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Post by Charles Daniels on Feb 21, 2012 9:47:37 GMT
I'll repeat what I said in the other thread because I think that there is an avenue of enquiry that amateurs could pursue. If films were taken by employees, those film cans are more than likely lying forgotten somewhere either in their houses or the houses of their children. Although this could be *anywhere* in the world, it's not uncommon for people to move to where their work is and then not bother moving away when they retire, or for their children to set up home in the same town that they grew up in. So the *best* bet to locate this forgotten material from ex-employees, IMVHO, is to advertise in a local paper in the town/city where the TV stations are (or were, if they're now gone). People are always happy to get rid of their old junk for a bit of cash. As long as you don't invite them to think that they've got the Mona Lisa sitting there you might strike lucky. It's a long shot, but the thing about long shots is that if enough people have a go at it it becomes a bit of a closer shot. I also think it's a significantly better shot than trying to follow 30 year route of some employee - unless you really are a private detective. Companies of any sort aren't going to want to give away personal employee information even if they have it. Richard Thanks for this Richard! I followed your advice above and put out a few ads just out of curiosity. I kept the ads intentionally very vague. Simply saying I was interested in 16mm film stock and preferred television programmes over films, but was interested in both. And lo and behold, about an hour ago I got an email from a film collector listing what he has for sell. I've looked through this list pretty carefully, and it's all pretty mass market, wide available stuff, definitely nothing from the BBC or ITV at all. So yeah, not surprising result at all there - but very encouraging that I did get a reply and so quickly too.
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Post by Rob Hutchinson on Feb 21, 2012 12:40:52 GMT
is it worth circulating information/requests through this organisation - i notice they have a small ads section? www.fvi.org.uk/index.htmland also is it worth trawling back through the small ads of old film and film making magazines to get leads on old dealers? this organisation appears to have a large collection of archived magazines but perhaps older than the time period we are interested in? wordpress.ppttrust.org/archive/ppt-archive-catalogueapologies if these avenues have already been explored
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Richard Develyn
Member
Living in hope that more missing episodes will come back to us.
Posts: 574
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Post by Richard Develyn on Feb 21, 2012 13:13:18 GMT
I would have though that any film collector will know what he has, but he might not if he's more of your amateur film collector than a semi-professional one.
The people you're really trying to find, of course, wont be collectors at all.
Still, I think it's great that you've given it a go. Had I the time and money I've often thought that I would go travelling around the country in some low-key way putting adverts along those lines in local papers and seeing what came up.
I also think this sort of work complements the efforts made by the (semi) professionals rather than getting in their way.
Having said all this, you must remember that this is all extremely speculative. Do it while you enjoy it, but think carefully about committing a lot of time and money unless you really think you might be turning things up.
One other thing - be careful of hoaxers.
Richard
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Post by Richard Marple on Feb 21, 2012 13:27:30 GMT
Supposedly a lot of early John Craven's Newsround survives because the VT engineers would start the tapes running a few minutes early to make sure everything was working properly before BP started.
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Post by Nicholas Fitzpatrick on Feb 21, 2012 13:36:36 GMT
Z-Cars was shown live for most of it's early days, why bother to record it? For overseas sales? The earliest episodes of Z Cars aren't the most missing.
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Post by Rob Moss on Feb 21, 2012 17:14:49 GMT
Supposedly a lot of early John Craven's Newsround survives because the VT engineers would start the tapes running a few minutes early to make sure everything was working properly before BP started. According to the rumours I've heard, Biddy Baxter was "friendly" with the producer of John Craven's Newsround, and arranged for recording to start early so that Newsround would also be archived. This may be an urban myth though!
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Post by Rob Moss on Feb 21, 2012 17:18:26 GMT
I would have though that any film collector will know what he has, but he might not if he's more of your amateur film collector than a semi-professional one. The people you're really trying to find, of course, wont be collectors at all. Still, I think it's great that you've given it a go. Had I the time and money I've often thought that I would go travelling around the country in some low-key way putting adverts along those lines in local papers and seeing what came up. I also think this sort of work complements the efforts made by the (semi) professionals rather than getting in their way. Having said all this, you must remember that this is all extremely speculative. Do it while you enjoy it, but think carefully about committing a lot of time and money unless you really think you might be turning things up. One other thing - be careful of hoaxers. Richard One other other thing - for the love of god, don't mention Dr Who. Be as general as possible, as Charles has done above. This is absolutely the way to go about it. You need to be seen to be interested in all things film, not just one particular tv show.
