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Info: The Criterion Laserdisc Preservation Thread

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There seem to be quite a number of interesting projects springing up in regards to Criterion Laserdisc preservation.

Should any topic deserve it’s own thread, for me - its definitely this one
 

There’s current topics/projects in regards to:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

The Fisher King

Taxi Driver

King Kong (1933)

Se7en

The Game
 

And that’s just the start.

Personally I’d love to see a port of all Cronenberg’s ‘Crash’ extras as well.

More often than not - it’s the commentaries that hold most interest, though as many of the above prove there are obviously countless extras that have (and will) never see/n the light of day. I thought this would be a nice drop-in centre to discuss these and other Criterion projects. As ever - I’ll happily provide a hub of contact and if people need hooking up with the completed projects - I’ll always be happy to help.

Cheers,

meedermow

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Both Se7en and The Game have been preserved, as far as I know. And I think there are others working on the other titles that you mentioned. Hopefully we'll see more of them coming out in the future.

Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!

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Digitalfreaknyc made two disc versions of the Se7en and The Game Criterion LD and they're both available on myspleen.

bdev ripped the Criterion commentary for King Kong. He sent it to me in an mp3 file and it's great. The files occasionally went out of sync with the movie so I went to the trouble of re-editing it and fading the DVD's audio in and out of it when there were gaps in the comments to get it in sync with the picture.
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I just uploaded the mp3 of the aforementioned King Kong commentary again to rapidshare if anyone wants to check it out who didn't get it last time.

http://rapidshare.de/files/20490038/KK_criterion_commentary_mp3.mp3.html

I never went back and figured out how or why the commentary went out of sync with the DVD. I don't know if something on my end (LD player not in pitch or me splicing the parts together haphazardly) or if it's because the new DVD's use a different print than Criterion had at their disposal. According to Jeff Rovin's 1993-1994 edition of The Laserdisc Film Guide, "The Criterion edition of King Kong was made from a source cobbled together from various prints to get the best overall image available at the time [but] there isn't a shot in these editions that can touch the Turner disc," which was "made from a recently discovered 35mm print." I don't know which print they are using for the great DVD's out now, but it must be this superior print or something even better discovered since. Maybe that's the cause of the discrepency.

ShiftyEyes, does the commentary get progressively more out of sync as the DVD goes on, or does it suddenly jump out of sync as if my splices were just bad? I meant to make notes of where I spliced the sides together, but I neglected to.

-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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Oh, I'm more than aware of digitalfreaknyc's Se7en and The Game are completed projects I have (and love) them both !

Indeed - I'm just putting together some of the disparate projects that are out there and creating a bit of groundswell in the interest for these great efforts. I'll create links to the various threads in good time - though the resurrection of the Kong commentary and the like are just what I was hoping would happen - so thanks to all for jumping aboard !
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Originally posted by: bdev
ShiftyEyes, does the commentary get progressively more out of sync as the DVD goes on, or does it suddenly jump out of sync as if my splices were just bad? I meant to make notes of where I spliced the sides together, but I neglected to.
It gets progressively out of sync. Haver's first words start after the opening credits. He speaks for a long chunk of the film and then there's a fairly long gap and the commentary goes to the movie audio (around the scene between Ann and Charlie on the boat before she's kidnapped). At this point, it was a good few minutes off. I then tried to recync when the commentary comes back on (when the natives are sacrificing Ann) and it goes off again. I ended up cutting the comments up and fading in the film's audio every few minutes, paying closer attention to when Haver actually is referring to a shot or scene. If you'd like, I can make a cut to the commentary (I edited it to the film with the Spider Pit reconstruction cut in) and upload it so that it'll fit the movie.

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Sounds good. I think people would like to hear it playing with their DVD versions.

Also, if you'd like the wav version for whatever reason, let me know. I still have it kicking around on my hard drive.

--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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It would probably be wise to wait and see how the new legit Princess Bride DVD turns out, but the deluxe Laserdisc had a ton of behind-the scenes footage and a great audio track with Reiner reading passages from the book.
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Originally posted by: strangelove
It would probably be wise to wait and see how the new legit Princess Bride DVD turns out, but the deluxe Laserdisc had a ton of behind-the scenes footage and a great audio track with Reiner reading passages from the book.


