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Title: ST. KILDA - THE LONELY ISLANDS

Reference number: 0911

Date: 1967

Director: d. Christopher Mylne

Sponsor: Films of Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 38.55 mins

Description: The island of St. Kilda - its birdlife and the restoration work by the National Trust for Scotland.

Films of Scotland's first film produced for television.
International Festival of Films of Exploration, Trento, 1967.

See paper archives file for script and stills.

See also refs 1896, 0418 and 0793.

Credits: comm. s. Michael Robson
nar. John Arnott
cam. ass. Keith Moffat
dub. mix. John Goodwin
grap. des. Jim Nicholson
ph. & ed. Christopher Mylne
technical and production facilities - Research Film Unit, Dept. of Animal Genetics, University of Edinburgh

Shotlist: map of Scotland, zoom in to St. Kilda - title & credits - gvs at sea approaching St. Kilda - c/u shots pages of volume 'A Late Voyage to St. Kilda', v/o reading from book - gvs sea and gannets in flight - l/s Boreray - gvs cliffs, seabirds, coastline - c/u shot 17th century map from book - gvs coastline, cliffs, stacs - schoolboys on excursion on fishing boat - gvs from cruise ship 'Meteor' - puffins on water - shots of Hirta, Dun and Soay from sea (4.11) shots of cliffs and waves, guillemots and kittiwakes nesting on ledges, fulmars in flight - shot of man on crest of Conachair, tilt down cliffs to show long distance to sea - shots of fulmars on cliffs, razorbills, shag, puffins - shots of wildflowers, including sea pink, rose root, spotted orchid, butterwort, buttercups (8.06) waves on headland, shags, Atlantic grey seals in water - gvs sea-caves and cliffs, Village Bay, Dun - shots of cultivation rigs on Dun - pan across settlements on Hirta (10.00) ruined houses on the main street - gvs cliffs and waves, clouds - shots of summer gale blowing across Village Bay - gvs cliffs and waves, seals swimming in sea-cave - gvs oystercatchers in flight and nesting, starlings nesting - shots of St. Kilda wren and nest - shots of ancient houses, including the 'fairy house' and 'Calum Mor's house', the 'Amazon's house' - c/u shots of gull's nest with eggs, chicks - shots of ruined houses and enclosures - shot of Gleann Mor and turf dyke at top (15.26) gvs of flocks of wild Soay sheep, c/u sheep skeleton - gvs cliffs and seabirds (17.32) sequence of still archive images of inhabitants of St. Kilda, including bird fowlers, 'share-out' of birds - c/u puffin, gvs puffins on water and in flight - gvs Boreray and stacs - sequence of photographs and still images of old prints of islanders landing on Boreray from boat - gvs Stac Lee and gannets nesting on cliffs - l/s Boreray and seabirds on cliffs - shots of stone cleits and enclosures throughout island (23.05) man walking into graveyard on Hirta - gvs ruined houses and main street - c/u shots of St. Kilda field mouse - ext and int shots of ruined houses on main street (25.41) sequence of still images, old photographs of main street, St. Kilda parliament, c/u shots of women and girls' faces, men plucking wool, women spinning, islanders at work, older people (27.43) re-enactment of Lover's Stone ritual, shots of young man performing balancing act on edge of stone as woman looks on - sequence of still images, old photographs of islanders, graveyard, children, tourist party, school groups, churchgoers, group on main street dissolving into present-day group of volunteers - shots of volunteers re-roofing cleit and repairing 19th century cottages - int and ext shots of renovation of cottage for use as a museum (32.35) shots of Neil Gillies, ex-St. Kilda inhabitant on return visit - high shot of army camp at Village Bay - radar station - shots of post office, army post-master stamping letters and postcards for 'tin can mail' - shots of visitor placing letters into 'St. Kilda mail boat' - l/s of mail drop by aircraft - shots of lid being fixed on to St Kilda mail boat and group setting off to launch it into sea from rock - gvs landscape, cliffs (36.55) shots of scientists tending to injured Soay sheep - shots of sheep, field mouse, wrens - gvs islands at sunset - ecs - THE END (38.55)