Mango

And you may find yourself in 4K!

In celebration of the upcoming 4K remaster of Stop Making Sense, I have decided to make an HD upscale of Storytelling Giant, a 1988 compilation video by Talking Heads. The original cut of this compilation video was only released on VHS and LaserDisc, but an extended version was released on DVD in 2003. The project will restore the original 1988 version of Storytelling Giant upscaled in HD using Topaz and some other methods, as well as a complete videography collection including the videos that were missing from the 1988 version. I have lovingly titled the secondary compilation with all the videos (excluding segments from Stop Making Sense that occasionally aired on MTV), The Name Of This Compilation Is Talking Heads.

Thankfully, some videos have already been officially restored in HD, (they will be further restored using Topaz) and the DVD of Storytelling Giant is an excellent source. One of the best looking DVD’s I’ve ever seen. Other sources include Youtube uploads and iTunes Versions.

Expect MKV and BluRay versions later this month.

I feel like I never should have gotten interested in A/V restoration and film preservation because it led me to waste six years of my life talking to someone I met on the internet who expressed interest in my work. They were annoying at times, but in all truth, we did have a LOT of good times together. Then something happened. They committed an inexcusable crime. Even If i wanted to be their friend again, I’d risk feeling like an evil person for enabling and associating with someone depraved enough to commit such a horrible act. Even worse, this week marks the 1 year anniversary of me vowing to never talk to them again.

In the years Since I’ve joined this site, I’ve announced so many projects, and only completed 2. I make so many empty promises. People tell me they like my work, but I have no work to give. All I’m know for is “being the guy that scanned a 35MM Shrek Print”. There are so many other things I want to offer to the world, including some of my own fiction. I’d love to make movies myself. I’d like be known as an innovator in horror fiction. But I can’t bring myself to work on such things, because I’m afraid of failure.

I feel like I’ll always just be “that guy that was friends with an evil person and did 2 projects out of almost a dozen promised and couldn’t make art to the world because he was afraid of judgement.”

Paramount+ is a complete joke. They’ve seemingly given up on remastering the entire series. This project will restart this summer and I’ll try to crank out the pilots and seasons 1-3 by then.

Something to consider. Hope this means an official blu ray is on the way.
https://news.wgcu.org/show/gulf-coast-life-arts-edition-with-john-davis/2023-02-23/music-video-pioneer-chuck-statler-screens-an-all-devo-program-of-newly-restored-music-videos-and-early-pre-mtv-films-at-the-rauschenberg-gallery

Version 2 is exporting now. It has a nearly shot by shot color correction based on a theatrical 35MM print and a description of a 70MM print. Audio is the original stereo track restored from a laserdisc copy.

At last, Topaz Labs have released a completely new version of their Video Enhance AI software. Now that upscaling technology has progressed, it seems that I can finally create the look I was going for with this project.

Expect a release later this month or early next month. My laserdisc Player is out for repairs, so it’ll take longer to get the commentary tracks done then I’d hoped, but everything else for the project will be ready very soon. Over the next few days, I’ll upload a couple of restorations to youtube, (the ones I can get away with anyway).

Duty now, spuds!
~ mango

Sorry for the delay. I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life for the past few years. Sometimes I have long periods of time where I wonder whether my projects are even worth doing. My anxiety tells me “nobody will care” even though I know that’s untrue. I’ve made a lot of empty promises to you guys and I’m very sorry. This year was supposed to be really involved for me, but health issues came creeping in, and long story short, I now have a pacemaker.

I hope nobody feels like I’ve cheated them on these projects. Working with SD sources is extremely difficult, especially with the bare minimum of technology and software to edit things. AI upscaling while quite impressive, is still in its infancy. It takes much more than just putting a file through an upscaler. Everything has to be adjusted for each individual video. This is why this and my DEVO project have been taking so long. I was attempting to just come up with a simple one step solution for every video, but now I realize it takes a lot of tweaking and experimenting.

I promise I will at least deliver a small group of videos from this project by christmas, say the first 3 albums worth. This little A’V restoration community means the world to me, and this hobby has given me a way to pass my time that doesn’t stress me out and feels rewarding. I love you all. Thank you so much for your patience and support.

After closer inspection of the 4K version of Eat It, it seems al was barely able to remaster that video, as the film elements were in poor condition. It seems to be a one time thing that was apparently only done for his new movie. The remaster is also missing a sight gag where Al’s breath causes the camera lens to fog up.

I’m sorry for the abrupt cancellation. That was my mistake. Project is still underway, and I hope to have some things ready soon.

BREAKING NEWS:

Just after I posted that update, the youtube version of Eat It was upgraded to a 4K remaster from the original film. Looks like official restorations are underway. This is the best possible outcome, and I’m officially canceling this project. 😄

Working on this yet again. Hopefully will be ready in time for Christmas, and Project DEVO will be ready early next year.

SpacemanDoug said:

American Movie is getting an official blu-ray from Sony

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/American-Movie-Blu-ray/322631/

Excellent news. Sad that it doesn’t include Coven though…

Mike Schank, friend of filmmaker Mark Borchardt from the 1999 documentary “American Movie”. He was 56.

RIP Mike Schank. Work will resume on this project very soon.

