On this first day of the challenge, our group began the process of sorting through some of the wide array of materials that are housed in the Bill Douglas Museum archives relating to Don Boyd’s Aria, identifying any items of note and beginning the process of considering whether they might make a worthy addition to the website feature we are developing. Here are some of our specific thoughts thus far:
Looking at the archive information about Aria, it was interesting to see how the publicity information seemed eager to compare the film to Disney’s Fantasia – especially as the fusion between opera and visuals is very thematically different from the more child-friendly film. – Adam Smith
I found some documents relating to the trailer for Aria, and was interested to see the comments about how it should be portrayed, such as a request for the trailer to be given a U rating. There was also some interesting correspondence about the publicity for the film near its air date with the distributors of the film. – George Samways
Looking through the letters and agreements between Don and the music companies was interesting. Seeing how everything came together and how the production was taking shape is certainly something new. – Janet Novelia
The most interesting documentation I found was the casting information for Bruce Beresford’s segment. This included polaroid’s of the prospective cast, including Don’s initial impressions of Elizabeth Hurley. I also read a lot of correspondence between Don and various people, such as directors and bank correspondence. – Liana Green
I found some of the early correspondence from Don Boyd to prospective directors. It was interesting to see the initial vision for the film, and his ideas about the intended audience, such as that it should not be limited to music buffs. – Nadia Teare
Tomorrow, we shall be continuing the process of sifting through some of the available items, before commencing the actual process of digitising the material.