Bring Glorious Colour to History
Want something to look forward to next year? Something special, that you had a hand in creating?
How about watching the iconic 1966 World Cup Final in July in full scorching colour for the first time ever – on the 55th anniversary of the match - when England beat West Germany 4 - 2 and Sir Geoff Hurst scored his winning hat-trick?
How about helping to make this happen?
Well you can ... by supporting our unique #fullcolour66 crowdfund with either £7, £19 or £66 and help to restore and colourise the whole match - because the original colour footage shot in 1966 was destroyed - and all we have left today is the black and white, with a few minutes of colour highlights.
Our crowdfund aims to bring this incredible match back to life in full colour - so that we can all enjoy reliving the six goals, extra time and excitement all over again next July, 55 years on, and preserve the magic of the moment for future generations. Wembley's green turf, England in red and white, The Queen in a bright yellow outfit and Bobby Moore lifting the golden Jules Rimet World Cup - the footage is a gem.
This project to recapture one of England's greatest ever sporting achievements will cost at least £700k, including a donation to our campaign charity partner Alzheimer’s Society. The work will take six months - there are 180,000 film frames to colourise. But with your help, we can “bring colour to history” and restore this national treasure together, forever.
And we are going to have fun doing it. To raise the money, we are inviting you to become a Film Funder for either 7, 19 or 66 ... July 1966, what else!
1. What will you get?
You can support this unique film restoration project as either a Bronze, Silver or Gold Film Funder. Plus, there's a special bonus – if we meet our fundraising target of £700k all Film Funders aged 18 and over who are resident in Great Britain will be entered into the Prize Draw and could win one of the 200 Golden Tickets to a VIP private screening of the colour film next July with Sir Geoff Hurst.
Every £1 you pledge online as a Film Funder will give you one entry – so the more you pledge the better your chance winning. Pledge £7 get 7 entries. Pledge £100 get 100 entries. Alternatively, you can enter the draw by post and get one entry without becoming a Film Funder. See the Special Conditions below for more details. Here are the Film Funder options:
For £7 - as a Bronze Film Funder you will receive a unique code and link to watch the colour match, full length, once at any time in the UK and Ireland from 30 July 2021 (the anniversary date) for 14 days streamed online.
For £19 - as a Silver Film Funder you will receive next July a limited edition DVD of the full colour match - to keep forever, that can be watched anytime, anywhere, on TV or computer. Our DVDs come in a souvenir eco-friendly cardboard slip case. Posted anywhere in the UK and Ireland.
For £66 - as a Gold Film Funder you will receive next July a limited edition DVD of the full colour match - in a numbered slip case personally signed by Sir Geoff Hurst. Each DVD case will come with a certificate of authenticity. A unique and valuable souvenir edition of this iconic game, with Sir Geoff's original signature, to keep forever. Posted anywhere in the UK and Ireland.
Golden Tickets: There are 200 Golden Tickets available for Film Funders to win and each Golden Ticket will be an exclusive invitation for two people to join us in London on 29 July 2021 for an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience - to attend a premiere of the restored colour film with Sir Geoff Hurst and other special guests from the world of football at a red-carpet VIP London cinema private screening. Guests will have the opportunity to take part in a Q&A with Sir Geoff at “half-time” and enjoy celebrating with him the 55th anniversary. The Prize Draw is now open and will close on 31 December 2020. If the fundraising target is achieved, the draw will take place at the end of the crowdfund. Every £1 pledged online by any Film Funder (aged 18 and over and resident in Great Britain) will give that Film Funder one entry into the draw: pledge £7 - get 7 entries. Pledge £500 - get 500 entries. Each postal entry will get one entry. Golden Ticket winners will also receive a personal "Special Thanks" mention in the film credits.
So if you win one of the Golden Tickets, you and perhaps your partner or parent, daughter, son, grandchild or friend will have a unique England 1966 football experience: we are going to create a great day out for all winners.
But there are only a limited number of Bronze, Silver and Gold crowdfunder rewards available - and with millions of England fans out there we expect them to go like hot cakes, so you will need to move fast (like England did in '66) to bag one.
And although the film will take 6 months to produce and the rewards will not be ready in time for Christmas, why not send a reward as a Birthday Present next year? Just select the send "as gift" option when you check out.
2. Who are we?
We have assembled a great team to do the work for you.
Final Replay, co-producers of the hit Channel 4 show Final Replay ’66, are leading the project. The show was a re-presentation, hosted by Gabby Logan, of the 1966 World Cup Final mainly in black and white. It won its TV slot with an audience of 2.8m and raised almost £600k for charity. Co-producers Whisper are providing VFX and production expertise on #fullcolour66.
The restoration of the 1966 footage and final colour grade and sound mix will be done by Park Road Post Production in New Zealand, the company who worked on the post production of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Park Road are also the the restoration and post production team that worked with the historic WW1 footage for the acclaimed film They Shall Not Grow Old by one of the planet’s leading directors, Sir Peter Jackson.
The complex colourisation will be done by a specialist international team.
As part of the project we hope to broadcast an exclusive re-presentation of the match in late 2021 on TV using the new colour footage (where we intend to thank all crowdfunders for making the project happen). From 2022 we may also show the match in cinemas, online and on TV and we may publish new editions of the match as DVD, UHD or Blu Ray.
Our #fullcolour66 charity partners are Alzheimer’s Society – the UK’s leading dementia charity.
