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Post by William Martin on Jul 28, 2003 17:27:55 GMT
Whats This thing I've been hearing about the ABC TV film archives and a time limit until the general public can view them?  |
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Post by Matthew K Sharp on Jul 29, 2003 5:21:57 GMT
Whats This thing I've been hearing about the ABC TV film archives and a time limit until the general public can view them? You're confusing two different things. The ABC TV library is their library of their output over the years - and apparently they've just started digitising it all in a three year project to remaster the entire audio and video holdings. Now, the Australian Archives are the official government archives. In the bad old days before deregulation, films and TV programs were classified and censored by the government censorship board. Any deletions made to films were required to be kept for 30 years in the Australian Archives. This is where the Dr Who censor clips come from - each bit of film cut out was stored in the Archive to ensure it couldn't be mysteriously re-instated. There was a bit of fracas when the existence of these Dr Who clips was confirmed and the BBC tried to get them back - no doubt someone more informed than me can explain the problems more thoroughly. As I understand it (when I looked into it a few years ago), it's not easy to access the Archive collection if you're a member of the general public (it's also not easy when you're in the wrong city, but that's another story). I also seem to recall hearing that after 30 years these bits of film are supposed to be disposed of... MKS |
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Post by William Martin on Jul 30, 2003 15:59:17 GMT
interesting, so do you think there may be missing bbc material there or is it just the censored clips? If the Australian authorities don't like the bbc then its possible. however when in doubt assume the worst.  |
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Post by Jo on Aug 13, 2003 11:58:02 GMT
I also seem to recall hearing that after 30 years these bits of film are supposed to be disposed of... MKS No - afer 30 years government records become open to the public - not destroyed! Also National Archives holds a lot the masters for the ABC's complete TV programs - that is where their programs are archives to (unlike commercial stations that have their programs archived by ScreenSound) |
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Post by Matthew K Sharp on Aug 14, 2003 3:19:55 GMT
No - afer 30 years government records become open to the public - not destroyed! Govt records, yes... but I was under the impression that because these bits of film are still copyrighted, the Govt couldn't make them available to the public and therefore disposed of them. I might have to take a stroll up the the AA offices during lunch and have a chat with them... |
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Post by Jo on Aug 14, 2003 3:55:57 GMT
Govt records, yes... but I was under the impression that because these bits of film are still copyrighted, the Govt couldn't make them available to the public and therefore disposed of them. I might have to take a stroll up the the AA offices during lunch and have a chat with them... Well I've heard they are actually doing some preservation work on all those censorship board cuts at the moment - so I don't think that they are going to be destroying them. I suspect it is a bit unusual though - normally what they hold would have been produced by a government department/agency - but copyright doesn't necessarily stop them providing access to things - as long as it is just in their reading room. |
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Post by Matthew K Sharp on Aug 15, 2003 1:26:41 GMT
I'm sure that the recovery and subsequent exploitation of the Dr Who clips has lead the AA to revise their stance on whether the film clips are worth keeping or not. Which is good - potentially there could be some very interesting things in the censor's archive...
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Post by beanisacarrot on Aug 15, 2003 11:32:43 GMT
I'm sure that the recovery and subsequent exploitation of the Dr Who clips has lead the AA to revise their stance on whether the film clips are worth keeping or not. Which is good - potentially there could be some very interesting things in the censor's archive... The missing bits from the Goodies episode "Commonwealth Games" for one. (For those who don't know parts of this episode were censored for broadcast on the ABC in the early 70s and presumably stored in the archives. In the mid 70s the BBC deleted the master of this episode and it was thought to not exist, until a cenosred B&W film copy was found at the ABC.) |
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Post by William Martin on Aug 15, 2003 15:08:17 GMT
how likley is it do you think that there is missing material still in exisence there?
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Post by Andy on Aug 21, 2003 16:43:24 GMT
The missing bits from the Goodies episode "Commonwealth Games" for one. Not only that, but I remember reading somewhere (Robert Ross' book, I suspect) that one of the other B/W episodes, "The Playgirl Club", was also trimmed by the censors, though not as heavily as the episode you mention. I wonder if there would be censor cuts of "Till Death Us Do Part" in there? I seem to remember one or two of the episodes recovered in recent years (Alf's Dilemma one of them, I think) were somewhat edited. The companion edits might be in this archive... |
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Post by David Buck on Aug 21, 2003 23:03:56 GMT
Everybody seems to be forgetting the second batch of Australian censor clips that the BBC picked up with funds available through treasure hunt - material from IIRC - Out Of The Unknown, Dr. Finlay's Casebook & some other shows ( but i've forgotten them ). Other BBC show edits MIGHT still be held there but they have already checked for them. ( or at least Damian Shanahan did ).
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Post by dubs on Aug 21, 2003 23:49:17 GMT
Its amazing they held all these tiny snippets of film for all these years.
Now just imagine if they had censored the whole programme, and transmitted like 5 seconds of the opening titles!
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