Re: A Steam Train Passes (was EXCELLENT VIDEO)

[bevanwall@ozemail.com.au (Bevan Wall)]

The outtakes were made available to a prominent rail preservation
organisation with the understanding that any use of them would be for
fund raising purposes only. The film has been transferred to digital
master tape with excellent results - a VHS copy made from this master
is far better in quality of the copies of "A Steam Train Passes" that
most people would already have. The outtakes were not used in the
original film for "artistic" reasons - things happened in the
background that the director was not happy with, such as other trains
appearing, semaphores not dropping at the right time, livestock
wandering too close to the track, the train being obscured by the
loco's steam trail, etc. There is even a scene of the 38 storming
through the curves near Sodwalls when a car arrives near the bridge
and a load of photographers pile out!! The outtakes also contain heaps
of footage of 3820. Camera techniques to be used for the making of the
film were trialled by filming 3820 on a run to Goulburn and return.
The quality is just as good  as in "A Steam Train Passes".
The problem is that there is none of the origonal soundtrack
available. I would be interested in hearing comments on this issue. If
a video is released primarily for the enthusiast market, would buyers
want to listen to a dubbed soundtrack, music, some form of narration,
etc, or would they be happy to just watch the beautifully photographed
scenes with no soundtrack. (I suppose if they did not like the dubbed
soundtrack they could simply turn it down) Creating a soundtrack would
significantly increase the cost of producing the video (a trial
editing of the visuals has already been done) thus reducing the
fundraising potential, plus it would also mean the release date would
be greatly delayed.

Bevan Wall.       











On Sun, 06 Jun 1999 11:25:02 +1000, robson <robson@cia.com.au> wrote:

>Bevan Wall wrote:
>
>> >A Steam Train Passes was made 25 years ago this/next month.
>> >
>> >It was shot in late June / early July 1974. The director of photography was
>> >Dean Semler.
>>
>> From an enthusiast's point of view, the outakes from this film (of
>> which there are nearly 3 hours) are fascinating.
>
>Please let us all know where a copy of all the outtakes can be obtained. I am sure
>it would be a big seller considering the quality of the photography.
>
>I was told that Film Australia had a big clean up several years ago and destroyed
>a lot of that footage, including the colour separation negatives for "A Steam
>Train Passes". This info was from a former employee at their headquarters at East
>Lindfield..
>
>Rob