing but, worse, helping to help raise the profile of stock footage and share marketing ideas was not easy logic then, but we’d worked together for around six years by then and most of the potential FOCAL International members were individuals who worked for other larger broadcasters. He gave it his blessing, sold the concept to Brian Parkin and we were almost ready, except for one more obstacle.
Anne Hanford was an instrumental player in FIAT (International Federation of Television Archives) at that time. I remember talking to you first and then we had a meeting together with Anne. I wanted to ensure that there would be no conflicts, or misunderstandings about the commercial objectives of the new organisation. Anne was skeptical but wished us well. I spent about 18 months doing the rounds of everyone I knew that ran a footage, stock or news library. Getting their commitment. Not everyone was sympathetic to the ideas of someone from the BBC’s commercial arm. There were about three or four who simply were never going to join us.
Birth of FOCAL International
Then the BFI joined, then British Pathé, then IWM and we had the traction! We set up regular meetings with a growing group of players. Yes, tea and biscuits every month! And they all joined in the end. Then I remember we started rotating – running the meetings from different offices, studios, new offices. Our first major partner was Pam Turner at Visnews, then David Warner at ITN, INA in France, SVT in Sweden, until it was decision time.
We went to MIP because many of us could, pushing some of our colleagues who were part of larger companies, such as NBC, ABC Australia to attend our first international meeting. Ten major players officially joined the Association meeting, including Sherman Grinberg Libraries and NBC Archives. As I recall we didn’t have an official name and then minutes into the meeting our ABC Australia member arriving late, pushed open the doors and without seemingly missing a beat said, “How about FOCAL?” As simple as that – The ‘Federation of Commercial Audiovisual Libraries,’ was born.
16
FEATURE
SM: What do you think have been the greatest achievements of FOCAL?
JH: Surviving! In the first instance a simple act of faith between traditional competitors who seemed to recognise pretty fast the upside of being jointly involved in the idea of marketing the industry to improve income and to shine a spotlight on a barely known reality. Archives are our history. We should make them accessible.
Newsreels and News may be a truncated view of the world when film was young, but as it grew up, news coverage and deep content could actually benefit all filmmakers. It didn’t just have to go as a trade asset for the large news organisations; it could be monetised and legalised post news purposes and the arts, sciences and drama archives opened up. I spent many hours at meetings at the Beeb trying to convince the Controllers and Department Heads that financially and morally providing “history,” to the competitors was not aiding the enemy. It was about the authenticity of history.
Landscape changedAccess to Arts programmes were always firestorms of debate before the curtain finally came down and Melvyn Bragg had done enough serious programming with The South Bank Show to warrant approval to use some BBC extracts – and vice versa – how long ago was that? And the entire landscape changed not so long afterwards.
In its second life, as FOCAL survived the inevitable loss of those whose energy and vision took it through its first ten years, we secured it by taking on Anne Johnson an old colleague of mine from Enterprises who provided vital continuity and new players who made it their own. Changed it yes, made it stronger certainly; gave it a completely different direction in almost all departments. The annual FOCAL International Awards, run by Julie Lewis, are a tremendous achievement. It makes me proud of everything everyone went through to make it the influential organisation it has become.
SM: So, what ambitions/hopes do you have for the archive footage business?
JH: Mmm… I’ve pondered this more than any other question. It still seems chaotic – no real central driving force which will help us focus on this as an industry, rather than a splintered aggregated business. A few commercial companies representing the industry. I always wanted it to be about bringing good minds, good will and firm plans together from which we could equally benefit and finally become more creative in our business models. I still hope for that.
But, fundamentally, evolution has made archives something else. That line between traditional news and programme-making and social street history is a huge amorphous area to consider. There is no clear question. Breaking news versus news as history is slipping away.
I worry that archives will lose their purpose beyond the national archives, primarily because of cost. There isn’t enough financial support to protect archives as they grow so quickly in an unfettered chaotic world. I’m not very optimistic. All the more reason why the FOCAL International Awards must be relevant and become that searchlight on all things archive. It must survive. Maybe that’s FOCAL International’s ultimate role – as the tentpole for the recognition of great archival endeavour.
