Feature:

Have The Fourth Horseman and A Beginning delivered to a desktop near you...

< Back | Home
 

Survivors at the BFI!

Recognised by the British Film Institute (BFI) as a television classic, Survivors is one of a handful of genre shows included in the multimedia screenonline archive, intended to provide an interactive educational resource on the history of British film and television.

Screenonline offers material on British TV drama, sit-coms, children's programmes, documentaries and more, and on the history of UK cinema and film-making — including video clips, publicity stills, scripts extracts, and (in some cases) complete episodes of programmes, and entire short films.

As well as a brief written introduction to Survivors, screenonline offers complete digitised versions the entire of Survivors' opening episode The Fourth Horseman and the season one finale A Beginning. In the case of A Beginning, it's possible to select playback of two highlighted scenes, as well as the episode in its entirety.

Access to the written and picture material on screenonline is open to all visitors. However, access the multimedia content is available only to schools, colleges, universities and public libraries within the UK that have registered with screenonline.

If you are a member of a registered library or student at a qualifying college, you may need to download a viewing license onto your PC on your first visit before being able to 'stream' any video content. This only needs to be done once.

The episode can be played back in two different 'streaming' formats — using RealAudio or Windows Media Player. On a machine with a broadband connection, or with a strong dial-up bandwidth, playback is of good picture and sound quality, with few synch problems.

All screenonline clips and episodes appear in a fixed-size pop-up window, with the playback area taking up around a-quarter of the monitor screen, at most standard screen resolutions.

The footage is watermarked with an outline of the letter 'S' in the bottom right hand corner of the screen — much in the style of a 'UK Gold' ident. No form of navigation within clips is available, so playback has to run sequentially from the beginning in real-time. Although a pause function is offered, reconnecting to the 'stream' after pausing can prove problematic.

All video content is design for 'streaming' only, and no files may be downloaded for playback off-line. As the site makes clear, all contents of the BFI site are "protected by copyright and may not be copied, reproduced, transmitted, broadcast, distributed, edited or modified in any way".

Screenonline also offers material (including video content) on other genre shows including Doomwatch [which offers the whole of 'The Plastic Eaters'], Blakes 7, Dr Who, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — and, the entire of Peter Watkins' nuclear war drama-documentary The War Game.

Although, ideally, fans might have prefered the BFI to have selected episodes from either the second or third season of the series for download (currently unavailable in any sell-through format, though - in the case of season two - soon to be released on DVD by DD Video), there's little doubt that The Fourth Horseman will immediately grab the attention of those coming across the programme for the first time through the screenonline site.

To avoid frustration when attempting to playback video content from screenonline, remember the following:

• Access is only possible from educational sites and libraries within the UK which have registered for the service, and have an accessible internet connection fast enough to support 'streaming' content. Some libraries and colleges do not permit the downloading of video and audio material. Check with the IT or Information Specialist responsible.

• Depending on the IT arrangements in place, you may need to download and install a license from the site onto your PC on your first visit to screenonline. You may not have the necessary 'permissions' to do this, and need clearance and assistance from your IT support staff.

• The PC on which you watch the 'streaming' video content must have (i) an active sound card (these are sometimes disabled in library and colleges PCs); (ii) either Real Audio or Windows Media Player software, installed and running.

• You may need to borrow, purchase or supply your own headphones to listen to the audio component of the playback.

Other Survivors material — including photos and script extracts — may be added in due course, and the site already offers in addition an interesting essay on the life's work of the series' creator Terry Nation.

Click here to access the Survivors screenonline page.