ROBOTECH THE MOVIE PRESERVATION/Fan edit (a WIP)

Hello everyone.

Im here to tell you guys about my effort to preserve the little known and Somewhat lost film
ROBOTECH THE MOVIE/THE UNTOLD STORY.
http://img01.deviantart.net/1fb7/i/2017/128/1/3/robotech_the_movie__remastered__poster__by_darkspire17-db8mbxj.png

My Plan:
I will be reconstrucing the film using multiple sources (DVD,Bluray,Laserdisc,VHS)
The plan is to edit together and reconstruct the film using ADV’s Remaster of SUPER DIMENSION CAVALRY: SOUTHERN CROSS
And the streamline pictures release of MEGAZONE 23

History:

The film was played for around 3 months in the dalas metroplex area back in 1986. given A VERY SMALL US RELEASE
but a somewhat decent world wide release eg. VHS in the United Kingdom,Laserdic in the Netherlands, and a VHS release in parts of Latin america.
Even a broadcast on South African TV (no known recordings) and lastly a Spanish language VHS dub.

What i require to finish the project is:
A nice quality audio rip of the film (ntsc or converted from PAL to NTSC)
EDIT: i have gotten my hands on the MEGAZONE 23 PREMIUM BOX (Laserdisc), it includes the ending animation, aswell as a copy of the special edition of the ps3 game AOI GARLAND (it includes a bonus DVD with a dub of part 2 and the ending animation).

Color correction work:
Below is an old album (outdated) showing the color correcting Megazone23 needed to match the extra footage.
This was done in Virtualdub.
http://imgur.com/a/ag04F

EXTRAS:
Ive gathered all promos for the film i could (some have been reconstructed to edit in the megazone 23 footage that harmony gold removed due to licensing)

1. Alternate opening (using THE UNTOLD STORY Sub title,Used in an Older print and commercials, Sourced from A&E Robotech Boxset)
2. Public access promotion of the film (featuring carl macek, Sourced from Robotech Legacy Collection)
3. DALLAS TRAILER (a small trailer promoting the film in dalas, Sourced from A&E Robotech Boxset)
4. Theatrical trailer (3 mins) Reconstructed
5. TV Trailer (Megazone 23 footage added back in, Sourced from A&E Robotech Boxset)
6. Deleted scenes (From the original Release of Megazone 23)
7. GALAXY OF THE STARS '86 Trailer (4 minuet trailer,Featuring deleted scenes from the “final cut”, Sourced from youtube, Reconstructed)
8. DAPDX commentary track (DESTROY ALL PODCASTS DX) of Robotech the movie.
9. Music only track (some songs left out due to them not being released)
   10. Fan commentary Featuring dakspire17 (me) and possible guests: Boinger (of macross FAN EDIT fame) Jonathan Switzer (ROBOBLOG CHRONICLES)
   11. Un-remastered video track (original vhs rip)
10. MEGAZONE 23 (in English) Dubbed by STREAMLINE PICTURES(Carl maceks anime distribution company)
11. Storyboard ending (storyboards for the ending that harmony gold commissioned for the film)
12. Storyboard Opening (storyboards of the opening of the film)
13. Commissioned Footage. a 12 minuet video showing the extra footage that was created for the film (Sourced from Atlus Bonus Dvd)
14. Music Videos (One from the film, and one from the others from a VHD of Megazone Special memory) subs included.
15. A small documentary on the remastering process (created by me)
16. DAPDX (DESTROY ALL PODCASTS DX) Megazone 23 commentary
17. Theater Previews for Megazone 23 (Sourced from the Premium box)

That is all For now.

This sounds pretty awesome good luck

When will this be released?

Also I found this: http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-80323.html. Might help.

Sorry for not being active, i lost most of my work in a HDD death, but i have amazing news, I NOW OWN A GENUINE TAPE COPY!!! all i have to do is transer it, timeshift it to match the NTSC speed and rebuild the film frame by frame, ive also added new additions to my sources, promotional artwork, production material, the original soundtrack, hope to show a preview soon!

Update i failed to click buy it now, and i lost the chance to grab it. fucks sake

phantomswan said:

You should include this, if you can restore it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZHyjp5VHrE&feature=share

a reind of mine happens to own the original tape that video is from! it will be included, in its original form and with remastered visuals

ScottZill said:

When will this be released?

Also I found this: http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-80323.html. Might help.

ive known about this font for a while, sadly it isnt the one, the original ffont was ound recently in a typography book ,but no one ever scanned it, and the thread is long gone sadly, and my backups of the photos where lost

i own all elements needed, an original tape copy, my high quality profesional DVD Recorder, a 6 head Hi-Fi VCR, Megazone 23 Part 2 International ver with part one special film (contains the ending footage and some unused animation) my LD’s of megazone 23 (witch will be the main video source) seperate High res captures from the tape release (needed for inserted static text shots, color corrected to the LD elements) Southern cross on DVD, and various other elements ill be using for an upgraded sound mix and such. all i need is a good laserdisc player and i should be done within a few months

phantomswan said:

