On another forum, someone has turned up a potentially fascinating collection of programmes and Super 8 footage:

Programmes include the race programme from the '58 German GP, signed by Schell, Trips, Collins, Behra, Edgar Arbath, Trintigent, and Kurt Ahreins. Which is nice.

But the footage (upwards of an hour) appears to include:
- Monza '56: race and paddock footage
- Aintree '55: including Moss giving Fangio the garland, JMF refusing it.
plus other pieces he describes as
- 1955: Crystal Palace & Snetterton
- 1956: British GP, plus Brands Hatch
- 1958: Monte Carlo rally.

I'm not clear whether this (silent) footage is home movie or commercial (unlikely at Super 8? Not my field though).

But the question is - what to do with it?

Comments, advice, help?

Contact Gary C, and get it out on DVD asap!!

It won't be Super 8 that early!

It is probably Standard 8 - This was actually 16mm stock that you filmed for 5 minutes, reversed the film and filmed the second half. Then Kodak split it and spliced it when they processed it. super 8 was an improvement with bigger picture and smaller sprocket holes.

It might even be 9.5 mm - this was an even older amateur gauge and had the sprocket holes in the middle.

The third possibility is 16mm, which has sprocket holes on both sides. This was a semi-professional size used by advanced amateurs and professionals when they wanted something more compact than 35mm. For example the camera that fell off de Beaufort's Porsche in front of Graham Hill in 1962 was a 16mm one.

Rich, I will be contacting via a PM in due course!

It is apparently standard 8 (not something I know anything about). We don't know whether it has sound (the projector it has been played on doesn't do this). Did I mention it's in colour?

The cameraman might be one McDonald Hobley, and he seems to be known to the drivers. I'm told that the '55 Snetterton piece includes Archie Scott Brown rolling a "green and yellow striped car" (Lister?), which might help place it.

Sorry I can't be more specific - I'm helping someone out, and haven't seen the footage myself.

If it's Standard 8, it won't have a sound track. Amateurs used to synchronise [?] a reel-to-reel tape recorder using various forms of black magic.

He would be. He was one of the early BBC TV continuity announcers and his face would have been well-known to anyone who owned a TV.

He was also at school with Duncan Hamilton.

http://www.oldbrightonians.com/hobley_01.htm

http://www.oldbrightonians.com/hamilton_01.htm

I seem to recall Richard once used McDonald Hobley and my name in the same sentance!!

Old Brightonians, also include Johnanthon Palmer.

Makes me wonder what happened to Ray Baxter's fim archive??

Does sound very interesting.

Who would know about Raymond Baxter's collection of films?

I have quite a few A4 box files to dig through, but I'm sure I have a name I can badger!!

2 obvious channels to try would seem to be 1) via DCN to David Weguelin- sure of a wider audience then, or 2) the NMM at Beaulieu where there is a very good film archive and archivist doing just that job for the NMM. Both would do it justice Other wise for simple transposing there are plenty of rims, so long as you are happy to leave the films. I have used a very good one in Bristol area.

Roger Lund.

I always use the BBC for my telecine transfers of old film, expensive at £220 per hour (that's machine time), but they get great results, even out of 8mm prints.

Thanks everyone. To close this off for now, I've put Gary in touch with the owner (and would put Doug in touch if he ever reads his PMs).
Hopefully this is unseen footage, and the copyright situation can be resolved, and it can be released for general consumption rather than disappearing into a collection somewhere. It certainly sounds like fascinating footage.

Perhaps in time we'll get some stills for identification.