davextreme

I’ve only had time to watch the first few. The intros and outros do not seem right.

I’ve of course ordered these new editions of the films which were supposedly scanned from the original film elements:

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=32221

I don’t have any info but will post again once I’ve watched them all. Early reviews seem to be the expected level of over-compression and too much noise reduction. I don’t know how complete they are (proper intros/outros, etc).

I’ve already had a few people ask whether I’ll incorporate these into a release. I don’t really have any plans to but who knows. Presumably I’d use them as a base and patch them with I guess upscaled versions of other films. It gets to the point where I’d need to do more work to make the different sources match better and I’d probably want someone with actual expertise to help out.

Also I’m honestly not 100% clear on the legality. The films are in public domain but Warners’ new releases may be derivative works, which would have their own copyright. FWIW I’ve never encountered a legal challenge to my earlier releases. If you happen to have actual knowledge of this (that is, you’re a lawyer or have worked on this sort of thing, or have articles on similar cases I could read over, I am curious).

Funny you should mention it, I actually recently got a copy of them but haven’t had time to set aside to playing with them. In theory I could use them as a base for an HD version of these combined I guess with upscaled versions of the other shorts. I’d need to see how well they mesh together. I’d also probably want to match the colors of the various sources better but I’d have to learn how to do that. All things I hope to get to at some point but it’s not a near-term possibility at the moment.

In other Fleischer Superman news, Mezco Toyz has a cool set of classic figures coming out in the next few months. They’re still available for pre-order:

https://www.mezcotoyz.com/5-points-superman-deluxe-boxed-set

I’ll look at Arctic Giant when I get a chance. Won’t be until next week, though. ++I was able to find a second to do it tonight. New version is in the Dropbox.++

I agree about the sound and color. This was all an editing exercise so I didn’t do any color changes and such that you might make if you were wanting to make them all more consistent. And as I’ve said before, the right way to do this would be to get actual prints and restore them from that. (Or, better, for someone to get the original prints from whatever studio has them and do the restoration properly.)

I’ve had a number of requests for the master files for these and have finally gotten around to putting them in Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/aq1ot6nc3yiy9wv/AACf5vCgcGBctqV5zDGacWJca?dl=0

Thank you for checking your copies of the movies. My guess about the Warner editions is that there simply wasn’t motivation, time, budget, and/or interest in doing the job thoroughly. It’s possible some of the prints have been damaged over time and there wasn’t a budget for restoring them, so they just decided to re-use segments that were in good condition. Not every restoration project gets the same amount of love that, say, Nolan devoted to the recent 2001: A Space Odyssey prints.

As for the downloads, I changed to a new web host and they came down at that time. I’ll see if I can put them back up elsewhere.

Poita, just saw your note. My thoughts are with you!

Out of curiosity, why not?

I went all digital years ago. I watch everything on iTunes or Netflix. No menus and FBI warnings to wait through. No having to find a disc. No chance of my kids losing the disc or scratching it. Can start on one TV, finish on iPad, etc. I don’t by physical CDs or Switch or DS games, either. I’m aware I’m losing some quality over Blu-Ray but the tradeoffs, for me, are tremendously worth it.

hbenthow said:

davextreme said:
Is the version that you have uploaded on Tumblr the same as the one that you have on MySpleen? It is as complete?

Yes. Same files.

Also, do you have any plans to release a DVD version with menus?

No. I don’t even own a DVD player anymore. Nor Blu-Ray. 😃

Oh, and the complete set is up on MySpleen now.

HI all. The project is now complete. I posted a “Welcome” message to the main site with basic info. Please share with any friends who might be interested!

https://mmsuperman.tumblr.com/post/164860117140/welcome

If other sources become available I might do another version. The real next steps would be to start acquiring prints of the movies but I don’t have the funds, equipment, or expertise to really do that. 😃

Gotcha (and thank you!) I went ahead and ordered a copy of Image just so I’d have it. When the video goes up Friday I have a roundup of all the sound effects that are added into that version, too. It’s quite bizarre.

Thank you. Yeah, it just doesn’t sound right on any of my copies. I can hear in my head how I think they would have arranged it.

Friends, I could use some help. I’ve noted before how often the closing of these videos doesn’t have the right audio. I’ve found, I think, that none of the versions of “The Mummy Strikes,” which I’m working on this week, has the right audio. Each of them has a different issue. There’s more info and a video here:

https://mmsuperman.tumblr.com/post/163565872645/the-mummy-music-mystery

If you have a copy of this particular short that has different closing music, please let me know on Twitter by replying to this tweet: https://twitter.com/davextreme/status/891340819076198400

My understanding is that the Blu-Ray copies of the Fleischer shorts that are on the Superman and Superman II discs are not HD. They’re the same as the DVD sets.

I know of one Blu-Ray set that is in HD but it’s a bad upscale.

The Blu-Ray versions of the movies aren’t HD as far as I’m aware.

Hey just a quick note to say that I’m over halfway done now!

Did any one attempt to make a video restoration of the Fleischer Superman cartoons? Davextreme’s project looks like more of a audio restoration.

The video from the Warner set is in very good shape. I did find a few spots on “Terror on the Midway” where the colors could use a little more work.

Or do you mean artificially upscaling it?

The proper next step would be for someone to raise the money to scan prints of the films. My dream would be to put together a Kickstarter to do just that but I simply don’t know enough to even start.

I got a message from someone who said he thinks the copies of the Fleischer shorts that were on the The Superman Motion Picture Anthology, 1978-2006 Blu-Ray set are different than the ones on the yellow two-disc Superman: The Fleischer Cartoons: The Complete Series set from Warner Home Video, that maybe some of the issues with the set were corrected. I’m skeptical. Does anyone own this particular set? The shorts were apparently on the Superman II and Superman II Richard Donnor Cut discs (half of the shorts on one, half on the other).

Hmm, the files will fill up my dropbox. Send me a PM with an email address and I’ll try to send a Mail Drop link.

Just to be clear, these all started from DVD sources and I’m not cleaning the picture up in any way, just making cuts and splices.

Archive.org is a good idea. I don’t want to submit anything until the project is done in case I want to make any changes to the videos or whatever as I’m working through them. I can put them on myspleen, too.

In the meantime I’ve uploaded m4v copies of the videos to my ftp server and put a link to download each one on the Tumblr page for each video. They have some metadata in them so if you copy them into iTunes or wherever it should sort them correctly. I’ll have to take them down if the bandwidth goes crazy but I would assume most people are fine with YouTube.

I also uploaded fresh copies to YouTube from the master file instead of using Final Cut Pro’s YouTube share button, which I think should up the quality a little bit. I also added captions.

Yeah I’ll see what I can do. Next week, maybe.

Oh, hi there, everyone! I finally decided to take another stab at this project. I’m going to try to do one video a week. The first one is up now. I’d like to put the videos somewhere for download, too, if I can figure out a handy place.

Without further ado:

Fleischer Studios Superman (Mild-Mannered Edition)

I’d love for this thread to stay open for technical discussion, if people have suggestions. I’d really like this project to be as definitive as I’m able, accepting that it’s a hobby and we don’t have access to very great sources.

I've gotten it to work using Burn. I can't remember if you have to make a CERTIFICATE folder. I think you use the Data tab, not video.

Not easily. You could extract the video files, get the subs from Project Threepio, and then use DVD authoring software to make new disc masters.

are there any high-res copies available? I think the Blu-Rays come with standard def videos.