Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

as we would have liked, and some films turned up in more than one
programme, leading to some hurried but expert editing work by George
Smith of the NFTVA’s Viewing Service), running at different speeds, and
in some cases arriving with only minutes to spare. The patience of the
projectionists at the National Film Theatre was to be sorely tested.
Before the opening programme it was of course necessary to drum up
audience interest, with an attractive layout in the NFT programme booklet
and, thankfully, a press office which showed great enthusiasm for the
project. The result was a good house for the first programme, though it
was a less than happy start. A mix-up in the vaults had meant that the
films were not available for rehearsal, and there were errors over film
speeds. The greatest mistake was to misjudge the timing, thinking that
the programme was too short and that it could be extended by running
most films at 16fps. The programme dragged on in an over-warm cinema
for two hours, and a golden rule for compilation programmes
should be not to run much over 90 minutes. Another is to run the films
faster rather than slower, as any Victorian showman could have advised
us. A general 18fps would have been perfect. Nevertheless it was generally
a successful programme of Birt Acres, Robert Paul, Edison and
Skladanowsky titles mostly, spoiled chiefly by showing murky 16mm
paper prints of Edison films and an old MOMA compilation of Edison
films where the titles seemed to drag on endlessly. The highlight was
some of the first restored titles from the NFTVA’s great centenary coup,
the discovery (by the film historian Bill Barnes) of a collection of eighteen
films from the 1895-97 period, including what are thought to be
two of the very first British films ever made, The Derby and Carpenter’s
Shop, both made by Acres and Paul early in 1895. But the audience
spoke very little – if they were not going to take a more active part then
the whole project would collapse.
Fortunately by the second programme the following week (the first four
programmes were each on Wednesday evenings) the audience had
caught on to the idea of commenting and questioning along with the lecturer,
and a lively and entertaining evening was the result. A wise decision
had been made to vary the presentations along with the
programmes. Luke McKernan of the NFTVA was the chief presenter, but
guest lecturers also took part, and for the second programme on British
filmmakers, Frank Gray of the South East Film and Video Archive gave
an entertaining account of the Brighton and Hove filmmakers Esmé
Collings, G. A. Smith and James Williamson. Other filmmakers featured
included Cecil Hepworth, Charles Goodwin Norton (whose charming
films with their free ‘home movie’ style now seems very advanced for
their time), Bamforth, and another recent discovery, the local films of a
draper from Cockermouth in the north of England, William Youdale.
The programme came in at 100 minutes, just about ideal.
The Lumière programme fell on February 21st , 1996, the centenary of
the first commercial cinema show in Britain. People clearly had a sense
of occasion as the show rapidly sold out, resulting in the extraordinary
sight in the NFT foyer of people begging for a ticket for an early film
65 Journal of Film Preservation / 53 / 1996
Programación de cine Victoriano
Con motivo del centenario del cine, el
NFTVA emprendió una aventura
particularmente ambiciosa: la proyección de
más de 700 películas de los primeros
tiempos. Agrupadas en programas de 90
minutos, las proyecciones tuvieron lugar en
el National Film Theatre en febrero y
marzo de 1996.