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Title: RACE TO NOWHERE

Reference number: 4262

Date: 1967c

Director: d. Frederick W. McLeod

Production company: Group 5

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 46.21 mins

Description: Espionage and intrigue are the ingredients of this award-winning amateur film shot on the North-East coast of Scotland. An atomic reactor runs out of control and blows up. Accident or sabotage? A group of schoolboys set out to solve the mystery. [Transmitted on Grampian Television and shown at Cosmo Cinema, Aberdeen].

Entered in Scottish Amateur Film Festival of 1967, winner of Victor Saville Trophy - for the outstanding film of the festival, the Scottish Film Council Prize - £15.15/- and the Marshall Quaich - for the best entry by a member of the S.A.A.C.

For article on this film, see Amateur Photographer, 22nd March 1967. See paper archives for press coverage and billings for TV and cinema screenings.

Group 5 and Clansman were the same group of independent amateur film-makers formed in 1958. They made non-fiction under the name of Clansman and fiction under the name of Group 5. Further material of Group 5 is held at the IAC (Institute of Amateur Cinematographers), Epsom, Surrey.

Credits: [John - John McGregor
Colin - Colin Dunn
William - Colin Cruickshank
Laxford - Harry Duncan
Sir Arthur - Robert Milne
Fotherington - Jim Adam
Crighton - Keith Pirie
Dr. Grier - Hector McDonald
Country boy - James Young
scuba divers Bill Brown, John Smith, Graham Reid
toughs John Pickles, Joe McLeod, Jack McKay, Brian Stephen, Jim Snape special effects Ronald Farquhar, Michael Milne, Michael Law, Graeme Archibald, John Watt

stills ph. Alan Hendry
sd.rec. Graham Reid]
ph. Ronald C. Miller
sd. mixing Clansman Films
location recording by Graham Reid
additional m. Alex. Sutherland

Shotlist: REEL I
gvs (some underwater) boys scuba diving in rocky shore waters, they discover Laxford floating in boat and pull him ashore; ints office two men discussing 'Laxford' file, c/u photograph; same men discussing with Dr. Grier future of reactor, and the fact that Laxford has a control key which can stop the reactor reaching danger point (7.09) boys try to revive Laxford, who tells them he has been drugged; gives boy control key before he passes out; shot of boy burning clothing, hides it in flipper and runs off; exts derelict house which he enters, fight with baddie ensues, and boy is punched unconscious [N.B. fight shots are fast, probably 18fps] (14.24) men from power station discover Laxford on beach, they search everywhere for control key, are unsuccessful and drag Laxford away (15.54) three boys now held captive, intercut with shots of room where Laxford is threatened over where the missing control key is; boy escapes onto roof; gvs chase scene with boy running from baddies in motor car; culminates in spectacular scene where car crashes off cliff and bursts into flames, boy scrapes his way up cliff to safety (21.12) Laxford is threatened by baddie; boy runs back to beach to find belongings strewn along beach, finds control key (23.20) 840ft

REEL II
boy awakens on beach, having slept in boat all night; shots of him washing and eating and then running up hillside (1.55) ints baddies in conversation, phone call is made (3.06) boy walking on hillside is shot at and chase ensues across moorland (4.21) having narrowly escaped, he meets country boy who promises to take him to safety (4.41) shot of farmhouse where he meets other two and they walk, the control key is handed over (6.25) gvs another chase, and a fight with tree branches as weapons, the boy escapes (8.58) 322ft

REEL III
gvs chase down cliff side (1.16) divers joining up hose pipe in bay, boys observe this; they find ladder in cave and climb up (3.12) ints boys creeping along corridor, observed on CCTV by baddie (4.35) the boys surface in control room, are confronted by baddie who demands control key, but they kick him and escape down underground passageway again (5.26) baddie picks up control key, dropped by one of the boys, and orders his sidekick to go after the boys (6.08) they escape, and are confronted by baddie with gun, jump into water and swim away, only to be attacked by scuba divers and captured (7.44) ints baddie and Dr. Grier, telephone call is made (8.05) gvs green liquid pumped out into water (8.23) boys are ordered to go into room, but they turn situation around and end up locking doctor baddie in! (8.51) they escape down shaft again (9.39) gvs action scenes as reactor explodes with baddie inside; gvs cliff side engulfed in flames, boys escape into cave which also bursts into flames; they are rescued by Laxford and are finally ashore, safe and well (14.03) 505ft