Social media video update

I seem to remember posting a similar video a few months ago in the "exponential change" post.

But this is just as interesting.

Stop the planet I want to get off.

Alice at the Bates Hotel

There's an Alice in Wonderland Centre in Llandudno in north Wales (aside - I used to love the old railway poster, extolling Llandudno as "the Naples of the North"). Why? Because Alice Liddell, the little girl who inspired the book, used to stay there with her family, in a holiday home built by her father, Henry. The house became a hotel, and was to be - or has, I don't know, been demolished. There's a lovely picture of the house here, on the Daily Post website. Please take a peek.



















You'll see from the picture that the house is more Bates Hotel than cutsey rabbit hole.









The British Library (surely they're not piggy-backing on Alice-hype ;-) have an Alice exhibition. An Alice event. An "Alice Gallery" open until June?

Which brings me in a round-about way to the new 3D Alice blockbuster-to-be by Tim Burton, which I'm looking forward very much to seeing - will Alice be miss Bates or miss Cutey? In the meantime, as I await the Aberystwyth premiere, I'll amuse myself with this 1903 film adaptation restored by the bfi.

Where and when

Today was an interesting day...

The picture above is a still from a film we've discovered at work, and it is quite an nice find. The picture appears to show new bards, writers, artists etc. being initiated into the Gorsedd at a National Eisteddfod.

The Gorsedd, led by the Archdruid, meet to perform this ritual at a special bardic circle - a row of large-ish stones implanted into the earth to form a circle, with a "main stone" called the Maen Llog in the middle. You can see one of the stones in the picture. The National Eisteddfod, being a moveable feast, visits a different area of Wales (and sometimes beyond, see below) each year.

Typically, two major ceremonies are carried out at the stone circle, one being the Eisteddfod Proclamation, which is carried out the year before the Eisteddfod takes place in the area, the second being the initiation of the new Gorsedd members, which occurs during the Eisteddfod.

So, how do we know that this is an initiation, rather than a proclamation ceremony? Well, look carefully at the row of "bards" lining up. They are not wearing a headress; indeed they have that part of the ceremonial robe draped over their arm. They will only wear the headgear once they have been accepted into the Gorsedd.

As this ceremony takes place during the Eisteddfod, we can assume that this piece of film was shot at the event. But which event, and where?

We've compared the image with postcard views of old Eisteddfodau, and are leaning towards the Liverpool National Eisteddfod of 1929. If it was the proclamation, then it would be dated 1928. And that's as far as we've got.

The Gorsedd was established in 1792 (at Primrose Hill - "Bryn Briallu") in London, while the first eisteddfod which can be called "national" took place in the year 1176 at Cardigan, under the sponsorship of Lord Rhys.

If you happen to be an expert on the Eisteddfod, and instantly recognise the location, please let me know! While our "educated guesses" are more often than not correct, it would be a great help to get confirmation one way or another.

The picture below is a still taken from the same film. This would appear to be a proclamation ceremony, and the location is easily identified as being Cardiff Castle. The 1938 National Eisteddfod took place in that city, and so the footage was shot in 1937, which fits perfectly with what we believe to be the date of the film.

Detective work is so much more rewarding than attending committee meetings.















PS. The Gorsedd nowadays use a set of portable plastic or fibreglass stones to form the circle. Things just ain't what they used to be. But as has just been pointed out to me, at the first meeting of the Gorsedd in 1792, the leader of the pack, Iolo Morganwg, laid out the circle in small pebbles taken from his pocket.

For Filmmuseum Biennale read Film Biennale

Filmmuseum Biennale has changed its name. Below is a synopsis taken from a recent email regarding the Film Biennale. The event sounds like an extravaganza, and archivists please take note of the last two paragraphs.

7 April
Opening night: Michael Nyman performs The Man with a Movie Camera
The Film Biennale will kick off in Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ with the
screening of /The Man with a Movie Camera/. Dating from 1929, this
cinematographic masterpiece by Russian film pioneer Dziga Vertov
continues to impress with its power.

