At first, I think presenting the study with videos in web page is not that hard. Indeed, technical issue is not a problem, as there are many video editing software so that ordinary users can also make very professional video clips. However, after this study, I do realised that there are many issues to consider besides video editing.

 

It is the baby boomers interviewee who urged me to visualise the contents of interview according to his memory. At first, I thought it was not a big deal as the internet is full of all kinds of material that can easily be obtained at my fingertip.

 

Soon I found it hard to look for video clips describing the daily lives of Hong Kong in the 60’s and even 70’s. Even looking for photographs about children that suit my study is extreme hard, let alone video clips. I am very astonished to see that few recorded the daily lives of Hong Kong with photographs or films at that period. Not many users in Youtube shared their films in this respect and mostly they are foreigners with some recorded during their trips to Hong Kong at that time!

 

The idea of producing my own video clips by recording the children of today and turned it into black and white to represent children of yesteryears had come to my mind. I discussed with the old interviewee but he rejected at once. He said “How can you present the countenance and characters of those yesteryear-children even children of today are in the same attires?”. Notwithstanding this, I try to persuade him as there was extremely hardship to find those “historical presentation”, as well as the problem of copyright, the benefit of primary data...... but was in vain.

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Furthermore, information about the period of Rediffusion broadcasting he mentioned is really scant. I try to ask some other baby boomers of the 50’s and no one can tell more about this. Most of them thought that I was talking about ATV in the 70’s and only a few have heard of Rediffusion HK (RTV). At once I realized that television has once been a necessity, was even a luxury in the early sixties and cannot be reached by many families at that time.

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At last I try to capture some faces of children really at that age, but the picture quality is extremely poor with the problem of blur, dark and low resolution notwithstanding that I have digitally recovered to a great extent. However, the quality is still extremely poor when judging with present standard.

 

The poor resolution of these photo when enlarged, together with the way using “slide show presentation of photographs” must lose the glamour of this video comparing with any smooth video presentation nowadays.

 

To my surprise, the old interviewer accepted this and said the work have visualized about ninety percent of his past memory. He also realised that nothing similar was present in the internet. When I have found the television programme he mentioned, like Batman and Thunderbirds, my old interviewer was very exciting.“These are what I have seen when I was a small child!” the old interviewer said. The only differences are those seen in the 60’s were in black and white instead of colour, and Batman was in Cantonese on RTV’s Chinese channel.

 

It was funny that when I made the video in black and white for the introduction of the two television programmes he mentioned, he was unhappy and insisted that everything can be black and white, except the intro excerpts of Batman and Thunderbirds must be in colour. Otherwise the whole video presentation would lose its glamour. How unreal that is because the broadcast at that time was black and white!

 

Soon, another problem came. How about the copyrights? The background music that I used were those free to use without the problem of copyrights as long as credits have given to those music production web sites. How about the intros of Batman and Thunderbirds? There might be copyright issue as Youtube has banned many video clips with copyright issues. Mine are from Youtube, and am I safeguarded?

 

In this aspect, I look into the copyright laws where the television shows were produced, broadcasted and at least the most likely places that my video clips may be located, even if it is nearly impossible to look into the laws at all worldwide locations and to know where the cloud-based nature of WIX servers located.

 

Thunderbirds was production of the United Kingdom and had broadcasted in Rediffusion UK and Rediffusion HK. In United Kingdom, the copyright in a broadcasting programme expires 50 years from the end of the year in which it is broadcast (The National Archives, n.d.). Furthermore, it will be fine if the excerpts are not for commercial purposes and no audience is needed to pay.

 

This study is likely to be in the servers in Hong Kong and Australia (UOW). Fortunately, similar situation as that of the United Kingdom exists in Clause 20 of Cap. 528 COPYRIGHT ORDINANCE of the HKSAR government (Hong Kong e-legislation, 2017).

 

I also looked into the copyright laws in Australia. From the website of National Library of Australia, the general rule states that ‘Sound & television broadcasts of 50 years after the year in which the broadcast was made is copyright expired and there are no longer any copyright-related restrictions on its copying or reuse’ (National library of Australia, n.d.).

 

It is very safe to go with Thunderbirds, but how about Batman that was produced in the United States of America? I was in a great panic when I could not find similar laws as that of the British Colonies. According to Section 106 of the US Copyright Act that anybody who wishes to retransmit copyrighted broadcast programming whether over the internet or by more established means of transmission, may do so only by obtaining the consent of the copyright owner (U.S. Copyright Office, n.d.). Oh who can I ask for? There has been long dispute among parties about the copyright issue of the first Batman television episodes in the sixties! (Rossen, 2011).

 

At last, I am saved by ‘The Fair use doctrine in US’ that permits limited use of copyrighted material in research is not an infringement of copyright and also the non-profit use is related to the amount and substantiality of the portion used…. (U.S. Copyright Office, n.d.). I was using part of the intro only!

 

Besides filling the gaps that a few people knew about the media, audience, and place of the television broadcasting in the sixties, I just feel that my study involve historical studies about an old society, media presentation with video editing, and even copyright laws studies among countries.

 

I told my old interviewee that I was insane to put many efforts on all those non-media related issues even more than on those media related studies! Just taking videos by my own was not only providing a primary source but also avoiding copyright issue. To this, he replied:

 

“Now, I’m not handsome anymore. Do you think it is meaningful to take video on me who just sat and answered your interview questions? Would it be better to visualise someone’s memory of yesteryears?”

 

“Even videos linking photo slides shows are good when there are no other better alternatives. At least, are yours worth much more than those modern and fast-pace video edits that seems to be professional but meaningless?”

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In turn, “How do you feel?”