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Fantasia - 35mm Project (Help Needed) (a WIP) — Page 3

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TonyWDA said:

I don’t want to reveal too much about what I want to do w/ the audio just yet, but as far as the interstitials go, for now, the truncated versions are all I can use as the release containing the extended audio (brought up in the main post) has not yet surfaced as of this writing, and suddenly muting Taylor’s audio to turn on subtitles for prolonged periods is less a cohesive experience than I was planning on creating. At the moment I’m not entirely sure I would go through the trouble of cutting together a truncated version of the 2000 dub, either. I’m honestly not too fond of it and as it turns out, many other fans aren’t, either. Perhaps the dubbed interstitials could be provided as individual bonus features for those who have never even bothered purchasing any official release and want to see the original footage play out completely.

I’d be all for truncated versions in the main feature plus the full footage with dub as extras. Anything to finally see this restored as intended as much as possible.

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Class316 said:

Every Fantasia project seems to die hope this one come to fruition.

Patience is the key.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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RU.08 said:

Class316 said:

Every Fantasia project seems to die hope this one come to fruition.

Patience is the key.

THANK. YOU.

So many people do not realize how long some of these restoration projects take, especially for one like this. Tony wants this to be as ambitious as he can make it. I’d rather this take a little extra time for a more loving effort than less time to see a half-assed effort.

“The rules are simple. Take your work, but never yourself, seriously. Pour in the love and whatever skill you have, and it will come out.” -Chuck Jones

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My most anticipated restoration! Thank you so much for working to preserve this masterpiece. Please take all the time you need.

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Trust me, I’m itching to get this one off the proverbial back burner. It’s the Disney film that’s had the most profound creative influence on me, and I’m still often reduced to tears by the end of the Ave Maria segment. The only real update I can provide at the moment is that I’m having the stereo print looked over by a professional sound facility as of this writing. Practically praying at this point that they don’t have trouble capturing the soundtrack without wow, flutter, or dropout of any kind. Fingers crossed.

“You missed! How could you miss-- he was THREE FEET in front of you!”
– Mushu

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CourtlyHades296 said:

Do you plan on scanning the two trailers you’ve obtained as extras?

Oh, yes, forgot to bring that up here. UHD scans of the 1977 and 1990 reissue trailers will be provided as bonus features. Still tracking down the SuperScope and Irwin Kostal reissue trailers to include those as well.

“You missed! How could you miss-- he was THREE FEET in front of you!”
– Mushu

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I have my 1990 NTSC VHS and I just picked up the 1990 version on LD. I can see potential problems since the LD splits the movie into 3 pieces. But a lot of good LD’s found quiet spots to break or repeated the audio enough to overlap.

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Wow! The rerelease trailers in 4K UHD, that is amazing!

Good luck tracking down the 1956 SuperScope and 1982 rerelease trailers.😊😉😊😉

Can Walpugis Night (The Animated Crossover) and Fantasound: Restoring The Soundtrack To Walt Disney’s Fantasia be featured as extras🤔🤔🤔🤔

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yotsuya said:

I have my 1990 NTSC VHS and I just picked up the 1990 version on LD. I can see potential problems since the LD splits the movie into 3 pieces. But a lot of good LD’s found quiet spots to break or repeated the audio enough to overlap.

Yes, the splits between every disc only occur after a fade out. The PCM LaserDisc audio will be included as a listening option on this release.

JacobTheMoviePurist92 said:

Can Walpugis Night (The Animated Crossover) and Fantasound: Restoring The Soundtrack To Walt Disney’s Fantasia be featured as extras🤔🤔🤔🤔

I considered including that video (no promises), but the Fantasound editorial needs to be entirely redone; both the minimal research that went into it and the before/after comparisons are woefully outdated.

“You missed! How could you miss-- he was THREE FEET in front of you!”
– Mushu

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I researched Fantasound as well and I’m recreating the Fantasound sountrack by using two sources, the 1957 stereo LP soundtrack and the mono soundtrack. For the choir and soloist parts i also used the linear track (which also has the mono mix) on my PAL VHS of Fantasia.

Thanks for inspiring you for me to recreate the theatrical 1940 Fantasound soundtrack myself😊😉😊😉

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JacobTheMoviePurist92 said:

I researched Fantasound as well and I’m recreating the Fantasound sountrack by using two sources, the 1957 stereo LP soundtrack and the mono soundtrack. For the choir and soloist parts i also used the linear track (which also has the mono mix) on my PAL VHS of Fantasia.

Thanks for inspiring you for me to recreate the theatrical 1940 Fantasound soundtrack myself😊😉😊😉

That would be truly incredible!

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JacobTheMoviePurist92 said:

I researched Fantasound as well and I’m recreating the Fantasound sountrack by using two sources, the 1957 stereo LP soundtrack and the mono soundtrack. For the choir and soloist parts i also used the linear track (which also has the mono mix) on my PAL VHS of Fantasia.