8 April
The Bankruptcy Jazz Live!
One of the highlights of the Film Biennale is the multimedia film
experience The Bankruptcy Jazz Live! It is the recent and only film
based on a scenario written by Belgian poet Paul van Ostaijen in 1921,
at a time when Europe was still in ruins. It is the world’s first true
Dadaist scenario. The work features a 1920s style, employing an
experimental, Dadaist collage technique to combine ready-made film
footage and audio. The result is a turbulent, avant-garde spectacle.
During the Dutch premiere in BIMhuis, The Bankruptcy Jazz will be staged
with singers, actors, a children’s choir and jazz band conducted by
composer Wouter van Bemmel. Van Bemmel will also make use of voice
samples, sound effects, and music excerpts. Frank Roumen of EYE is
directing the performance.


FILM3
The Film Biennale will open a new exhibition, FILM3 [kyü-bik film], on 8
April, in Culture Park Westergasfabriek, showcasing new installations
and performances by eleven young film artists.

10 April
Sessue Hayakawa: Hollywood’s first exotic superstar
Sessue Hayakawa (1889-1973) is primarily known for his role as the
Japanese colonel in David Lean’s /The Bridge on the River Kwai/ (1957).
Less well-known is the fact that he was the first non-Caucasian
Hollywood star and producer, and with his good looks and intense gaze he
was also a veritable hearthrob in second decade of last century.

8,9,11 April
Meet the MoMA
American film collection highlights
During the Film Biennale, The Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA)
will present a selection of films from its renowned collection.

11 April
Baba Zula plays Enis Aldjelis
Rounding off the Film Biennale is a spectacular performance by
internationally acclaimed Turkish group Baba Zula, which will accompany
the screening of Ernst Marischka’s film Enis Aldjelis in Paradiso.

9 April
Michael Curtiz before Hollywood
Before immigrating to the United States in 1926, Michael Curtiz,
director of the Hollywood classic /Casablanca /(1942), was an important
figure in the thriving Hungarian film industry. Between 1912 and 1919,
as Mihály Kertész, he made over forty silent movies – primarily popular
genres, but also a few propaganda films. The Film Biennale will dedicate
an entire day to the screening of his early Hungarian work, including
world premieres of the newly restored A Tolonc (1914, 70’) and/ Az
Utolsó hajnal/ (1917, 90’).

8 April
From Scratch to Screen
On 8 April, EYE Film Institute Netherlands will offer the general public
a behind-the-scenes look at film conservation. Throughout the day unique
discoveries and restoration projects will be shown, including several
world premieres. A number of films will feature an extra introduction.
Karel Doing for example, will present his Liquidator project, a
revolutionary digital adaptation of Willy Mullens’ silent film /Haarlem,
Adelheid Heftberger/ (Austrian Film Museum) and EYE-conservator
Mark-Paul Meyer will give a lecture on the restoration of /The Man with
the Camera/. With live music by Wim van Tuyl and Yvo Verschoor.

7 April
Seminar: The Reel Thing en AMIA
EYE Film Institute Netherlands is organising a seminar on 7 April
consisting of a morning and afternoon programme. The morning programme,
The Reel Thing, presents the most recent developments in the field of
film restoration and conservation, with demonstrations of both
traditional and digital techniques. Michael Friend and Grover Crisp,
both of Sony Pictures Entertainment, are organising this
state-of-the-art programme including various presentations.
The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), responsible for the
second programme, highlights current developments in archiving moving
images and forms an important international platform for people and
organisations involved in the acquisition, conservation, presentation
and application of film material. Those interested can attend either one
or both of these programmes.

More information

FIAF and JTS registration

The not-that-easy to find FIAF Congress and JTS registration form.

Note this info:-
Late registrants - between 31 March and 20 April will be charged
an additional admission fee of NOK 300.
Registration closes 21 April.

The city map, including location of congress/JTS locations and hotels.

BFM

28th Bergamo Film Meeting website

March 6 - 24, 2010

Edit:- This reminds me - I have some old photos of Bergamo on flickr.

archif.com

One of the challenges of working in a bilingual environment (in my case English and Welsh) is that everything "public" has to be, more or less, supplied in both languages.

The original website for the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales was actually two separate websites, with separate - and very long - addresses - one for the English site, one for the Welsh.

