______________________________________________________________________
Richard
Dacre is a film writer, lecturer, historian, archivist, and owner of
Flashbacks
Film
Memorabilia Archive and Store in London’s Soho. He also happens
to be an
authority on Norman Wisdom and his life on stage,
in films and on television and
has written a Wisdom biography ‘Trouble In Store’.
Richard’s sister Sue is an
accomplished film and stage puppeteer and in the
late seventies when she
commenced work on Cloppa Castle, Richard took on
the unique role of Dialogue
Co-ordinator – choreographing the voices with the
puppets on the series. Here he
reminisces about those days and outlines exactly
what the job entailed:
‘Well… I worked on Cloppa Castle – I think the company was called
Transcontinental Films – March to September 1978.
As far as I remember,
this was the first two series, and I had nothing
to do with the third. The
studio was a converted church in Southwark Park
Road (London). I think
when I joined the team they had already started making
the puppets and
sets, but I might be wrong, it’s possible we all
began at the same time.
I was shunted off to a separate room with all the
scripts and � inch tapes
containing the professionally recorded dialogue.
My first job was to cut out all the guff. Not only
the mistakes and the
unusable takes but also the gaps between dialogue
so that everything
was up to speed. I was pretty well left to my own
devices doing this, which,
as you can imagine, was quite a mammoth job with
24 episodes to work on.
This was a matter of physically cutting and splicing
the tape as and where
necessary. Once an episode was completed, I handed
the reel over to Mary
and John who then timed it and made script cuts to
bring the episode to
broadcast length.
My second job was to take these edited scripts and
once more cut the
tapes to their instructions. The difference this
time was that all these cuts
were preserved and labeled, so that they could be
restored if necessary.
Also, I entered detailed timings on the scripts so
that I could locate the
smallest snippet of dialogue in seconds – all very
methodical work. By the
time I finished this, the scheduling was such that
the puppets were completed
and the sets for the first batch of shoots were ready
at the same time and we
were ready to roll the camera.
Obviously the 24 episodes were treated as a single
entity – similar set ups
were shot sequentially. Not only did this save time,
but also allowed the set
builders to continue working on later locations as
the camera rolled. There was
no dedicated continuity person and the set designers
and the puppeteers were
expected to take care of this themselves – very difficult
– though Mary would
invariably pounce on anything that was amiss.
During shooting, I was sat to the right of the “stage”
and my job was to send
the sound to the correct puppet. The puppets’ mouth
movements were triggered
by sound – thus I had to direct that sound to the
correct character using levers.
Memory and looking at the photo (top) would suggest
that a maximum of four
puppets could speak together in one take. So, the
action would be as follows.
Mary would say “episode 12 scene 2”. I would scramble
for the right tape and
locate the scene (the tapes are in that cardboard
box under my feet, the scripts
in the one next to the desk) using headphones. If
necessary, the set would be
dressed and John (Read) would light. Then with puppeteers
at the ready, she
would call action and off we went (she expected us
to be ready when she was,
seldom checked).
Quite high pressured at the beginning but one soon
got used to it. Only once
was cut dialogue restored – that was pretty hairy.
I had to locate the relevant
strip of tape, splice it into the reel and then play
without holding up the
production…..
I only have pleasant memories of the whole experience.
Great bunch of people
producing good work. I recall a pretty good wrap
party enlivened by a crate
of champagne courtesy of the Lew Grade Organization…’
_____________________________________________________________________
Richard Dacre’s work on Cloppa Castle and film memorabilia
______________________________________________________________________
Richard
Dacre is a film writer, lecturer, historian, archivist, and owner of
Flashbacks
Film
Memorabilia Archive and Store in London’s Soho. He also happens
to be an
authority on Norman Wisdom and his life on stage,
in films and on television and
has written a Wisdom biography ‘Trouble In Store’.
Richard’s sister Sue is an
accomplished film and stage puppeteer and in the
late seventies when she
commenced work on Cloppa Castle, Richard took on
the unique role of Dialogue
Co-ordinator – choreographing the voices with the
puppets on the series. Here he
reminisces about those days and outlines exactly
what the job entailed:
‘Well… I worked on Cloppa Castle – I think the company was called
Transcontinental Films – March to September 1978.
As far as I remember,
this was the first two series, and I had nothing
to do with the third. The
studio was a converted church in Southwark Park
Road (London). I think
when I joined the team they had already started making
the puppets and
sets, but I might be wrong, it’s possible we all
began at the same time.
I was shunted off to a separate room with all the
scripts and � inch tapes
containing the professionally recorded dialogue.
My first job was to cut out all the guff. Not only
the mistakes and the
unusable takes but also the gaps between dialogue
so that everything
was up to speed. I was pretty well left to my own
devices doing this, which,
as you can imagine, was quite a mammoth job with
24 episodes to work on.
This was a matter of physically cutting and splicing
the tape as and where
necessary. Once an episode was completed, I handed
the reel over to Mary
and John who then timed it and made script cuts to
bring the episode to
broadcast length.
My second job was to take these edited scripts and
once more cut the
tapes to their instructions. The difference this
time was that all these cuts
were preserved and labeled, so that they could be
restored if necessary.
Also, I entered detailed timings on the scripts so
that I could locate the
smallest snippet of dialogue in seconds – all very
methodical work. By the
time I finished this, the scheduling was such that
the puppets were completed
and the sets for the first batch of shoots were ready
at the same time and we
were ready to roll the camera.
Obviously the 24 episodes were treated as a single
entity – similar set ups
were shot sequentially. Not only did this save time,
but also allowed the set
builders to continue working on later locations as
the camera rolled. There was
no dedicated continuity person and the set designers
and the puppeteers were
expected to take care of this themselves – very difficult
– though Mary would
invariably pounce on anything that was amiss.
During shooting, I was sat to the right of the “stage”
and my job was to send
the sound to the correct puppet. The puppets’ mouth
movements were triggered
by sound – thus I had to direct that sound to the
correct character using levers.
Memory and looking at the photo (top) would suggest
that a maximum of four
puppets could speak together in one take. So, the
action would be as follows.
Mary would say “episode 12 scene 2”. I would scramble
for the right tape and
locate the scene (the tapes are in that cardboard
box under my feet, the scripts
in the one next to the desk) using headphones. If
necessary, the set would be
dressed and John (Read) would light. Then with puppeteers
at the ready, she
would call action and off we went (she expected us
to be ready when she was,
seldom checked).
Quite high pressured at the beginning but one soon
got used to it. Only once
was cut dialogue restored – that was pretty hairy.
I had to locate the relevant
strip of tape, splice it into the reel and then play
without holding up the
production…..
I only have pleasant memories of the whole experience.
Great bunch of people
producing good work. I recall a pretty good wrap
party enlivened by a crate
of champagne courtesy of the Lew Grade Organization…’
_____________________________________________________________________