Tried that years ago (even brought it up in the old editorial) and realizing the originally intended sound design is going to be a helluva lot more complicated than just sandwiching the LP and VHS audio together. Assuming you used optimal equipment to yield a clean capture, synchronizing a slightly faster or slower LP recording to marry perfectly to the timing of the animation is its own challenge, but then comes the issue of a narrowed sound field after slapping a monoraul downmix over the stereophonic recordings— a lot of the movement will be hard-centered and destroy the illusion of sound that’s supposed to follow the action on screen. No one particular soundtrack source— even the magnetic stereo tracks— will ever get you the sonic experience that Disney and Stokowski intended. Each come with their own set of problems that restrict them from meeting today’s exacting high-resolution audio standards. But to reveal exactly how one would go about bringing the best quality out of mag recordings (which themselves are only copies of a copy of recordings from the late 30s) would spoil the contents of the upcoming editorial. I can promise you this much: it’ll be well worth the wait.

Until then, you’re more than welcome to give it a shot anyway; this community embraces the exploration and research of various source material after all. But take it from me, you’ll be spinning your wheels with this one. Again, restoring Fantasound is all lot more complicated than you think.

“You missed! How could you miss-- he was THREE FEET in front of you!”
– Mushu

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Yes, this desperately needs a restoration. I can’t wait for it to be finished. I wonder how long will this take? (I am not trying to be impatient, I just wish to know your plan for how long this will take.

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At the moment I’m still waiting to hear back from the sound facility over the magnetic stereo print. Hopefully, they’re not having trouble with it and just taking their time to produce the best capture. After that’s done (and if it’s done well), I’ll likely have the IB Tech reels and two of the mag print reels scanned. I’ll take things from there and even fashion a progress chart in the main post, so those who want to keep track of the project may do so simply by just revisiting this thread.

“You missed! How could you miss-- he was THREE FEET in front of you!”
– Mushu

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What different releases of the soundtrack of Fantasia you have from 1957 to the present day?🤔😊😉😊😉

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TonyWDA said:

At the moment I’m still waiting to hear back from the sound facility over the magnetic stereo print. Hopefully, they’re not having trouble with it and just taking their time to produce the best capture. After that’s done (and if it’s done well), I’ll likely have the IB Tech reels and two of the mag print reels scanned. I’ll take things from there and even fashion a progress chart in the main post, so those who want to keep track of the project may do so simply by just revisiting this thread.

I was thinking to myself, will you release a grindhouse?

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Yay! An uncut Fantasia would be just the thing.

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Monsieur Hulot said:

I was thinking to myself, will you release a grindhouse?

A grindhouse release is not currently planned. The aim is to get the picture quality as close to that of an official release as I can get it, so the transfer needs to be free of gate weave and any physical print damage before it goes into HDR grading, and the real work begins after that. Several scenes have far more crawling dirt, cel scratches, stray hairs, debris, lint, and other such anomalies embedded into the original photography that were clearly never intended to be there in the first place, and those shots will need more careful attention than others. Scene 22 from the Fugue segment illustrates this issue perfectly.

35mm IB Tech

(The 35mm still is not from my scan. This comes from a 70’s IB Tech print scan, the owner of which has chosen to remain anonymous.)

Lowry Digital Transfer (Blu-ray)

“You missed! How could you miss-- he was THREE FEET in front of you!”
– Mushu

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Very beautiful and vibrant and it’s so close to the blu ray colours and i prefer the 35mm IB technicolor print more than the colours on the lowry digital transfer used on the blu ray.😊😉😊😉

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wonderful project!! do you still accept donations?

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dameff said:

wonderful project!! do you still accept donations?

He isn’t taking donations and is funding it by himself.

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That’s correct. I want to assure anybody concerned over funding that I would not have even announced this project if I was not financially prepared for it. I didn’t just happen on the idea of preserving this film a few days or weeks before posting in April— it’s been years in the making and in that time I‘ve always made sure to set aside whatever I could to eventually afford the UHD scans and audio captures, once I tracked down the right source material as well.

Speaking of which, that’s the real help I’m asking for: to track down R1 and R4 from another 8-reel Technicolor print. I may be receiving such help very soon. I’ll share any good news when I’m able to.

“You missed! How could you miss-- he was THREE FEET in front of you!”
– Mushu

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TonyWDA said:

That’s correct. I want to assure anybody concerned over funding that I would not have even announced this project if I was not financially prepared for it. I didn’t just happen on the idea of preserving this film a few days or weeks before posting in April— it’s been years in the making and in that time I‘ve always made sure to set aside whatever I could to eventually afford the UHD scans and audio captures, once I tracked down the right source material as well.

Speaking of which, that’s the real help I’m asking for: to track down R1 and R4 from another 8-reel Technicolor print. I may be receiving such help very soon. I’ll share any good news when I’m able to.

I didn’t want to post this here as complete beginners who just want to get the big files will offer help, but when you have this scanned I would love to help in the restoration of this, like you I have a soft spot for this film. It along with Cinema Paradiso are the only films I have full on cried to. This film has left an impression on me like few others and restoring this would be such a worthwhile task for this beauty of a film.