Jill [email protected]
Tell your story with our footage. GIW has the stock shots and the deep content
you need to connect with your audience.
R I G H T S M A N A G E DR O Y A L T Y F R E E
globalimageworks.com201.384.7715 I [email protected] Elizabeth Klinck 282 Napier Street Tel. 705 445 9962 Fax. 705 445 9630
Collingwood Ontario Canada L9Y 3T3 Email [email protected]
Jill Hawkins relaxing in her garden
A fusion of creativityBrilliant technology. Amazing art. It’s a match that helps deliver great images and videos to creative professionals like you.
30 million images1.2 million videos20,000 new fi les added daily
Explore our innovative new tools at shutterstock.com/labs.
18
FEATURE
FOCAL INTERNATIONAL Questionnaire
A number of company members of FOCAL International have expressed interest in a series of features on their companies for Archive Zones. So we have devised a Questionnaire which, apart from straight factual information, allows correspondents a chance to share successes and express theirs and their company’s ‘individuality’ in the section on ‘The Future’. We have already had responses from Archive Companies and Facility Houses and hope to make it a regular – and, hopefully, very popular – feature of your magazine.
Global ImageWorks (USA) Background Global ImageWorks (GIW) has been in business for fourteen years. GIW is a privately owned multi-service company made up of three divisions: Footage Sales, Audio-Visual Research and Rights & Clearance services.
GIW’s specialities are music performance footage, lifestyle, beauty and nature footage – both current and archival, some shot in 4K. Four people work full-time in the Stock Footage Library.
The ArchiveGIW’s library contains approximately 15,000 hours of footage. The library ranges from film shot in 1897 to HD footage shot last week. GIW exclusively represents the television shows: Soul Train, Omnibus, Austin City Limits and The Dick Cavett Show. GIW has an extensive collection of world destinations, people & cultures – much of which is film backed or shot in HD.
Text for all GIW footage is searchable online. Over 40,000 clips are digitised and can be viewed online. Footage not viewable online is available upon request. We encourage our clients to contact us directly.
GIW offers free in-house research across all of our collections. Footage research and screeners can generally be provided the day they are requested. Edit masters can take anywhere from two hours to up to two days, depending on the original source of the footage.
Our principal means of delivery is Apple ProRes QuickTime files. Almost 100% of our footage is provided via digital delivery.
Our business is split evenly between domestic and international clients. GIW’s Footage Sales team all have an extensive knowledge of GIW’s collections, a production background, are trained to handle personal enquiries and have experience in the stock footage business. In the last year our principal production outlets have been non-fiction television and feature documentaries.
GIW’s footage was used in the 2014 Academy Award Winning Best Feature Documentary film, Twenty Feet From Stardom. Additionally, GIW footage appears in several 2014 Emmy Awards nominated programmes.
In one sentence what singles out your company from rival archive companies?
Because GIW is independently owned and operated, we can respond quickly and creatively to our client’s needs.
The Future Have you had to adapt/revise charges etc., to cope with the recession?
Yes. We changed our pricing structure to accommodate a wider range of budgetary needs. We now offer rights-managed, rights-ready and royalty free pricing and try to be as flexible as possible.
Has your strategy been successful?
Yes, we have many repeat clients.
What, if any, effect has YouTube had on your business? Is it good or bad for the archive industry?
YouTube has had a positive impact on our business. YouTube is the go-to source for many researchers and we have recognised an increase in sales based on footage our clients found on GIW’s YouTube channels.
Do you see better years ahead for the archive industry and your sector in particular?
We are hopeful. Varied and expanding outlets for “content” are driving an increase in overall production. In turn, there has been an increasing need for quality stock and archival footage.
What do you think is the biggest single threat to your viability/success?
Microstock perpetuates the myth that stock and archival footage is ‘’cheap”. Less experienced footage users are buying into this myth. A user-generated clip shot on a mobile phone and sold online for $15 is one thing. A 4K clip captured at just the right moment by an award-winning cinematographer is something very different.
What is your personal recipe for tackling that threat?
