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Post by Martin Dunne on Sept 11, 2017 13:19:10 GMT
This thread has reactivated my interest in classic Australian television. Some fascinating material on You Tube. I was watching an episode of Hunter yesterday, Australia's own 1960s spy series - I wonder what the archive holdings are for this series. Also Catwalk, which was brilliant, starring John Foregham, who I had no idea had worked in Australia. A bit of a shock when the theme music started and it was Laurie Johnson's Gala Performance, used in the UK as the theme for This is Your Life. Some more good news there; Hunter was a Crawford Production, the then-biggest independent producer in the country. As with elsewhere, such companies regard their library as their prime asset and tend to take care of it. If any of their later dramas have incomplete holdings I haven't heard of it; pre-Homicide they made some television shows of unknown archival status out of the existing station facilities, and prior to that, radio. Not only would all Hunter survive in the Crawford (now WIN) archive, the National Film and Sound Archive hold documentation relating to it, including all scripts. Catwalk on the other hand was made in-house at ATN-7; the NFSA hold a bunch of documentation but no episodes. As a rule of thumb, if it was made by an independent production company (particularly post 1950s) there could be 100% survival. If pre-1980s, made in-house but sold into other markets on kinescope/filmed from outset ... could be 1%. If it was only ever on in-house video tape ... could be .001%. Deadly Earnest was in-house videotape, with the exclusion of the filmed segments by TVW-7. Which was bought by a charming man named Robert Holmes a Court, who performed an exciting maneuver called "silver recovery" upon their film archive.
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Post by ifryer on Sept 11, 2017 13:52:58 GMT
Sounds about right. If I remember rightly he was one of those Alan Bond corporate asset stripper types.
Thanks for the update regarding Hunter. I'd love to get some of the Crawfords DVD sets of Homicide and Division 4, but they seem very expensive. I guess the potential market is quite small.
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Post by Archive on Sept 11, 2017 14:42:45 GMT
As a rule of thumb, if it was made by an independent production company (particularly post 1950s) there could be 100% survival. If pre-1980s, made in-house but sold into other markets on kinescope/filmed from outset ... could be 1%. If it was only ever on in-house video tape ... could be .001%. Your very right, a lot of programs that were in-house produced by various networks, were not kept. Channel 10 is a prime example, programs produced under their own name were almost never archived - where as programs produced "for" network ten, by an outside production company were. Notably program such as Neighbours and Prisoner, produced by Grundy (although the fact they were so successful and sold overseas also of course contributed to their survival). However although those long running series may survive as complete programs, much (if not all) promotional material produced by the station was not. Leading to Fremantle sourcing material such as this from here for the anniversary specials some years back.
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Post by Martin Dunne on Sept 11, 2017 15:25:21 GMT
Thanks so much for the validation, James, but ... I'd rather be seriously wrong and have the magic archive spew forth.
So. How are we going to make an Australian TV Brain happen?
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Post by Alan Hayes on Sept 11, 2017 23:30:47 GMT
Fascinating reading this thread. One of the positive stories of Australian archiving is just how much of the Crawfords archive has been preserved, as proven by their recent move into DVD releasing by mail order. Shows like The Sullivans, The Box (which I adore), Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police and more besides.
What I'd like to ask is are Crawfords the exception to the rule, or have other independent production companies also preserved their archives, maybe better than the broadcasters themselves?
I'd also like to ask what you think the chances of lost B/W era Number 96 being out there somewhere, and also what the archive status of Phoenix Five is?
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Post by Martin Dunne on Sept 12, 2017 3:42:01 GMT
Fascinating reading this thread. One of the positive stories of Australian archiving is just how much of the Crawfords archive has been preserved, as proven by their recent move into DVD releasing by mail order. Shows like The Sullivans, The Box (which I adore), Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police and more besides. What I'd like to ask is are Crawfords the exception to the rule, or have other independent production companies also preserved their archives, maybe better than the broadcasters themselves? I'd also like to ask what you think the chances of lost B/W era Number 96 being out there somewhere, and also what the archive status of Phoenix Five is? If they haven't found forty plus year old Number 96 by now, considering the commercial interest ... the time has come and gone (see below). The National Film and Sound Archive hold some documentation, no media. The colour episodes exist (were repeated), the first three years are sporadic. Phoenix 5 is all there too, plus heaps of documentation. Not so progenitors The Interpretaris (four of six episodes) and Vega 4 (one of seven), not repeated since 1971 where Phoenix 5 was played as recently as 1984, just not in my region. Crawfords are exceptional in their success, their own facilities and their library. Their nearest rival was Reg Grundy (which became a subsidiary of Pearson, now Fremantle) who was more down the game show and soap opera end of things. Most independent companies were formed for a single production, and even then the balance of their work could be advertising or producing titles for in-house productions. One notable exception was Artransa Park Film Studios (co-producer with ABC of the aforementioned science fiction series), a history of the company would be a great idea, Sydney people. So, to answer your question, while retention rates are better for independents most of those in turn worked out of the existing stations (ie Number 96) and folded when their shows were cancelled; so still hit and miss. Allow me to give context by talking about myself. I've detected a Paris Syndrome about Australia; a relative's significant other told me they thought we wouldn't have crime because Australia's "So nice, and so far away!" (probably thinking of that OTHER Land of Oz). I mentioned I'm researching Deadly Earnest; five horror hosts of the same name across