The Great White Silence

Discuss releases by the BFI and the films on them.

Moderator: MichaelB

Message
Author
User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

The Great White Silence

#1 Post by MichaelB » Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:13 am

The Great White Silence

Image

Captain Scott described Herbert Ponting as 'an artist in love with his work', and after the expedition's tragic outcome Ponting devoted the rest of his life to ensuring that the grandeur of the Antarctic and expedition's heroism would not be forgotten - the images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since. The BFI National Archive - custodian of the expedition negatives - has restored the film using the latest photochemical and digital techniques and reintroduced the sophisticated use of colour. The alien beauty of the landscape is brought dramatically to life, showing the world of the expedition in brilliant detail.

Extras
- 90o South (1933, 72 minutes): Herbert Ponting's final sound version of the legendary footage he shot in 1910 -11.
- Newsreel Items (1910-1925, 4 minutes, DVD only)
- Great White Silence: How Did They Did Do It? (2011, 23 minutes): the Discovery Channel's documentary about the restoration.
- The Sound of Silence (2011, 12 minutes): featurette on Simon Fisher Turner's new score.
- Fully illustrated booklet.

User avatar
Napier
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:48 am
Location: The Shire

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#2 Post by Napier » Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:08 am

MichaelB wrote:I'm delighted to confirm that Herbert Ponting's official record of Captain Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole, recently restored by the BFI National Archive, will be out on DVD and Blu-ray (i.e. Dual Format) next May.

In the meantime, the team behind the restoration is inviting questions about every aspect of their work, which they'll be answering on YouTube.

You can also watch the trailer (which should give you some idea of the quality of the restoration), and there's more about the film on BFI Screenonline.
Absolutely a must have release. Fascinating.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#3 Post by MichaelB » Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:51 am

A lengthy piece on the film and its LFF presentation by early film historian Luke McKernan.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#4 Post by MichaelB » Sat Nov 06, 2010 2:31 pm

MichaelB wrote:In the meantime, the team behind the restoration is inviting questions about every aspect of their work, which they'll be answering on YouTube.
The answers are now up, complete with additional footage of the film (and an unexpected Jeff Keen interlude!).

User avatar
antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#5 Post by antnield » Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:22 am

15th June 2011 release according to Central Books.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#6 Post by MichaelB » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:50 am

A 90-minute documentary about the film and its restoration is airing on Discovery and Discovery HD on Wednesday 26th January (possibly just the UK channels).

User avatar
antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#7 Post by antnield » Sat Jan 29, 2011 5:48 am

Image

User avatar
Cash Flagg
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:15 pm

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#8 Post by Cash Flagg » Sat Jan 29, 2011 12:11 pm

MichaelB wrote:A 90-minute documentary about the film and its restoration is airing on Discovery and Discovery HD on Wednesday 26th January (possibly just the UK channels).
Michael, do you know if this documentary will be included on the upcoming dual-format release?

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#9 Post by MichaelB » Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:17 am

I don't know the specs yet - but I can at least confirm that this will be region-free.

User avatar
ellipsis7
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
Location: Dublin

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#10 Post by ellipsis7 » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:34 am

Specs on Amazon
GREAT WHITE SILENCE

A Film by Herbert Ponting

The official record of Captain Scott's legendary expedition to the South Pole restored by the BFI and presented , with live musical performance from Simon Fisher Turner, on DVD & Blu-ray for the first time.

A hundred years ago the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Scott set out on its ill-fated race to the South Pole. Joining Scott on board the Terra Nova was official photographer and cinematographer Herbert Ponting, and the images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since. Ponting filmed almost every aspect of the expedition: the scientific work, life in camp and the local wildlife - including the characterful Adélie penguins. Those things he was unable to film he boldly recreated back home. Most importantly, Ponting recorded the preparations for the assault on the Pole - from the trials of the caterpillar-track sledges to clothing and cooking equipment - giving us a real sense of the challenges faced by the expedition. Ponting used his footage in various forms over the years and in 1924 he re-edited it into this remarkable feature, complete with vivid tinting and toning.

