Finding Aid
Pirate Group Inc. fonds. – 1981-2005.– 84.3 m of textual records.– ca. 27,360 sound recordings, ca. 250 moving images.
The fonds consists of six series:
Series 1 – Case Files
Series 2 – Additional Case Files
Series 3 – Production Log Books
Series 4 – Additional Audio-Visual Material
Series 5 – Terry O’Reilly’s Files
Series 6 – Press, Promotional Material, and Awards
Series 1
Case Files – 1987-2005. – 78 m of textual records – ca. 27,360 sound recordings; ca. 250 moving images. – Title based on contents of series.
This series represents the bulk of the archive and consists of approximately 12,000 case files documenting the creation of approximately 50,000 thirty-second radio and television commercials produced by Pirate Group Inc. (Toronto office). These files document the entire production process from the initial phase through to the finished product, though some files are more complete than others. Typically, each case file includes paperwork and “media” (audio recordings or video recordings) documenting the process and the final product, though some files have paperwork only, while others have media only. The paperwork can include concept presentations; casting sessions and auditions; ACTRA contracts and other actor contracts; script progression and revision; briefing documents; final recording-day scripts with directors notes; recording session schedules; sheet music and lyrics; budget estimates, quotations and final billing; etc. The media component is usually the commercial or commercials, but can also include casting and audition tapes and processing files using the program ProTools.
The series is arranged chronologically using the job record IDs created by Pirate. These IDs follow the format YYYY.MM.DD.NN, the final part of the ID being a sequential series for the day.
The Pirate Database is the primary means of searching this series.
Additional material:
Some of the sheet music is filed separately from this series (boxes 37 to 42) but is included in the database. There is also additional casting and audition material in Series 4, but much of this is also included in the database. Finally, Series 2 contains additional case files that are not listed in the database, but they tend to be primarily voided projects or incomplete files.
Series 2
Additional Case Files. – 1987-2005. – 2.5 m of textual records . – Ttile based on contents of series.
In addition to the case files in Series 1 there are a number of files that were not entered into the database and most of which do not have media. Many of these are cancelled and void case file dockets, dockets from associate companies, or dockets where the media has gone missing. Pirate did not include these files in their database and they are listed here in chronological order. Of note in this section is the award-winning work Pirate did for the game Mindtrap between 1994-1997. With the exception of the Mindtrap material, most of these case files have no audio-visual records.
Box 1 – 1989-1994
F.1 Dockets. The Air Company/Robert Armes. 1989-1990.
F.2 “ACTRA Info”. 1990-2000.
F.3 “AF of M Info”. 1990-1997.
F.4 Goodyear Notes, script etc. [Terry O’Reilly?]. 1991.
Box 2 – 1995-1997
F.1 Dockets. Shurman Armes Crawford. 1993-1994.
F.2 Dockets. “Mindtrap – Early Scripts”. 1994. Media located in Box.
F.3 “Music Residuals.” Labatts. 1994.
F.4 Dockets. Robert Armes Inc. 1995.
F.5 “ACTRA/AF of M UDA Agreements”. 1995
F.6 Dockets. Robert Armes Inc. 1996.
F.7 Dockets. Hockey Hall of Fame. 1996.
F.8 Dockets. “Mindtrap”. 1996.
F.9 Dockets. “Mindtrap-Othello”. 1996.
F.10 Dockets missing media. B-L. 1996.
F.11 Dockets missing media. M. 1996.
Box 3 – 1997
F.1 Dockets missing media. N-T. 1996.
F.2 Void/Cancelled Dockets. 1996.
F.3 “Licences/Creative Fees/Resids Etc…”. 1996.
F.4 Dockets. 1997.
F.5 Dockets. “Mindtrap – TV Spot”. 1997.
F.6 Docket. Psi-Factor. 1997.
Box 4 – 1997
F.1 “Dockets missing audio”. A-L. 1997.
F.2 “Dockets missing audio”. M-Mi. 1997.
F.3 “Dockets missing audio”. Molson. 1997.
F.4 “Dockets missing audio”. O-U. 1997.