GIW has an active educational outreach programme. We speak regularly at industry events, are recruited for panels and we produce informative and educational footage licensing events. On a day-to-day basis, our Footage Sales team takes the time to listen to our clients – we answer their questions and explain the footage licensing process.
What is FOCAL International’s most important role as far as you and your business are concerned?
It’s very beneficial to receive footage requests from FOCAL International’s list-serve service. FOCAL International’s advocacy efforts are also important. FOCAL International is a respected voice in the commercial archive ecosystem and GIW appreciates their continued efforts in setting and communicating best practices for our industry.
Jessica Berman-Bogdan
Jessica [email protected]
www.globalimageworks.com
1919
EVENTS
Nine into ten venues: a tightly-packed Training Week
FOCAL International
Training Week 16-20th June
Nine delegates from Italy, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK visited ten venues in a tightly-packed week of lectures, conferences, tours and networking events. The week ( June 16-20) started with David Walsh, Imperial War Museum, giving a concise history of film formats, handling, perservation and restoration. Delegates then spent the evening at the Cinema Museum, for an indulgent look at cinema memorabilia.
On Tuesday the delegates were driven to the BFI’s John Paul Getty Conservation Centre at Berkhamsted, followed by a trip to Sky News. Both visits were extremely informative and diverse, from repairing of old film stock through to the modern tapeless newsroom. The following day delegates visited the BBC Information and Archives main store in Perivale, West London, then they went to BBC Media Centre to meet up with BBC Motion Gallery, which is now administered by Getty Images.
A conference dealing with copyright, third party rights and pitching
archive-based programmes took place on the Thursday at the IBIS Euston Hotel (details below). FOCAL International’s Summer Networking Party at the Dickins Inn, St Katherine’s Dock afforded some light relief that evening.
Katie Hefford, one of the delegates, was the lucky winner of the main raffle prize – a GoPro Camera donated by Shutterstock. Recovering bravely from the night before, delegates made it to ITN Source for the final day’s tour and talks about metadata and cataloguing. The last session, outlining the work of an archive researcher, was held at the British Library.
The weather was kind and the delegates got on well together – the perfect recipe for a thoroughly informative and enjoyable week.
June – a busy month for FOCAL International!
FOCAL International’s Legal Advisor Hubert Best ran through the basics of copyright and brought delegates up to date with the latest changes being introduced at UK national and European level. Always a heavy topic to assimilate in one session, FOCAL is pleased to be able to run the video of the conference on its website for members to view anytime – just login and you will see the videos listed under Footage Skills & Services/Lectures & Seminars.
The following session dealt with underlining and third party rights with Karen Ghai talking on artist rights, format rights etc. Ivan Chandler of Musicalities brought humour to the thorny subject of music rights and clearances by playing some well-known notes on his melodica and asking the delegates to guess the copyright attached to them.
Pitching to winThe second half of the day – also captured on video for FOCAL International members to view – was all about successfully pitching archive-based programme ideas. Richard Melman, Managing Director, Spring Films, together with Simon Raikes, Commissioner Channel 5 and Chris Thompson, Executive Producer, TVT explained how a recent initiative What the Dambusters Did Next
won a commission and funding partners partly because it looked at a seemingly familiar story but from a different angle.
This was followed by an update on FOCAL International’s Archive-based Programme Pitching Competition. It was a delight to have winner Meghan Horvath herself explain how and where she got her programme idea. Richard Melman and Figs Jackman of Spring Films who judged the entries explained what makes commissioners tick and why Meghan’s pitch stood out (see page 24 for Meghan’s own words).
As this competition was so popular, FOCAL International is running another archive-based Programme Pitching Competition. Entries are now invited via the FOCAL International website. The deadline is 1 October 2014 and the winner will be announced on 27 October 2014 on UNESCO World Audiovisual Day. Entry details are on Page 24.