The BFI National Archive - custodian of the expedition negatives - has restored the film using the latest photochemical and digital techniques and reintroduced the film's sophisticated use of colour. The alien beauty of the landscape is brought dramatically to life and shows the world of the expedition in brilliant detail. A happy scene of Scott and his team in a tent demonstrating how they would cook and sleep on their race to the Pole - the same tent that would be their tomb - is particularly poignant.

Extra Features:

Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
Includes 90 Degrees South (1933, 70min); the re-edited, official sound film of the Antarctic expedition

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#11 Post by MichaelB » Thu May 12, 2011 1:59 am

The Great White Silence won Best Archive Restoration Title at last night's Focal International Awards, beating Metropolis and Bridge on the River Kwai.

User avatar
antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#12 Post by antnield » Fri May 13, 2011 9:49 am

Screenonline has a new piece on polar exploration in British filmmaking. I wonder if some of those newsreels featured will make an appearance on this disc? A safe-ish bet I would wager...

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#13 Post by MichaelB » Fri May 13, 2011 10:16 am

A very safe bet indeed!

The full specs are:

The Great White Silence (1924, 106 mins)
90˚ South (1933, 72 mins): Herbert Ponting’s final sound version of the legendary footage he shot in 1910–11;
• Newsreel items (1910-1925, DVD only)
- Cardiff: the Terra Nova Leaving Harbour towards the South Pole – Pathé’s Animated Gazette (1910)
- Captain Scott and Dr Wilson with ‘Nobby’ the Pony – Gaumont Graphic (1912)
- Memorial Service at St Paul’s Cathedral to the Antarctic Heroes – Pathe’s Animated Gazette No. 206 (14 February 1913)
- The Terra Nova Returns Home – Topical Budget 95-1 (1913)
- Nation’s Tribute to Captain Scott – Topical Budget 729-2 (17 Aug 1925)
Great White Silence: How Did They Do It? (2011, 23 mins): documentary about the restoration
The Sound of Silence (2011, 12 mins): featurette on Simon Fisher Turner’s new score
• Audio field recordings of Captain Scott's hut (in 5.1 and 2.0)
• Fully illustrated booklet containing:
- Introductory essay by Bryony Dixon (Silent Film Curator, BFI National Archive);
- Extract from Francis Spufford's book I May Be Some Time, concerning Ponting's contribution;
- Biography of Herbert Ponting
- 'The Restoration of The Great White Silence' by Kieron Webb
- Biography of Simon Fisher Turner
- Notes on individual newsreel items
- Film, restoration, music and production credits

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#14 Post by MichaelB » Fri May 13, 2011 12:00 pm

...and one of the newsreels, Captain Scott and Dr Wilson with ‘Nobby’ the Pony (1912), has just been published on YouTube, alongside the already-extant The Ship "Terra Nova" Leaving Harbour Towards the South Pole (1910) (here).

imhotep
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:47 pm

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#15 Post by imhotep » Fri May 13, 2011 7:15 pm

Looking forward to getting this!

Was there no restoration made on the news reels? One thing I love about BFI is that they care enough to make new HD transfers of the extras.
Too bad it's in SD this time around.

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#16 Post by manicsounds » Sat May 14, 2011 10:15 am

This may sound incredibly OCD of me, but I'm excited for this release because I actually don't have any releases from 1924 in my collection. (checked through recently, and between the years 1917 to now, that's the only year I got nuttin')

Really nice to see the recognition it got for the restoration efforts.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#17 Post by swo17 » Sat May 14, 2011 10:24 am

No Sherlock Jr. or Der letzte Mann?

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#18 Post by MichaelB » Mon May 16, 2011 8:37 am

The Sound of Silence, the featurette about Simon Fisher Turner's score, has just been published on YouTube.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#19 Post by MichaelB » Tue May 17, 2011 5:45 am

No great revelations here, I suspect, but here's the official announcement:
The Great White Silence
A film by Herbert Ponting
Winner of ‘Best Archival Restoration Title’ at the Focal International Awards 2011


The extraordinary, heart-breaking official record of Captain Scott's legendary final expedition to the South Pole, fully restored by the BFI National Archive, with a new musical score by Simon Fisher Turner, is released on DVD & Blu-ray for the first time ever, in a Dual Format Edition.