F.5 “Random Dockets”. Robert Armes Inc. B-E. 1997.
F.6 “Random Dockets”. Robert Armes Inc. F-R. 1997.
F.7 “Random Dockets”. Robert Armes Inc. S-Z. 1997.
Box 5 – 1997
F.1 Cancelled Dockets. A-Ma. 1997.
F.2 Cancelled Dockets. Miller Genuine Draft. 1997.
F.3 Cancelled Dockets. Molson. 1997.
F.4 Cancelled Dockets. Molson Canadian Rocks. 1997.
F.5 Cancelled Dockets. N-Z. 1997.
Box 6 – 1998-1999
F.1 Dockets B-E. 1998.
F.2 Dockets M-T. 1998.
F.3 Dockets. Robert Armes Inc. 1998.
F.4 “Cancelled Dockets”. 1998.
F.5 “Pirate Internal”. 1998.
F.6 “Castings”. 1998.
F.7 Dockets A-H. 1999.
F.8 Dockets. L-R. 1999.
Box 7 – 1999-2000
F.1 Dockets. S-W. 1999.
F.2 Dockets. Robert Armes Inc. 1999.
F.3 “Cancelled Dockets”. 1999.
F.4 “Pirate Internal”. 1999.
F.5 Dockets. A-B. 2000.
F.6 Dockets. C-S. 2000.
Box 8 – 2000-2001
F.1 Dockets. Kidney Foundation. 2000.
F.2 Dockets. National Car Rentals. 2000.
F.3 Dockets. “Missing Media”. 2000.
F.4 “Licences/Creative Fees/Resids Etc…”. 2000.
F.5 Dockets. “Sears Mess”. 2000-2001.
F.6 “Pirate Internal”. 2001.
Box 9 – 2001
F.1 Dockets. A-B. 2001.
F.2 Dockets. C. 2001.
F.3 Dockets. D-F. 2001.
F.4 Dockets. G-I. 2001.
F.5 Dockets. K-L. 2001.
F.6 Dockets. M. 2001.
Box 10 – 2001-2004
F.1 Dockets. O-S. 2001.
F.2 Dockets. T-W. 2001.
F.3 Dockets A-Ba. 2002-2004.
F.4 Dockets Be-Bu. 2002-2004.
F.5 Dockets C. 2002-2004.
F.6 Dockets D-F. 2002-2004.
Box 11 – 2002-2004
F.1 Dockets G-K. 2002-2004.
F.2 Dockets L. 2002-2004.
F.3 Dockets M-Mi. 2002-2004.
F.4 Dockets Mo-M. 2002-2004.
F.5 Dockets N-R. 2002-2004.
F.6 Dockets S-Sl. 2002-2004.
F.7 Dockets So-S. 2002-2004.
F.8 Dockets Tim Horton’s. 2002-2004.
Box 12 – 2002-2004
F.1 Dockets T-Wi. 2002-2004.
F.2 Dockets Wo-Z. 2002-2004.
F.3 Dockets. A-B. 2003.
F.4 Dockets. C. 2003.
F.5 Dockets. D-H. 2003.
F.6 Dockets. I-L. 2003.
F.7 Dockets. M. 2003.
Box 13 – 2003-2004
F.1 Dockets. N. 2003.
F.2 Dockets. O. 2003.
F.3 Dockets. P. 2003.
F.4 Dockets. Q-R. 2003.
F.5 Dockets. S. 2003.
F.6 Dockets. T-Z. 2003.
F.7 Void/Closed Dockets. A. 2004.
F.8 Void/Closed Dockets. B-Bo. 2004.
F.9 Void/Closed Dockets. Bu. 2004.
Box 14 – 2004
F.1 Void/Closed Dockets. C. 2004.
F.2 Void/Closed Dockets. D-F. 2004.
F.3 Void/Closed Dockets. G. 2004.
F.4 Void/Closed Dockets. H. 2004.
F.5 Void/Closed Dockets. I-K. 2004.
F.6 Void/Closed Dockets. L. 2004.
