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Title: MORISTON PROJECT, the

Reference number: 6211

Date: 1952 - 1956

Director: [d. Derrick Knight]

Sponsor: [ Mitchell Construction Company]

Production company: Verity

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 33.50 mins

Description: The building of two dams and six miles of tunnelling known as the Moriston Dam Scheme, for the Scottish Hydro-Electric Board.

See also ref. 2790

Credits: in assocation with Film Producers Guild
p. Jack Greenwood
consulting engineers Sir William Halcrow and Partners
ph. Jo Amber, John Wiles, Charles French
w. and ed. Derrick Knight
sd. rec. Ron Abbott
The Mitchell Construction Company acknowledge, with appreciation, the co-operation given by the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board during the making of this film

Shotlist: (0.00) [BW] Gvs crane digging a hole (0.14) opening credits. Gvs crane working, Gvs of dam (0.52) C/u man, an engineer, standing over dam, looking (0.58) Man drives away from dam in Land Rover (00.01.41) Vehicle drives towards camera through building site, parks, man gets out (1.55) L/s man walking across top of dam and looking over (2.18) Gvs Glen Moriston. Team of men surveying land looking at plans for dam that they discuss (3.41) C/u river and men looking down on river (3.55) Int. company officials in Peterborough office discussing plans for dam (4.12) Gvs graphic designers working (4.26) Gvs of workers producing materials for dam including cranes, cement mixer, dam facings (4.59) Gvs int. graphic designers and office staff. C/u diggers moving earth and rocks. Truck dumping earth. Group of steel workers. Gvs steel frame bridge crossing river (5.31) Men crossing river on foot with horses. Men with horses on top of hill. C/u surveyors with measuring equipment (5.54) Gvs construction site including building of temporary wooden houses for workers, c/u truck, diggers, bus, men rolling out wire. Pan construction site. Cranes lifting earth into back of truck (6.56) C/u men with survey equipment (7.00) Gvs of conveyor cranes and cables being constructed over dam (7.40) cutting rock out of hillside for tunnel mouth, gvs digging and drilling work, in bad weather (8.24) further drilling work, elevated shot over site (8.52) man surveys the scene below, with the outline of the base of the dam visible on ground, man operates digger, specialist team prepares cement grout on bedrock to seal the dam, gvs this process (9.59) exts batching plant for concrete with two mixers, ints control room (10.18) gvs stone and sand quarry where stone is transported and crushed after blasting, view of sorting piles with different sizes of rock ready for use, brief exts hammer mill where stone is beaten into sand (11.14) laying a charge, clearing the site and wide angle view of rock being blasted from hillside (12.14) Portland cement bags are moved on forklift truck (12.25) blast furnace slag arrives on lorry from Glasgow, gvs piles of slag stored in open site (12.43) slag is wet ground and processed, will be used to make cement (13.07) ints laboratory where a batch of cement is routinely tested (13.17) shot of men discussing lab results over the telephone (13.28) brief shot cement being mixed, ints casting shed, where pre cast blocks are made (13.45) brief shot truck mixers leaving yard (13.49) ints control tower, Cluny Dam where a man directs the flow of work getting the concrete to where it is needed at the correct time, intercut with shots of concrete being loaded (14.18) 'ganger' of each team out on the dam, directs control person via hand held radio, the skips are delivered to exact point on dam, intercut control tower (14.57) skip is emptied on ground (15.01) gvs dam construction, we see concrete being lowered, elevated shot over dam, snowy conditions, men giving directions etc (16.08) gvs Loyne (or Luine) where construction of smaller dam is underway - precast blocks are put in place via crane (16.59) ints main site offices engineers in meeting (17.28) black hack (?) maintenance man repairing things under Range Rover (17.49) sign for 'Mitchell Construction Co. No. 1 Adit' ints meeting in office, man drives along ints tunnel (19.09) gvs at the face, where loose rocks are collected, drills set up for boring, compressed air is turned on and drilling begins, charges are set in hole and blasting rock, shot of men covering their ears (20.38) ints office, shot of wall diagram following progress (20.46) ints tunnel where the boss checks on sighting line for accuracy of tunnel direction after the blast (21.02) nightfall, silhouettes of cranes and workers against night sky as another shift comes on (21.20) ints canteen - food is served, ints shop where men buy cigarettes and papers, shot of men arriving at on site 'cinema' for film show (21.46) brief gvs ceilidh with the locals with dancing and pipes, ints pub where men relax playing darts and chatting (22.09) ints men prepare for bed in on site living quarters, followed by shot of slag lorries rumbling by outside (22.23) exts house early morning, man leaves for work (22.38) ints great cavern of generating station where roof concreting has been completed, men prepare end walls and machinery for turbine to be set in floor , lining of tunnel is laid, shot of newly lined tunnel (23.20) the tea urn is delivered to workers, charges are set off during this time (23.46) marking is set, opposing teams of workers approach meeting point of tunnel, everyone races to finish first, various shots of work in tunnel, the final blast is set off (25.53) teams crawl through to meet one another, they celebrate with a bottle of beer, ints pub (26.22) view over almost complete dam (27.36) shot of huge valves maintaining constant flow of water down old river (27.58) back at Loyne dam, water flows out through turbine house (28.12) ints main water generating station at Keenacrock (?) where two turbines are to generate electricity and exts overlooking the plant (28.46) final concreting work on Cluny Dam - elevated tracking shot along dam wall, ints control tower and last concreting work underway (29.57) masons at either end of dam build small neat houses for tunnel shutter system, the road surface is smoothed by hand, painters do final non-corrosive finishing then clean up (30.50) peat is relaid on bare sandy banks below dam - grass is sown on top (31.28) exts caravans back on site, most buildings are pulled down for reuse on another site, various things are blasted / burned to leave not a trace of the construction site (32.01) gvs finished dam, man stands and surveys the scene (32.32) examples of how electricity generated from dam will service the Highlands [lighting for crofts, electricity for farming, ints livestock market, encourage new industry to develop, shot of harbour, shot of town street lit by electricity] (33.02) gvs dam, civil engineer drives away in car, proud of a job well done (33.31) ecs (33.50)