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Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco? — Page 8

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I’m just trying to pin down a running order for the discs – I’m working on the principle that we’ll sequence the elements in film order, unless PAL/NTSC differences force them to separate. A few questions need answering before this can be fully decided:


Giger’s Alien – has anyone seen 8t88’s version yet? PAL or NTSC? Does it offer an improvement over the current versions? If not, I don’t think it’s realistic to hope for a better copy to come along any time soon… the existing transfers, for all their faults, are at least complete and watchable.

Shock & Awe – The ‘Archives’ version still seems the one to use, unless tb1971 can provide an improved version. By the way, triffid, the format on the Archives disc seems to be 14:9 – in the UK, analogue TV broadcasts of widescreen material often use this unfortunate ‘compromise’ format (out of consideration for people with 4:3 TVs). I wish I’d taped it myself, but somehow I missed it at the time…

Aliens: James Cameron Director & Work – Are we still on the Archives version for this?

Aliens: Saturday Night Live – Has tb1971 passed this on to anyone yet? Is it PAL or NTSC?

Making of Alien 3 (UK) – Unless someone wants to go to the extra effort to obtain/transfer this, I think the archives version is ok. Sadly I no longer have my Facehugger tapes, otherwise I would have just gone ahead and done this myself…

Making of Alien Resurrection (Brad Dourif version) – triffid, have you found a version that you like for this? PAL or NTSC?

Alien War / Aliens: Ride at the speed of fright material – as before, has tb1971 passed this on to anyone yet? PAL or NTSC?


Phew. Apologies if I’ve missed anything – do point out anything that is still undecided (PMs are going out to a couple of people on specific subjects).
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Giger’s Alien – has anyone seen 8t88’s version yet? PAL or NTSC? Does it offer an improvement over the current versions? If not, I don’t think it’s realistic to hope for a better copy to come along any time soon… the existing transfers, for all their faults, are at least complete and watchable.

I have offered my version to Triffid, but he's not responding how he want's to receive it...... (OEPS i didn't check my PM he did contact me!)



Making of Alien 3 (UK) – Unless someone wants to go to the extra effort to obtain/transfer this, I think the archives version is ok. Sadly I no longer have my Facehugger tapes, otherwise I would have just gone ahead and done this myself…


Is this the version found in the Facehugger-collectors set? If so i have it in MINT condition also....

Let me know ASAP how to get my copy's to your group of people who are gonna make this archive set!

With kind regards,

Marco

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OK, let's go through the news step-by-step.

A) No Giger biography in the near future. Yesterday I received a message from the editor of this project. They finished the primary shooting phase already, but their main sponsor cancelled the deal! Finding a new one can take months... I do not understand why some Swiss company do not catch this great opportunity immediately. Giger is their national treasure and they can make money on him.

B) Jonno
Giger’s Alien – I asked 8t88’s for a copy. I can compare the versions, select the best one and send it to you together with my material that I must send to you sooner or later. I already PMed him my address. I also wrote a letter to the guy who offered his LD to Fox three years ago, but I do not believe he will respond to it.
Shock & Awe – I asked tb1971 for his archive several times, but he does not answer. I really hope he did not forget about us!
Aliens: James Cameron Director & Work – Yes, we are still on the Archives version for this. I contacted the girl in London again today, waiting for her answer. The studio that made it in 1986 do not answer too, so all my hopes are with her. She definitely has it on a tape, but she has "too little time" to look for it. I offered either money or our final product to her as a compensation.
Making of Alien 3 (UK) – Since I must transfer some of my tapes to DVD next week, I will add this one to the mix. My comments on its quality are above.
Making of Alien Resurrection (Brad Dourif version) – The same problem with tb1971, I consider my NTSC copy to be not too good but usable. I will have a PAL version of it in two weeks too plus some more A4 TV stuff, quality unknown.

C) 8t88
Same as with tb1971. If you can make a high quality copy from the VHS and then put both documentaries on one disc , I will compare the Making of A3 with both my VHS and VCD. Then I will send everything to Jonno. My transfers are not ready yet, I must do this in my friend's flat, only he has the equipment we need. Thus I cannot send anything to Jonno sooner anyway and there will be no time loss, Jonno cannot start his work without my videos.

D) I think we should leave the final decision about distributing of the material among the discs on Jonno. Personally I do not care about the chronological order, my only request is to do not change PAL into NTSC and vice versa.

E) Meedermow
The video you wanted is among these "to be transfered" items too.

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A short note: I placed our "commercial" in the following forums:
8thpassenger.com
gamegossip.com
aliensonline.hu
If you find it there, do not respond to the thread, it is me!

I checked all Alien forums I know in the past two weeks and these were the only ones I chose. The others are either too AvP game oriented (planetavp.com) or almost abandoned (alienexperience.com or the German forum). But you can submit any promising forum to me, if you think it is worth of try.


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Did anyone ever see the Fan film :

Batman Dead End

This Fan made film is actually very good and has a face to face with Batman and Predator, where in the end the Alien mixes in the fight.
Maybe this is fun to add as an easter egg?