F.7 Void/Closed Dockets. M. 2004.
Box 15 – 2004-2005
F.1 Void/Closed Dockets. N-O. 2004.
F.2 Void/Closed Dockets. P. 2004.
F.3 Void/Closed Dockets. Q-R. 2004.
F.4 Void/Closed Dockets. S-So. 2004.
F.5 Void/Closed Dockets. Sp-Sw. 2004.
F.6 Void/Closed Dockets. T. 2004.
F.7 Void/Closed Dockets. U-Y. 2004.
F.8 Dockets. A. 2005.
F.9 Dockets. B. 2005.
F.10 Dockets. C-D. 2005.
Box 16 – 2005
F.1 Dockets. E-H. 2005.
F.2 Dockets. I-N. 2005.
F.3 Dockets. O-P. 2005.
F.4 Dockets. Q-T. 2005.
F.5 Dockets. V-Y. 2005.
F.6 Dockets. Get Ed. 2005.
Box 17 – 2005-2006
F.1 Void/Closed Dockets. A-B. 2005.
F.2 Void/Closed Dockets. C-J. 2005.
F.3 Void/Closed Dockets. L-M. 2005.
F.4 Void/Closed Dockets. P-S. 2005.
F.5 Void/Closed Dockets. 2005.
F.6 Dockets. Bessie Awards. 2006.
F.7 Dockets. Rogers Project. 2006.
Series 3
Production Log Books. -- 1988-1998. – 1.5 m of textual records. – Title based on content of series.
These are the production logs for recording sessions. Some of the logs have been annotated. In most cases there is a copy of the pertinent log filed with the case file paperwork.
Box 18
Old Log Book. 1988-1989.
O'Reilly Radio Inc. Session Book. 1990-1991.
Kerry Crawford Sessions. The Air Company. 4 books. 1988-1993.
Kerry Crawford Sessions. Book 1-2. 1993-1996.
Rick Shurman Sessions. 4 books. 1991-1994.
Pirate Radio Sessions. Book 1-2. 1990-1991.
Box 19
Pirate Radio Sessions. Book 3-13 [no book 10, no gap in dates]. 1991-1995.
Box 20
Pirate Production Schedules. 1994-1996.
Box 21
Pirate Session Schedules. January–August 1996.
Box 22
Pirate Session Schedules. September–December 1996.
Pirate Session Schedules. January–June 1997.
Box 23
Pirate Session Schedules. July–December 1997.
Production Schedules. Armes Music Group. 1998.
“Rick’s Session Book”. Rick Shurman. 1994-96.
R.A. Inc. Production Schedule. 1992-93.
Box 24
Robert Ames Sessions. Book 1-6. 1988-1992.
Armes Music Corp. 1988-1990.
Series 4
Additional audio-visual material . – 1981-2005. – 393 sound recordings; 76 moving images. – Title based on contents of series.
This series includes additional audio-visual material supplementary to that in Series 1. There are a number of demo recordings--collections of their current or exemplary work--used by Pirate to pitch their work. The sound effects consist of reels of general sounds and DATs for specific commercials. Also, Pirate is known for finding new and unique voices for their commercials, so included here are a number of the recordings made for auditions or castings.
Note that much of this audition and casting material is listed in the Pirate Database (see Series 1). However, the auditions from 1999 are not included in the database. They are arranged in chronological order when specific dates are available, while the undated material is arranged alphabetically (this was the arrangement used by Pirate).
Demos
Box 25 – Demos. Video cassette. 1981-1990.
Box 26 – “Historical Reels”.Demos. ¼ Reel to reel. 1984-1989.
Box 27 – Demos. Video cassette. 1991-1994.
Box 28 – Demos. Video cassette. 1995-1999.
Box 29 – Demos. A-G. DAT and audio cassette. 1999.
Box 30 – Demos. H-M. DAT and audio cassette. 1999.
Box 31 – Demos. N-Y. DAT and audio cassette. 1999.
Box 32 – Demos. Video cassette. Undated.
Sound Effects
Box 33 – SFX Reels 2, 3, 6-15. ca. 1990.