A couple of years ago, it was decided this was unsustainable, and that we should join with the (then) new National Library of Wales site, which is built on an integrated bilingual system. This would hopefully allow us to maintain and develop a web presence with our somewhat diminished resources. It was also a functional necessity, due to the fact that NLW (which includes NSSAW) was going down a "one database, one set of finding aids" route, and integrating this approach into the structure of the old website was a nightmare.

Nothing is simple, is it? I won't bore you with all the interesting challenges the wonderful people in the NLW Computer Dept. had to surmount (well, I would bore you, but I don't actually understand some of the problems!).

Today the website "went live". The first visible change is that we now have one address, archif.com which leads to a splash page, where the user can choose the language of the interface. However, the big difference for us is the CMS which manages the pages, and which allows us, in an integrated way, to load bilingual information. The other difference is that much of the site will now be driven by a "blogging engine", which the aforementioned computing staff have integrated into the system. This means that the core information about the Archive - which by nature is fairly static, can be added to fairly quickly with new information about things that are current at the time of writing.

It's obviously early days, and I'm sure we'll have a few hiccups, and I know we have a lot more to learn. On a personal note, I'll be sad that some of highly useable catalogues found on the old site have disappeared. But all the information held in them (ISYS and film catalogue) has been ported to the NLW Virtua/Vital system. In fact, this corporate catalogue houses, literally, hundreds of thousands of catalogue records for a-v material which couldn't be accessed via the old system. But more info often means that it can be harder to find exactly what you need, and those used to the super-easy to navigate film catalogue, will find things a bit harder. It's fairly easy to spot a big fish in a small pool, but the same size fish in an ocean is harder to catch, and the film data, and all the other a-v data come to that, now live in a gigantic pool of millions of catalogue records for everything from paintings to paper archives, to photographs, to books and periodicals.

Congratulations to my colleagues at NSSAW and NLW for getting the new site up and running.

Crowdsourcing DVDs

Crowdsourcing to get National Archives (USA) DVDs onto the Internet Archive

Archives Next blog post here.

Link to the International Amateur Scanning League here.

Item on a National Scanning Centre.

Heritage microphones from the BBC

Nice video from BBC R&D on the history of some BBC microphones.

Happy Valentine's Day

xxxx

Film Preservation Blogathon

Raise money for the National Film Preservation Foundation (US) by blogging on film!

Ffrom Siren.

and Flickhead

You can donate to the invaluable work of the foundation here.

Indie digital cinema conference

Nice warm sunny conference in Barcelona on digital cinema challenges. 4 - 6 March. Sounds quite big - 200 attendees.

Under the auspices of the Spanish presidency of the EU.

Modern copyright for digital media

One and a bit day, slightly weird sounding conference "Modern copyright for digital media" 17 March, at the EU Parliament.
"Facing a changing media environment - solutions for a modernized copyright"
"Join us for a live TV show where we will showcase public service media content on all platforms and address some challenges raised by the copyright framework. Hosted by two presenters, the television production will be an interactive talk show with live interviews, video clips and a live music act.

In a separate session the EBU will put forward its ideas on copyright modernization and will then open the discussions to the floor for an interactive panel debate."

Ffresh

Spring is nearly here, so it's time for the Ffresh film festival.
11 - 12 February, Aberystwyth Arts Centre

I wish I was a student again, rather than a sponsor.

Lords reject format-shifting

In a very late night "debate", the Lords reject several amendments proposed for the Digital Economy Bill, including the all important right to format-shift, which it says should be agreed at an EU level. Article in paidcontent here.

i2010 Digital Libraries Initiative

High level EU Expert Group report on Digital Libraries

BL Moving Image blog

The new British Library Moving Image Blog.

If anything approaching the quality and scope of the Bioscope, Luke McKernan's latest blog venture will be essential reading from now on.

LoC optical lab

Very interesting post by Matt Raymond on the new LoC optical lab, and the benefits it brings to non-invasive preservation & understanding how all kinds of objects were created and how they may have changed over time (including daguerreotype photos).

Canvas opinion

Last chance to contribute to the Canvas consultation. Closes 2nd February.