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Criterion Collection: Adventures of Baron Munchausen & The Fisher King (Released) — Page 5

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Originally posted by: bdev
Did you cancel the Dead Presidents project ?


I haven't acutally even looked at the set yet. My copy is a beat-to-hell old rental copy, so if there are playback issues with it, I won't do anything with it. Also, I'm somewhat reticent at this point to anything containing more than a hundred or so slides. The first disc of Munchausen took me 3 days to complete; the second is almost on its second month of clogging up my computer.

--bdev


I understand. I hope you will do it anyway if the playback is fine and if you've got some time. I love the film so much. And the dvd from buena vista is so fucked up. I think the film deserves better treatment.

Thx bdev for your involvement in preserving criterion titles.
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Originally posted by: focuspuller
On a personal note to Ghostbusters, I live across the street from the church that the Marshmellow man steps on when Bill Murry gives the line "nobody steps on a church in my turn!. And of course, next to that, is Dana Barret's Building, which still looks as it does in the film, with the exception of the top of the building, the building isn't as tall as it looks in the film.


How cool is that! I was In NY in september last and kept going past the "library" nice.


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Alright guys, I just wanted to give you an update on the Munchausen project.

At this point, I have converted all content for disc two over to dvd-ready format, and will begin constructing the dvd beginning Monday. My hope for getting this done and uploaded this weekend was foolishly quixotic given the sheer quantity of material stored onto the laserdiscs. All told, I ended up with the following:
-1,748 individual slides of information, which will probably grow by twenty or so as I create navigation menus during the creation of the disc. I decided to transcribe all text to new slides, which accounts for the snail's pace of the project. Pictures interspersed in the large narrative sections of the disc were resized to fit within normal overscan limits. Pictures contained in galleries were not resized, due to time constraints and also because most of these contain important detail that resizing compromises (for example, blueprints or concept sketches). God I hope that Encore can handle this many slides.
-24 unique video elements, ranging from 15 seconds to around 10 minutes each. Four of these feature multiple audio tracks containing Gilliam's commentary as well as the original audio
-4 audio only interviews with producers, screenwriters, and other crew members. The accents are thick, but this content is crucial to the discussion of what was apparenlty a very emotional production process.

I am still debating whether or not to include an LP capture of the soundtrack as an extra, since the CD was produced, although it is out of print and too expensive for me to purchase. Also, I have four comic books that were released parallel to the movie, and wanted to incorporate them somehow, but since none of the creators of the movie had anything to do with them, I have omitted it from the project.

Keep looking back here to see where the project is. I will keep everyone updated as to its status.

Pray that my hard drive doesn't kick the bucket. I don't think I have the stamina to do this again.

--bdev
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)
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Can you backup your raw files for the slide transcriptions before you try to build? You definitely should.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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Originally posted by: bdev


I am still debating whether or not to include an LP capture of the soundtrack as an extra

--bdev


Debate no more, I'd love to listen to that!




seriously though, it would be a great addition to what sounds like a labour of blood, sweat and tears! Thanks so much for all your hard work.. this Münchhausen preservation has a lot of people drooling. I do know that it is one of the most frequently requested releases from criterion.


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I am quite literally drooling at the prospect of this coming along....

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I have just uploaded the Munchausen soundtrack to Demonoid if anyone wants to grab it...

trying to help in any way I can

v
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Obviously this is mainly for bdev but anyone else is welcome too
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bdev, this sounds awesome! Your Fisher King was great and I'm really looking forward to Munchausen!
Regarding your future projects, do you own all of the LaserDiscs? I ask because I own (even though I don't have a LaserDisc player any more, although I'm on the lookout for one) the Criterion The Magnificent Ambersons and the Criterion King Kong.

edit: Oops, you're not doing the Criterion King Kong. Sorry, my bad! Or would you like to do it?
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I don't own all of them, but I own about 60 of them, including those two. My Ambersons copy has bad laser rot, though. I try to buy only the ones with extras on them, and I don't have any that have been released on DVD. I also shy away from the foreign titles because they seem to have better luck securing the rights to those for DVD release. It's irritating to spend the cost of a new DVD on a laserdisc, and then have that same title announced by Criterion shortly after .... (49th Parallel).

--bdev
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)
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Would you like me to send you The Magnificent Ambersons Criterion laserdisc for you to convert? I have no idea in what state it's in (laser rot, etc.) because I haven't had a Laserdisc for a while.
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Thanks to voodoofish for the upload of the soundtrack. It will be included on the second disc.

--bdev
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)
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Like others before, I want to say THANK YOU!!!!, SO MUCH! Your effort is INCREDIBLE! You should consider sending copies to Gilliam and Idle themselves!

Again, THANK you for this ENORMOUS effort.
My life is really... Complex!

Batman Returns
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bdev,

What was the problem with the Fisher King that you sent me? Is this something I should get another copy of? Someone i know wanted one.

btw...what program do you use to author?
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I forgot to loop the main menu on disc two, so if you let the whole cut of "How About You" play to the end, the disc will stop rather than play it again or just hold. I didn't catch the error until I had already sent out a few sets. You can either just download the corrected disc from demonoid, or I can send you an additional one.

