Hello everyone,
For the past few months, I have been working on a significant David Attenborough preservation project with two other Attenborough enthusiasts. So far, we have collected over 2TB of Attenborough documentaries, and I have personally purchased and transferred several documentaries that were either previously not available online (sometimes not even listed in his filmography) or provided upgrades to versions that were already online in lower quality. All the documentaries I have transferred are available for free on my Internet Archive page and on my YouTube channel whenever possible.
The reason for this post is that I managed to acquire a 16mm print of an Attenborough-narrated documentary that would have been considered lost media, called “An Everyday Miracle,” which would have been broadcast either in 1980 or 1981. It is a very interesting documentary following the pregnancy of a British couple in 1980, with groundbreaking shots of the fetus growing inside the womb and emerging technology of the time, like very early ultrasound machine that was just starting to be available back then and was in its infancy. Another BBC documentary with the same premise and name narrated by someone else was produced in 1998 and is available online, but this original version is basically lost to time, as I do not see how it would ever get released or shown again considering the subject and outdated information.
Now, I understand that this is not the kind of exciting thing you guys are used to helping fund. It’s not really as captivating as a scanning project for a cult movie from your childhood. However, I am hoping to find some people interested in vintage documentaries willing to help fund this scan. I am in contact with a really cool scanning company, and we estimate the cost of scanning 1200ft / 30 min of 16mm film with optical sound and shipping the reel to be about $350, if I do the post-processing myself. I have already paid about a hundred dollars for the reel, including shipping, and I’ve already spent a lot of my own money to buy various VHS, DVDs, and audio tapes to be able to transfer them and make them available online for everyone. So, it would be hard to justify and afford that very high expense for a proper scan. That’s why I’ve come here to see if anyone would be willing to help preserve this documentary.
I have already made a very low-quality telecine test transfer of the reel using a home method, which is better than nothing. However, the reel started getting damaged when I was ready to capture it with a better setup for capturing the sound and image. Therefore, I prefer not to touch it anymore and wait for a proper transfer. The company I am in contact with assured me that the sprocket damage won’t cause any issues with their scanning equipment.
If I can’t reach the full goal, I will try to supply the missing amount depending on how much we can raise.
Anybody interested can let me know, and I will provide the information in a private message.
Those who contribute at least $10 will receive access to our project’s Google Drive containing all the documentaries we have collected so far as a token of our appreciation. While I can’t guarantee access indefinitely, as you never know when Google might potentially close the drive, it has been available for a considerable time. We do plan to release everything in torrent form eventually, but due to the size of the collection, it presents some challenges. You can view the list of our current collection here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15-4UaR0ZzUzm6TF8mFHx8gK9ABuj_s5p/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=107688892267849423207&rtpof=true&sd=true
Here’s a few low-quality screenshots to give you an idea:
Thank you!
