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	<title>David Watkin &#187; British Transport Films</title>
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	<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk</link>
	<description>David Watkin: Oscar-winning Cinematographer</description>
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		<title>Southern Railway, from 1948 to 1952</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/10/southern-railway-from-1948/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/10/southern-railway-from-1948/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:21:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Southern Railway Film]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Watkin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=1552</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;&#8230;my uncle Laurie found that there was a small unit of four people making documentary and training films in the nether regions of Waterloo Station, well beneath the notice of a trade union. My father set up his Blickensderfer (the oldest typewriter in the world) on our dining-room table and dashed off a letter to the company chairman. &#8220;I can get you in there&#8221; he said, &#8220;you might as well learn something while you are waiting&#8221;. I think it was the first time I saw him put himself out for me, and was really touched by it. So began a very happy first year; there was Basil, a busy but sensible boss, a gay script-writer, and best of all, old Tom Heritage. He was well named. The only real railwayman among us, he had started on the Brighton line as a boy in the uniform grade, i.e. the lower orders. He finally landed up as our projectionist and used to travel all over the system showing training films to staff in a railway carriage that had been converted into a cinema. This was known as the cinema coach and in it Tom took a jealous proprietorial interest.&#8221; (Clara) Photography was [...]]]></description>
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		<title>The Long Night Haul, 1957 for BTF</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/the-long-night-haul-for-btf-1957/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/the-long-night-haul-for-btf-1957/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:29:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1950's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Watkin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Long Night Haul. British Transport Films]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=1374</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Although the film isn&#8217;t mentioned in David&#8217;s two memoirs, The Long Night Haul (19 minutes) is an ambitious and complex film celebrating the foundation of the British Road Service&#8217;s general haulage truck service. Sometimes perhaps David shot a film which was without any notable anecdotes and thus passes without notice in his canon of work. This film is notable for a range of photographic challenges in black and white &#8211; shooting at night, sympathetic portraiture without condescension and an opportunity for showing the heraldry of the highway. Some of the landscape photography over the Channel  appears to refer ahead to  what he was doing in 1966 on Mademoiselle. Perhaps the subject matter overloads the concept. Perhaps it is two films, at home and abroad. Like Blue Pullman it was directed by Jimmy Ritchie with music by Clifton Parker Here are some characteristic stills that may persuade you to make your own exploration.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Travolators, 1961 for BTF</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/the-travolators-for-btf-1961/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/the-travolators-for-btf-1961/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:51:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1960's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Watkin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Travolators]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=1361</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This a short, nine minute film to commemorate the construction of the Travolator between the Bank and Waterloo stations in London to supplement the long walk required of City commuters and nicknamed The Drain. The otherwise exemplary box of DVDs, The British Transport Film Collection does not identify any credits. For the only time that I am aware of, the credits of a BTF production were merged in a democratically alphabetical list without designation of jobs. Can this be any other than David Watkin? It is an odd carelessness to get his name wrong. Apart from its historic value, and evidence of the balance of surface and underground excavation and construction, the film culminates in a sequence of the opening of the Travolator by the Lord Mayor, uneasy in his ceremonial role pressing the button as hordes of merry-makers gather to be the first to use the facility. There seems a deliberate attempt in the editing to stress the Commoners ribaldry at the face of Officialdom, all set in a most brilliantly lit white tube, an apotheosis of reflected light.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The England of Elizabeth, 1957 for BTF</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/the-england-of-elizabeth-for-btf-1957/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/the-england-of-elizabeth-for-btf-1957/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:55:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1950's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[1957]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Watkin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Taylor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The England of Elizabeth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Moley Men]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=1350</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Edgar promised Ritchie, who was getting restless, a break to direct and so I took over The England of Elizabeth with John Taylor again. It is nice to have one&#8217;s name on the same picture as Vaughan Williams although on the only occasion when I should have met the great man I was sent off to get a shot of a train at Woking. Par for the course (I don&#8217;t play golf but learned this expression from my electricians who all do), but VW was one of my heroes. It is part of the price one pays for going up in the world; if I&#8217;d still been chauffeuring people to music recordings I&#8217;d have seen him. It appears to have been quite a session as at one point the old man, who was no lightweight, tipped too far back in his chair and was only saved from disaster by Edgar making a dive and grabbing him. Somebody that I did meet on the film was the founding father of documentary himself. John Grierson was married to John Taylor&#8217;s sister and we drove down to their farm, Tog Hill in Wiltshire, to shoot a fiery beacon for the Spanish Armada. I [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Care of St.Christophers, 1959 for BTF</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/the-care-of-st-christophers-for-btf-1959/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/the-care-of-st-christophers-for-btf-1959/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:33:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1950's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[1959]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Care of St.Christophers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Watkin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=1336</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Happily I was now able in small measure to repay some of my debt to Jimmy Ritchie. The next film for me after THE ENGLAND OF ELIZABETH was his first picture as a director, and it turned out to be a very charming one. It was about a railway orphanage in Derby run by a lady who reminded you of Margaret Rutherford. She truly understood us all, children and grown-ups alike, and loved the children as they did her. I had never found myself in such a happy place and when I said so to Jim it must have stayed in his mind because THE HAPPY PLACE became the working title (though it finished up as CARE OF St CHRISTOPHER&#8217;S). She encouraged the children to keep their own pets,&#8221;It&#8217;s very good for them to manage things entirely on their own and I try never to interfere. There was a boy who kept pigeons, a bright nice boy. After a time he started to sell them to people outside &#8211; nothing wrong in that at all but then they started to come back &#8211; pigeons do you see, and then he would sell them again. I thought well if people are foolish [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Snowdrift at Bleath Gill, 1955 for BTF</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/snowdrift-at-bleath-gill-1955-for-bft/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/snowdrift-at-bleath-gill-1955-for-bft/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:36:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1950's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bob