Captain Robert Scott described Herbert Ponting as ‘an artist in love with his work’, and, after the Antarctic expedition’s tragic outcome, Ponting devoted the rest of his life to ensuring that the grandeur of the Antarctic and of the expedition’s heroism would not be forgotten. The images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since.

Ponting’s footage begins in 1910 with the departure of the Terra Nova from New Zealand’s south island, for the Antarctic – a perilous journey during which animals and stores were lost overboard in a gale and the ship had to break through unusual amounts of pack ice for 400 miles to reach the Great Ice Barrier. Ponting took some of his most impressive footage – showing the ship breaking through the ice – from a makeshift platform over the side of the ship. Once arrived on Ross Island, Ponting filmed almost every aspect of the expedition: the scientific work, life in camp and the local wildlife – including killer whales, seals, Antarctic skuas and the characterful Adélie penguins. What he was unable to film, he boldly recreated back home. Most importantly, Ponting recorded the preparations for the assault on the Pole – from the trials of the caterpillar-track sledges to clothing and cooking equipment – giving us a real sense of the challenges faced by the expedition.

Now, the BFI National Archive – custodian of the expedition negatives – has restored the film using the latest photochemical and digital techniques and reintroduced the film's sophisticated use of colour. The alien beauty of the landscape is brought dramatically to life, showing the world of the expedition in brilliant detail.

Special features
• Feature presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition;
90˚ South (1933, 72 mins): Herbert Ponting’s final sound version of the legendary footage he shot in 1910–11;
The Great White Silence: How Did They Do It? (2011, 20 mins): new documentary about the restoration;
The Sound of Silence (2011, 13 mins): new documentary about Simon Fisher Turner’s score;
• Location field recordings (2010, 4 mins): celebrated sound recordist Chris Watson’s audio document of the interior of Scott’s polar expedition hut, presented in both 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround;
• Archive newsreel items (1910-1925, 5 mins, DVD only): a selection of archival film extracts which capture the departure and return of the expedition party;
• Illustrated booklet including an extract from Francis Spufford’s I May Be Some Time

Release date: 20 June 2011
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1085 / Cert E / region 0 UK / 1924 / tinted black & white / silent with music / 106 mins + extras / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM 2.0 audio (48kHz/24-bit) Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital 2.0 audio (48kHz)

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#20 Post by manicsounds » Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:26 pm


User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#21 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:12 am

It really does look extraordinary for a film whose live-action elements were shot exactly a century ago - and it's a great testament to the virtue of proper film preservation at the earliest possible stage.

Harold Lloyd knew this, which is why his films look remarkably good compared with most of his 1920s contemporaries - and Herbert Ponting's estate was also savvy enough to recognise this, which is why his original camera negatives and other materials were donated to the BFI for proper preservation at pretty much the earliest opportunity.

For once, there was no argument about the historical importance of the footage, which is the usual problem with preserving silent films - far, far too many were allowed to decay, or were deliberately destroyed, because of the lack of perceived commercial value.

User avatar
antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#22 Post by antnield » Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:55 am


Bleddyn Williams
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:33 pm
Location: Billerica MA USA

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#23 Post by Bleddyn Williams » Mon Jun 27, 2011 9:01 pm

I must say, I'm dying to watch this. It arrived today, and I do have a question...

On my PS3 Slim, with the current 3.66 firmware, both "How Did They Do It?" and "The Sound of Silence" do not play. They both play fine on my region-free Momitsu clone.

Looking at these on my clone player, these are in HD, yes? So why wouldn't they play on the PS3? Any ideas?

User avatar
htom
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 1:57 pm

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#24 Post by htom » Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:42 am

Bleddyn Williams wrote:On my PS3 Slim, with the current 3.66 firmware, both "How Did They Do It?" and "The Sound of Silence" do not play. They both play fine on my region-free Momitsu clone.

Looking at these on my clone player, these are in HD, yes? So why wouldn't they play on the PS3? Any ideas?
The extras may be in 1080i/50, which the PS3 (NA) will not play back.

User avatar
AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924)

#25 Post by AlexHansen » Wed Sep 28, 2011 8:59 pm

Just finished this up and the thing that really stood out was the score. Haunting, ominous, elegiac. It added something to the film that I have a feeling wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Post Reply