Friday, July 27, 2012

COPYRIGHT

A ReelStreets viewer informed me...

Picture 1 Location Information: I notice that the 'now' picture shown is, I'm almost certain, my picture taken from the Google/StreetView/ Geograph/BritMovie etc etc website

...as owner/editor of the site I apologise for our use of your photo without acknowlegment. I am very aware of the serious nature of infringement of copyright and intellectual property theft, and, although your photos on the above site are free to use it is only common courtesy to acknowlege their source.  I am constantly querying my submitters about 'their' photos, but this one slipped through. I will of course add acknowlegements to you and the site.

Apologies again.

So prospective submitters, check your sources, if you get me to publish pictures that belong to someone else, I’ll squeal and drop you right in it when they start pulling my fingernails out. Be warned.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Phil Wilkinson’s Amazing Contributions

In just four days wonder sleuth Phil Wilkinson has sent in this amazing set of photos;.

Cracksman ..........Whitecross Street................all gone. Always a bit sad.

Krays ...........good blind beggar's

Theatre of Blood.........you were correct with Kensall Green.............shows how little I know!

Young Ones.................St Thomas's Road. Excellent

Steptoe and Son.............Amazing sleuthing on your part.

Steptoe and Son Ride Again....10 shots..............in &%$$£& credible! Persistent if nothing else

Man About The House ...............Maida Vale maybe, but it wasn't made of ale last time I was there

Day of the Triffids...........triffik Triffids

There are more to come, I ran out of time tonight................perhaps I should get you a miner's cap with a small searchlight on the front, then you could keep working all night!

And, just three days later…………….

Here's the rest of the pictures to publish, and the bulb in my miners hat has just burnt out!!!

...................I'm not £$$%$£"$ surprised!

Tall Guy..............superb.
v Mona Lisa............well traced, you put an enigmatic smile on my face.

Missionary.............good work, with Simon's help.

Mackintosh Man............legwork and a sharp eye.

Long Good Friday..........railing counting. Love it! Are we obsessed? Of course we are!

Give My Regards to Broad Street..........sunshine..........at last.

11 Harrowhouse.........diamonds are forever......they say.

Day of the Triffids .........more terrifyingly terrific triffids

Cracksman........perhaps Phil Wilkinson should be called The Cracksman, as he's cracked it yet again.

Super work Phil

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Location, Location, Location

In taking 'now' shots of the films featured on Reel Streets I have trodden the ground where some of our greatest actors have performed. Not in studios or on back lots but in the world that we all inhabit.  Be it London, where most of our 'British' films are set, or in Birmingham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Stevenage, Canterbury, isolated locations in Cornwall, Paignton and . . . the list is endless, surprisingly.

We are all used to blockbuster movies set in the USA or in exotic locations around the globe. Iindeed, if many of us visited New York for the first time we would probably be familiar with the city and recognise much of it from films that we have seen. Maybe not so with The Orkney Islands, Nottingham, Weymouth, Aberfan, Rochdale or Bradford.

Some of Britain's finer unspoilt centres don't feature in today's world of 'great new films' and, lately, CGI does much of the work of recreating the past and suitable atmosphere.

But isn't that why a good old British film scores above the modern or the imported? New US produced comedies are bland by comparison to many of ours, some 'historic' films appear to rewrite history or avoid accuracy, a French film has a certain style and feel, maybe not to most British audiences, and a Turkish film, to many in the UK, would be unthinkable to watch.  The exception has to be new Irish films that are being produced. Take a look at Wakewood, isn't it better than the American remake of The Wicker Man?  And The Guard, well, wonderful recognisable dry humour.  Don't misunderstand me though . . . . there are many good 'foreign' films about - old and new - as my own collection shows. So what is it that makes a British Film so special . . . . it's here, its home and the style is unique.