3. The mystery behind the footage
Most people don't know that the original 35mm colour film of the final was shot at Wembley in 1966 by an adventurous Chilean actor/producer called Octavio Senoret as part of his World Cup tournament feature film GOAL! We have been hunting all over the world for his raw footage - but the cans and frames no longer exist and the mystery around their disappearance is now solved. Sadly it seems that the precious match footage, shot beautifully by 16 cameramen in the stands and on the touchlines at Wembley on 30 July 1966, was left on the cutting room floor once the film editing was completed that Autumn - and then destroyed. This did happen in those days, as the accountants thought the bulky film canisters were too expensive to store.
4. What will we do?
The restoration and colourisation is painstaking, complex work, much of it by hand. There are over 120 minutes (including extra time) to colourise - and with 25 frames per second the team will be restoring and colourising over 180,000 frames.
The work will be done in blocks and follow this process:
Restore ... Colourise ... Grade ... Sound Mix ... Full Colour
The work is scheduled to start in December 2020 and to be completed by May 2021.
5. What do we need?
To do the work, we need to raise at least £700k. The budget looks like this (assuming an equal 1/3 take-up of all rewards):
In order to meet the budget, some suppliers have kindly agreed to provide services at below market rates. If the budget allows, we intend to use the contingency to invest more in restoring and colourising player moves, crowd details and match sound – and to pay all suppliers at market rates for their services. If the crowdfund raises the minimum target of £700k, a donation of £35k will be made to Alzheimer’s Society (charity number 296645) – our campaign partners. In addition, any surplus funds raised over £700k will be donated to Alzheimer's Society in full, net of taxes and any Final Replay pledges or extra project costs.
If we don’t raise the £700k minimum through the #fullcolour66 crowdfund or other sources, the project won’t proceed and all crowdfunder money will be returned to you in full.
6. Bring glorious colour to history
The #fullcolour66 crowdfund is now underway. Our aim is to raise at least £700k.
The crowdfund is open to a limited number of people, so please join the team now to secure your exclusive viewing of the full colour match or your souvenir DVD. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a relatively small number of fans to be part of something special - restoring and colourising a unique national treasure - and then watching it for the first time ever at home or, if you win one of the Golden Tickets, watching it in a private screening with Sir Geoff on the 55th anniversary of one of our country’s greatest sporting moments.
Pledge your 7, 19 or 66 now ... and help bring colour to history.
Special Conditions
1. All Film Funders aged over 18, who are resident in Great Britain and meet all our other Prize Draw eligibility criteria, will be entered into the Prize Draw to win a Golden Ticket for two people to attend the film private screening. It is also possible to enter the Prize Draw by post without becoming a Film Funder. The laws applicable to Prize Draws in Northern Ireland are different to those that apply in Great Britain. Therefore, entry to the Prize Draw is limited to residents of Great Britain.
2. Full terms and conditions apply to the purchase of rewards and Prize Draw and are set out at www.finalreplay.tv/terms. Please read these carefully before making your pledge and entering the Prize Draw. If you join the crowdfund and pledge you will be deemed to accept these terms and conditions. If you pledge and do not wish to enter the Prize Draw please email [email protected]. Details of the Final Replay privacy policy which, among other things, covers this crowdfund can be found at www.finalreplay.tv/privacy.
3. Final Replay will endeavour to host the private screening(s) on or around 29 July 2021, but it is possible that the private screening(s) may have to be restructured, rearranged, postponed or cancelled due to C19 or some other event beyond Final Replay’s control, in which case Final Replay will offer Golden Ticket winners a suitable alternative prize to the private screening(s). By entering the Prize Draw, you acknowledge that there is no guarantee that the screenings will be able to go ahead, there may be more than one screening on a day and there may be more than one day of screenings, and, in addition to Golden Ticket winners and their guests, film screening guests may also include project sponsors, partners and other supporters at the discretion of Final Replay.
4. There are other potential risks relating to this project: for example, it may not be possible to restore or colourise the footage as well as expected, a technical failure or fire or other disaster could impact project timing and/or it may not be possible to deliver the rewards in the manner described.
5. The budget is indicative only. Final costs will depend on, among other things, take-up of the rewards.
6. Final Replay reserves the right to add new complementary rewards to the crowdfund structure.
7. Film Funders are welcome to pledge as much as they wish - £7, £19 and £66 are the minimums at each level - and they may pledge as many times as they wish and may win multiple Golden Tickets.
8. If the crowdfund target of £700,000 is not met or exceeded when the crowdfund ends, the project won’t go ahead, and we will refund your pledge to you in full. If that happens, you won’t receive any rewards and the Prize Draw will not take place.
9. Every full £1 pledged by any Film Funder in Great Britain will give that Film Funder one entry into the Prize Draw. Pledge £7 and get 7 entries. Pledge £100 and get 100 entries. You can enter the Prize Draw by post and get one free entry without becoming a Film Funder.
10. Although rewards will not be ready in time for Christmas, Film Funders may gift rewards (e.g. as birthday presents) in 2021. They should select the send "as gift" option when checking out and the organisers will email the Film Funder the reward details in due course, if the crowdfund is successful, for them to give to the gift recipient. The reward will then either be sent to the Film Funder in 2021 or to the gift recipient (we will ask for their name and address in due course).
11. The streaming reward will be limited geographically to the UK and Ireland. The DVD rewards will only be posted to addresses in the UK and Ireland. Accordingly, Film Funders from outside the UK and Ireland will not receive any rewards. However, if you live outside the UK and Ireland and would like to join the crowdfund, support the restoration project and receive a copy of the match DVD (signed or not) please email Final Replay at [email protected] as soon as possible and we will advise if stock will be available for you and any extra cost of delivery.
12. Images courtesy of Getty Images, Alzheimer's Society, Park Road Post Production and The National Football Museum.