All in the Day's Work

From the collection of

Wessex Film and Sound Archive is based in Winchester. Providing the opportunity to see and hear history, the archive contains nearly 40,000 film, video and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, ranging from late Victorian times to the present day. It includes both amateur and professional material, local newsreels, military and maritime subjects, as well as footage produced by individuals, businesses and organisations.

All in the Day's Work

Wessex Film and Sound Archive
Hampshire
1930-04-01
Silent
9m

This inventive comedy double-bill is more than your average home movie - with its tale of two young pranksters getting their just deserts

Alistair Sawrey-Cookson's home movie is a comic morality tale for naughty children everywhere. A boy and a girl, who'd rather play, drive their tutor to distraction with pranks involving string and a pillow. The next film shows the boy and girl, joined by two other girls, splashing in a large basin. They play a hose on an older woman who gives each a smack. The kids decide to tamper with the family car. Their Mum can't start it but says she was actually going to take them for a drive.

When he was eleven Alistair Sawrey-Cookson's mother gave him a cine camera, which he used to film events and scenarios around Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. While studying at the RADA in London, the Second World War broke out and Alistair went on to serve as an RNVR Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Always known to have an affinity with the sea and the boats and ships that sailed on it, Alistair, once the war was over, made films on a more professional basis, often with nautical themes. His best known film is ‘The Feathered Wheel' which features paddle steamers. He also presented a BBC TV children's programme called Travel Story, in 1953, which was all about a yacht race from Southampton to Cherbourg.

Amateur Auteurs

Ever dreamed of shooting your own movie? These pre-digital cine-enthusiasts did - with all the passion and devotion of the true auteur.

These low- (or no-) budget creations reach beyond simple point-and-shoot, back-garden efforts towards something more ambitious and skilful, revealing their authors' passion for film and their often astonishing ingenuity with limited resources. No desktop editing software or digital special effects for these amateur auteurs. The films include fiction and documentary, competition prizewinners and private labours of love. They may be the work of cine-clubbers or individual enthusiasts. But they all show a devotion to filmmaking that far transcends hobbyism. So look out for the delightful handmade intertitles, table-top special effects and library soundtracks which decorate many of the quirky stories, ultra-local documentaries and painstakingly composed home movies featured here.