I had the laser disc from the Netherlands. Unfortunately, subtitles are there, and they don’t go away. A friend of mine had put it online. If it’s still online, you’ll find it here:

http://www.animerepublic.net/media/Robotech Movie Restoration Project/RTM PAL LD DVD+R TEST 02/

Note that it wouldn’t load when I tried it a few minutes ago, but I think that’s because it’s a big file and the internet is slow here.

darkspire17 said:

phantomswan said:

You should include this, if you can restore it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZHyjp5VHrE&feature=share

a reind of mine happens to own the original tape that video is from! it will be included, in its original form and with remastered visuals

This will help majorly! thank you,is your freind named Lupin by any chance? cus he’s been one of the biggest helps on this project, along with a user from TVpreservation named loard smurf, who’s given me the oppitunity and went out of his way to buy me a tape copy

Superrayman3 said:

darkspire17 said:

ScottZill said:

When will this be released?

Also I found this: http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-80323.html. Might help.

ive known about this font for a while, sadly it isnt the one, the original ffont was ound recently in a typography book ,but no one ever scanned it, and the thread is long gone sadly, and my backups of the photos where lost

Do you remember the name of the typography book or where it was found? It may be possible to find it on the way back machine. Also you may want to look into the Japanese Megazone 23 Blu-ray boxset, one of the discs in the boxset has the Streamline dubbed version of part II with optional Japanese subtitles meaning clean Robotech The Movie opening and ending animation (sans the scrolling text starfield) and it’s progressive unlike the DVD included with the Limited Edition release of Aoi Garland which was interlaced, I actually have the m2ts file for it backed up as I’ve been wanting to do my own remaster/preservation of Robotech The Movie but still need a few elements to make it, one is the Southern Cross series (I will not use the most recent DVD releases from A&E/Lionsgate, they’re too compressed and honestly I really don’t want to use the ADV remastered footage, that leaves the R2 DVDs which were mentioned to be not very good in another thread on the “Preservation of Other Properties” board, the old ADV DVD footage, and that’s pretty much it for DVD options, the only other options are to hunt down either the old VHS/Laserdisc releases and work with those, I wish we had a film print of the movie to work with but those are obscure and very elusive), the next piece needed is HQ audio the best option would be a PAL Laserdisc with I believe either Swedish or Turkish subtitles, but those are very hard to come by even moreso than the PAL UK VHS release (which I do own).

i have the raw BD files, no point using them, since id be mixing SD with HD footage, ive got 3 releases of part 2, my LD, Aoi garland special edition, and the bonus disc you got if you mailed away the Original DVD release, ill probably mix tape footage with my LD copy to attempt to remove subs, or just use resized bluray footage made ot match the LD’s more natural warmer colors, all corrected frame by frame using OT’s own Dre and his amazing color correction tool, and sadly i have nothing about the typography book, and i belive the thread is long gone, never even put into wayback, i never thought of attempting to archive the page, i should have the font on my dead HDD, but its going to cost alot to get that thing working again, since the pc basicly overloaded it. ill most likley take snapshots of the tape and LD sources and correct them t othe footage and just add them as an overlay, the original opening credits will be sourced from the tape aswell as the entire opening, since harmony gold either changed or or requested the studio to reshoot the segment, since their are obvious differences between the megazone and RTM versions, the biggest being framerate changes (HG slowed it down) and the shot of the earth dosent zoom the same way, and is flipped.

Funny that harmony gold has acess to what seems to be a work print of the film, the lionsgate set features the alternate subtitle, that is only seen in advertisements and print media, not even my animation refs (bought from svea macek) have that title, just listed as “the movie” and they also have another copy of the film, seen in the doccumentary carl macek’s universe, showing the normal opening, aswell as the ending is different, with a shot of the earth and credits overlayed, im definatly noot using the workprint as a video source due to its degredation, ill probably source the opening (and the textcrawl) from the tape, and jut to speed corrected creditless footage, with he shots of the sun and earth flipped and modified, with a custom built font (or the original if its ever rediscovered again) overlayed ontop.

ScottZill said:

When will this be released?

Also I found this: http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-80323.html. Might help.

i can not give an estimate, recreating a film frame by frame takes time, but te film should be available later this year, mabye sooner if im able to get a few more resources, dont expect any progress updates for a while, im piss poor right now and without a stable PC to beging the task, aswell as my HDD being offline

Putting out a bounty of arround 70 AUD for someone to find the reigon 2 Southern cross Perfect collection (japanese) ive only seen one up for auction twice and its 500$, not worth the price, or id have to get the laserdisc set witch the shippping would break me, if you know anyone who owns the set please contact them and buy it off of them or you.