I use Adobe Encore to author, which I don't suggest to anyone. A lot of the shortcut keys are different than other Adobe programs (for example, Ctrl+ to zoom in), and it doesn't feel very Adobe-ish, so I suspect that they may have just purchased the basic program from an upstart somewhere and then dressed it up a bit. The main problem is that I have really bad problems with it crashing, and I can't get a large, complex disc to compile it in. What I do as a work-around is build the discs on my main computer and then transfer over to the laptop to compile. The laptop doesn't have a dvd burner, so I have to burn all the vob's to cds and then put it back together on the desktop. It's better than just swearing at the computer when it crashes, which was the original solution.

Kind of amazing what I'll do just so I don't have to learn another program.

Let me know about the disc.

--bdev
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)
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Okay ... I know this is the project that won't die ... or won't be born ... or something, but I have a quick query to those following along:

I just placed an order for the little known but highly influential 1961 Czech feature Baron Prasil which is referenced in the Criterion laserdisc quite a few times. The version I purchased is a non-official dvd-r, and the only official version I see around anywhere is from yesasia.com that has a japanese dub and no english option.

Depending on the quality of this DVD-R when it arrives, I may include it as an addendum to this set. Is there any interest in me doing so? It will probably increase the size of the torrent file to somewhere around 10 GB.

--bdev
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)
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Myself, I'd absolutely love to see it. For the torrent, you could break it up into two separate torrents, so if there was someone not so much interested in getting Baron Prasil, they could just not grab that torrent.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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Yes. I will probably do that then.

If anyone is interested, the place that has it for sale is trashpalace.com. I guess he specializes in long-lost animation and snuff films or something.

Which begs the question: What's more depressing, sending 19 dollars to trashpalace.com for an old cartoon, or finding that that email is a "Verified Business Memeber" with 400 sales on PayPal?
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)
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Hello!

I'm very enthusiastic about your LD-DVD-transfers and would like to point out, that there IS an official release of Count Prasil on DVD!

Released in the Czech Republic you can order it here:
http://www.dvdr.cz/zbozi_video.php?lang=en&shop=vi&id_zbozi=9367&pgnum=0&sfind=nazev%5DKdy%BE+Burian+pr%E1%B9il

As for other Criterion LD -> DVD projects, a friend of mine is working on the Hughes Brothers' Dead Presidents and Menace II Society to be transferred to DVD! I will ask him if he could make these available as torrents, if you don't mind.

Regards.
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Okay then. If there are official releases with the English track, then there's no reason to worry about it. I will make a companion cover and sneak it in the torrent though, and maybe some menus so those so inclined can reauthor those discs to match.

Can you comment on the quality of that czech disc?

--bdev

EDIT: Go for it on the Hughes' films!

EDIT2: I wish we could upload new icons.
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)
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Good morning from Germany!

Originally posted by: bdev
Okay then. If there are official releases with the English track, then there's no reason to worry about it.

It's definetely an official release! The same Czech label also released Ikarie XB1 - very recommended! You can check the review of that disc on: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1867ikar.html

The main film will carry English subtitles, whereas the extras may not.

Can you comment on the quality of that czech disc?

Well, since I own Ikarie XB1 myself and it is of excellent quality, I'd say that one must also look pretty good. Especially so, since those films are considered classics in the Czech republic!

EDIT: Go for it on the Hughes' films!


I will lay in a good word.

EDIT2: I wish we could upload new icons.


Yeah, would be nice.

Regards.
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Alright, here's a somewhat sordid update:

I have spent the last two weeks creating links between discs two's some 1800 menus. Each one has about 3 links to make, and having that many menus on this disc slowed Encore to a crawl, so it went very slowly. Anyway, I finished making all the links at 1 am last night and started going through each one again just checking for typos. I got through 50 or so menus when Encore pulled its favorite "Abnormal condition ... Save and exit" popup window. I saved and shut down for the evening. I got up this morning and tried to open the disc and I got a new "Cannot read photoshop file" window that does not allow me to open this disc.

In short, about 14 days of work just went down the shitter. I will continue to attempt to open the files, but its already failed on two different computers. My next step is to start removing menus from the content cache to see if it's just one menu that's tripping it up, but my gut is telling me that there's an irreversible error written into the project now that won't allow access.

So where does that put the project? I really don't want to come this far and just give up, so I may have to employ some other navigation paradigm that will allow me to construct it much more quickly and hopefully get this POS Encore to actually do its job. Instead of having each slide be a menu, I may just make them into slideshows. I really don't like doing this, but it might be the only way as I don't really have two more weeks to do that same damn thing again.

What's extremely frustrating is that right after I set the last link, I thought "I should burn it to a disc now," but I didn't since Encore had been behaving recently.

--bdev
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)
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THANK GOD!

My gut feeling was wrong. It was only that a single f'ing menu was corrupt (the one that was open when the program crashed). I was able to open the file and can now continue working on it. Luckily, you can order files by last modified in Windows, so I located it quickly. Photoshop couldn't even open it.

I have no idea when this will be completed, or if Encore can even compile a disc this complex, but I will somehow get the set out soon. There may be more swearing on the horizon, but at least in Encore the disc is looking superb!

--bdev
Criterion Projects done: She's Gotta Have It, The Princess Bride, The Fisher King

In Progress Criterions: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (99% done), Taxi Driver (90% done), Citizen Kane (50% done), Othello (99.99% done)

Possibly coming next: Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Ambersons (the theatrical cut, a reconstruction according to Prof. Carringer's script analysis, and the colorized version)