Thursday 10 January 2019

Vintage London

Just love this old vintage film footage of London which was captured by a pioneering
cinematographer by the name of Claude Friese-Greene. Apparently it's the first known
colour footage of our Capital and filmed way back in 1924. The footage was part of 
26 segments from a film titled 'The Open Road'  a film that covered a distance stretching
 from Land's End in Cornwall and all the way up to John O'Groats in Scotland.

And in these brief London scenes we can see Westminster, Tower Bridge, Marble
Arch and some crowded scenes in Petticoat Lane Market.

They said that in it's early days, the cinematographer's original footage was technically
flawed. But thanks to the British Film Institute and modern technology, the footage
has been greatly improved.
I think that by correcting the speed of the film then it becomes much more real. And this is
something we saw in Peter Jackson's unbelievable restored film footage from World War I
film titled 'They Shall Not Grow Old.'

Thanks to Neil for sending me this footage.

More can be read on this story at THE DAILY MAIL

2 comments:

  1. Very interesting. My late mother was born in 1924 so its good to see some of the world she would have experienced. I haven't seen the Jackson film yet. I need to do that soon. - Ian

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ian, And so few of those people will be around now.

    I wonder what all those open top buses wee like during our rainy London downpours?
    Hence the Bus Conductors loud announcement "Everybody downstairs."
    We normally associate the open top buses with our sunny seaside coastal towns.

    Oh yes I was really amazed seeing that Peter Jackson film. I knew that one day it could be done.
    When I first saw it I really thought he had got together a group of actors and re-played out those
    World War scenes. But no, they were the original soldiers.
    Perhaps the days of old films where they run around like the Keystone Cops are gone.

    ReplyDelete

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