Katie Hefford and her Shutterstock-donated GoPro Camera
Winner Meghan Horvath with Richard Melman & Figs Jackman
Seminar now
available online
Copyright – the latest changes in UK and Europe
20
FEATURE
The final event of the extremely busy FOCAL International Footage Training Week was hosted by Luke McKernan, Lead Curator, News and Moving Image at the British Library. He introduced attendees to the Library’s new research facility, which includes an ever-growing footage and content archive. The Training Week delegates were joined by a throng of other people eager to understand the world of footage research. They were rewarded with lively presentations by Denis Karam, Kate Griffiths, James Smith, Jacqui Edwards and FOCAL International Chair, Sue Malden.
There was a lot to cram into a few hours: workflow, sourcing content, negotiating licences and rights clearance, technical viewing and delivery options, data logging for the edit, concluding with the paper trail. Delegates found it daunting to hear what was expected
of an Archive Researcher. As Luke McKernan @lukemckernan tweeted during the meeting: ‘A noble, overlooked profession for the dedicated, underpaid few’.
Researcher Training Workshop for the “overlooked and under-paid”!
A packed session at the Researcher Training Workshop
2121
FEATURE
I attended the FOCAL International Training Week in London June 16-20. It deals with the gathering, organisation and storage of footage as well as the process of clip sales by Libraries to third parties. The aim of the training week is for anyone in the world to get to know more about footage, systems used in the industry as well as the appreciation of footage.
When I wrote the motivation for the grant, I had no idea the impact it would really have on me as an individual and as an Archivist. Travelling to a different country changes one’s perception on life and visiting companies that deal with the same line of work as me was refreshing.
The Training Week took us to different parts of London, including ITN Source, BBC Information Archives, Sky News, BFI’s John Paul Getty Conservation Centre, Imperial War Museum as well as the British Library. And what would a training week be without a Summer Networking Party?
It was a refreshing experience to network with fellow professionals and talking to them about the different challenges we face on a day to day basis and them knowing exactly what I was talking about. It was nice to exchange ideas about the same challenges we are facing regardless of which part of the world we were from. It was pleasant to see that South Africa is not far behind in terms of the systems that we use and also the way we work.
This experience has really opened my eyes to a new world, new cultures and new work ethos. I will value this experience for the rest of my life.
There were three things that stood out for me during the FOCAL International Training Week. Visiting Sky News and the Rights and Restrictions Session. Sky News stood out for me because as a News Archivist, I could relate more to their News Archives and Content Services workflow and could derive some ideas from some of the workflows.
The Rights & Restrictions Session was very informative since working with footage and selling footage can become very tricky
regarding rights and restrictions. The third and last thing that stood out for me was that the best tasting fish is still in my mother city, Cape Town! I’ve taken away a few ideas from the Training Week and hope we can implement some of them in our current workflow at e.tv.
For more information on the Jane Mercer Footage Training Grant or the FOCAL International Training Week you can visit: www.focalint.org/footage-skills-and-services/training/the-jane-mercer-footage-training-grant. The closing date for 2015 applications is 31 January 2015.
Melissa Rossouw
Jane Mercer Footage Training GrantFurther your professional development in the footage industry!NEW GRANT APPLICATIONS FOR 2015 NOW INVITEDClosing date of 31 January 2015
For information and online application
www.focalint.org/footageskillsandservices/training/
Or email: [email protected]
Interested in the world of audio visual archives, research, rights,
preservation and data management?
Melissa Rossouw e.tv: Senior Audiovisual Archivist, Libraries and Information Services
New world, new cultures,
new work ethos
Melissa Rossouw, recipient of the Jane Mercer Training Grant
“I will value this
experience for the rest
of my life”
“I will value this
experience for the rest
of my life”
Training Week Delegates outside the British Library
Washington HiltonJanuary 27-30, 2015
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Sheffield International Doc/Fest continues to grow as one of the top documentary festivals in the world – the vibrancy is palpable – so many enthusiastic and brilliant producers and directors attending, joining panel discussions, answering questions after screenings and all with a healthy appetite to socialise and have fun at the party events.
FOCAL International hosted the annual Meet the Archives sessions offering a chance to sit down and chat with library representatives, whilst Elizabeth Klinck, a member of the FOCAL International Executive, produced a panel entitled Why Archive? What Makes Them Such a Hit with Audiences on behalf of Documentary Campus. Directors Goran Hugo Olssonn, Charlie Lyne and Mark Craig each represented their latest documentaries which rely heavy on footage: Concerning Violence, Beyond Clueless and The Last Man on the Moon, respectively, and engaged in a lively debate about the merits of using footage.
