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WGBH Open Vault "Evening at Pops" restoration.


zoltan_902

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I was inspired by Thor's recent post about the discovery of an archived JW interview at WGBH's Open Vault website.

 

I explored the website further, an was *very* intrigued to find that pretty much the entire "Evening at Pops" series is listed on the website, albeit, not yet transferred for digital preservation.

http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog?f[access][]=All+Records&f[series_title][]=Evening+at+Pops

 

As we know, many BPO concerts throughout John Williams' tenure as conductor were video taped by WGBH and broadcast on PBS. There are a few episodes of the series that despite my enduring longing for, haven't surfaced from old VHS transfers on YouTube or any other video sharing website.

 

There is an option on each episode's individual page to request a digitisation, and so having selected an episode I'm particularly interested in, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_A34026CAA5AD4A419C44812A0583BDA5 (this is where the orchestra and the TFC perform 'Duel of the Fates'), I wrote a polite email as to how to get the process started, and perhaps with some luck, even realised.

 

I got the following response:

WGBH Email.jpg

 

I know the response is a bit vague; but I think the bottom line is that there will be costs involved in any case.

 

My question to all the good people on this forum is whether it might be worth (if indeed some or all of you are willing) to start a crowd funding campaign to raise the funds to have some of these episodes digitized? The respondent claims the obstacle isn't so much funding, but the rights clearance, so first they have to determine (with the $60 fee) if they have the rights to make it available.

 

How many of you would be interested in putting forward some cash to see what's possible?

 

Cheers!

 

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Yes, I also snooped around on that site after I saw the JW interview. Thanks for looking further into this, Zoltan!

 

How fantastic wouldn't it be to have all the (filmed) Boston Pops concerts wtih JW available! But as far as a crowdfunding campaign goes, I'm not sure how that would work out, as people have different preferences in terms of what taped concerts they would like to see. For example, I would much rather have the one featuring the "Seven for Luck" song cycle (if that was the BP; I keep forgetting) or something featuring more rare material. So how would one go about selecting which ones?

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16 hours ago, Thor said:

Yes, I also snooped around on that site after I saw the JW interview. Thanks for looking further into this, Zoltan!

 

How fantastic wouldn't it be to have all the (filmed) Boston Pops concerts wtih JW available! But as far as a crowdfunding campaign goes, I'm not sure how that would work out, as people have different preferences in terms of what taped concerts they would like to see. For example, I would much rather have the one featuring the "Seven for Luck" song cycle (if that was the BP; I keep forgetting) or something featuring more rare material. So how would one go about selecting which ones?

 

Thanks for your reply Thor!

 

Sadie Roosa, the WGBH rep, claims in the email that if they are able to determine to a certainty that their organisation still has full rights clearance to the footage, that it would be digitised and made available for free anyway. In fact, if I really wanted to take my chances, I'd put up my own $60 if indeed it lead to the episode being made openly accessible. (And I might very do that in the near future).

 

I'm keen to look through a whole heap of episodes; next on my list would be where Joshua Bell performs the Alexander Courage Porgy and Bess Violin fantasy.

 

I totally understand that other people will want to see other episode; and you are right that this will indeed frustrate fundraising efforts if we cannot agree how to best expend out our money to get this done. It would be much easier of course if we knew our money went towards a definitive product/service, but as the email states, we would for the present only be spending money to see if something is at all possible.

 

Sadie also states that if they determine that there is no rights clearance, that the episodes can be made available on their premises for private ('research') viewing for a much more substantive fee; But seeing as I live in Sydney, that's a prohibitive option for me physically as well a financially.

 

Maybe we can invite forum members to suggest episodes, then based on that we can put up an opinion poll to make a short list, and then we can establish a crowdfunding page to raise the funds at least for a 'Rights Assessment' for those particular episodes. Hopefully we can spread the fixed cost across as many members as possible, and make it cheaper for everyone interested. Just my thoughts...

 

Cheers!

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