Frankenstein (1931) Audio Preservation

[crissrudd4554]

Status report Master Shadoe??

[crissrudd4554]

A BD cover I made about a year ago. I actually left the back cover untouched. I sourced the front from the Japan LD cover.

[Image: frankensteinbd.jpg?psid=1]

[jerryshadoe]

Although I won't use it for this project, I really do like your cover

Ok, so I am "Master Jerry" now? LOL...

well, "young grasshopper" - patience is key

All jokes aside, a TON of sh*t has happened within the last week since my last post and very little of it involves this project

Two major things kept me away from any progress on this:

- First, I have been in court most of the week pursuing a lawsuit against my previous landlord which looks like will be in my favor financially. For legal reasons, I can not say any more than that at the moment, other than the fact that I still have a couple of court appearances in the beginning of next week (and, depending on how things go, there may be more court stuff later on - boooooo!)

- Secondly, I recently landed an actual paying restoration gig for a private party. What I can say about that one is that there is some video damage I have to contend with by replacing frames from copies of the master that is now damaged (although the copies are not 1st gen, but 2nd gen; so there are some games I have to play to keep a relatively consistent PQ) and a rather extensive audio remastering that needs to be done. All sources are tape masters (both SuperBeta [aka High-Band] and SVHS and a couple of Hi8 tapes) and all the footage had to be captured first. Got a friend with some of the right equipment to help me out with this, as I have a SVHS player and Hi8 camcorder, but I got lucky about the SuperBeta player and a better Hi8 player. The footage ranges from nearly immaculate to complete sh*t and almost everything in between. The person has years and years of personal, family recordings and waited too long to have it all digitized. As a result, there is a lot of deterioration of some of the tapes, but in most cases there is a 2nd gen SVHS backup copy. Yes, they are decent due to SVHS, but 2nd gen copy of a tape is 2nd gen copy of a tape
There is also a lot of audio problems, and I'm having to splice in audio from the dupes in some cases, which poses more problems when trying to make the transitions less obvious. This one has been keeping me busy right now. Fortunately, I just sent of a few samples, using different methods (as there is no "perfect" result and all have their pro's and con's) and am awaiting an answer as to which one suits the client the most. I won't know until sometime Monday, so that gives me tonight and tomorrow night to work more on this project.


Yeah, finally getting back on topic (LOL) I can finally start moving forward a little bit with this one. It has been a royal pain in the a** and the more I work on it, the more I question my own sanity. Having to re-sync every single shot in every single audio track on a shot-by-shot basis is a nightmare, but it has to been done because I need to visually inspect every single shot while listening to the audio to see if it matches and then try to splice it in seamlessly. Yes, I have a ton of notes, but since those were taken, I have acquired more sources that I'm using and it turns out that I missed some changes here and there, as well.

I am absolutely amazed by just how much audio is missing on the English audio track. In many cases is something as simple as footsteps missing while other sound effects are present. This whole thing is really messing me up, because the more and more I see what's missing, the more I am convinced that the audio as we know it now on the official releases was put together from an incomplete set of audio stems. Why this is the case, at this point, is all speculation and we will never really know, as numerous theories all have valid points. The fact remains, that the audio is plagiarized in many parts of the film. There are numerous sound effects throughout the film that clearly don't match what's onscreen and have a different fidelity to them versus the rest of the track and audio around those points. The problem with the other audio sources is that they are not all uniform in the changes and I have to decipher which sound effects are "locally" applied to that particular dub (and all of them have these issues at one point or another, but almost never at the same time) and which ones were sourced from the original master. There are instance where I have to figure out which one of three or four effects matches best what's onscreen AND to what's around that effect in terms of audio (and whether that matches in quality) To make things worse, even the quality of the audio on the English track is not consistent throughout the film, so trying to get everything to match (including making corrections in the English track) has been "interesting" to say the least.

Also, the question that you asked about the Monster and his "growling" in the film is something that bothered me, so I checked this part out of curiosity. The sound effect for this is hard to nail down, because, again, the dubs actually dubbed the Monster at some points and at some they didn't, all at different times in reference to the different dubs. However, after checking this one extensively, I believe that some of the "growling" sounds do actually belong there, but some were just roughly copy/pasted as the waveform is a perfect match, but does NOT match some of the audio on the dubs which matches what's on-screen a little better. Still making notes about these sections and deciding on what changes to make where.