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Richard Develyn
Member
Living in hope that more missing episodes will come back to us.
Posts: 574
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Post by Richard Develyn on Feb 21, 2012 19:45:56 GMT
Quite. Otherwise people might think you're some sort of crazy obsessive, and you'll frighten them off.
Doctor Who fans have, unfortunately, created a bit of a reputation for themselves in this regard.
Richard
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Post by Charles Daniels on Feb 21, 2012 21:55:45 GMT
One other other thing - for the love of god, don't mention Dr Who. Be as general as possible, as Charles has done above. This is absolutely the way to go about it. You need to be seen to be interested in all things film, not just one particular tv show. I wrote the ad hoping that someone would read it and think "Oh, I've got some old 16mm cans upstairs. No idea what's on them. But I'll give it a look and see if this geezer will buy them." And yeah, I'm really interested in tracking down absolutely anything that is missing. How cool would that be? I'd feel stupid if I engineered a situation where someone said "Oh, they only want Doctor Who, and all I've got are those dusty old Z Cars and Avengers." Or even "Do those cans have Dr Who? Nah. Don't think so." So they never even go into the loft to check. Anyway, I wrote it not targetting collectors. My ad starts off like "Got some old film cans collecting dust in the loft?" But obviously a very energetic and enthusiastic film buff tracked down my ad right away. Haven't seen any other reply yet though.
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Post by Charles Daniels on Feb 21, 2012 22:00:39 GMT
I would have though that any film collector will know what he has, but he might not if he's more of your amateur film collector than a semi-professional one. The people you're really trying to find, of course, wont be collectors at all. Still, I think it's great that you've given it a go. Had I the time and money I've often thought that I would go travelling around the country in some low-key way putting adverts along those lines in local papers and seeing what came up. I also think this sort of work complements the efforts made by the (semi) professionals rather than getting in their way. Having said all this, you must remember that this is all extremely speculative. Do it while you enjoy it, but think carefully about committing a lot of time and money unless you really think you might be turning things up. Yeah I guess I'll need to track down a very comprehensive list of things which are missing. Or find some resource where I can very quickly punch in the details of a programme and discover if it's on some shelf somewhere in an archive. I think it would be terribly exciting to turn up a clip from Top of the Pops or...well, anything. Of course it's probably a silly one in a million shot, but people play the lottery every week anyway, don't they? So probably a similar thing. Yeah I'll have to work out a way to check or to protect myself if I do make a payment to someone.
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Post by Rob Moss on Feb 21, 2012 22:06:01 GMT
www.lostshows.com is an online database run by Kaleidoscope, and it should give you an idea. It's not 100% accurate, but it's still pretty damn useful.
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Post by Charles Daniels on Feb 21, 2012 22:13:13 GMT
www.lostshows.com is an online database run by Kaleidoscope, and it should give you an idea. It's not 100% accurate, but it's still pretty damn useful. Cheers for that Rob! Bookmarked!
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Richard Develyn
Member
Living in hope that more missing episodes will come back to us.
Posts: 574
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Post by Richard Develyn on Feb 21, 2012 22:20:12 GMT
I honestly think that if you've got the time, energy, and a bit of cash to spare, that this could actually be pretty good fun.
I'd do it if I could.
Good luck!
Richard
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Post by Charles Daniels on Feb 21, 2012 22:26:50 GMT
I honestly think that if you've got the time, energy, and a bit of cash to spare, that this could actually be pretty good fun. I'd do it if I could. Good luck! Richard Yeah! I think so! I've got the energy for it! And the crazy go lucky obsessiveness to keep at it. I'm sure I can carve the time and the cash out of somewhere if an opportunity arises. ;D Actually, I could use the distraction and the hobby of it. And if nothing else, I'm sure I'll meet a few interesting characters along the way and who knows, maybe even turn up something interesting.
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Post by Brad Phipps on Feb 21, 2012 23:01:41 GMT
I'm sure I'll meet a few interesting characters along the way ...I smell a sitcom...
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