Paynter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Watkin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hugh Raggett]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kenneth Fairburn. John Legard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snowdrift at Bleath Gill]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=1317</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Snowdrift at Bleak Gill, 1955, directed by Kenneth Fairburn, edited by John Legard and photographed by Bob Paynter. David Watkin was an unacknowledged assistant on this film. The film is 10minutes, largely devoted to the single task of freeing a goods engine and carriages from snowdrifts using a mechanised snow plough and gangs of diggers, mainly by the light of the Moon and huge Tilly lamps. “Ken Fairbairn was a nice man. Known as &#8220;Twitcher&#8221; because of a tendency to be hyper-anxious whenever you were sorting out the necessary things for the shot to be useable. He was also small in stature, resulting in most of his set-ups being done on the baby-legs, which was a bit trying. He wrote his own scripts for the most part; one that I did for him about the lost luggage office was called A DESPERATE CASE. Another about incoherent station announcements had a similarly apt title to begin with: GET LOST! But Edgar made him change it. A phone call about about 9.30 one freezing evening  asked would I collect some camera gear with Bob Payntor and travel up to Barnard Castle in Yorkshire. There we bundled ourselves inside a snow-plough and set [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Blue Pullman, 1960 for BTF</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/blue-pullman-1960-for-btf/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/blue-pullman-1960-for-btf/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:38:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1960's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blue Pullman]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=1309</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Blue Pullman, 1960 was directed and written by Jimmie Ritchie and photographed by David Watkin and Jack West. It was edited by Hugh Raggett with music by Clifton Parker. The film was shot in colour and lasts almost 23 minutes, exploring the intensive testing of the new 90mph diesel-electric Midland Pullman, and its maiden journey from Manchester to London. Hugh Raggett writes to me (September 2009) that the film is not a good transfer from the 35mm original &#8220;a shame because the colour is far too bright and harsh, the original show copies had more fine detail and were softer.&#8221;  Far from being a utilitarian presentation of the steps needed to test this new train, the film is an elaboration of surface and designed style, set at the beginning as a sort of murder mystery complete with headless body on the floor. Clifton Parker’s music is a set of variations on Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, an ominous backing to technical equipment swaying in the motion of the carriage, with wires, string, cables, and an abandoned set of headphones on a seat. Both lavatories are in use, one as a Dark Room, the other to house testing equipment. Throughout the film, [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/09/blue-pullman-1960-for-btf/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Clapper Boy</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/02/clapper-boy/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/02/clapper-boy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:03:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scrutineer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clapper Boy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barry Coward]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Watkin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Photography]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=776</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Stills supplied by Barry Coward at Beulah]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>More BTF Images of David</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/01/more-btf-images-of-david/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/01/more-btf-images-of-david/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:07:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scrutineer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1950's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clapper Boy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Feature Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Photography]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Southampton Docks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=700</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[British Transport Films was an organisation set up in 1949 to make documentary films on the general subject of British transport. Its work included internal training films, travelogues (extolling the virtues of places that could be visited via the British transport system &#8211; mostly by rail), and &#8220;industrial films&#8221; (as they were called) promoting the progress of Britain&#8217;s railway network.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
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		<title>Working at British Transport Films</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2008/09/shared-triggered-and-jolted-memory/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2008/09/shared-triggered-and-jolted-memory/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:03:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scrutineer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1950's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1960's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clapper Boy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Baxter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Watkin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[England's North Counrty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Legard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Richie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Robertson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Waterloo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Williams]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=145</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The career of David Watkin revealed through photographic glimpses&#8230; British Transport Films Alan working at 25 Saville Row, 1955 Alan and Tom in the Post Office Yard, Waterloo, 1956 BTF crew: Baxter, Richie and Williams England&#8217;s North Country BTF crew: Robertson and Richie]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>BTF by Barry Coward</title>
		<link>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2008/03/btf/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2008/03/btf/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:11:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scrutineer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1950's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BTF in the 1960's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Transport Films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clapper Boy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[All That Mighty Heart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barry Coward]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holiday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Photography]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://davidwatkin.co.uk/new/?p=611</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Born into an illustrious railway family, David Watkin began work with the Southern Region Film Unit of British Railways in the late 1940&#8242;s. In 1950 he became a messenger boy and assistant cameraman at British Transport Films. Barry Coward writes: One day in 1981 I received a phone call from a David Watkin asking for a video copy of the BTF production Under Night Streets. At that time I was head of the Public Relations Strategy Team at London Transport and BTF had recently sent all the film they had shot for London Transport to us, as part of the winding up operation run by Jimmy Ritchie. We did telecine Under Night Streets for David and subsequently he paid for other BTF titles to be tele-cined including Care of St Christopher&#8217;s, What&#8217;s in Store, The Finishing Line (made long after David had left BTF, but directed by John Krish, who&#8217;s work David much admired), Holiday, All That Mighty Heart, A Desperate Case, MFD Re-railing Equipment, Diesel Train Driver and Snow Drift at Bleath Gill. British Transport Films was created by the British Transport Commission following nationalisation of much of the country&#8217;s public transport, road haulage, ports and waterways by the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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