Les Harris began work on a documentary on bush pilots in 1987, first under the working title of “Aviation in the North.” Noted bush pilot Punch Dickens served as historical consultant to the film. Harris and a small crew conducted a research trip in February 1988 where he shot some preliminary interviews and location footage with a JVC camera on VHS tapes. Later in 1988, Harris returned with Sony Betacam cameras to record extensive interview footage with pilots and others working in the industry. Harris conducted these interviews in their homes or places of work, including filming pilots during flights. A last trip to Yellowknife was made in February 1989 and additional footage was shot up until March 1989. Archival footage and photographs were gathered from the National Archives of Canada, Northern News Service Ltd, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, Cine audio visual, Provincial Archives of Manitoba, RCMP, National Defense, Bellevue Pathé, and Wardair. Harris also copied footage from three individuals: Punch Dickens, Willy Lazerich, and Thomas Pierce. Harris used VHS, U-matic and Betacam cassettes for editing and rough prints. Final masters are on 1” and were migrated to Betacam SP. Harris kept his production records and research materials, including photographs, notes, correspondence and clippings. The series has been arranged into seven subseries: 1) Masters; 2) Viewing or broadcast copies; 3) Final mixes and international tracks; 4) Intermediate production elements; 5) Research material and other textual and photographic records; 6) Raw footage; and, 7) Archival footage.
Les Harris began work on the documentary series Chabot Solo in 1971. Born in 1890, Charles Chabot was the oldest still-flying aviator when Harris began interviewing him that year. Interviews were recorded on reel-to-reel before any filming began. Harris then conducted research at the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Air Force Museum, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Southend Historical Aircraft Museum. He copied often fragile archival footage and photographs from the BBC Archives, Movietone and Pathé. In addition to photographs he received directly from Chabot, he also gathered material from contacts made through or by Chabot. Harris began shooting original footage with a rough shooting guide in the summer of 1972. 16mm cameras were used to shoot original material. The first film should have been completed at the end of 1973, but Harris was in a serious car accident and the last work on the first part of the project was delayed. Post-production work on the first film was completed in 1974. Part 3 was shot mainly in Newfoundland, and all post-production work was done in Canada. The last original footage for Part 3 of Charles Chabot taking the Concord to Gander was recorded in 1975. Chabot Solo part 1 and its two sequel documentaries, Chabot Solo part 2: 1918-1939 and Chabot Solo part 3: 1939-1975 were released to television world-wide over a short period between 1974 to 1975 with BBCTV being the lead broadcaster. Harris kept his production records and research materials, as well as film elements from the point of the first work print and negative trims to final masters and viewing or broadcast copies. The series is arranged into six main subseries: 1) Masters; 2) Viewing or broadcast copies; 3) Final mixes and international tracks; 4) Intermediate production elements; 5) Research material and other textual, art and photographic records; 6) Raw footage. There is also a flying helmet that Chabot wore in the film.
The fonds consists of raw footage, archival footage, sound recordings, masters, final mixes, other intermediate film versions or elements, research materials, publicity materials and digital copies from three main projects: 1) Chabot Solo – 3 films on early aviator and WWI pilot Charles Chabot, covering his early flights on different aircraft and the development of aviation in general right through to the Concorde; 2) By the Seat of their Pants, a 1989 documentary on Canadian bush pilots; and 3) Trident Trigull – raw footage from a documentary on the amphibious airplane developed in Burnaby, British Columbia, produced for CTV’s W5. Research materials gathered by Harris as he wrote the Chabot Solo films or By the Seat of their Pants include textual records, photographs (including negatives and slides), and home movies. The fonds is arranged by project into three series.
Harris, Les, 1947-The series includes 16mm raw footage of the Trident TriGull, the amphibious airplane developed by Trident Aircraft in Burnaby, British Columbia. The footage was shot with a 16 mm camera in 1978 for a programme Les Harris directed and produced (Canamedia) for CTV’s W5. Editing took place in 1979 and the programme aired later that year. In addition to the footage, a copy of the programme was donated as well to act as a finding aid.