TheMightyEthan Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 Haha, I just can't imagine that the film from those old movies is in good enough shape to justify a transfer to anything higher-res than a DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 ITT: TME doesn't realise that film is higher than HD and that clean-up tools are pretty damn advanced these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 No, I know that film is higher than HD, but it also deteriorates over time. You are correct in assuming than I don't know how good restoration techniques are though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev_Revenge Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 More key than restoration techniques is that some film holds up better than others, and we're not even sure why. I read an article talking about two cuts of the same movie, made on the very same stock stored in the same quality controlled vault and one of them disintegrated nearly completely. The article basically talked about how celluloid degrades over time, some much worse than others and how America's greatest failure will be it's inability to truly archive Old Hollywood. The article also talked about how some silent movies only exist in soundtrack form, or in movie form but not both (most silent movies shipped with a musical soundtrack.) Also, films from that era were routinely thrown away by theater operators at the end of it's run/week. They couldn't imagine a time when those old reels would be worth anything, or who would even want to see them when they could see the new movies. It's really sad for me to think about. Also, most of the early live television broadcasts were lost, obviously because there was no method to record them. But the US isn't alone. The article also mentioned the BBC and it's handling of very early Dr Who. Their early beta backup tapes were so expensive that after 5 years they started....reusing them. Taping over old Dr Who episodes with new. Gone forever. Makes me appreciate old, HD source material. Not as old as what was posted but I have 2001. One of my favorite movies and the vision is absolutely pristene. It's like going back in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 The article also talked about how some silent movies only exist in soundtrack form, or in movie form but not both (most silent movies shipped with a musical soundtrack.) By shipped with a soundtrack I assume you mean shipped with pages of music and not a sound on film soundtrack. Films of the silent era did have compositions made for them but it wasn't until that transition period between silents and talkies where there were actual soundtracks on film. There are also "goat gland" films where the film was mostly silent with a few talking scenes thrown in for good measure. Actually, the Jazz singer was like this. Also, films from that era were routinely thrown away by theater operators at the end of it's run/week. They couldn't imagine a time when those old reels would be worth anything, or who would even want to see them when they could see the new movies. It's really sad for me to think about. Indeed. Also, most of the early live television broadcasts were lost, obviously because there was no method to record them. But the US isn't alone. The article also mentioned the BBC and it's handling of very early Dr Who. Their early beta backup tapes were so expensive that after 5 years they started....reusing them. Taping over old Dr Who episodes with new. Gone forever. Early live TV broadcasts were kinescoped. Basically they filmed a monitor showing the live feed. That's why some classic TV shows like Mr Peepers look horrid while 35mm filmed shows like I Love Lucy look absolutely brilliant! Thank goodness we still have some of the original Doctor Who episodes as many are lost. Can you imagine a world where Who fans would never see a William Hartnell episode? Oh and Ethan, KINO (a major silent film releasing company here in the US) has stated their strategy is to only release films with the highest quality elements on Blu-Ray. Anything else will just go to DVD. I'm fine with that as I own quite a few DVDs of silents. Warner Brothers on the other hand is going for a DVD-R distribution method. :-/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 Learn something new every day (at both posts). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 You go to the dvd aisle at any store and you see so much shit that you wonder why they even released it since no one probably likes it and would buy it, but at the same time weve lost so much. So many things that are lost forever. Its kind of funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 You go to the dvd aisle at any store and you see so much shit that you wonder why they even released it since no one probably likes it and would buy it, but at the same time weve lost so much. So many things that are lost forever. Its kind of funny. Indeed! It's sad that the complete version of Erich von Stroheim's Greed is probably lost forever and yet The Hottie and the Nottie, Gigle and Glitter will probably survive for all time. But hey, there is a way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev_Revenge Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 By shipped with a soundtrack I assume you mean shipped with pages of music and not a sound on film soundtrack. Films of the silent era did have compositions made for them but it wasn't until that transition period between silents and talkies where there were actual soundtracks on film. There are also "goat gland" films where the film was mostly silent with a few talking scenes thrown in for good measure. Actually, the Jazz singer was like this. Early live TV broadcasts were kinescoped. Basically they filmed a monitor showing the live feed. That's why some classic TV shows like Mr Peepers look horrid while 35mm filmed shows like I Love Lucy look absolutely brilliant! That's great insight. I haven't done any research into the silent film era, I was just going by what I remember reading in the article (that was several months old now.) I do remember them talking about sheet music to be performed with the early silent movies, but they also talked about how soon movies shipped with I guess what would be like player-piano spools that would play the soundtrack in sync with the movies (easier than a human theoretically.) I imagine they could have also been early victrola type records, not sure. But the article claims there are 'soundtracks' to some silent movies that came before the tech to put sound directly on the film. Probably a pretty small era comparatively, but it's sad to think about just the sound or the video existing of some of these things. Great post on the classic tv, I didn't realize that's how it was broadcast but it makes sense having seen some of those old shows growing up. Some of them even 'focuesed' in on the tube right at the beginning, I can see in my minds eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I haven't done any research into the silent film era, I was just going by what I remember reading in the article (that was several months old now.) I do remember them talking about sheet music to be performed with the early silent movies, but they also talked about how soon movies shipped with I guess what would be like player-piano spools that would play the soundtrack in sync with the movies (easier than a human theoretically.) I imagine they could have also been early victrola type records, not sure. But the article claims there are 'soundtracks' to some silent movies that came before the tech to put sound directly on the film. Probably a pretty small era comparatively, but it's sad to think about just the sound or the video existing of some of these things. Well there were sound on disc formats like Vitaphone that were just that: a phonograph that could be synced with a film. This was experimented with as soon as motion pictures were invented. Edison as well as European filmmakers were doing synchronized sound to phonographs as early as the teens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbmn1R5KpKU But yes, in that transition period into the talkies many films had sound on disc recordings with a synchronized audio track. When one of these is lost, the film score can be reproduced or recreated but there are actually cases where the soundtrack exists to some early talkies and no film picture! Anyway, I suppose if we're going to discuss film history maybe this should get snipped and sent off to another thread or something. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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