It's a "pinch me" moment. "Finding Birt Acres" is my collaboration with two film historians (whose work I study for my PhD research!) about the first commercial filmmaker in Britain. What began as a transglobal lockdown conversation is now a physical reality from @UExeterPress!
Go to the X timeline of historian Peter Domankiewicz who in 2023 visited the Smithsonian and dug up the Levison camera.
This X video @Domankiewicz explains it all and / or you can go directly to https://t.co/yOOXm6EE7d . Thank you Peter for your excavation of the Wallace Levison camera.
Here I'm enjoying a post-Viva drink with (L-R) Joe Kember (the external examiner), Laraine Porter (my devoted supervisor throughout the four & a half year process) and Justin Smith (my professor and, latterly, supervisor) plus a shoutout to @ChrisORourke1, my other supervisor.
Call me "Doctor"! Last Thursday I had my Viva -the examination for a PhD thesis where you discuss your research with two examiners- and I passed. I was somewhat taken aback by how enthusiastic the examiners were about my work. I couldn't be happier with how it's all turned out.
@RealPreCinema As I explain in my blogpost, the Rialto film was actually shot at the "Italien in Hamburg" exhibition, where there was a recreation of the bridge. This was figured out by Deac Rossell.
https://t.co/2LC9rtZs02
At this moment I am in Pordenone, Italy, for a couple of days of the @PordenoneSilent film festival where the book I co-authored was being presented to its film geeky target audience for the first time. It was a lovely moment and led to many interesting conversations.
@WiseMansFool@HistoryGirlBW@ViKu1111 Ah @WiseMansFool, blocking me so I can't respond. The hallmark of people who really know what they're talking about.
@HistoryGirlBW, I am sincere in my pleading to double check things rather than posting amplifications of errors. Finding the source of this footage took me 3 mins
@WiseMansFool@HistoryGirlBW@ViKu1111 Here's the original footage, from the Imperial War Museum. My hunch was this was WWII footage and that the crackling was fake noise, added in a lame attempt to "Oldify" it. And indeed it's from 1942 and absolutely silent.
Please try harder @HistoryGirlBW
https://t.co/NkQlHihtpc
I know some people are excited about Jeremy Corbyn starting a new party, but one we already have seems much more interesting to me.
Watch this.
P. S. No, I'm not a member. Yet.
@RealPreCinema I would add that 'The Magic Box' muddles the single-lens 'Machine Camera' which he had from 26 September 1889 and a stereoscopic camera he used in 1890. He did say the first subject he shot was at Hyde Park Corner, thus not in the park. He often used the park for tests though.
@RealPreCinema To be clear, I did not say โIn 1889 he used a camera to take a short section of film ....โ. This is a quote from a BBC article not from me. The original version of the article was so bizarrely inaccurate I complained and they made some improvements.