ITN Source ran one of their popular pub quizzes, Getty Images/BBC Motion Gallery hosted their own drinks reception and other FOCAL International members such as Prime Focus and BFI were very much in evidence as main sponsors of and contributors to the festival. “It’s an important and very useful event for libraries to attend,” said FOCAL International’s Julie Lewis, “It’s a chance to mix with a multitude of documentary makers, commissioners, producers
and directors and to see the inspirational way that footage continues to be used in top documentaries”.
FOCAL International has again secured a discounted rate for members to attend Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015 which will be held 5-10 June 2015. Meet the Archives will take place on the mornings of 8-9 June in the Hubs Building right next to the MeetMarket where programme makers pitch their projects to commissioners. “We are delighted to have been given this new location, right at the heart of Sheffield Doc/Fest, so, any libraries wishing to take a table top should book it quickly as space is limited,” said FOCAL’s Julie Lewis, “and don’t forget, the exhibitor’s package includes 2 free passes to attend the whole festival!” For full details of the package see www.focalint.org, then contact Sylvia Wroblewska on [email protected].
EVENTS
Jane Mercer Memorial Lecture – available online
The Arena archive – past, present and future Anthony Wall, Series Editor of BBC’s leading art programming Arena since the early 1980s, presented FOCAL International’s 2015 Jane Mercer Memorial Lecture on 14 May at ITV London Studios in association with RTS London.
He talked about his recent experiments with the Arena archive, now numbering around 800 films, exploring ways of bringing the past into the present and the future. This involves cutting up and re-arranging scenes and images to create new forms and reveal new meanings in archive beyond the original use and intention.
Anthony Wall’s passionate presentation which celebrates the unique value of the Arena archive and the innovative works which can be created from it and other archive material has been captured on video and can be viewed by anyone via the FOCAL International website www.focalint.org under Footage Skills & Services/ Lectures & Seminars.
Anthony Wall
Sheffield Doc/Fest Meets the Archives in a variety of ways
Anthony [email protected]
The Archive Zones full back catalogue is available to
read and search online at
www.focalint.orgThe Archive industr y source for
NEWS – FEATURES – EVENTS – REVIEWS
The official journal of FOCAL International
F O C A L I N T E R N AT I O N A LFEDERATION OF COMMERCIAL AUDIO VISUAL LIBRARIES
Autumn 2012 I s sue No. 83
ExclusiveOlympic spectacular’s archive research story
Interviews with Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Rick Prelinger
Getty archive boss, Matthew Butson
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WINTER 2012 ISSUE NO. 84
World’s oldest colour film restoration
50 years of U.S. Public Broadcasting
BFI’s Vision for the Future
The Archive industry source for
N E W S • F E A T U R E S • E V E N T S • R E V I E W S
FEATURE
24
Archive-based Programme Pitching CompetitionSubmission deadline 1 October 2014
FOCAL Internationalwww.focalint.org
FOCAL International’s Pitching Competition winner…
Qualifying as a ‘Brit’by Meghan Horvath My career in television started when I worked as a visual researcher on archival documentaries in New York. So it was only natural for my eyes to light up when I read about the 2013-2014 FOCAL International pitching competition. When I think about working with archival images, I get the same feeling I have when walking into a second-hand shop. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll stumble upon a treasure. Looking for images captured generations earlier has always appealed to my love of history and as a bonus gives me a particular sense of pride that comes from creating something out of found objects.
There were a few ideas I thought would be appropriate for the pitching competition but in the end I decided to submit the one to which I had a personal connection. Just over two years ago on the road to establishing “permanent residency” in the UK I sat a multi-choice exam at a computer centre in North London. This is the “Life in the UK” test, which measures how many facts and trivia (eg: What is the national flower of Wales?) one has committed to memory. The test is nearly ten years old and so far over one million people have taken it.