a nineteen year period. (If you're of a certain vintage, think Elvira, if of a more vintage-type vintage, think Vampira and of a less vintage vintage think ... you should look it up.) If we give each introduction a nominal five minutes duration (a highly rubbery figure) there were one hundred and twenty eight hours produced, not including the host who was entirely on film (viz. the nasty man and his twelve pieces of silver ...!) or the tens of thousands of hours of films hosted. What we have recovered is four minutes and fourteen seconds. From the host themselves. Ralph Baker was interested enough to have an introduction transferred from tape to film (the more universal medium). This was eventually transferred back to tape, and to YouTube. The end clip is of dreadful quality, missing the title card and the intermission/outro ... and is the best example there is. From industry hands. SAS-10 (now SAS-7) denied holding any footage for years, but had broadcast one clip on an anniversary show in 1985, apparently sourced at this time from Christmas funny reels. A second anniversary show in 2005 saw them try harder and find a former staff member with funny reels in his shed (as close as I've seen to the mythical magic archive). This was also the source of some Number 96 DVD extras. He says one of the Deadly clips was off the end of a U-matic after a football game, the producer who recovered it said it was Betamax. One home movie which belonged to a cameraman. From collectors. One kinescoped appearance by Ian Bannerman on a variety show, other appearances were probably never on anything other than videotape. From home viewers. Not a lot of that; one four second clip recovered from an advert recorded on a Sony AV3600. There has been some audio, and I make a note of this when I make public appeals via the radio or newspapers. From the government. The NFSA has had a couple of recoveries, all via donation as they have no brief to force stations to give them material. One complete program with a cameo from Ralph Baker (who was also its producer) and one 16mm silent clip from a current affairs show (also Ralph). From the stations. Nothing. Their more recent anniversary shows don't show research of the ex-staff shed type, but the looking it up on YouTube type.
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Post by Scott Douglas on Sept 12, 2017 8:48:43 GMT
Hi James, Do you know if all of the Australian pop series Hitscene exists i know of roughly 10 or so shows that were on the net but was wondering if any more existed hosted by Dick Williams, i think it ran from 69-72 with a mixture of Australian pop music acts and a few British acts as well. Also Mr. Piper was shown on southern itv in the 60s i remember it well as a young boy. All episodes of Hitscene except Episode 1 survive on kinescope - not all of them have had a digital transfer as yet - but they are all held safely in the ABC archives. The show finished at the end of 1972 due to a miming ban. The precursor to Hitscene was "Hit Parade" - also hosted by Dick Williams - only one episode (from 1968) survives in the ABC archives.
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Post by Sue Butcher on Sept 12, 2017 9:16:56 GMT
A question for James; when did Australian networks stop copying videotaped programmes to film for regional distribution?
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Post by Alan Hayes on Sept 12, 2017 9:19:32 GMT
Thanks for the answer, Martin. Very pleased to haar that Phoenix Five is held complete. As film or VT telecines?
I'd buy a Phoenix Five DVD or Blu-ray set in a breath. Cherished childhood memories.
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Post by Martin Dunne on Sept 12, 2017 10:15:00 GMT
Thanks for the answer, Martin. Very pleased to haar that Phoenix Five is held complete. As film or VT telecines? I'd buy a Phoenix Five DVD or Blu-ray set in a breath. Cherished childhood memories. All held in film formats, plus some have been copied to MP3; someone's been accessing them!
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Post by Archive on Sept 12, 2017 11:18:41 GMT
A question for James; when did Australian networks stop copying videotaped programmes to film for regional distribution? Hi Sue, The reason kines were generally used was that at the time videotape was seen as a re-usable temporary medium and videotape costs were expensive in comparison to film. There was also a problem with interchange, a videotape recorded at one station was not always guaranteed to be compatible with every other playback machine it encountered afterwards, videotape also had a limited amount of playback passes before it was too worn for re-use. Some regional stations may have only had one machine or none at all in the very early days. So it made sense to send out kine recordings as being 16mm, it was guaranteed to be compatible with any telecine equipment worldwide. The telecine machines were of course the bread and butter of a tv station at the time, with most programming being put to air directly from film. When color came along in 1975, kines were really a thing of the past, videotape had well and truly become established, and by the early 1980's the 1" format had come along which didnt have the interchange problem risk, and was comparatively cheaper than it had been previously. Some color kine recordings still were made, notably you will see some overseas music clips used on countdown which are color kines. However color kines are comparatively rare as technology had moved on so much it really didnt make sense, and i suspect became more costly compared to videotape. However, 16mm distribution prints were still the predominant format for overseas programs put to air well throughout the 1980's, and even into the 90's in some regional areas, before telecine departments were abolished completely and material became videotape copies only.
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Post by Alan Hayes on Sept 12, 2017 17:00:09 GMT
All held in film formats, plus some have been copied to MP3; someone's been accessing them! MP3 - sound only? I assume you mean MP4?
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Post by Martin Dunne on Sept 12, 2017 17:27:28 GMT
[MP3 - sound only? I assume you mean MP4? MP3, WAV and audio tape. No, no idea why, but most episodes have an associated audio recording. It's possible audio copies were struck for a radio documentary, but I doubt it. The NFSA also holds sound effects such as "American satellite" paired with "baby crying".
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Post by Alan Hayes on Sept 12, 2017 20:55:43 GMT
Ah. How odd!
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Post by Sue Butcher on Sept 13, 2017 2:22:53 GMT
Thanks James, that's a very thorough answer!
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