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from "nitrate can't wait", used by a Canadian called "collateral" - a project logo, information
colleague - seemed simple, direct and apt. brochures, "nitrate won't wait" badges, Last Film
Search stationery, wall posters and even T shirts
In the event, the project proved to be outside the - and we distributed these judiciously. Under the
parameters of Ken Myer's intended foundation sponsorship arrangement, we had access to
(later they bankrolled an entirely different Kodak's public relations and design department,
project for us) so my deputy, Mike Lynskey, and and their people created the "look" of the
I went looking for corporate sponsors. Kodak Search. At the outset, the relative prominence of
and the Utah Foundation led the final each sponsor's name and logo in publicity had
consortium, which collectively provided the been agreed; all of these, in turn, were
required A$100,000 - plus. While corporate subsidiary to the project name itself.
sponsorship for cultural institutions is common
today, it was not so in 1980: it was a new The Search officially ran for 5 years, though its
experience for the National Library and none of most active and publicisable phase was the first
us were sure how to handle it!. 18 months. It turned up over a million feet of
nitrate film (plus a lot of acetate film), it served
The Last Film Search was formally launched in its sponsors very well, and it permanently lifted
October 1981 with film director Peter Weir public awareness of the loss and vulnerability of
doing the honours. It immediately gained a our film heritage. "Nitrate won't wait" is a
media profile, enhanced the following March simple message and it hit home, publicly and
when former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam politically. I believe it hastened the day when, in
launched an associated book, Australia's Lost 1984, the National Film and Sound Archive was
Films (which I had written in conjunction with separated from the National Library to become
film historian Andrew Pike). an autonomous institution, and ultimately
achieve adequate funding and means for
In my favourite press clipping from the Search, preserving its nitrate collection. By any measure,
the national newspaper The Australian did a the project was a signal success, and to my
front page story on 26 March headlined (not delight other archives have since used it as an
entirely accurately) "Archivist in race against effective model.
silver nitrate time bomb: raider of the lost art
scours the countryside for old film". The I have often asked myself why it was so
"raider" was field officer Michael Cordell, and successful, for its public impact was well
as he travelled the backblocks in his brightly- beyond any of our expectations. I think it was a
painted caravan he became, for a while, a media combination of many things: the name and the
phenomenon. For its first year and beyond, the slogan, the romantic appeal of a national
Search garnered immense free publicity in the treasure hunt, the simplicity of the message, the
press and on television news and chat shows. fact that the results were showable on television,
It ultimately yielded two one-hour television and the sentiment Australians have for their film
documentaries. My impression was that most heritage. These insights were all post-facto: at
the time our strategy (if that's what it was) arose
Australians came to hear about the Search, more from intuition than analysis. Perhaps
picked up the slogan and understood its basic intuition - the conviction that the material was
message. Once a taxi driver in Sydney, who did there, and this was the way to find it - was the
not know where I worked, regaled me with great most important ingredient of all!
enthusiasm about the project - and, as everyone
knows, taxi drivers are the best barometer of
public opinion!
Reprinted in Reel Deals by courtesy of
Throughout, we did not spend a penny on paid the Author
advertising, though we did produce what is now