Fantasia (a WIP)

Coming soon, a complete Fantasia, with the original Fantasound audio, but in Mag soundtrack.

I took a bath on this one cost wise, but I think it will be worth it.

Organising scanning was tricky, had to purchase a Simplex 35mm mag-penthouse to get the sound, and ship those parts to the guy that was doing the scanning, and he had to wire it all up and align it all to get the best possible audio out of it.

If you want to know more about the Fantasound process, you can read it all here:

http://s1362.photobucket.com/user/threedarchive/media/american22asch_00642_zps45eb4e75.jpg.html

It is a Stokowski Fantasound print, so in addition to the audio, it was designed to have a lens switch in and out during different scenes for a ‘widescreen’ effect, so there will be some work to be done.

As well as the standard cleanup and restoration etc. which is all yet to be done.

Thanks again to everyone that has worked on this so far, you will never have seen Fantasia quite like this 😃

Ye gods! It's like Christmas around here. ;)

How did a Fantasound print even survive?

The print I had literally should never have existed. It had 4 track mag sound, and I cannot find an official reference to it *anywhere*, even among the crazy collectors.

Unfortunately I had to sell it for way, way less than I paid for it, but it went to a really good home, and a private screening was had and some of the audience was literally moved to tears during the presentation. It is such a shame no-one can see it the way it was intended any more.

Capturing it and the audio was a real challenge, and I still have to sync all of the separate tracks as we had to capture them separately, big props again to the guy who did all the work on the ground, I was mainly tracking down old equipment, doing research and supplying materials to make it possible, he did all of the actual work.

If you really want it to feel like Christmas, stay tuned... Matrix, Star Trek III and Alice in Wonderland news soon.

Oh this will be a masterpiece! Respect maestro

How the HORK did you even manage to find that? O_O

Isn't that like the holy grail or something?

It was the result of a 5 year search, and then about 5 years earnings as well :)

I couldn't get the scan I really would have wanted, (it for example has no damage matte, and is only @ DCI 4K) but the audio is excellent and the scan is good, and the window of opportunity was small.

So it will be a good archive for people to then get onto restoring one day.

The print's new owner will look after it better than probably anyone else could, so although I lost a *lot* on it, the print itself will be preserved for as long as possible, and, just as importantly, able to be viewed if the opportunity should ever arise. That was of the utmost importance to me.

It was also acquired to help out someone who was intimately involved with the original fantasia, who is now battling with dementia, and I wanted them to be able to see the movie again, they way they remembered it. Through another friend, that should be possible, and that will make it all worth it.

(I won't be sharing names, so please don't ask).

At any rate, it is all raw at the moment, and had to be scanned dry, so there are plenty of dirt and scratches to be repaired, but it is still a lovely thing to behold.

DoomBot said:

"The audience was literally moved to tears", that right there says a hell of alot about the importance of film preservation. Thanks poita

These are exciting times, i just hope we don't see the end of them.

 Grown men actually cried during the screening. It is a beautiful thing, we have forgotten how cinema can move the soul I think.

I think a lot of people on this board are going to owe you a whole lot of drinks and dinners. I know I do. :)

And I owe them to so many others.

Thankyou very much for this update poita.

Great news, poita; thanks a lot!!!

junh1024 said:

Hello & thank you Poita & others for sourcing and helping with Fantasia.

I'm interested in Disney audio because recent BD releases leave something to be desired, especially fantasia. I was alerted to this thread by an existing member.

As you know, Fantasound is really 3ch + control tones (possibly for panning & dynamics?). How do you plan on applying that to the captured print or is that already taken care of?

Is there a predetermined audio capture format that you're planning on using/have used (samplerate/depth/channels)?

Would it be possible to upload semi/raw audio, perhaps after panning & dynamics (& sync) but before denoising (& EQ) so that me &/ others can tinker with the audio?

Are there any other changes (perhaps according to audio documents?) that should be applied to the audio to sound proper (ie, EQ curves, ?)

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I've had a look at FNT audio from the BDs, and it's relatively easy to make it sound somewhat like the 2000 DVDs by simple channel swapping/mixing, etc.

The phonerip has a gentle roll-off after 8k, and the strings sound strange, which I'm hoping this mag cap will better.

The '89 version by Irwin Kostal (CD) somehow won't sync to the BD, even though it was apparently targeted for theatrical & home release.

I capped a 'selections from fantasia' LP ('70), which ofc won't sync.

----

I don't have much BW per month so sharing my changes as HQ audio files may be difficult. I can upload small files, though.

 Yes, it was 3 track with a control track to 'live' mix sections of the Front Centre, Left and Right channels to the surround channels.

Basically what has been done for the audio, is that we now have 4 channels of sound, the 4th channel is now the 'baked in' version incorporating the control-track, if you know what I mean.

So you could encode it to DTS or Dolby surround and get the same effect as the original.

I do this kind of thing as an archive library for researchers and restorationists, so raw captures are there for educational purposes should anyone wish to work on them.

Impressive, poita. Most impressive.

I think this is one that everyone is eager to see!

drfsupercenter said:

I am surprised nobody asked this yet, so I will.

Does it have the uncut Pastoral Symphony segment? The rest of the video should be fine on the Blu-Ray, but the scene with the black centaur was notoriously edited out of every home video release there was, and the only existing clips currently in circulation are from some European TV airing in the 70s (I think?) that was recorded to a VHS, so naturally it looks pretty bad.

Poita did say it was complete.

drfsupercenter said:

Does it have the uncut Pastoral Symphony segment?

 Yes. There was a preview of it on old AMPS board.