I come from a family of immigrants. And I also grew up in the United States, one of the biggest “melting pots” on earth. So this idea of what one nation deems important to its own identity has always been absolutely fascinating to me. When I was studying for the “Life in the UK” test my British friends were shocked to find they couldn’t easily answer some of the questions. Sure, it’s easy to make fun of this test and about what it says and doesn’t say about “Britishness,” but when I began talking to others who studied and passed the test, I realised there is something about the formality of the process that can be really quite satisfying. Passing the test can make one feel “Yes – I finally belong!”
But back to my initial proposal for the documentary… I thought that the idea of using the study guide for the test as an excuse to delve into British archives, and as a road map once there, would be incredibly interesting. I wanted to intersperse these archival vignettes with interviews from those who took the test and those who would never have to (natural-born citizens). This documentary – working title: A Citizen’s Guide to Britain – could present interesting and evocative imagery from Britain’s past and present and in the process inspire the audience to ask questions about how the “Life in the UK” test portrays their country.
It was a pleasant surprise to be shortlisted for this competition, after which I met with the team at Spring Films who asked good questions and encouraged me to think about how the film could develop for a television audience. Getty Images opened up their vast repository of archival footage for me to explore, and I cut together a teaser with this material as well as with vox pop interviews I shot one weekend on the street.
Spring Films and I went through various iterations of the teaser to make it even shorter, more concise and more marketable, and Prime Focus were very generous with their offer of post-production support.
Finally, nearly a year after being selected the winner of the first FOCAL International competition, the two-minute teaser is done and now being sent out to broadcasters. As we all know there is never any guarantee that even a good idea will find a good home, but no matter what happens, FOCAL International’s competition was a great opportunity for me to take the germ of an idea and develop it further with the help of a super team.
Meghan Horvath
Meghan [email protected]
Inspiring a new generation of filmmakers to use footage!Following the success of its first archive-based Programme Pitching Competition in 2013, won by Meghan Horvarth, FOCAL International and Spring Films have launched a second competition designed to encourage young filmmakers to realise the value and fun of making productions that use archive footage.
Aspiring programme makers are invited to send in written pitches via the FOCAL International website.You will be asked to supply: an outline/synopsis of the proposed programme and why it should be made (up to 350 words), plus an outline detailing the type of footage to be used and what this will contribute to the illustration and/or understanding of the topic (up to 350 words).
These pitches will be evaluated by experienced producers at Spring Films and a shortlist of names will be invited to discuss their ideas further. The winner of this selection process will receive ten minutes of ‘free’ footage donated by Getty Images, also, Prime Focus will sponsor the production of a five-minute taster tape, including online, grading and sound desk. Spring Films will then endeavour
to place the completed taster tape with broadcasters, with the possibility of a programme being commissioned.
This is a unique opportunity for filmmakers to present their projects to top industry producers who are looking to develop new projects, so we urge you to get your creative thinking caps on!
The subjects pitched last year ranged from the tragic legacy of Bruce Lee, racial ‘ceilings’ in the UK, genocide as an international crime and Ireland’s ‘boom to bust economy’ to the evolution of the Oxford English Dictionary and the London taxi.
Entries are now invited via the FOCAL International website. The deadline is 1st October 2014 and the winner will be announced on 27th October, 2014 on UNESCO World Audiovisual Day.
BBC Motion Gallery content:[email protected] 3227 2579
Getty Images content:[email protected]
Getty Images offers contemporary and archive footage of the highest quality to independent producers, production companies and film makers to help them tell their stories. Collections include BBC Motion Gallery, Discovery Channel, Red Bull Media, Sky News and other renowned partners.
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FEATURE
Poetic visions of war and orchestral themes that ‘hit a nerve’ in a fresh, original style
26
Voices of Remembrancecomposed by Laura Rossi
Music inspired by ten famous World War I poems performed by the Chamber Orchestra of London and RSVP Voices – 2NX Music
The First World War will forever be associated with some of the finest anti-war poetry in the English language. So it is exciting when an established composer like Laura Rossi picks ten poems and writes musical accompaniments to them, or rather a musical theme to follow a reading of her selected poems.
