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Post by Richard Marple on Jan 19, 2012 20:36:21 GMT
Until I read something about John Cura not long ago, I had assumed he had been given permission to take photos in the actual studio or from a gallery monitor rather than just at home.
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Post by adamjordan on Jan 19, 2012 20:40:39 GMT
...I get the impression that there was little or no attempt to capture particular aspects of any production,and the shots were taken in every sense mechanically? One or two of those snaps catch the screen in mid transition so we get a sort of double exposure capturing elements of two images . Don't ask me which ones though please!
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Post by John Green on Jan 19, 2012 21:09:23 GMT
Is there any evidence about Mr.Cura might have responded to demand,not just in the shows he telesnapped,but the aspects he caught on camera? It's always seemed odd that Warris Hussain didn't want the Marco Polo episode that was directed by another gentleman.Not just because you might have expected a special rate for the full set of every episode,but in terms of completeness.I quite understand that he had good reasons for just getting 6 of 7,What a good thing he remembered he had them! If only John Cura's sales list could be found.Heaven only knows how many telesnaps there are out there.Would most people recognise them for what they are? Am I right in remembering that they have a 'ridged' feel to them rather than smooth,and can anyone say if they're matt or gloss? A bit of publicity in the search for these (or has it already been done?) would be nice.
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Post by Richard Bignell on Jan 19, 2012 22:33:31 GMT
It's always seemed odd that Warris Hussain didn't want the Marco Polo episode that was directed by another gentleman.Not just because you might have expected a special rate for the full set of every episode,but in terms of completeness. There wasn't any special rate. He was paid the same standard cost for each episode he photographed regardless of the length of the story. On his envelopes, he regular stated that he had taken over 250,000 in total, but that was by the late 1950s. By the time he stopped towards the end of the 1960s, it must have been double that, especially considering that he was photographing multiple screens to capture programmes on all the available channels. It was just standard matt photographic paper.
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Post by Simon Broad on Jan 19, 2012 23:11:18 GMT
Hopefully we will find at least one more missing episode before dr whos 50th!
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Post by John Green on Jan 19, 2012 23:16:08 GMT
Even if his claim of up to half a million is over-inflated,and even if his wife destroyed thousands,there ought to be say 25 or 50 thousand out there? Anyone know how many are accounted for?
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Post by Simeon Carter on Jan 20, 2012 18:33:44 GMT
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Post by Simeon Carter on Jan 21, 2012 0:17:26 GMT
Does anyone know?
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Post by Rob Moss on Jan 21, 2012 12:00:17 GMT
Even if his claim of up to half a million is over-inflated,and even if his wife destroyed thousands,there ought to be say 25 or 50 thousand out there? Anyone know how many are accounted for? Why "ought" there to be 25 or 50 thousand out there..?
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Post by John Green on Jan 21, 2012 13:47:34 GMT
Pure guess work that 5-10% percent of telesnaps survive. The factors in their favour-that their not so big that they block the hallway,and that they involved an important financial outlay by the original purchasers who opted to buy them because they wanted something to keep as a reminder of their achievements-can be offset by problems i.e. many of those people have died,telesnaps are small,and their importance unappreciated. I'm interested that they were sometimes kept in scrapbooks.I guess that John Cura just sent them out in envelopes; any customising was down to individuals?
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Post by George D on Jan 22, 2012 0:15:13 GMT
One thing to keep in mind is that if there were 500K telesnaps, and there were 100 a show, then he did 5000 shows. If there were 50 a show, he did 10,000 shows.
Now, under your assumption that 5-10% survive, were talking telesnaps for 500-1000 shows.
Out of that 500 shows, they were not all Dr Who. Out of Dr Who we have most of them. Many of the other telesnaps could be for anything from existing shows to a special news broadcasts etc. Unfortunately, it appears that perserving Dr Who is the top priority,perserving a handful of other shows comes in at a lower level, and then everything else, very few care to spend the effort of archiving.
Even if 5-10% existed while many should be perserved but also many could be duplicates of shows existing or telesnaps of shows not on the high demand list.
For example, we lucked out and found telesnaps for Avengers series 1. If he made telesnaps also of series 2,3,4, and 5. no one really cares to put the research into finding. We have all Steptoes. If Telesnaps were found of that, it would simply be a curiousity. If telesnaps were made of itv shows such as supercar and fireball, it wouldnt be of interest. Also many could be of missing news broadcasts, documentarys, plays, etc which, while missing, could have been mixed in files as the dr who telesnaps were or in the hands of those who purchased them people Im thinking would not be a great revelation for many if found.
We have found telesnaps for around half the missing who episodes so I think we're doing good. What I would love to see is telesnaps for quatermass experiment found, but that is probably a long shot.
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Post by John Green on Jan 22, 2012 0:31:58 GMT
George,500 shows sounds wonderful,though I think that might disregard duplicates.I woder what his income would have been selling 5000,000 over several decades? Minus the final clearout. I doubt he would have done many talking=heads programmes ,or news broadcasts.The radio telesnaps were non-starters,it seems.(Hee hee). There are meant to be quite a few people out there who are into variety on TV-BBC 4 actually covered it.Surely they must have retreived some telesnaps? Vanity items,if you like,that were meant to be a permanent addition to a thespian's cutting-book.I wonder how many are known to survive? I'd love to see more of them,and not just from Doctor Who.I give a little cheer every time something new is discovered,and these little photos could be the only visual record of a large part of bygone TV.
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Post by George D on Jan 22, 2012 0:39:43 GMT
I personally agree with you that they should be found. My thoughts are that he did telesnaps for whoever paid him. It could be vanity, or the coronation or anything. What his profit is, I can not say. There was the cost of film as well as developing and I dont know what he actually charged. Im going to guess we have telesnaps on 100 shows currently. if there are maybe 100-200 shows on telesnaps out there of missing shows, then perhaps they should be perserved also. The key would be looking through the paper archives of the BBC as well asking the producers directors of various shows what they might have telesnaps of before they pass I think we asked the producer of series 1 avengers what he had in avengers series 1. If he did it for avengers, who knows what other shows he worked on that he ordered telesnaps for? Also we found the Marco polo stills but Im sure he worked on other shows which he might have ordered telesnaps for also But keep in mind a lot of the snaps you find may not be the most thrilling
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Post by John F Brayshaw on Jan 22, 2012 4:31:22 GMT
I think any telesnaps found of the missing eps are out there they should be preserved and will assist with any of the stories that will be animated. Error in caution not on chance.
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Post by David Cann on Jan 22, 2012 11:39:42 GMT
Out of curiousity, did Mr. Cura ever photograph the football-themed soap opera United!? Many individuals who worked on Doctor Who wrote for the series, and all of its 147 episodes are missing. It was broadcast twice-weekly on BBC1, so I think that there's a good chance that he did take some tele-snaps - of course, it would depend on whether the producer at the time decided to take up Cura's services.
To my knowledge (I hope that I'm wrong), no visual or audio record of United! survives at all, though I hope that someone can correct me... so if we were to find a set of tele-snaps for just one of its 147 episodes, then it would be quite a find, as we'd actually have some sort of record of the show 'as transmitted', aside from publicity photographs. (if we even have those! Again, I'm not sure)
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