The Secret History of Star Wars — Page 8

Edward Norton was a bit of dick in that he threw his weight around a lot because he had a lot of control in that film. Every film he works on has control issues with him. Good actor though. Liv Tyler wouldn't take shit from him and I thought that was really cool because she's so meek and quiet.

I did get yelled at by William Hurt once though.

What did he yell at you for?

I was scratching my neck.

Seriously?

Yep.

Among my other duties, one of them is clapping the slate. Sometimes, you have no exit because the camera and lighting/grip equipment prevents you from getting behind the lens so you just have to crouch down in the corner off camera, typically facing away from actors so you don't get in their eyelines. I scratched my neck and I guess he heard it, because he said something along the lines of "would you PLEASE stop that scratching, it's very distracting!"

What can I say, some actors are pampered.

(on that note, some aren't, case in point Tim Roth on the same shoot was an amazing guy and would hang out with us, I think one time he even came down to the camera truck to play Halo with us camera folk).

Zombie...

This MUST make you feel good.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=20596901&postcount=2525

It is an honour on one hand, but it's also a bit sad, isn't it? This is something that professional restorationists should be working on. The fact that I have become an authority on the film elements speaks to how neglected they are.

captainsolo wrote: Why would they have no 1983 print of ROTJ?

Who said they didn't?  This is the second time someone's said that, and the LoC records state otherwise:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-coming-to-Blu-Ray-UPDATE-May-4th-2011/post/473211/#TopicPost473211

Here's the LOC 'Return of the Jedi' public record:

http://lccn.loc.gov/96501520

Under 'Description; you'll read 35mm ref print.  and under 'Acquisition Source' the date 6/15/83.

I think when people think of LOC, they think of the NFR, forgetting about the copyright depository.

I have a feeling the copyright depository doesn't have very good storage conditions (otherwise why create the NFR?).

zombie84 wrote: I have a feeling the copyright depository doesn't have very good storage conditions (otherwise why create the NFR?).

http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/mpcc.html

The Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center

It is the mission of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center to actively conserve, preserve and restore the Nation's motion picture heritage in the collections of the Library of Congress's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS). Since the early 1970's, the Library of Congress has maintained an active film preservation program. It is currently the only such program in the United States funded primarily with public monies.

In the late 1960's, the Library began storing much of its nitrate film archive at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, located just northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The Air Force offered the Library the use of its motion picture facility, which included 100 purpose- built nitrate storage vaults.

By the early 1970's, the Library was involved in a cooperative project with the American Film Institute (AFI) and was accepting large gift collections of nitrate film from many of Hollywood's major studios. These included Columbia, Universal, Warner Brothers, and MGM. Today, under the stewardship of M/B/RS, the nitrate film holdings, dating from the 1890's through 1950, exceed 100 million feet.

The Motion Picture Conservation Center at Wright-Patterson AFB now consists of two primary facilities, the Film Vaults and the Motion Picture Preservation Laboratory. The Center currently has 20 full and part-time employees, almost half of which are paid for through the use of Gifts and Trust funds.

The Film Vaults facility provides safe storage for the highly flammable nitrate film by maintaining the environment at a temperature of 52 to 55 degrees fahrenheit and a relative humidity between 35 and 40 percent. Additional safety features include special double doors which will automatically close in the event of a fire, and blow out panels which would help to direct the flames and smoke from a fire away from the other vaults.

The facility's 100 vaults are separated in half by a central corridor, with all doors opening towards the corridor. Each vault can hold up to 1000 or more reels of nitrate film stored in metal cans on cores. All films are stored flat (not on edge), the current recommended practice for archiving master material.

The Motion Picture Preservation Laboratory moved to Dayton from Washington in 1981. It consists of a nitrate vault for the temporary storage of film as it is being preserved, along with nitrate preparation, timing, printing, developing and viewing facilities. Most of the equipment in the Laboratory has been modified in order to properly copy the aging and shrunken nitrate films. In addition, full immersion printers are used in order to photographically conceal the scratches and other base defects found on old films. All black and white films are developed in- house, while color developing is handled under contract at a commercial laboratory.

The Conservation Center has completed a number of major film restorations over the past few years. These include MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939), THE MALTESE FALCON (1941), and WITHIN OUR GATES (1920), the oldest surviving feature film directed by an African-American. Current restoration efforts include MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936) and the entire Paper Print Collection, which is being remastered onto 35mm film.

The movie studios are moving their resources to work in conjunction with the LoC, besides a few private collectors these LoC locations are probably the better storage places around.

My opinion is the NFR (National Film Registry) was a gift from Congress after the creators who went to Congress to amend copyright law in the 80s lost their claim.  As compensation they created this award thing.  "These people say your movie is popular, can we get a second copy, please."

The LoC is only as good as the works given to it by the original creators.  Back in the 80s that meant a print which had been shown in theaters for 3-6 months.  See RotJ submittal date.  Since this was the common practice, this is a second chance for popular films from that time period.

skyjedi2005 wrote: I still maintain the process is meaningless if no one ever gets to see the so called preserved films in the library of congress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress#Using_the_Library

The library is open to the general public for academic research and tourists. Only those who are issued a Reader Identification Card may enter the reading rooms and access the collection. The Reader Identification Card is available in the Madison building to persons who are at least 16 years of age upon presentation of a government issued picture identification (e.g. driver's license, state ID card or passport).

Me and None have already made tentative plans for an August visit.

We'll report our findings, of course.

Got my copy of this book today courtesy of Amazon.  Cannot wait to get started reading.