After getting out of an abusive friendship, I now realize just how lonely I was. I’ll never go back to him. He was evil. But now I feel like I don’t have anyone to talk to. I threw the few friends I had under the bus just to talk to this guy, and he absolutely destroyed me. Now I have nothing. Plus, I’m too afraid to talk to new people because now I have trust issues. I’ll never understand why he wanted to manipulate me so much. I gave him everything, and he treated me like garbage in return. On top of that, He was just pure evil. Once he committed pedophilia, thats when I was done. I can handle a lot, but I wont excuse such an evil crime. It’s been the same thing since I was in middle school. People don’t want to be my friend, they want to use me as a toy. Then when they get bored, they toss me aside like I was nothing. I don’t know if i’ll ever be able to trust anyone again…

Legendary rapper “Coolio” has died at age 59.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 9TH 2022:

After doing more research, it turns out that the 1987 cut was never released on VHS, which apparently means the version on youtube is ripped from the only existing master tape. The tape did get here and i managed to do a quick recording of it. It’s going through Topaz as I type this. It will be far from perfect, but this is mostly a project for myself. I’ve already noticed a slight hiccup in my transfer, but I’ve got more important projects to worry about at the moment. Like my upscale of that Herbie Hancock Laserdisc, this is just practice. If anyone wants a link anyway, I’ll be happy to send it once it’s done.

(Original Post)

This film is one of the ultimate cult/nerdy art films, and I thought it might be fun to upscale it to HD. However, there are 3 different versions of it. There’s the original 1987 cut which ran almost 2 hours long, there’s the 1991 revision which is the one most people have seen, then there’s the 2005 revision which added several CG shots overtop the 1991 version. The 1991 and 2005 versions are both available on DVD, though the dvd of the 1991 version is rare. The original 1987 cut is only on VHS and is very rare. There’s rips of all three on youtube, and I have the 2005 version on DVD, but I specifically want to save the original 1987 cut. Unfortunately, the only copy on youtube is from a quite damaged tape with picture and sound cutting out often.

I managed to snag a VHS on ebay that may be the 1987 cut, which I only think because the tape is copyrighted before 1991. It also does not appear to be on the Polygram label which mass marketed the 1991 version, so it may have the original. I won’t know until it gets here, and if it isn’t the original, I may need someone who has or knows someone who has an original 1987 release to provide a rip for me to work with.

If and when I get a good quality source of the 1987 version, it’ll be a simple upscale with the usual Topaz Video Enhance AI.

Still image from current progress. This is about as good as it’ll ever get.

This project has proven to be a continuous struggle. Work has never stopped, but barely any progress has been made. Therefore, I’m trying to take my time with each individual aspect of it. I’ve also spent a lot of time experimenting with techniques to get to a point where I can truly say that I’ve got something that works. One thing I’ve noticed since day one is how absolutely horrible the color is on the home video releases of Devo’s work. From what I know, most of their stuff was shot on 16mm, then transferred to video for editing. Time has not been kind to the transfers, as the official HD restoration of Truth About De-Evolution has shown that the original film elements are of a much crisper, cooler color grading.

Each video for this project is now getting the full color correction treatment, and we’re not just talking about adjusting contrast and saturation. Using what few HQ clips and on set photos exist, I’m now attempting to get every video to look as close to the original 16mm film as possible, however without grain. Regraining is tricky, and it’s never worked in my favor, so that will not be utilized for this project.

I’d like to give a very sincere thanks to everyone who has supported this or any of my other projects. The feedback I get is what keeps me going. I’d like to give a extra shout out to RayAfraid. Without his enthusiasm, I would’ve abandoned this project long ago. BTW, I notice he hasn’t been online since August of last year. I certainly hope nothing bad has happened, so if anyone has any information on his whereabouts, please let me know.

Thank you all so much for sticking with me. This project means so much to me on a personal level, as my mom showing me Devo for the first time is one of my most cherished memories. I’ve been a fan for life ever since.

~ Mango

This is mostly for practice, but I thought it could be fun to do an HD remaster of an old Herbie Hancock laserdisc from 1984. It’s somehow never been re-released on DVD, so while I work on other things, it might be good practice for upscaling SD footage to HD. Most of the stuff on the disc was shot on video, so the content will be rendered at 30fps.

This project will probably not get any attention, but I need to practice more before I can tackle the long awaited Project DEVO.

I even remade the VHS cover as a bluray cover!

There is now a second version of this project available with better color correction, the 5.1 surround audio and the proper framerate. Currently looking into software for Mac to help make a blu-ray release. 4K version available as raw MOV file now. Just shoot me a PM. 😃

Sorry for not replying to requests for links. This project is on hold while I wait for the Paramount+ versions to be released. Since some of them are still censored, it will then be a matter of restoring the missing scenes. There are several people working on projects like this at the moment, and I will attempt to collaborate with some other people.

Until then, the links are not available, as there will be far better versions soon.

As you can probably guess, I’ve been waiting for the new remasters to show up on Paramount +before resuming the project. Though little has been released so far, I now plan on waiting until the entire series is released, then using it as a base for my upscale project. If theres anything missing from the Paramount + versions that I think should still be there, I will splice them in from other sources. I must say I’m genuinely surprised that they seem to be doing these restorations properly, and I’m very glad that they’re taking it seriously. Also, “Do The Universe” was hilarious.

~ memphiselle (AKA Mango)

Then I have no idea. Might have to make a second gen file with the subs harcoded.

You could try pressing the subtitle button on your players remote.