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Ready When You Are

1975 12 min
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This short documentary takes a frank look at the difficulty of filmmaking before the digital era, when takes were precious and few. It’s pure havoc on a pier in the Halifax dockyards as a National Film Board crew attempts to film 1000 Halifax school children playing I Believe in Music on their ukuleles. The crew's efforts are confounded by two destroyers, one helicopter, several tugboats, bullhorns, walkie-talkies, and a rather critical lack of bathroom facilities.

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This short documentary takes a frank look at the difficulty of filmmaking before the digital era, when takes were precious and few. It’s pure havoc on a pier in the Halifax dockyards as a National Film Board crew attempts to film 1000 Halifax school children playing I Believe in Music on their ukuleles. The crew's efforts are confounded by two destroyers, one helicopter, several tugboats, bullhorns, walkie-talkies, and a rather critical lack of bathroom facilities.

  • director
    Douglas Kiefer
    John N. Smith
  • producer
    John N. Smith
  • executive producer
    Ian McLaren
    Rex Tasker
  • photography
    Tony Ianzelo
    Douglas Kiefer
    Les Krizsan
    Kent Nason
  • sound
    Ted Haley
    Claude Chevalier
  • editing
    Fraser Steele
  • sound editing
    André Galbrand
    Donald Douglas
  • re-recording
    Michel Descombes

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Home licence (worldwide); Classroom licence (Canada only)

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The institutional price includes the rights to screen this film in institutional settings and in free public screenings.