Theater Performance Preservations — Page 12

toho-scope wrote: hi the vhs TPM bootleg is close to the "z" boot but much darker and with *2 timecodes* witch matched the running time, 

may be true likly not as the tape was binned/returned/recorded over

A little confused, you've seen a TPM bootleg with timecode, or you are not sure if you are remembering correctly as you don't have access to the tape anymore?  I have not heard anyone mention a TPM timecoded version.  (as in workprint timecode)

Thanks satanika will update the first post with this additional info.  (taking some time before tackling TCWs)  Had other movies from the RotS time frame also been captured in the same way, ie DLP source?  And as Molly pointed out it could be an early R5 but from a quick search through 2005 webpages, i'm not seeing many references to the R5 format in that year, the format may have started later.  But not sure.  *EDIT*  Are there identifications that a release is of R5 origin?

via danny_boy in:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/What-do-you-think-was-the-best-release-of-the-OT-at-the-time-it-came-out/topic/13043/

60 Minutes on Video Piracy 1979

(mentions SW at 4:05 & 5:20)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZtfEDyTXiU

Watch out for this:

 

  It is what I am assuming to be the first bootleg of Star Wars which according to the FBI surfaced just 2 weeks after it debuted in the cinemas!.

This is how it looked to  the very first generation of home video enthusiasts(pirates!)

Also digitized is a 1982 update to this piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeBqu73x0zc&feature=related

(it's more or less the same)

Comparison moth3r widescreen source beta: left and right crop seem close. Close as in equal.  The old tube tv's cut off a bit.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1057&message=39097670&changemode=1

Original Theatrical Release????

Has it EVER been available????

The one that opens with "Star Wars" and no "Episode IV" on the screen....

I have have only seen that version one time after the 3 times I saw it in the theater in L.A when it was released.

That one time was on some "Pirated" Sony U-Matic tapes. (Image quality was pretty much as good as video gets on NTSC., audio was Mono).

Hearing back from another lead has a comment people often mimick:

Really fuzzy picture, of course.  I'm sure it was a copy of a copy of a copy. But the Star Wars tape was enough to get me hooked from an early age. :)

So Video Collector sent me a copy of his Z version a few weeks back. Good news is that it's full. Bad news (if you want to call it that) is that he combined the two mpg files into one. Quality is the same as the VCD circulating on a.b.starwars.

If you want a specific screen capture, just ask.

Here's some thumbnails to tide you over until the upload finishes.

http://imgur.com/8M405

Thanks link343 for tracking this down and VC for keeping it all these years.  The screen captures look great, let us know if you found anything of note when watching.  How bad is the switch point between sources, do they seem about the same quality, maybe same camera just different showing?

The video is 98% of the important part, it's just nice to see the inner workings of the files when we can, don't know what they might tell us.  A full version will hopefully turn up someday.  Will be interesting to compare these theater performance TPM recordings to the BR to see if they do return the 8% lost screen or if the theater recordings have more or less.

Thank you for finding this. It looks quite nice. Was the Z version the most widely spread of them all?

Video Collector said:

Yeah, and you're welcome by the way. A simple thank you goes a long way towards covering cross-atlantic postage.

Thank you for sharing this, Video Collector. Also, it's interesting to know that this bootleg went Transatlantic. Since it has PAL conversion artifacts I suppose that does mean it was originally a N. American boot.

Fritz, I'm sorry if I didn't say thank you. Forgot to do that. So thanks for shipping this for free overseas to me on the West Coast. 

I didn't know this was a VHS copy. I had a feeling there something was up due to the horizontal line on the top of the video frame.

Seems Jambe Davdar has teamed up with the Star Wars Aficionado (http://starwarsaficionado.blogspot.com/) folks and digitized a bunch of great old tv stuff:

"Return of the Jedi Film Stolen!!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aocY_mrciOU

(lots of other wonderful gems in jambe's youtube channel)

http://worldofblackout.blogspot.com/2011/08/200-geek-detour-part-iv.html

129. SW:tPM, 1999, "X" bootleg.
130. SW:tPM, 1999, "AC3" bootleg.
131. AotC, 2002, "headbutt-print" cam-bootleg.

http://worldofblackout.blogspot.com/2011/03/111-geek-detour.html

47. Attack of the Clones, Telesync, R0.
48. Revenge of the Sith, Telesync, R0.
49. Revenge of the Sith (mistranslated subtitle version), R0.

Anybody got Belbucus' 70mm recording? It was posted on a.b.sw way back in 2006, but I don't think any newsreaders have retention that far back, and it doesn't show up on Binsearch (which I think only returns results back to about 1100 days or thereabouts).

Also, does anybody else notice that in the L.Mayer recording, there seems to be a sound effect for that one explosion flash in the Star Destroyer flyover that didn't really have a prominent sound effect before the '93 mix (when they added that newer sound effect)? You can hear it at about 02:19, it comes out on the recording as a dulled "thump." When you synch the audio up with the flyover visual, that sound seems to match up with that flash. Not sure if it's some kind of glitch in the recording, or background noise, or if it's an actual sound effect in the 70mm mix. Anybody else hear it?

UPDATE: Listening to it again, I now think it's just the way the microphone picked up the percussion in the music, it occurs at one of the "DA DA DA DAAAA DAAA  DAAA" stabs in the score. Thoughts?

