projects sandbox

[Stamper]

I checked on ebay, and a tape come at about 20 to 25 buck shipped to europe.

I think I may crack and buy one, but I would need to also buy a capture card for my hackintosh to digitise it.

[Stamper]

Hey guys, so I was thinking, maybe members of this community should create a company, not to release films, but to offer sound restoration services and color timing services.

What do you guys think?

[spoRv]

Hey guys, so I was thinking, maybe members of this community should create a company, not to release films, but to offer sound restoration services and color timing services.

What do you guys think?

Call me in!

[Stamper]

I mean, the only reason I think companies don't listen when called in on other forums, is that this is an individual and not a company.

If we did create one, and called on an official website other companies in, with screenshots and audio screens and such that would go viral.

[deleted user]

I don't know. I'd say there's enough professionals in the industry whose skills probably far surpass ours. The reason major releases are often lacking, I think, has more to do with them simply not caring about approaching their projects from a similar perspective we do, or being explicitly paid/instructed to do it differently. Even if we made a company, who would hire us and what would set us apart aside from our philosophy? Talking about sound restoration, do we even do that? For the most part we just capture and sync tracks. Again, if that was their goal, they wouldn't need us to do it for them, because it's a relatively simple task.

However for spreading awareness I think some kind of nicely designed and organized website might serve the same purpose. But making and maintaining that would involve continuous work and hosting/domain cost and I'm not sure anyone here wants to commit to something like that.

With that said, how about expanding on this already existing website with a wiki or something like that? I know that's 3 steps down from your suggestion, but I think it's more realistic.

Just my 2 cents, maybe I'm completely wrong.

[Stamper]

A wiki is a great idea.

I'm tired of seeing people being shot down just because they are fans, by establishing a wiki where we can point out bad releases, and fixes, it might help change people's minds.

[SilverWook]

Hey guys, any Star Trek TOS fans out there?

It appears there's no DVD/BR release that is genuine to the original masters.

Only VHS & LDs, both masters being the same, all having the original mono mixes.

Here's a descrition I found.

There was never a 100% accurate release of the original series on home video. There was always some form of editing. Just a short list:

VHS: the first season opening theme was standardized so the electric violin theme was only heard in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Gene Roddenberry's up front "created by" credit for The Man Trap and Charlie X were moved to the end of the episodes (these may have been “first rerun” prints). The sound mix was fiddled with here and there but for the most part, it was pretty faithfully reproduced to my knowledge (City on the Edge of Forever had very objectionable music replacement when they couldn't secure the home video rights to "Good Night Sweetheart"). The Paramount Logo at the end of the 1968 episodes of the second season was replaced by the third season logo (exception being The Omega Glory, which retained it on the Columbia House VHS print only). Depending on whether you got the Colombia House releases of the Paramount HV single episode tapes, some scenes were missing in a small # of episodes.

DVD: the sound mix was brutalized, adding the exterior engine rumble (which was phased out midway through the first season) to the entire series. The Menagerie part 2 had some music cues replaced for whatever reason by rerecordings and cues from The Doomsday Machine (you can still hear this on the stereo track on the blu-rays). Balance of Terror now has a photon torpedo sound effect over the shots of the "proximity blast" phasers, where they were originally silent. The electric violin theme was restored to the opening credits of the first season, but on far too many episodes (including Balance of Terror and The Corbomite Maneuver which always had the cello theme). The end credits of the electric violin themed episodes still retain the cello version from their 80's revisions.

BD: the sound mix was screwed with again. The "original broadcast mono track" still is wrong, with the engine rumble prevalent and sometimes VERY LOUD in a few first season episodes, drowning out the captains log entries. The only accurate post first season episode appears to be Amok Time. New sound effects overlay some scenes (Errand of Percy and The Paradise Syndrome). The new CGI opening theme is seen in one episode of the first season no matter which version you choose.

Wanted to mention that all three Japanese TOS season sets are on Ebay right now well under $100 each. All from the same seller
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Trek-Origi...4382864805

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Trek-Origi...4281668320

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Trek-Origi...4382864792

If the seller combines shipping, this could be doable for around $300 now. And the sets could be flipped once the captures are done?

[poita]

I don't know. I'd say there's enough professionals in the industry whose skills probably far surpass ours. The reason major releases are often lacking, I think, has more to do with them simply not caring about approaching their projects from a similar perspective we do, or being explicitly paid/instructed to do it differently. Even if we made a company, who would hire us and what would set us apart aside from our philosophy? Talking about sound restoration, do we even do that? For the most part we just capture and sync tracks. Again, if that was their goal, they wouldn't need us to do it for them, because it's a relatively simple task.

However for spreading awareness I think some kind of nicely designed and organized website might serve the same purpose. But making and maintaining that would involve continuous work and hosting/domain cost and I'm not sure anyone here wants to commit to something like that.

With that said, how about expanding on this already existing website with a wiki or something like that? I know that's 3 steps down from your suggestion, but I think it's more realistic.

Just my 2 cents, maybe I'm completely wrong.