By the time this is done it will be the fullest available audio track in any language and I will wanna punch someone at Universal in the... well, I already wanna do that for how much they have neglected this great film, but others will feel the same way once this is complete. Prepare to be freakin "WOW"'ed uperman:

[crissrudd4554]

It really is a real head scratcher. This was the highest grossing film of its time, spawned numerous sequels and parodies, made an unknown actor into a star and a horror icon, features one of the most iconic creatures in Hollywood filmmaking, and forever solidified horror as a movie genre. Universal owes a lot to this movie and the fact they practically dragged this film on the ground throughout the years and just restored what they felt was as much as they could is rather insulting.

Keep in mind Im no expert in terms of when Hollywood does these major restoration works on movies so perhaps my assumption with these things is a little inaccurate but of everything youve mentioned for me it just raises more and more questions. You actually are taking notes with all this. Are we to assume Universal never bothered to take note of this and just used whatever was left without bothering to check additonal sources?? Are we to assume Universal simply over DNR'd the damn track some years ago and realize thats the best (to their ears at least) itll ever sound??

I have a hard time deciding which is the more upsetting factor. Universal deciding this is the best it sounds or the fans actually believing its the best it sounds. But truthfully I cant throw rocks at the fans because they just dont know and most wont care. But fans are picky and movie companies know this so as much as they say they are and in some cases do monitor all aspects of movie restorations, theres still those cases where you cant help but scratch your head. This is one of them, well for you and me at least.

If you check out the Frankenstein Bluray thread on Classic Horror Film Board you can see I was arguing my case with this for quite a few pages. Most were not convinced even after I shared my comparison videos. Someone even mentioned that he wasnt convinced some of the missing bits I mentioned were supposed to be there to begin with and I believe he said he had some background in sound design. Maybe he has a point but unless someone proves this otherwise I must insist to myself that those bits should be there. Some said the BD is 'the best its ever sounded'. I shared my links on Facebook and two agreed the BD sounded better. One said the BD sounded WAYYY better. Maybe Im sounding like an ass but whose hearing should I question there? Theirs or mine? Well after my experience in this thread and seeing all the work youre doing jerry I have less doubt with my hearing. I know that sounds arrogant but what else can I say?

I really dont know what to think. Looking at it all it seems Universal have really neglected this film. They had a restoration video for Dracula back in 2012 but not one for this film. In the big BD set in honor of Universal's 100 anniversary that includes many classic Universal films released throughout the years, Dracula was included and Frankenstein was not. Dont get me wrong. I love Dracula and definitely got the ball rolling for the horror genre in the 1930s but Frankenstein had the bigger success. Its sad really.

[jerryshadoe]

That's why I know that this reconstruction will only appeal to a certain amount of people, but not all and, to top it off, if I release a over-scrubbed/DNR'ed version like the BD audio, it might appeal to more people

Hence part of my reason to do a "cleaned" version of the reconstruction track, as well.

People are entitled to their own opinions, but some of them are like a baby's bottom - they stink.. But that's an opinion, as well

I went through that thread and I see your point. Some people agreed with you and some disagreed, but it seemed to me like a 40/60 split (agree/disagree) which is still a decent amount of people overall. I also agree with you

The one thing that is finally done properly on the BD, is the video restoration and I just wish they had paid that kind of attention to detail with the audio too.

[crissrudd4554]

Well put and thank you. At least Im not alone on this. Granted Ive probably been pushing the most complaints about this for the last few years but at least Im not preaching to nobody. Yes the video does look very good and probably the best its ever looked. That being said, I must admit, seeing these films the way they look on the BD's all scrubbed out and looking great, it almost makes me miss seeing them the way they were before. Between watching them on VHS and DVD and watching them on TV, you learn to appreciate their appearance, dirt and specks and all. And frankly when we picture these movies in our minds thats usually how we picture them looking anyways. I may be in the minority there but its just that weird feeling I have when watching the current prints. Now is that me saying Universal should reverse what theyve done? Absolutely not! The direction they went visually with the restoration for the most part I will agree was the right move.

[crissrudd4554]

Heyy jerry I just want your opinion on something else. Is it me or does the AQ of the Edward Van Sloan intro and the opening credits sound somewhat better compared to the rest of the movie on the BD track?? Yes the LD track is still better in most instances including these but checking again these instances on the BD doesnt sound 'as' bad. Is it possible the BD could be sourced from two mixes or am I just hearing my mind want to hear?? Lol

[monks19]

@ crissrudd4554 & jerryshadoe. I have some news about the original sound on disc. Are you two still interested ?

[crissrudd4554]

Im open to anything. I guess this is jerry's call.

[IcePrick]

If there's a chance to preserve the original sound disc, I think it's worth doing, if only to find out for sure what was heard in theaters in 1931.