Will send my copy's out this weekend to :

Triffid & meedermow

Cheers,

Marco

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Batman Dead End is a good fanfilm, though I can't believe it cost $50,000. Anyway, I think it's more of a Predator-style fanfilm as he's fighting a predator for most of the film and the aliens only really come in at the end.

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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Originally posted by: klokwerk
Batman Dead End is a good fanfilm, though I can't believe it cost $50,000. Anyway, I think it's more of a Predator-style fanfilm as he's fighting a predator for most of the film and the aliens only really come in at the end.


Jouw nickname klinkt wel erg nerderlands..........

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Jonno please PM me so I can send you Alien discs ASAP for inclusion on the new set. It seems like some of my footage is better quality of stuff you already have (shock & Awe is 16:9 anamorphic set-top recording directly off UK tv). I also have Batman Dead End as an eegg on one of those discs, in case you need it.
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Just sent you a PM, tb1971

Triffid seems to have Giger’s Alien and Making of Alien 3 well in hand – I’ll leave him to continue his exchange with you, 8t88, here’s hoping we can end up with a better version of GA.

We now seem to have two leads on a better Aliens: James Cameron… doc. Fingers crossed.

Dead End, huh? Well, I was never crazy about this – it’s not so much a fan film as a large-budget showreel, made by a guy with impressive connections and resources. But if folks want it on the set, we can certainly find room for it…

By the way, I just received a copy of Alien Redux from RIJIR (thanks, buddy!) and had a quick look. It’s not so great technically (non-anamorphic widescreen, stereo MPEG audio ) but it IS very well researched and compiled – I’ll look at it properly tonight to make a proper judgement, but a 145 minute cut of Alien has to be interesting, at the very least!
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8t88:
I translated what you said as "Your nickname sounds quite Nederlands". That's Babelfish's translation anyways. I am not dutch, though you're not the first person to ask if my nickname is dutch or if I'm from the Netherlands.

Jonno:
I will burn that disc this weekend and get it out to you monday.

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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Hey folks, I am glad to hear you are not dead. Funny thing: The "commercial" is on the Hungarian site no more. They deleted it.
I saw the Dead End two weeks ago (Ash595 posted a link to it earlier in this forum). It is funny, but it has nothing to do with Aliens. Plus, it is already available anywhere, either for free or for money, together with the Making of. I really do not think we should put it on our discs, nor even as an easter-egg. If you are longing for a fan movie, there were some Alien fan movies in the past.
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I'm with you triffid on the Batman Dead End front.

Jonno - YOU THE MAN ! Thanks so much for the package, waiting for me after a nightmare day at work... Suffice to say it made my day

I've been slaving away over Womble and I'm really happy with a potential credit roll that I've put together to put a bit more of a stamp on our collective efforts, suffice to say it's small enough (as will the menus be) that *no* compression will be made to any of the material - I think that seems to be a universally held belief ! I think I should be able to have a completion date for Disc 1: Alien Evolution quite soon. I'm aiming for next weekend, work permitting. I'll keep all posted.

Do we have a wish-list for a following release order ? The good thing is there is no rush whatsoever and we should definitely chase the leads we have to acquire the best material out there rather than rushing things. We've got plenty of material. Any ideas for Disc 2 ?

MM
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Originally posted by: meedermow
The good thing is there is no rush whatsoever and we should definitely chase the leads we have to acquire the best material out there rather than rushing things. We've got plenty of material.
I agree with this. I spent many hours writting and sending letters to many people, I registered in few forums including this one and I checked the web with Google from its head to its toes. My work ended and now is the time to sit and wait for a while until the answers come. Do you think we should set any deadline for the incoming material?



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Two CBS Version discs went out today. Let me know when they arrive
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Giger's Alien (Original capture)
Giger's Alien (Canopus remaster version)
Making of Alien 3 (facehuggerbox version)

Are on their way to :

Triffid and Meedermow

Let me know you opinion about them please.....

Cheers,

Marco
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Hi, just found the threat and thought I could be of help...
I've been collecting Alien stuff for years and maybe you have use for anything I've stocked You seem to have much more material than I ever found so I would definitely be interested to get a copy of the results as soon as you will be finished! Just a short list of what I have here:
DVD Boxsets, both 20th anniversary and quadrilogy. I have the 5th disc for the 20th set in RC1 which was quite rare.
I have a complete and mint version of the VHS facehugger boxset.
The big US LD Boxset of Alien 1 and the regular US LDs for 2-4.
I have the Preversion of A3 that wasn't on the Quadrilogy but the quality is quite bad...
I have a japanese A3 Booklet for Alien3 that features several high quality scans of scenes from the Aline3 Preversion.
I also have the new Alien PSP UMD. It features the Film in 1.78:1 and was not cropped from the DVD Version but remade from the master. So you have a little bit more picture at the top and bottom compared to every other version yet. Unfortunately I haven't found a way to dump the thing on a PSP...
If you have use for any of the above material, just let me know...
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Hi Smurf

Glad you could join us! I'm guessing the most interesting thing you have is the Alien 3 workprint, but since you sound unhappy with the quality it's probably from the same source as other copies mentioned here. What format is it in? If it's a DVD it might be worth sending it to one of the guys here for a comparison...