Box 26 – SFX Reels 18-21. ca. 1990.
Box 34 – 15 SFX Reels. ca. 1990.
Box 35 – 54 SFX DATs. ca. 1999.
Casting & Auditions. 1987-1999
Box 36 – Castings with database entries. 1987-1995.
Box 43 – Casings without database entries. February – August 1999
Box 44 – Castings without database entries. August – December 1999 and undated.
Series 5
Terry O’Reilly’s files. – 1986-1997. – 1.5 m of textual records. – Title based on contents of series.
Pirate’s co-founder, Terry O’Reilly, is the host of the CBC Radio’s The Age of Persuasion, a weekly program exploring the world of advertising and its impact on popular culture. These files consist of his notes, concepts, scripts, storyboards, pre-production work, and correspondence with companies on a number of projects. Files are organized alphabetically.
Box 45 – A-B
Award Books
Auto Trader
Amazing Video Machine
Apple
AMEX
American Express
Alpine Radio
Another Life
Air Transat
A&E Network
Bachelor Auction for Multiple Sclerosis
Barramundi Wine
Bell Cellular
Bell – Baseball Radio
Bell Round-Up Sale
Big Stick Bologna (Maple Leaf)
Black’s
Blue Mountain
Bonne Route (Goodyear)
Budweiser
Business Depot
Box 46 – C
Canada Cooler
Canada Post
Canadian Airlines
Carling
CBC
Chevrolet U.S.
Chiclets
Chock Full O’ Nuts
Chrysler
Church of Latter Day Saints
Clarke Institute
Clorets
Club Monaco
CNE
Colour Your World
Complete Eye
Coors Lite U.S.
Crazy For You
Crispers Radio
Crunchie TV
Curell Lotion
Box 47 – D-F
Daniel’s Homebuilders
Denver Hanes
Diet Coke USA
Diet Pepsi
Doritos TV
Doritos USA
Elite Carpets
ESPN
Festival of Friends
First Canadian Place Shops (FCPS)
Box 48 – F-G
First Choice
Friends of the Earth
Gatorade
Givens Organization
GO Train
Granada Retail
Box 49 – H-J
Hagaan Dazs
Haggar Pants
Hambley & Wooley
Hamilton Philharmonic
Harvey’s TV
Hechingers U.S.A.
Hewlett-Packard
Highland Farms
Hismanol
Hockey Hall of Fame
Hollywood Video
Holt Renfrew
Home Hardware
Horseshoe Resort
Humpty Dumpty
Ikea
Imperial Oil
Infinity
Jockey Club
Journey’s End
Jumbo Video
Just Right
Box 50 – K-M
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Kessler
Kodak
Kraft Peanut Butter
Labatt’s Dry
Labatt’s Genuine Draft
Labatt’s Blue Light
Levi’s
Living Arts Centre – Mississauga
Lumbercity
Maccheroni Restaurant
Mark’s Work Warehouse
Mastercard Canada
Mastercard USA
McDonald’s
McLean-Hunter Paging
Memory Madness
Mexicasa
Miracle Whip
Box 51 – M-O
Molson
Molson Indy
Moosehead Beer
Motorola Pagers
NBA
Nissan
OE Direct Warehouse
Old South
Ontario Hydro
Ontario Place
Oxfam Canada
Box 52 – P-R
Panasonic
Park ‘N Fly
Participaction
Passport
Pepsi USA
Pirate Radio Logo
Pizza Hut US
Pizza Pizza
Portland Honda Dealers
Power Bar
Power of Radio
Purolator
Radio Bureau
Randy River
Riley Pants
Box 53 – R-S
Round-Up
Roy Thompson
Rudy’s Sausage
Saturn
Schooner
Schweppes
Scruples
Sears
Sears Radio
Box 54 – S-W
Select Cola
Sescolite
Shadowtel
Shoppers Drug Mart
Shorney’s Optical
Spirte U.S.
