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Title: OATS

Reference number: 3896

Date: 1951*

Director: d. Jack Davidson

Sponsor: McGill and Smith Ltd present

Sound: silent

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 22.44 mins

Description: Describes experiments carried out in Ayrshire to improve the standard and quality of oats. The plant breeder featured is John Watson.

Prize winning film at the 1949 Scottish Amateur Film Festival.

Credits: camera Robert H. Paterson
plant breeder John Watson
McGill and Smith Ltd present Oats

Shotlist: PART 1
Opening credits and award leader (0.20) OATS. A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people Dr Johnson. shot of woman in kitchen making porridge, shots of family at table eating breakfast (2.19) The creation of a new oat variety, Ayr Commando. Intertitles describing different types of oat plant. Gvs oat fields / oat farming:- harvesting by combine, scything, oat sacks ready for market (4.27) gvs plant breeder at work, cross fertilising different oat strains, planting and germinating these new varieties, selecting and re-selecting from these new crops to produce an improved strain. Interspersed with intertitles, including one which states that this footage dates from 1934 - 39 (11.38) shot of plant breeder scientifically testing the properties of oat kernels and husks, intertitles (12.38) 341ft

PART 2
Gvs oat fields [possibly depicting the growth of the new Ayr Commando strain over the years 1940 - 42] (15.00) 1943 Ayr Commando goes on the market. Gvs farm workers in field - sowing, ploughing and harvesting, using both tractor and machinery and the older horse-drawn methods with wooden implements. Shots of workers loading sheaves of oats onto tractor trailer and horse-drawn cart (18.49) gvs threshing showing men working at threshing machine, gvs at oat mill illustrating how oatmeal is produced, interspersed with intertitles The End (22.44) 272ft