ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

11 years, 5 months ago - Kelly Loughlin

You need to speak to Vanessa Toulmin at Sheffield's fairground archive - expert on very early film http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/intro/toulmin.html

11 years, 5 months ago - Tony Franks

Don't leave the BBC (or ITV) off your list... the Imperial War Museum too.

11 years, 5 months ago - Amy Daneel

Hi Marlom,

Thanks for getting back to me.
The client is turning 160 & I'm looking for footage pertaining to the company's technologies dating back to 1850 & is predominantly based in the UK.
It's a massive list of imagery, e.g. their location when their shops opened, famous public events they hosted, their products throughout history, advertising, famous events their products where used for (Lusitania, land speed records, Hilary's assent of Everest).

Thanks for your suggestions!

AD

11 years, 5 months ago - Adrian Bracken

Hi Amy, The Us Government allowed Film Companies , Producers etc to deposit footage on a "free to access & use" basis in lieu of paying corporate taxes. - Called "Library of Congress" material, one source of this is Footage Farm in London. http://www.footagefarm.co.uk I made a historical documentary for TV and paid, per 11 minute roll on an in all rights ,in perpetuity basis, around £75 + vat. Footage Farm charge you for putting their material on to DVCam or Beta tapes. (they might have digitalised by now) What you need is "Public Domain" material. Also the American Universities keep huge amounts of archive material, as do ours of course. Try the Bodleian Library at Oxford too.(http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley) The internet is wonderful for archive research. Advanced searches bring up all sorts of sources. Finally there is an organisation called Focal International - the trade org. of the archive industry. www.focalint.org, who publish a (free) magazine called "Archive Zone" every quarter. Hope this helps. Finally if you do pay - get a "full" in perpetuity buy out and negotiate a price with the archive houses.Good Luck.

11 years, 5 months ago - Amy Daneel

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to say thank you for your feedback.
I've followed up everyone's suggestions and wanted to respond with a list of the institutions I've been in communication with in the event that it's of help to anyone else:

British Pathé
Huntley
British Museum
Getty (now own BBC archives)
ITV
Clockmakers' Museum
London Transport Museum
Royal Airforce Museum
Coventry Transport Museum
London Motor Museum
National Maritime Museum
Footage Farm
Focal International

Many thanks!

Amy

11 years, 5 months ago - Ivan Crowe

Hi Amy, You could try Pond 5 that have some great very inexpensive footage and also Pathe News archive material. – John Rosling is a very helpful guy there. Let me know if you need more help - contact details etc.

Best of luck, Ivan
production@pastworld.net

11 years, 5 months ago - Marlom Tander

For what? If local, local history archives (councils, libraries good place to start) or specialist archives (try the professional bodies and societies, esp long standing ones) are worth trying.