‘A Lovely Day for Digital Preservation’: Guinness Archive adverts project

Production Company:

R3store Studios Ltd

Synopsis

The aim of the project was to digitise, remaster and preserve the Guinness advertising legacy of television adverts on film and make the collection publicly accessible. The collection captures moments in cultural and social history spanning a 40 year period, and offers an insight in changing representations of Irishness both at home and overseas.

Archival highlights

The collection is of huge national importance spanning 40 years of history and many of the adverts have not been seen since they aired on TV. Guinness wanted to ensure the future legacy of this material and allow it to be available publicly for the first time. Guinness now have their entire film collection digitised for the first time ever and available publicly which was an important part of the legacy.

The Mahabharata in 8K

Production Company:

TransPerfect Media France / Brook Productions

Synopsis

The Mahabharata is a 1989 film version of the Hindu epic Mahabharata directed by Peter Brook.

Brook's original 1985 stage play was 9 hours long, and toured around the world for four years.  

In this story of a timeless conflict between two warring families, the stakes are cosmic. Brothers turn against brothers as both sides are divided by anger and revenge. All are descendants of kings and gods and vie for supremacy. They should live in harmony but their thirst for power leads to a war that threatens the very fabric of the Universe.

Amid jealousy, hatred, and divine counsel, The Mahabharata weaves a tapestry of epic proportions, exploring honor and destiny whilst exploring the eternal struggle between good and evil that still resonates today.

Archival highlights

Peter Brook's 1989 film of the Mahabharata is a monumental endeavor to bring the vast and intricate epic to the screen. Based on the nine-hour stage version, the film distills the complex narrative into a compelling format that captures the essence of the Mahabharata's themes: duty, righteousness, and the complexity of human nature, whilst using a multiracial cast of actors whose performances strive for a universal appeal.

By dealing with this cultural complexity through a simple minimal visual style that evades the ideological inflections of spectacle, Brook’s film invites a passionate enjoyment of the beauty and authentic power of the Mahabharata: a tale that can be shared by everyone because it speaks of all times. Praised for its ambition and vision, the film "The Mahabharata" remains a testament to Brook's artistic achievement.

The Mahabharata premiered at the 1989 Venice Film Festival as part of the Official Selection and enjoyed a successful international release before disappearing from screens.

This restoration is the first full 8K restoration in France, and has been a great artistic and technical challenge.

The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas?

Production Company:

Filmfinity Productions LTD

Synopsis

For 40 years the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ had been illustrated by a 4’33”pop video. The remaining 10 or so hours of 16mm footage shot on the day was put into storage. A mix of negs, prints, cuttings copies and trims, some with audio, some with separate magnetic tracks, plus a continuous recording of the talkback between the control room and studio. All languishing in battered boxes and cans, many with mismatched labels. There was no inventory, no shot list, no clue as to what was there. And most of it had never been seen before.

The decision to make a film using only footage from the day  with no new interviews or contemporary commentary - was intended to create a sense of being there, of eavesdropping as Midge Ure told Paul Young he was singing flat, or Bob Geldof asked George Michael to add a bit more emotion, and Bono struggled to find the right motivation for his lines.

As Bob Geldof says ‘This then is the “fly on the wall” story of that day from found footage that no-one had  had thought to look for before but is now an integral part of British pop history.

Archival highlights

Having started with a perfunctory glance at a few of the cans to see if it was worth The Band Aid Trust paying to keep storing them, and up to the finished result, this film was 6 years in the making.

The Trust had to be persuaded of the value of the material but remained convinced that no-one would be interested in it, certainly not a broadcaster. Nevertheless, because the Trust has a channel on YouTube, where a comprehensive account of the recording process would reach a substantial audience, I set about making the film in stages, by stealth. It was only when Bob Geldof viewed the editing, and I watched as he took a screen-shot of Bono and Simon le Bon being interviewed, which he then sent to Bono, I realised I could finish the film.

The BBC then decided it would show it on BBC Four where it was their highest rating music documentary of 2024.

Having looked after the Band Aid Trust archive since making the Live Aid and Live 8 DVDs in 2005, this film was an unexpected project and one which very nearly didn’t happen and one which I am immensely proud of.
Jill Sinclair.