Much of our latest home grown produce is gritty, an extension of the older 'kitchen sink' style. Compare Harry Brown with Gran Torino.  But it's all so close, so real and identifiable. Not so much on the glamour side maybe, but on reality and they're bloody good films.  And isn't that always the way with our movies? Some are hijacked though - the James Bond series used to have a distinctly British feel, not so the latest incarnations which tend to lean more towards Bourne than Bond.  British films are and always have been special, they are more identifiable to us here than the main stream global cinema productions.

So, to the investigation of location sites.  You may have gathered that I have a passion for home grown films and love the research into location sites.  Of great help is the internet but it cannot always to be trusted.  Some of the most reputable sites sometimes get it wrong.  There is no substitute for research, be it on-line or in good old fashioned books, but to go and look for yourself, which I am lucky enough to have been able to do. And it isn't all easy going and plain sailing, as you can see by these three "failed", "rejected" and "cutting room floor" efforts...



And sometimes with failure, as this shot shows. From Otley, which, logically should have matched image otl044 but was found to be the wrong location.


At other times faced with rain, parked vehicles,........
This failure, from image kray013n, The Krays, I had to wait nearly an hour for this lorry to finish unloading but it gave me a chance to 'rest' in The Royal Oak, so the visit, and the wait wasn't all bad.

'that's not the place!' or worse - reconstruction! 

From The Alf Garnet Saga, which should be the now shot for image tags014 but the shot wasn't used as there was just too much obscuring the view.
I've trawled around the country from Newcastle upon Tyne to Wapping to get 'now' images from films.  I've spoken to locals in Hemel Hempstead who were told off for crossing sets during shooting of distantly remembered films and have chatted with people in London's East End who are familiar with the film connections in their area whilst enjoying a beer or two in plenty of the pubs featured on the site.


Whilst taking pictures for 'Reel Streets' I have walked where Burt Lancaster, Peter Sellers, Bob Hoskins, Vincent Price and Michael Caine have done their work for us - the audience. I have found places that have been disguised or have had local signs obliterated to perpetuate the on screen dream.

And the dream is escapism, enjoyment and entertainment. Long live the British film industry - it has given audiences what Hollywood can't . . . . a down to earth realism within the story, a believable scenario and . . . . familiarity.


Enjoy Reel Streets.
Phil Wilkinson

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

UMBRIA FILM FESTIVAL, MONTONE, ITALY - THIS WEEK

The 16th year of festivities in this tiny and delightful walled hilltop city. One of the ten most beautiful towns in Italy. This year Ralph Fiennes is being presented with the Keys to the City for his contributions to world cinematography. The Italian cinema has had innumerable international successes in the last 60 years, and many of them are examined in detail on the site www.reelstreets.com where the locations are discovered and comparative then and now photographs show the changes in architecture, street furniture, vehicles, clothes, styles and food and feeding habits, a celluloid social survey. The accommodations offered at www.villamoscatelli.com and www.lapreghiera.com are of an excellent standard, and are only some 12km distant, and for a really long stay the properties at Palazetto, on the site www.propertiesumbria.com are worth investigating, and are only some two km from the town centre of Montone. Films, spaghetti, wine, sunshine and classical Italian countryside hospitality will make this Umbrian Film Festival another classic.

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

STAMPS and FILMS

650 and 20 000 Racing, as we are; with Phil Wilkinsons untiring efforts and almost encyclopdic knowlege of films and their locations, towards 650 films and 20 000, yes TWENTY THOUSAND thens and nows, up came the subject of postage stamps with a filmic association. Frankenstein came immediatly to mind, followed by trains and bridges with 39 Steps, police with Blue Lamp, Thomas Hardy, The Brontes, Henry the Eighth........and within a few moments we had almost 100 links. In USA Beau Gest, and Walt Disney appear on stamps, in Australia, The Overlanders, then there are criceters, W G Grace and The Final Test, soldiers, wars and battles, fire brigades, social reformers, trades unions......and the list goes on and on. And, if you can't make the connection from the images