BFI archive solves case by reading the label
The BFI archive has found the missing half of an original negative for The Birth of the Robot. It was inside a film can marked Shell, testing the outer limit of archival detection and proving that a mystery can remain difficult even when it names itself.
Len Lye made the stop motion short in 1936 for Shell. Its Gasparcolor process recorded red, green and blue frames in sequence, making the negative three times longer and correspondingly more determined to require cupboard space.
The trench coat remains in the prop department
For decades, only the first reel appeared in the catalogue. A curator researching another Shell commercial spotted a promising listing and ordered the can, which arrived with all the suspense of a parcel labelled exactly what it contained.
“We considered fingerprints, coded telegrams and a trench coat,” said Cyril Nitrate Glove of Cupboard Investigations. “In the end, the breakthrough was literacy.”
The second reel included Old Father Time near its opening. Consequently, the film became complete again and one archive box achieved a more satisfying character arc than most streaming dramas.
Colour restoration approaches a robot selling petrol
The original material can help restorers recover the vivid Gasparcolor look. Modern technology can remove scratches, although it cannot recreate the precise 1930s experience of watching an avant garde robot advertise petroleum.
The rediscovery proves cultural history is rarely truly lost. Often it is filed under the company that paid for it, waiting ninety years for somebody to check the cupboard properly.
The archive has now checked every can with an obvious label. It has not yet found the missing patience from the 1930s, but expects that will be stored under administration.
Read the real story: The BFI account of finding the missing film material.
