Broadland Memories

[NorfolkNog]

I’ve been following Carol’s narrative on her 1930’s cine films and it is really fascinating stuff. Check out the Broadland Memories blog

http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/blog/

Carol’s narrative really brings the films to life and she must have gone to a lot of effort to fill the blog with interesting facts (ably assisted by Clive I gather).

Nice one Carol, and do you plan to release a DVD in the future?

[AdnamsGirl]

Oh bless you Howard ... thank you! Glad that you are finding it interesting as it is often just a lot of rambling on my part - the blog is a useful tool for making some notes for myself about it all!

The help from Clive was in regard to the stills of the Oulton Broad launches which I posted on here on another thread, and he identified for me (with the help of Dad!). I know I keep raving about it on the blog, but it is just such a fascinating bit of film and I am so excited about it! It really does capture the essence of what a family boating holiday was all about in the 1930s .... and it is in pretty good condition considering it is now 80 years old.

Yes .... the plan is to release it as a DVD on the website once it is finished as there is about 40 minutes of footage .... but it may take several months to get done as I want to add period music and some commentary ..... yikes!! Once I have recouped the costs of buying the film and having it transferred, any profits made will get ploughed back into the website to help with running costs and, hopefully, it will enable me to buy any further cine films or photographic collections which come up for sale.

I am currently working on a trailer of clips which I will attempt to upload to YouTube at some point over the next week or so. In the meantime watch the EDP website as I was contacted by one of their reporters last week who had discovered the blog and asked if they could do an article on the film and the archive. It should be on there in next week (I think) along with a very short ****** of film clips which I put together for them ...... trying to condense 40 minutes worth of film down into 30 seconds wasn't easy!! I am hoping that it might eventually lead to discovering who this family actually were as I would dearly love to know, and I think the article might be running in the Yorkshire Post too ..... so I am keeping my fingers crossed that someone recognises them.

Thanks again

Carol

[NorfolkNog]

I want to add period music and some commentary ..... yikes!!

If your commentary is as good as your singing Carol, you’ll have no worries!

Nice to hear the EDP have picked it up, I usually look at their website most days so will keep an eye open. It would be fantastic if it would give a lead to the identity of the family involved in the film too!

It would be great if the profits from the DVD can help to fund running the website and preserving this fascinating material for future generations. Please put me down for copy!

All the best

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

Hi Carol, if you DO put it out on DVD, where will we be able to buy it?. Also, have you decided on a marketing stratagy, such as possibly selling through boatyards and local riverside shops etc. Regards ............. Neil.

[AdnamsGirl]

Hi Neil

It will be available for sale via the Broadland Memories website . No, there is no marketing strategy ..... this isn't intended to be a money making venture with a large production run. My main interest is just to get this fascinating stuff out there for people to share. Yes, I will have to charge for the DVD but all I am really concerned about is recouping the costs involved to me in buying and getting the film transferred (which isn't cheap!). IF it turns a profit in the end then that will all just get ploughed back into the site as I said before. I do bid on old photos etc. when they crop up on Ebay, but there are so many keen collectors out there that I generally have to let things go because I don't have the funds available to compete with the big boys! The sad thing is, that the vast majority of it then just ends up in private collections and is never seen again. I don't even want to think about what I've spent out over the last few years on buying photos, films, books for research etc!

The hours I put into working on the site don't even come into it .... it's done because it's a labour of love and I'm just passionate about making as much of Broadland's history available to view online as possible. I would just like to be in a position where the website is approaching being self financing in respect of being able to purchase some of the more historically interesting material which comes up for sale every now and again. Cine film like this doesn't crop up very often at all, but it is such a valuable and fascinating record of Broadland's past which really brings the history of the area to life. Old film can deteriorate badly over the years and I think it is so important to try and preserve it digitally for the future. You can tell a lot from photos and from people's written accounts (and I am always excited when someone sends me something new), but to see moving footage of what, in this case, was a family holiday from a time when the boat hire industry was really beginning to boom and was opening up to a wider cross section of the public is just so amazing.

On a similar note ..... there was a news article in the EDP this week which reported that the East Anglian Film Archive's future is in doubt with the latest goveenment spending cuts to education. It would be absolutely criminal if funding for this hugely important work is stopped!

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/questions_over_future_of_east_anglian_film_archive_1_785254

Carol

[jillR]

hi carol

if by chance your DVD profits exceeded the costs and some in hand for the next, perhaps some could go to the archive ?

with that in mind, id be happy for you to post up a thread on the flickr group to help sell it.

does the archive have an easy way to donate that i could post up ?

jill

[AdnamsGirl]

Hi Jill

Crumbs ... it would be nice to think that I could sell enough copies to have that much income from them to spare, but in reality what I am putting out has a very limited market and appeal, so I'm not expecting to have a best seller on my hands! I currently sell around 10 - 15 copies of the DVD of my grandfathers c1950 cine film per year .... once I have taken off the costs of producing these (DVDs, printing etc) and postage and packing, the small profit left over covers my annual hosting fees and domain name. At the moment I am very very fortunate to have extremely low hosting costs (thanks to boat database Craig). With the new DVD it is possible that there will be an initial flurry of sales but I suspect it will then settle down into a similar sales pattern to my grandfathers film.

