A CITY'S CHILD FILM TEASER 2

GOOD NEWS.
back in 1971,  I produced the first Australian Feature Film from the then Experimental Film Fund created by the Liberal Gorton Government
 A CITY'S CHILD.
The film went on to screen at the London, Chicago, Edinburgh and other International Film Festivals including Adelaide where it won Best Australian Film. It also won for the star, Monica Maughan the first Acting Award from the Australian Film Institute.  
A CITY'S CHILD  will be Streaming in October.
In the meantime, a trailer for the film. Enjoy.
(The hair in the gate is not in the film. It has been put there to annoy you purists!) 😊

Keep watching here for Streaming release date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_City%27s_Child

I'd like you to read an interview with my amateur sleuth, Aussie Belinda Lawrence.

https://grandmaberthainterviews.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-chat-with-belinda-larence-aussie.html

ILLUSION OF DEATH clip

TERRIFIC TIMES

Back in 1960 before I sailed away to England, I worked with producer Roger Mirams on a children's series, 

THE TERRIFIC ADVENTURES OF THE TERRIBLE TEN.

The series centered around a group of children who built their own town out of packing cases, somewhere in the Australian countryside.

Over three years I had the good fortune to learn my film craft editing and eventually directing many of these episodes. 

The series sold internationally and was a great success. The first series was a pretty rough and ready,  but as time went on and budgets increased the quality of story and production values improved. 

Stanley Kramer had been in Melbourne filming ON THE BEACH and one of his sets was the interior of a submarine. 

After  completion of this film, the set was left behind - at the  Melbourne Show Grounds, if I recall correctly. Roger was never one to miss an opportunity and wrote a script utilizing that set. THE GREAT SUBMARINE mystery. (What else?)

Before I left for the UK I directed a script by David Sale (creator of NUMBER 96 television series) TWO DAYS TO ZERO. It starred Frank Thring, who had just returned to Melbourne after making such films as Ben Hur and King of Kings.

When I offered him the part his reply was "Can you afford to pay me?" delivered in that theatrical style that he favoured. Frank was great and good to work with; he did it for Equity Minimum. When the film was offered to the BBC they declined it, stating " farce is often a family joke" Well, d'ah"

                    Roger on right.

I'm eternally grateful to Roger Mirams who allowed me to expand my experience on this series and others, as he did with so many other people.

Roger Eastgate Holden Mirams was a New Zealand-born film producer and director, whose career extended over 60 years. Mirams co-directed Broken Barrier, the only local dramatic feature film made in New Zealand in the 1950s, and later won a reputation for the children's television series he produced in Australia. Wikipedia

Born: 16 April 1918, Christchurch, New Zealand

Died: 26 February 2004, Sydney

Awards: Australian Film Institute Open Craft Award in Non-Feature Film,

I later worked with Roger on a few episodes of his other childrens series , and returned to work full time with him as Supervising Editor on THE ADVENTURES OF THE SEASPRAY.

Adventures Of The Seaspray

A Pacific Film Production in association with Screen Gems

Producer: Roger Mirams

Directors: Joe McCormick, Eddie Davis, David Baker, Rex Lipton

Writers: David Seidler, Bill Strutton, William Manville, John Pinkney, Robert Mansfield, John Sherman, Colin Free, John Warwick

Music Eric Gross

Aired: 1967 (ABC, 32 x 30 min)

These are the adventures of a charter schooner, of its Captain — journalist Dan Wells — and of his children as they roam the South Pacific

Later, I edited the Pilot Episode of SPYFORCE and a few other episodes. The series was produced by Roger and starred Jack Thompson.

https://www.classicaustraliantv.com/spyforce.htm

But back to TWO DAYS TO ZERO

https://vimeo.com/206015594

Enjoy the episode and have as much fun as I did making it.

Dissolve to...

BLOODY HAM video

SCENE TWO: London 1963/64.

I like films that play around with time eg: an all-time favourite,

PROVIDENCE by Alain Resnais.