The new version is totally different. I'd be interested in archiving this.
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Originally posted by: digitalfreaknyc
The new version is totally different. I'd be interested in archiving this.


I've got the set. I'm in Berkeley, though, and I take it from your tag that you're on the other side of the States.

Another Criterion that might be worth some work is Tootsie. There's a great commentary track from Sydney Pollack, plus a detailed documentary, a rather glitchy photo gallery, and a great outtake of "Dorothy" being interviewed by Gene Shalit. One could also consider incorporating the EPK material from the Columbia/TriStar SE disc set-- none of this stuff made it to the DVD.
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I think Forbidden Planet might be worth a project. As far as I know the Criterion LD set is the only source for the supplement stuff like deleted scenes etc... I have a copy lying around somewhere...
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Does anyone know if there are differences between the criterion LD of "Mike Leighs - Naked", and the recent Criterion DVD?

FE<3OT

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What's on the DVD and Laserdisc:
Audio Commentary by Leigh and actors David Thewlis and Katrin Cartlidge
Original Theatrical Trailer
Award-winning Mike Leigh short, The Short and Curlies

On the DVD but not the Laserdisc:
The Art Zone BBC Special
Interview with director Neil LaBute
essays by Derek Malcolm and Amy Taubin (printed, not on DVD)


What doesn't seem to be on the DVD, but is on the laserdisc:
A Leigh filmography with clips and commentary
Complete radio drama Too Much of a Good Thing


I got the Laserdisc info from the an old archival webstie; I don't own it to make sure.

--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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I re-edited the Kong commentary and now I've got a 143 mb ac3 file and a 91 mb mp3 file. Anyone interested?
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I'm interested in the AC3 file. Will it sync up with the released DVD if I re-author it with that audio track?

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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I would also be interested in the KING KONG audio. Sounds like a good listen.
Kris
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Originally posted by: ReverendBeastly
I'm interested in the AC3 file. Will it sync up with the released DVD if I re-author it with that audio track?
It should. When I was editing it, I made sure that it was the same length as the DVD's video to the last frame. Any ideas as to where this could be uploaded to? It's too big for Rapidshare (unless I rar it). I'm thinking about splitting it into two RAR files and uploading them to Rapidshare.
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I reccomend Megaupload for stuff that's too big for RapidShare.

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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Well, I decided to go with Rapidshare. You'll need both parts to extract the commentary. Then, you can either author it with the movie to make a DVD or just play it on your PC while watching the movie. Enjoy!

http://rapidshare.de/files/20980570/KongCriterionDVD.part1.rar.html

http://rapidshare.de/files/20983296/KongCriterionDVD.part2.rar.html
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This is a good link although you guys probably know it by heart.

http://www.chaumurky.net/criterion/criterion_bytitle.html

Dead Ringers should be on the list. Also, maybe if there are a couple of little gems but not enough to warrant its own release maybe a compilation "Criterion Extras" disc could be made.

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Utilising/using lddb.com gives me a listing of these films. Of course below is a list I'm interested in. Just more for preserving the extra material content then anything. (All CAV unless otherwise noted. Unless if the particular material is CLV of course. Guess if alot of these were transferred to DVD the particular discs would be a nice inclusion for the already released titles. Perhaps the disc label art could have a slightly generic theme with all of them? It'd be practical to just call the discs by their title and then "The Supplements". Of course since some of these films already have multi-disc releases it'd be excellent to have these discs in the case. You'd need to buy three-disc or what have you cases online but that's the whole part of this project. I'm particularly crap at making disc label art but if one looks at the second disc for THE ROCK I guess that's the layout I have in mind. With the Criterion banner and everything. Perhaps a Laserdisc to DVD logo? I'm sure DFNYC would have a better idea going about this.)

2001: A Space Odyssey
AKIRA
BLADE RUNNER

Hell, any title/release with supplements from The Criterion Collection which was on Laserdisc but isn't on DVD anywhere has the right to be preserved. Just so we can have that extra disc in the case.

List of Titles from Laserdisc Database
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All of those have been released for blu-ray. (Akira is coming.)
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Any updates to these projects? I'm especially interested in MP3 versions of Criterion commentary tracks since my download speed is so slow...