I don't think that the EAFA has a system for donations in place (although I could be wrong) - as it is owned and operated by the University of East Anglia then I would imagine that the funding for it comes from their eductaion budget, along with revenue raised from the small range of DVD's they have for sale (and some extremely interesting ones at that!), the licensing of material from their archives to TV and film production companies for re-use, and the film shows and talks they do around the region. Their website is here: http://www.eafa.org.uk/

Carol

[AdnamsGirl]

I have managed to sort out a trailer with some clips of the cine film and uploaded it to YouTube yesterday - feedback from those that have seen it (thank you for your help!) has been positive so far. I have had to compress it a little to ease upload/download speeds so the finished product should be better quality, but I have been told that it does view very well in full screen. I haven't done any work on the film itself yet other than putting a few excerpts together. Turn up the sound on your PC as there is some accompnaying period music to help set the scene. Trying to condense 40 minutes worth of footage down into around 3 minutes of clips wasn't easy, but I hope that it gives a good flavour of these fabulous films! Best viewed by clicking to go through to view it on YouTube so that you get the full screen option.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NTlPIWowFI

[jillR]

lovely

jill

[BuffaloBill]

Nice one Carol.

[jimbo]

That's brilliant Carol! Thanks for posting it up

[Dan]

Wow... absolutely brilliant stuff.

It's great your preserving and sharing this kind of history, sometimes it amazes me what exists, but it really is great when stuff like this can be shared, a great view into the past

Dan

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

Some absolutely stunning footage there, and it`s amazing just how much has changed, and also HAS`NT changed over time. Many thanks for posting it Carol, and please put my name down for a copy of the DVD. Well done . Regards ............ Neil.

[Guest]

brilliant loved it....

Jonny

[andyg]

hi carol that was really good loved the shots of wroxham, the water pump at horning thanks for sharing it with us.

[AdnamsGirl]

Glad that you all enjoyed seeing the clips!

Trying to decide which bits to use was a little difficult but I decided to largely concentrate on a few of the more interesting sections which I had already posted stills of. The thing which really got me seeing these films was the fact that so much of it was so instantly recognisable .... so yes ..... in many ways Broadland hasn't changed! The villages have grown and places like Wroxham and Hoveton are almost unrecognisable these days because of the mass development which has gone on, but there is still so much which doesn't look that different really.

Carol

[AdnamsGirl]

It seems that an article on the film must have appeared in the EDP at some point over the last week, but didn't make the online edition. Consequently I missed it (despite asking the journalist to let me know when it was going in!) as I don't get out every day to get a paper. I just got a forwarded email this morning from a lady who had read it and gave a bit more info about the Stokesby stills.

I'm not quite sure when it was in there, but if anyone has a copy of that EDP then I would be very grateful if they could scan the article and either PM or email it to me!

Carol

[BuffaloBill]

Carol has now uploaded a film that I sent her a while back of a

holiday on the Broads in 1965 when I was just 18yrs old 

 

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did after discovering it at

my cousin's house a few months ago.

See here:-

http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/blog/

[C.Ricko]

great film Bill, is that you in the pink leggings?

[BuffaloBill]

Good one Clive 

I wondered how long it would be before someone said it 

Who actually owned Stalham Yachting Station back then?

[C.Ricko]

Miles Simpson owned it and ran it then.

 

You did not answer my question!

[BuffaloBill]

Sorry Clive. Pink is just not my colour 

[AdnamsGirl]

Many thanks again Bill for allowing me to share this great film via the Broadland Memories YouTube channel. It's such a fantastic record of Broadland at the time. I always think that these old films are a bit like having a time machine!

 

Here is the direct link to it on YouTube

 

[AdnamsGirl]

The 1930s film clips that I linked to before are no longer there. I can't edit that post so thought I'd best explain.

 

I had to upload a new version of the 1930s footage as I'd had problems with the film being used on TV without permission. I have had to add a watermark in the hope it might prevent future unauthorised use .. hence watermarks on all new films uploaded from now on. It's a shame that I have to do that, but there we go!

 

When time allows, I hope to start working on and uploading a collection of family cine films which were sent to me a while ago and cover holidays taken on the Broads in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. I also have another new 1960s 16mm cine film which I've not even seen yet, let alone had transferred.

 

Anyway ... here is the new version of the 1930s cine film clips which I had posted earlier in this thread.

 

[C.Ricko]

I saw some stills from one of your films promoting another yard in a newspaper (I think)

I know they were yours as it was on Oulton Broad with my dads launches!!