Found someone else who has remembrances of a version of Star Wars on VHS from 1979.  This version was missing the opening crawl and had a repeat section around the time Kenobi says  "It (TIE) followed us".  (Which is around the 1 hour mark.)  Sounds like a similar two tape source as the mothr widescreen.

http://www.sexyarchaeology.org/imported-20110724151822/2011/9/16/basement-archaeology.html

A few months ago I was digging through some boxes in my basement when I discovered an artifact from my childhood.  That artifact was a VHS tape; a bootleg copy of Star Wars.  Not Star Wars: A New Hope, STAR WARS, full stop (collector's will note how incredibly rare this version is).   The tape was marked only by a small piece of aged masking tape with the title scrawled in pencil.

http://echobasenews.com/interview-sam-witwer.html

I do, however, remember seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater. My dad was able to get bootleg copies of Star Wars and Empire on VHS, but Return of the Jedi in the theater...that was something special."

http://watchplayread.com/2011/10/who-else-was-this-kid/

reminds me of when I was a wee lad who was watching this on bootleg VHS tapes.

http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/jar-jar-binks-sidelined-from-the-phantom-menace-3d-trailer/

One of my favourite memories of going to the cinema is the night I went to see Phantom Menace,
(even though I had seen it at least 5 times before on good old bootleg VHS!)

http://ellisbeetle.com/blog/2011/08/george-lucas-and-a-little-kid-with-a-afro/

I remember, I had a something no one in my neighborhood had. My father was able to get a bootleg copy of the VHS tape from 20th Century Fox, then it became apparent that something had stuck. It wasn’t out on VHS so I didn’t mention it to my friends in fear that the old guard would find out and spread their hate. I’m sure if they had, 20th Century Fox would have gotten an anonymous call about that bootleg copy.

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40064&PN=1&totPosts=97

the drummer in my dad's band had a bootleg tape of the movie and I probably watched it at least 100 times when they were rehearsing. 

hate to bump this up, but I've noticed that the reel changes for the first half of the "Z" copy aren't up on :F:L:I:M:S:I:P:L:A:S:T: :D:A:T:A:B:A:S:E:

Here they are. I used Video Collector's combined mpg file. That'll go up on MySpleen once their server troubles are sorted. 

One thing to note is I couldn't get the second reel change for 3-4 due to the picture quality. Sorry.

http://imgur.com/a/S5S7Z#0

link343 wrote: hate to bump this up, but I've noticed that the reel changes for the first half of the "Z" copy aren't up on :F:L:I:M:S:I:P:L:A:S:T: :D:A:T:A:B:A:S:E:

Don't fear the bump if you've got relevant information to post.  We're all individuals doing what we can, take these bits of info and expand upon them if you're interested and have the time.  Thanks for the pics.  Was able in the delay to get the source TPMZ discs (thanks VideoCollector) and have updated the :F:D: Reel Change page:

http://fd.noneinc.com/Reel_Changes/Reel_Changes.html

Looking at RotJ newscasts found the first of the cue markers for that film:

Odd that newscasts would have been given a telecine of an actual 35mm print.  The scene is where Leia and Luke jump onto the speeder bikes pursuing the escaping Scout Troopers.  About 53:00-56:00 minutes in. (dependent upon version)  Unsure if this pic is from the In or Out marker section.

How many reels did RotJ have?  Most of the SW films had 5 or 6.  According to this news report: (jump to 1:45)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZbi4U0tvvc

the reporter talks about a missing reel and calls it the 8th.  Using the GOUT timing the frame pict'd above is 5 or so minutes earlier then other reel cues from the other films.  (ANH and ESB change overs are closer to the hour mark)  Maybe this news reporter is considering the trailer reels as part of the collection, and that would explain the discrepancy?  I'm doubtful that RotJ would have had more reels then ESB.  Any ideas?

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.bootlegs/browse_thread/thread/8773371ec46d207e/c13b469bb0efadb9?q=phantom+menace+vcd#c13b469bb0efadb9

Jun 2, 1999, 3:00 am

I just got in the EViLiSO version of The Phanton Menace on 2 vcds.

http://groups.google.com/group/no.marked/browse_thread/thread/a2a8a943745e9a0a/59522d57f4ae2a35?q=phantom+menace+vcd#59522d57f4ae2a35

Det er en versjon nå fra Eviliso. Den er filmet med et kamera som står i
kino salen..
kvaliteten er god, men jeg hadde heller ventet på screener versjonen, den
kommer snart og har dolby surround.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.videos.bootlegs/browse_thread/thread/bd6e50ffe7d267ae/98925c27a2a06460?q=phantom+menace+vcd#98925c27a2a06460

>I have the  Phantom Menace VCD Movie
>(Screener Version)

Actually, the privileged few who claim to have actually gotten their movie say
it's a Z telesync.  Hell, I'll take an upside down camera copy dubbed in Czech,
as long as it actually arrives.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.video.dvd/browse_thread/thread/c5eb66f3c09ca902/4f60802fe10a1815?q=phantom+menace+vcd#4f60802fe10a1815

May 6, 1999

Actually it got the full MPEG treatment the day after the press
screening on the 4th.  I've found the first 2 of 3 MPG files on
various FTP sites - still looking for #3

Here's a site which has old .nfos: http://www.nfohump.com/