Stroh’s Beer
Suzuki Pitch
Teal Audio
Tetley Tea
Timothy’s
Toyota
Trimark
Truly Naked Beer
TSN
Two For One Pizza
Typo Tea
Viewer’s Choice
Village Inn
Warner Chappell Music
We Care Home Service
Western Canada Lottery
White Rose
Series 6
Press, Promotional Material, and Awards. – 1990-2005. – 84.5 cm of textual records and 1 moving image. – Title based on contents of series.
This series consists of press clippings and magazine issues featuring analyses of specific commercials and Pirate’s unique approach to advertising; and promotional items, awards, and certificates. Pirate has received more awards than any other Canadian advertising production company.
Press and Promotional Material
Box 55
F.1 Pirate Radio Promotional Book. c. 1992.
F.2 Branding Material. c. 2000.
F.3 Loose Clippings
F.4 Signage 1998 Writers Workshop.
Advertising Age. 15 March 1993. p. I-21.
Applied Arts. Feb/March 1993. pp. 50-53.
Billboard. 18 March 2000.
Creativity. February 2000. pp. 38-9.
Financial Times. 20-26 February 1993. p. 2.
Marketing. 18 March 1991. p. 6.
Marketing. 1 July 1991. p. 6.
Marketing. 7 December 1992. p. 4.
Marketing. 29 November 1993. p. 4.
Marketing. 12 July 1999. p. 9.
Marketing. 16 October 2000.
Playback. 19 April 1999. pp. 23, 28.
Strategy. 22 February 1993. pp. 1, 26.
Awards & Certificates
Box 56
F.1 Original Packing List of Awards prepared by Pirate for Portfolio 1.
F.2 Applied Arts Magazine. 10 awards. 1995-1998.
F.3 Bessies. 3 awards. 1994-1997.
F.4 Cannes. 1 award. 1994.
F.5 Communication Arts. 3 awards. 2003.
F.6 The Crystals. 5 awards. 2002.
F.7 Radio Impact Awards. 1 award.
F.8 The Radio-Mercury Awards. 1 award. 1994.
F.9 TVB. 14 awards. 1997.
F.10 Original Packing List of Advertising and Design Club Awards prepared by Pirate.
F.11 The Advertising and Design Club. 73 awards. 1994-2003.
F.12 Original Packing List of IBA awards prepared by Pirate. See oversized box.
F.13 Original Packing List of The Marketing awards prepared by Pirate.
F.14 The Marketing Awards. 36 awards. 1992-2004.
F.15 Original Packing List of The Art Directors Club awards prepared by Pirate.
F.16 The Art Directors Club Of Toronto. 22 awards. 1991-1992.
F.17 Original Packing List of The New York Festivals awards prepared by Pirate.
F.18 The New York Festivals. 16 awards. 1992-2003.
F.19 Original Packing List for the Mobius Awards prepared by Pirate.
F.20 Mobius Awards. 13 awards. 1994-2002.
F.21 Original Packing List for London International Advertising Awards prepared by Pirate.
F.22 London International Advertising Awards. 67 awards. 1990-2005.
F.23 Letter regarding the Applied Arts Awards Annual Winners Reel. 2001. Please see Box 35 for video.
Box 57
F.1 INA – International. 26 awards. 1990-1998.
F.2 Sunny Awards. 23 awards. 1994.
F.3 The One Show Merit Award. 4 awards. 1994-1995.
F.4 D & AD. 3 awards. 2005.
F.5 International Broadcasting Awards Programme. 1991.
London International Advertising Awards Programme. 1991.
London International Advertising Awards Programme. 2000.
The Marketing Annual Advertising Awards Programme. 1991.
The Marketing Annual Advertising Awards Programme. 1993.
The Marketing Annual Advertising Awards Programme. 2000.
New York Festivals. Radio Programming & Advertising Award Programme. 2000.
Pirate Group Inc. fonds. Second Accrual. 1997-2010; 2006-2010 predominant. 26.1 m of textual records. ca. 9710 sound recordings; 5250 moving images; 6.8 TB electronic records.
Series 1
Case Files 2006-2010. 23.6 m (3,322 dockets); ca. 9710 sound recordings; 5250 moving images. Title based on content of series.
