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Title: GREAT MILL RACE, the

Reference number: 0921

Date: 1975

Director: d. Robin Crichton

Sponsor: Films of Scotland, National Association of Scottish Woollen Manufacturers and the Scottish Woollen Trade Employers Association

Production company: Edinburgh Film Productions

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 30.10 mins

Description: Dramatised account of a race between an unscrupulous modern woollen mill and a traditional mill to make up a garment from original fleece to finished article.

Shown at the 6th International Film Festival of India, 1977.
See production file for script, treatment etc.

Credits: stuntman Jim Boyce
p. ass. John Degnan, Robin Degnan, Ian Fraser, Keith Thorpe, Rosemary Aitkin; make-up Jean Maiden
costumes Sue Smith, Carol Rushton
titles Camera Effects
VTR engineers Jim Anderson, Dave Webster
continuity Trish Crichton
ass. ed. Peter G. Moran
ass. d. Michael Jones, Tony Kovacs
camera assistants David Peat, Peter Warilow
sd. rec. Ian Leslie
original story Alasdair Gray
screenplay Clifford Hanley
m. composed by Frank Spedding
conducted by Marcus Dods
animator(titles) Les Pace
lighting cameraman David Macdonald
ass. p. Mike Pavett
d. Robin Crichton

[Cast]
John Cairney as Gordon Blackadder
Russell Hunter as David Hill
John Grieve as Hugh Longrigg
Leonard Maguire as Tom Carrick
Jonty Miller as Jimmy Braithwaite
Ros Drinkwater as Pandora
Elizabeth Brown as Johnny Longrigg
Walter Carr as Grant
Brown Derby as MacLeod
Michael Elder as Armstrong
John Young as Turnbull
Other parts played by: Jack Angus, Hugh Boyle, Maureen Jack, Rose MacBain, Nan Norman

The producers gratefully acknowledge the assistance given by the National Association of Scottish Woollen Manufacturers and the Scottish Woollen Trade Employers Association

Shotlist: Credits [superimposed over film] Shot of British Caledonian jet at Edinburgh airport. Photographers at foot of mobile steps as models disembark (.17) Inside the terminal TV news reporter talking on camera (1.48) Scene in a golf club bar (2.59) Scene on golf course (3.44) ext. shot of woollen mill (3.51) int shot of office where the character Jimmy has the idea for a record-breaking attempt to make a suit (5.47) int. shot of the mill where Jenny is checking finished cloth for flaws (6.45) pan from Edinburgh castle to ext. of the North British Hotel in Princes Street (7.00) int. shot inside room in North British Hotel where meeting of representatives of the major mills decide on a race to produce the fastest suit (9.08) int shot of staff canteen (9.47) ext. shot of mill (9.54) int. shot of mill with automatic weaving machines at work and a computer printed design card (10.59) int. shot of office where Jimmy and Mr Carrick discuss the race (12.33) shot of reporter in TV studio set up at the College of Textiles, Galashiels (15.58) shots of crowd gathered round sheep in a pen (16.03) shot of sheep being manhandled into mill (16.09) shots of sheep shearing (16.42) shots of wool being scoured and yard spinning showing McLeod tartan beginning to take shape on looms, intercut with shots of the TV studio (18.30) shot of computer design being fed into automatic loom (18.40) shot of cloth torn because of a needle left accidentally in the cloth (18.55) shots of weaving processes as material is ready to be tinted and cropped and the finished fabric is rolling of the machinery (19.26) machinist at hand sewing machine and shots of labels being hand sewn on to finished garments (21.13) shots of participants in race in sports car, small aeroplane, motor cycle, horseback, parachute (28.14) shot of Jenny in the winning suit (28.50) ecs (30.10)