40th Anniversary Time Capsule

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moonwalkone

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Nearly 40 years have passed since NASA's PR employed a young Theo Kamecke to create a documentary to capture the historic moments of the Apollo 11 Mission. When given the brief he was asked to create a time capsule.

It is therefore quite fitting that despite his documentary film "Moonwalk One" receiving recognition in Cannes, and also being listed in the top 100 movies of all times (in 1972), 1 of 2 copies of the film sat under Theo's desk as he ventured on to other things. This was due partly to the fact that at the time television was over saturated with Space stories.

In celebration of the Anniversary, Dr Chris Riley, who 10 years ago saw a sketchy copy, recently took it upon himself to see is he could track down the original film. NASA had lost their copy so it was quite a desperate search. The National Archives had only copies which were of extremely poor quality..

Luckily, via the wonders of Google, Chris managed to track down the Director, and to his astonishment uncovered that Theo had the original 35mm print under his desk.

Further discussions with both NASA & Theo led to a frantic 2 month process prior to todays anniversary, to fly the film over to London to restore the film and master to hi-definition. Theo flew over to London so that he could make a Directors cut, Directors Commentary and the making of "Creating a Time Capsule". Now Moonwalk One - The Directors Cut is available for the World to See. It's available at Amazon on both sides of the pond in both PAL & NTSC versions (DVD Region 0) to find out more go to www.moonwalkone.com alternatively for UK members it's also on Discovery HD tomorrow (Monday 20th)..

I hope this is of interest.
 
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moonwalkone

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AstroBrian":749ae1zb said:
What's the deal with NASA always losing their tapes? :oops:

To be honest I am not sure, but from experience it happens in all genres of archive. Now most people keep control on their archives as they realise the value, but going back some time, copies are made, moved round, people change jobs, systems are not as automated as now..

It's a blessing that Theo kept his copy. I am not sure how many news items you have watched this weekend, but the imagery compared to that of the footage restored on Moonwalk One is not a patch.

Theo's print is obviously quite fresh and then the restoration has polished it off.. Some of this footage has been supplied back to NASA for their celebrations which is good.. It should be locked under a key, it's the most significant moment in TV history and probably the most significant moment in history!

Prior to being involved in this project my interest was none other than hearing my father tell me what he was doing on the early morning of the landing (eating cornflakes watching his black and white portable).. through the restoration period, seeing these images in depth, I have suddenly become mesmorised at how incredible this acheivement really was and still is. The ultimate test for me was my Dad's verdict on watching the film on Saturday - his reaction was it was "wonderful"... Hopefully lot's more people will have the pleasure!
 
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