This series represents the bulk of the archive and consists of approximately 3300 case files representing the work Pirate has done from 2006-2010. These files document the entire production process from the initial phase through to the finished product, though some files are more complete than others. Typically, each case file includes paperwork and media (audio recordings or video recordings) documenting the process and the final product. Dockets marked as partial typically contain only paperwork or only media.
The paperwork included in each docket may include: concept presentations; casting sessions and auditions; ACTRA contracts and other actor contracts; script progression and revision; briefing documents; final recording-day scripts with directors notes; recording session schedules; sheet music and lyrics; budget estimates, quotations and final billing; etc. The media component is usually the commercial or commercials, but can also include casting and audition tapes and processing files using the program ProTools.
Note: for 2010, the media masters and ProTools are on the same CD/DVD.
The series is arranged chronologically using the job record ID created by Pirate. These IDs follow the format YYYY.MM.DD.NN, the final part of the ID being a sequential series for the day.
The Pirate Database is the primary means of searching this series.
The media type breakdown is as follows:
Audio:
1959 DAT
7752 CD
1 ¼ inch reel
Video:
47 ¾ inch video cassettes
5137 DVD
61 Beta tapes
3 Digital video cassette
1 VHS
Series 2
Other Case Files 2005-2009. 75 cm of textual records (533 dockets). Title based on content of series.
In addition to the case files in Series 1 there are a number of files that were not entered into the database and do not have media. The majority of these are cancelled and void case file dockets. They are listed alphabetically by year.
Box 57
Void Dockets. A-N. 2005.
Box 58
Void Dockets. O-Y. 2005.
Void Dockets. A-I. 2006.
Box 59
Void Dockets. K-W. 2006.
Void Dockets. A-K. 2007.
Box 60
Void Dockets. L-X. 2007.
Void Dockets. A-N. 2008.
Box 61
Void Dockets. O-Z. 2008.
Void Dockets. A-Z. 2009.
Music Search/Licensing. 2009.
Box 62
Void Dockets. A-Z. 2010.
Miscellaneous docket files.
Series 3
Production Log Books. 1998-2006. 1.9 m of textual records. Title based on content of series.
These are the production logs or session schedules for recording sessions. The binder numbers have been added by the archivist.
Binder 1 Session Schedules. 1998.
Binder 2 Production Schedules. 1999.
Binder 3 Production Schedules. 2000.
Binder 4 Production Schedules. 2001.
Binder 5 Production Schedules. 2002.
Binder 6 Production Schedules. 2003.
Binder 7 Production Schedules. 2004.
Binder 8 Production Schedules. 2005.
Binder 9 Production Schedules. 2006.
Series 4
Backup Hard Drive 1 RAID external hard drive (1,587,410 folders and files = 6.8 TB). Title based on content of series.
Contains backups of Mac-formatted digital files for commercials produced by Pirate from 2008 to 2011.
Addendum
Case files related to the first accrual. 1997-2005. 30 cm of textual records (63 dockets). ca. 1715 sound recordings; 200 video recordings, 12 electronic files.
This is material that was not packaged up for delivery to McMaster University with the first accrual. This material consists of textual records and media related to case files (dockets) in the series one, first accrual. It completes a number of partial dockets as well as adding dockets from the 1997-2005 period of work. It relates to 697 dockets. For a detailed description of this series, please refer to the case file series description.
The material may be searched using the Pirate Database in the same manner as the material in Series 1.
The media type breakdown is as follows:
Audio:
879 DATs
826 compact discs
9 DA-88 cassettes
Video:
137 ¾ inch video cassettes
38 DVD
25 Beta tapes
1 2 inch multitrack reel
Electronic:
11 floppy discs
1 exabyte cartridge.
Pirate 2nd accrual addendum
Material from event held at McMaster University for the Pirate Archives.
1. McMaster Presentation Reel. 25 January 2012.
2. Two posters with graphic representations of student work with the Pirate material.
3. Ulterior Emotions CD. Bud Light campaign. 2002.
4. Information sheet. 2pp.
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