Readers of Archive Zones will probably know Laura Rossi for her superb musical accompaniment to the IWM’s digital restoration of The Battle of the Somme, the film originally made by the War Office in 1916. Her score for the film is a reminder that the silent cinema was never silent, there was always a musical accompaniment of some sort, from a pianist in the smallest cinema to a small orchestra or band in the biggest ‘electric picture palace’. Although there was a musical medley suggested by the cinema trade to accompany The Battle of the Somme in 1916 this included several military marches and sounds extraordinarily gung-ho and bombastic to a modern ear – not surprisingly as the film was a piece of propaganda shown while the battle still raged. Rossi provided a 21st century interpretation of the film whose images are some of the most haunting ever taken of the Western Front.
So it is entirely appropriate that Rossi should stay with the First World War for her latest venture. On her latest CD, a set of poems are read by either Vanessa Redgrave or Ralph Fiennes (for me Fiennes gives by far the best reads – Redgrave is too stagey). The poems are Break of Day in the Trenches by Isaac Rosenberg, Into Battle by Julian Grenfell, Before Action by William Noel Hodgson, Dulce Et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen, In Memoriam by Ewart Alan Mackintosh and In Flanders Fields by John McCrae.
Following the reading is her music inspired by the poems. Among these are three poems actually set to music, The Soldier by Rupert Brooke, A Lark Above the Trenches by John William Streets and For the Fallen
by Laurence Binyon. Rossi’s orchestral themes certainly hit a nerve. Violins soar and the percussion sounds but always in a fresh, original style. Her music for Into Battle and Dulce Et Decorum Est is magnificent in an often understated way. Her choral pieces for In Flanders Fields and Break of Day in the Trenches are less effective, for me. And the only music I don’t relate to is for Hodgson’s Before Action which is too uplifting for a poem in which an officer has a clear premonition of his death on the following day.
But the response to poetry, let along musical poetry, will always be
intensely personal and Voices of Remembrance is a fascinating musical experience. With all the commemorations abounding there has never been a better moment to combine a unique musical voice with some of the most memorable poetic visions from the war. Anyone who enjoys the poetry of the Great War should sample it.
Taylor Downing [email protected]
+44 (0)7971 689781www.taylordowning.com
www.laurarossi.com/voices/
Taylor Downing
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SUMMER 2014 ISSUE NO. 90
The Archive industry source for
N E W S • F E A T U R E S • E V E N T S • R E V I E W S
Europe’s ‘visual
memory’ in danger
Fingerprint
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FOCAL International
Awards 2014:
Celebrating the
winners
Researchers’
‘inside’ stories
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SPRING 2013 ISSUE NO. 85
Solving a Nazi execution riddle
25 years of American Experience
Apps. open new library doors
FOCAL International’s 10th Awards nominations
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SUMMER 2013 ISSUE NO. 86
Public Service Broadcasting – the musical version
Serge Viallet tracking down Mysteries in the Archives
In search of the researchers’ DNA
Plus all FOCAL International’s Award winners 2013
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SPRING 2014 ISSUE NO. 89
‘Lost’ filmszz Found in skips,
unearthed in
Africa, sold on
Ebay
zz Restoration ‘miracles’
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N E W S • F E A T U R E S • E V E N T S • R E V I E W S
FOCAL International Awards 2014zz Lifetime
Achievement
Award
zz The Finalists
revealed
F O C A L I N T E R N AT I O N A LFEDERATION OF COMMERCIAL AUDIO VISUAL LIBRARIES
THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OFFOCAL INTERNATIONAL
AUTUMN 2013 ISSUE NO. 87
Peter Davis’ apartheid archiveCopyright Hub has ‘lift off’The rise of ‘Pop-Ups’
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F O C A L I N T E R N AT I O N A LFEDERATION OF COMMERCIAL AUDIO VISUAL LIBRARIES
THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OFFOCAL INTERNATIONAL
WINTER 2013 ISSUE NO. 88
Hargreaves – still The Big IssueBringing European IP into the 21st centuryInternational flavour to London Film Festival archive tales
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N E W S • F E A T U R E S • E V E N T S • R E V I E W S
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