Clive (John Gielgud), a frequently drunk author in declining health, is busy working on a new book at his Rhode Island home. The characters in his new story are based on his actual family, which includes his wife, Sonia (Ellen Burstyn); his illegitimate son, Kevin (David Warner) ; and his son, Claude (Dirk Bogarde). Clive embellishes their personalities, adding heavy symbolism to create a dark, surreal tale. When they all show up for a family meal, we learn about their true natures.

and DUNKIRK by Christopher Nolan,

so this Blog follows that style with a lot of a film rattling through the Moviola

as we jump cut from Preston in 1944 to London of the Swinging Sixties.

I arrived at Victoria Station surrounded by hordes of Indians all intent on opening corner shops and selling Pink Paraffin. A Horde is described as 'a small loosely knit social group typically consisting of about five families' so I think my use of the plural term is applicable. A friend who greeted me at Victoria claimed, “My dear, it's just like Bhowani Junction!"

I arrived also at the peak of the Profumo scandal,

The Beatles, Rolling Stones,

Carnaby Street.

By now I was a fully-fledged Film Editor (more anon) and was fortunate enough to find employment with a documentary producer, Stanley Schofield. The cutting rooms were at 6-8 Old Bond Street around the corner from Burlington Arcade

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Burlington-Arcade-the-Burlington-Beadles/

and across the road from Asprey,

https://www.asprey.com/by-royal-appointment

so, as I was sharing a flat in Kensington, I wasn't exactly slumming it.

Number 6 Old Bond Street

As you can see it now reeks of Dolce & Gabbana but originally had in the basement, The Embassy.

One of the first London night clubs 1924.

1954: ‘One of the oldest-established clubs of its type in London…food and service excellent and usually a very high standard of cabaret. Cheque-book. Subscription: 1 guinea. Band: Billy Sproud.’

While there I was introduced by Mr Schofield to Jane, a young woman who had come from Africa with some film footage of chimpanzee.

Little did I know the woman was Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE, formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, an English primatologist and anthropologist.

https://www.grunge.com/93256/untold-truth-dr-jane-goodall/

I recently discovered that Jane Goodall had previously worked at Stanley Schofield productions as an assistant and as an editor, so it seems logical that she would have returned to Mr Scofield to produce her documentaries on the chimpz.  Sadly, I never got to work on those doco’s as I was about to return to Australia.

But before I did, I left my mark on English cinema.

1964. the year of THE PILL

https://yesterday.uktv.co.uk/history/article/pill/

Coming (?), as it did by colliding with Swinging London, it gave way to the sexual freedom that we now see on display in the Daily Mail and are left to ponder the wonders or follies of past experimentation with human reproductivity.

Stanley Schofield’s had been commissioned to make a documentary by the makers of the pill, to explain it merits and usage. I was assigned to edit the film. All went well until the final stages. A closing shot was required of a large group of women, presumably to show that the pill was acceptable for all women. 

The film was complete except for that last shot. A call went out for some stock footage showing the required action. Eventually one was received. 

The film had been shot on reversal Extachrome which was a positive film treated as a master from which negatives could be made. I had no way to view the stock footage without damaging it, save with a quick examination by hand. 

Yes, it was a large group of women. 

Looked ideal for our requirements. 

The shot was spliced in, and went off to the laboratory for an Answer Print to be made (that is the first print struck to ensure everything is OK). On viewing the film, everything was indeed OK – until the last shot - the stock footage.

The women were shown standing around in groups – so far so good -  but the camera tracked back to reveal the women were all standing in St Peter’s Square, Rome.

What today, would be known as FAIL

The film, PEACE OF MIND 1964 Stanley Schofield. Supervising editor. Robert Eaves. (He took all the credits for Editing). Tee Hee. I doubt Robert had any peace of mind.

But too late, for now I was hot-footing it across the Atlantic to New York to see if Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s claims were true...I knew the Bronx  was up...but? 

CUT TO the next scene...

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