The Gilg Expedition - 80th Anniversary

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Ian Grace
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Re: The Gilg Expedition - 80th Anniversary

Post by Ian Grace »

Derek,

Thanks for that. I know just the man for the task - Andrew Gilg. You have seen how much work and energy he has put in to transcribe his father's diary. If you e-mail me the pertinent contact details and a gamer plan, I will forward to Andrew, light the blue touch paper and retire! These cine films were only loaned to ITV, so they are rightfully Andrew's now. That should give him some leverage.

These original cine films were frail even when the programme was made, but with modern techniques and digital processing, I am very hopeful that if they can be found, most if not all of the content can be saved for posterity. Incidentally, Andrew and his family are joining us again at our Summer Rally in July - at Prescott where Andrew will again Present the Gilg Trophy (a replica of the serpent mascot worn by his father car on the expedition and awarded to the Minor driven the furthers to the weekend) the and helping to marshal on Sunday.

PS - Spare copy of M 149 for Brian Demaus will be on the way to you Tuesday (also a holiday here this weekend - Memorial Day on Monday).
chris lambert
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Re: The Gilg Expedition - 80th Anniversary

Post by chris lambert »

Back in 2008 the master tape of the Yorkshire TV programme was held by ITN in Yorkshire. I exchanged emails with them at the time. I have no idea if they also hold the original cine film in their archive but it might be a good starting point. See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=144&p=1294&hilit=yorkshire#p1284 althoughI suspect that the email address for 'Jane Chambers' may be long defunct
Ian Grace
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Re: The Gilg Expedition - 80th Anniversary

Post by Ian Grace »

Hi Chris,

Thanks for that. Luckily, we have the DVD of the programme, and the search is on for the original cine films. I'll pass all this info on to Andrew Gilg.

Fingers crossed everybody - what a find this would be!

Cheers,

Ian
sv4670
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Re: The Gilg Expedition - 80th Anniversary

Post by sv4670 »

Not much help to give really. I understand the film was held by Yorkshire Television -YTV. When the offices in Leeds closed down the films were transferred to the Yorkshire film archive:

Yorkshire Film Archive
York St John University
Lord Mayors Walk
York
YO31 7EX
T 01904 876550
F 01904 876552
E yfa@yorksj.ac.uk

Someone who was involved with the YTV programme about the expedition has visited the archive a number of times I believe but could not find them. The suspicion is they were incorrectly labelled - or placed in the wrong container or something. Sorry I cannot help more.
Ian Grace
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Re: The Gilg Expedition - 80th Anniversary

Post by Ian Grace »

Fantastic breaking news this morning. The entire 1933 Gilg expedition 16 mm cine film collection has been found!

For various reasons, we can't say where they are, but the entire collection has been located and plans are now being established to rescue their content by extracting it to digital media. A number of clips were used in the Yorkshire TV programme, but those clips only represent a fraction of the entire contents which runs to many reels. Some of the films are in a fragile state, so advanced techniques will be needed to copy and restore some of the content.

Once the films have been saved and transferred to digital media, DVD's of the entire contents wil be made available to Register members.

I should add that the films were found as a result of information provided by Derek Chatto - so we owe him a huge debt of gratitude.
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