A little info on that seemingly lost thread, it had to do with finting the STOP.VEF and SPACEAGE.VEF Fonts used in CAD Software to make viynal prints and stickers, that where used in battlestar galactica (the 2000’s one) i was alerted to the thread on either Whatfont or DAFONT, where i had posted the RTM font screenshots, a user alerted me to the battlestar discussion and they had used my photos as refference, that similar fonts dated back to 86 and earlier, i also made posts about the Checkmate font and its simularities to the RTM font, i also posted the original font that the robotech logo was modified from, and then photos surfaced of the original font, no book was listed, neither what the font was actualy called, i then used that image and superimposed it over my photos to confirm the match, it was genuine, that edit i made is long gone, since my PC had died at the time, i checked all signs of the forum in my gmail and it was gone, ive kept searchign t othis day using google images and such and havent found the thread, This is all i can rremember about it, hope it helps in rediscovering the lost thread

edit: the original forum post has been FOUNT tho the RTM Font has been removed (image expired)
http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/forum/case/1049557/
here’s a quote

Robotech: The Movie / The Untold Story opening titles use a phototype from the early 1970’s. I haven’t found a name for it yet but it has been used by The Cousteau Society since 1973. It’s not a one-time custom job for the film, nor is it CG Zarana, Spaceage.vef, or Checkmate - though each would make great digital substitutes.

http://images.all-free-download.com/images/graphiclarge/calypso_equipe_cousteau_133570.jpg

this is AS CLOSE as we will get to it

Superrayman3 said:

darkspire17 said:

Putting out a bounty of arround 70 AUD for someone to find the reigon 2 Southern cross Perfect collection (japanese) ive only seen one up for auction twice and its 500$, not worth the price, or id have to get the laserdisc set witch the shippping would break me, if you know anyone who owns the set please contact them and buy it off of them or you.

Best of luck in your hunt, I’ve been searching for the Southern Cross Perfect Collection at a reasonable price and thus far have had no luck, our best bet would be for a group of people pitch in together and buy the set with every person who donated getting a copy of the discs, that’s pretty much the only way Robotech/RTM fans are ever going to get this unless someone crazily decides to buy it for that price alone and uploads it.

Chipping in could work, but thats asking for quite alot, and ive allready spent i think near 300+ aud tracking down the RTM elements, if it where to happen, ofcourse everyone who contributes would be added to the credits, aswell as sending a physical copy of the remaster (custom printed DVD, packaging and such) but if it where to happen im not sure if HG would intervien and claim what im doing is illegal, its sad its so expensive, i got both the broadcast versions of macross and mospeada (released the same time as the SC set, all being the base for the llater “remasters”, the cheapest way is the LD,s but i wouldent be willing to have LD’s shippped due to australia post not giving a shit about damaged, i can try Gofund me but, im not sure if HG would come after me, but at the same time i dont think they can, sure its their brand but, they let go of the megazone rights years ago, so i dont think they can even come after me, because they would be steppping on JVC’s/ARTMIC/Tatsunoko toes, and would probably get them into further legal issues

Some new information regarding the film, looking through ROBOTECH ART 3 witch documents the history and development of the sentinels, their are 2 pages dedicated to the movie, witch reveals the film wasn’t mixed in mono or stereo like i had originally planned to mix the film in, but instead Dolby Sensurround that was used on films like EARTHQUAKE from the 70’s, A 6-Track mix was hastily produced, and now its more apparent why so many effects are harsh in the mix, because they mixed down the 6-track mix to plain mono, i wish i could get in contact with someone who atleast has a print of the film, or at-least the audio elements, because creating an artificial 6-track mix from the mono source is near impossible without access to original recordings for the dialog, the missing Michael Bradley composed BGM, clean megazone tracks (ive separated the 5.1 mix but separating the SFX isnt possible) Using the sound library they used (more than likley it was the Warner sound library) and using portions of the RTM audio, aswell as a partial music track, i could simulate the 6-track mix, but it would be difficult to pull off.

Campaign is live https://www.gofundme.com/27g7b4s

So their was a copy of the southern cross perfect collection on amazon for 400 aud, but it and all other’s prices have skyrocketed to 600 aud

VanZan said:

I suppose the version on disc 4 of the Complete Set isn’t good enough?

:edit: Saw your post above! Sorry.

Since it is a heavily edited version, aswell as a work print, yeah its pretty much useless, ill probably only use the opening titles for the restoration of the theatrical trailer

Project update: so far nothing major n terms of editing has happened, but 2 new sources are now in my possession, a 1987 Rank home video Tape (PAL) And the Netherlands LD release, im amazed i scored the LD at all, only 50$, newly listed on the LDDB, ill most likely use a combination of LD and Tape audio, i can confirm my LD is safe of any disc rot, as its been amazingly preserved, only issue is the i believe dutch subtitles, ill be using the LD as a source for mostly the opening, for the text elements, and combine them with the clean opening from my megazone LD’s, as well as using its ending, tho the opening will require some newly animated segments, as i believe harmony gold sent the animation back to the studio to be retouched, as the shot of earth was flipped (non flipped in the storyboards, but probably changed for artistic reasons) as well as a new heat shimmer effect (originally done optically) to bridge the newly corrected shot into the original footage, as well as one shot being utterly replaced by a new digital correction. i may need help with that since i am not an animator. i can provide high resolution images for the corrections needed if anyone wants to help out.
That’s all for now, once the LD arrives, and i get my hands on my deck, ill put up some scans of it, as no one has made scans or taken photographs of the tapes and LD’s since the early 2000’s