Yes, often the releases are bad due to explicit instructions from the company requesting the restoration, or time constraints that are very tight, and the copyright owner wanting it done on time, rather than done to a particular quality level.

We have had clients give 3 weeks total for a full restoration of a 2 hour movie. We have had others refuse to let us do grain management (when it was really, really required) on a *big* name movie, because it was going to take an extra two days, even when we showed them that the result was orders of magnitude better, they chose the worse version.

Forming a company from people on the forums is certainly possible. I worked for companies that started the same way, a group of friends, who wanted to work in restoration. A few tips for anyone starting out, that I have learned along the way.

1) Time is usually the enemy, rather than money
2) Miss a deadline with a big client and they will not use you again, and will probably let other companies know
3) It is a *full-time* job to get work done to suit most client schedules
4) The pay is terrible generally as it always takes more hours than you think it will when starting out
5) You will need to have some kind of demo-reel/portfolio to show potential clients. 
6) You spend a lot of unpaid hours marketing, making and taking calls, meeting with clients either online or in person, packing and unpacking. 
7) Budget time for ingest, backup, and generally moving files around. It takes so much longer than you would think.
8) Budget time for equipment failures, Windows being stupid, file corruptions and other problems beyond your control.
9) Be realistic with the amount of hours the job will take, and then decide if the money you are quoting for the job is worthwhile.
10) Be realistic with how much time you can really apply to this job, if you have other work, family, friends etc.
11) Any work for libraries or government entities usually requires you to jump through government approval hoops that are near impossible when starting out.

Many companies have started out as a group of friends that get together and it can be a rewarding profession. Just keep in mind that once you are a company, you have to think about tax, business registration, and the expectations of clients are that you are a *real* company, that can meet the demands of their clients.
Even if you are half the price of the competition, they won't care if you don't deliver to their expectations, especially time expectations, and when starting out you don't usually have much in the way of backup equipment, or extra people to use if things go wrong.

I'd recommend getting to know some indie film-makers who have more flexible time budgets and doing some work for them at first, where the deadlines might be more flexible, or doing some volunteer level work with an amateur film archive, like a local history society, or group that have sound or film or video in need of restoration, and get a feel for working with a client that isn't another 'enthusiast'.

Just my 2c, there are a million different ways to tackle the work and handle clients etc. If you have a passion for it, and can allocate the time and money required, you could be the next hot restoration company

[poita]

Would those Star Trek discs have burned in subtitles?

BTW, there is an Aussie seller selling a massive amount of laserdiscs, he has told me he will ship me *any* quantity for $20 freight. (USD14)
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/cnsystemsaus...ipg=&_from=

I'm broke at the moment, but if anyone wants some titles, he will sell in bulk for around $5 each, let me know and I can get them shipped here, and can also capture them directly from the RF from the laser on the X9.

[Stamper]

Does anyone living in the UK has the UK cut of Eraser (1996) ?

It looks like the UK release removed the cheesy moments in the Schwarzenegger vehicle, to make the film flow better.

It as been classified as censorship, but the actual cinema UK release was cut by about 3 seconds only.

They actually re-edited the film so that it would play better in order to make it a hit on video.

I'm very interested to see if this work better and this could be a preservation worth doing.

From the BBFC page:

The cinema release flopped in the UK so the distributor opted for a 15 release. The BBFC felt that they had removed the sadistic edge from most of the violence and revealed a good action thriller which proved to have far greater audience appeal.
-In the opening sequence where Kruger rescues Johnny C, 17s of punches were removed along with the post punch dialogue: Get me some ice, I think I broke my goddam hand.
-Also in the opening scene, a scene with a bound & gagged woman being doused with petrol has been removed. Also a thug with a petrol can saying Sure boss has been deleted.
-A close up a a man in a noose being lifted up has been cut.
-A scene where they attempt to remove Johnny's tongue was cut along with the line: See if it sings on its own
-4s cut where Kruger breaks a mans neck in a fridge door.
-1s missing of a scene which has a close up of Kruger as he pumps a second bullet into the body of the dead bad guy to frame them.
-As the hero ignites the pretrol on the floor, the sight of the flames engulfing a corpse has gone.
-3s cut in William Donough's office. He points the gun at Lee and shouts "You have no f*****g idea". In the 15 video all that remains is "You".
-In William Donough's office, 1s is cut where he puts the gun into his mouth and fires. Also, the close up of the man with blood coming out of his mouth.
-Close up of man with a blade in his neck after Kruger stabs him through the door is missing.
-We fail to see the guy he then kills flying through the air into a wall.
-In the video, we see Samaritan hold his witness and appear to smother her. It should show Samaritan shoot her and then pretend to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation as she dies.
-Samaritan actually shoots Monroe twice, one of those shots has been cut.
-Inside the alligator park, the first bad guy gets an arm ripped off.
-The hero pursues and pistol whips a SWAT man which we dont see
-The villain grabs and woman and pistol whips her, we don't see this
-Neither do we see the hero erase the swat team in a lift by removing the pins from a SWAT man's belt and then throwing him down the shaft.