The Alien UMD sounds like an interesting oddity (maybe to include as excerpts or something), but I don't know how it could be transfered to DVD - maybe someone else knows more? What's the resolution and sound quality on those things, anyway?
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to Smurf:
I do not think it is necessary to send the Workprint (you call it Pre-version) to anybody. Check page 6 of this forum, download my sample images, resize them to full screen and you can make the comparison yourself. They are in their real resolution.
Meanwhile, I tried to contact the eBay seller who sold the 2VCD to me back in 2002 (to ask for a DVD copy). No chance. No longer a registered member.

to Jonno:
I do not know anything about converting of UMD to DVD. But did you ever checked the normal 4:3 tapes and TV versions? They often offer small portions of picture above and below, not seen in the WS editions. This happens when the 4:3 release is "independent" on any WS version coming out at the same time. I must admit I never tried to study any Alien movie from this point of view, but I found this anomaly in T2 for example.

I just refused to buy a 20 years old original Japanese Giger's Alien VHS (for a price of the laserdisc...!), but I got some information at least. There were three tapes for GA, Necronomicon and Passagen in 1985 released together with the (only) LD editions of these three docs. Some two years later they reprinted GA and Necronomicon on one tape. No more official releases nowhere in the world, except for that 2-tape half-official set from Switzerland (8t88). All tapes by "Sony Video Software", catalogue numbers unknown. The info comes from the man who offers the LDs on eBay. I asked him for a DVD copy of GA, but he wants to sell the originals instead (understandable). All tapes contain subtitles too, so the only non-subtitled edition is the Swiss one.

http://web.quick.cz/Triffid/workprint/GigersAlien+Necronomicon.jpg

http://web.quick.cz/Triffid/workprint/Passagen.jpg
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Originally posted by: triffid I do not know anything about converting of UMD to DVD. But did you ever checked the normal 4:3 tapes and TV versions? They often offer small portions of picture above and below, not seen in the WS editions. This happens when the 4:3 release is "independent" on any WS version coming out at the same time. I must admit I never tried to study any Alien movie from this point of view, but I found this anomaly in T2 for example.


This usually only happens if the film was shot on super 35 - the larger frame offers separate composition options for 4:3 and 2.35:1. T2 is actually a famous example - there's a demo of the process on the old laserdisc (and, I believe, the Ultimate Edition DVD).

Anyway, in the case of Alien, which was shot in standard 35mm Panavision, there won't be so much 'overhead' but there's always a bit more vertical information on the original negative than is transfered to the release prints (and conventional widescreen tapes/discs), so there's potential for slight re-composition. I'd like to see a side by side example...
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Anyone knows anyone who collects Alien merchandise? I have to move to another house, and there's no more room for my Alien collection :-( I just keep all the DVD's and some models, but i have lots more stuff like:

All Halycon model kits
Several resin model kits
leading edge 'Aliens' board game (complete with all the miniatures)
Complete set of bubblegum trading cards 'Alien' (1979)
Promotional set for the movie 'Alien' including all patches and medals of the Nostromo crew

To name a few, the list goes on and on.....

If you know anyone let them contact me!
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something you probably never seen before. A french project for the poster in 1979, designed by famous french artist, Ferracci.

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/2356/alienweb7ta.jpg
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My A3 workprint version in not better than yours, just the average bad quality everyone has... But in the japanese booklet I have are some high resolution colour pictures of some of the "workprint only scenes". Maybe you might be interested in them... The UMD version was specially remade from the original master to get to the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. There is a way to dump games from umd on your psp but I haven't found a way to get movies off them yet. UMDs only hold 1,4GB but the resolution is not that huge and the movies are encoded to mpg4 and sound is only stereo so overall it will be compareable to a better VHS.
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#1 (Alien Evolution Preservation) is *finally* done and I'm very happy with it. Huge thanks to Jonno and THX for being my technical advisors... More to follow in the next 24 hours

Got the suntech CBS Aliens this morning - many thanks suntech.

Some tech for those wanting to know:

2:57:53 total running time

Disc size: 1.66GB

Aliens itself runs over the following time sections (adverts - many of which are *very* amusing take up the remainder):

0.02.13 - 0.16.35
0.19.13 - 0.34.23
0.38.24 - 0.51.19
0.55.19 - 1.05.33
1.07.38 - 1.26.54
1.30.57 - 1.42.12
1.44.25 - 1.56.03
2.01.06 - 2.20.19
2.22.32 - 2.39.33
2.43.49 - 2.52.28
2.54.32 - 2.57.22

So roughly each segment is as follows:

14.22 (from start of Fox fanfare)
15.10
12.05
10.14
09.16
11.15
11.38
19.15
17.01
08.39
02.50 (credits - ending with "released by 20th Century Fox)

Bearing in mind it's NTSC, I'll let someone who hasn't been up for the best part of 20 hours work out the final running time

Definitely the extended edition from what I viewed, whether there is any further additional material is down to the final tally of minutes !

Obviously I'll be able to set up an option of with or without adverts since the film will be able to fit onto a disc twice due to its original size.

Best as ever (and that's one wicked poster Ash !)

MM