The Story of the DVD
In 1968, Joseph Shearer began a series of paintings, forty in all, depicting
Tam's famous ride. His interest in Burns' most famous poem was sparked in
his youth when he discovered that the Tam o' Shanter Inn, where Tam's immortal
ride is reputed to have begun, was built by his ancestor James Shearer in
1748 and had remained in the family for nearly one hundred years.
The paintings were photographed and made up into boxes of forty slides and these were sold
through the Tam o' Shanter Museum in Ayr from then until the museum closed
and the building once more became an inn.
A couple of years later, in 1970, the paintings were again pressed into
service and a film was made using a technique now known as the "Ken Burns
Effect", named after the well known U.S. producer of documentaries. This
technique of zooming and panning around a still image is in fact nearly
as old as film making itself.
The film was shown to critical acclaim at the 1970 Edinburgh Festival but
being produced on 16mm film it was not a commercial success. In 2004, the
only surviving copy was found to have degraded beyond repair but as the
soundtrack was intact and images of the forty paintings existed elsewhere,
modern technology has allowed us to reproduce the film exactly as it was
originally and present it on DVD.
Please enjoy the preview.
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