“The Universal documentary feature ‘Ferrari: Race To Immortality‘ revolves around five Formula 1 drivers of the late 1950s (Eugenio Castellotti, the Marquis Alfonso de Portago, Luigi Musso, Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn) who all, extraordinarily, died tragically within just twenty-two months of each other,” archive researcher Richard Wiseman says. “Four of the five died at the steering-wheel of a Ferrari, whilst the fifth was killed on the public road, having just won a World Championship for the Scuderia. Individually and collectively, their life-stories are overwhelmingly unknown to 21st century audiences, and one of the reasons for this is that very little footage of them on film was thought to exist.” (more…)
Richard Wiseman
Featuring: Richard Wiseman, London
How did you become an archive researcher?
Up until around ten years ago, I was a print journalist – which I guess may give you a good insight into research, fact-checking and putting a story together?
A friend of mine, and a fellow ‘keyboard warrior’, who also happened to own a TV production company, asked me if I’d like to produce some of his programmes, to which I could only reply “But I don’t know how any of this works. And what’s an Avid machine?” To which he replied, unforgettably, “Well, it’s all rather similar to what you’re used to working with, really. It’s all words and pictures, again – you’ll pick it up as you go along”. (more…)