Info: Pearl and Dean, Coming Attractions, theatrical Dolby Stereo logos...

Does anyone know (or have) a good quality source for such things? Nostalgic type that I am, I’m tinkering with some ideas for a ‘cinema’ option on some custom DVDs (Star Wars initially, but could be equally applied to a range of classics).

So before the main feature, there will be the option to have a vintage prelude composed of such retro intro (AKA the ‘Grindhouse’ approach 😉 )

There’s plenty of stuff on Youtube (isn’t there always?) but that’s hardly a serviceable source for a DVD project. Any thoughts?

By the way, if non-UKers are wondering what Pearl and Dean is, this is what I’m talking about!

Not great quality, but pearlanddean.com has several of their openings on the site.

Can't help on the ads I'm afraid but I'd love to see them too. Also the "Thieves Are Silent..." cartoon would be much appreciated by me if anyone has a copy. I don't know how widely it's used but it has been playing in London cinemas for probably 30 years or more! Also the Gordon's Gin advert with the Ultravox(?) music that seemed to be a permanent feature at cinemas when I was a lad. Even a link to crappy YouTube versions would be fun, I've never found either of them.

As for theatrical Dolby Stereo logos, I probably CAN help. Are you looking for any particular one?

Moth3r, that advert is fantastic - I'd completely forgotten it. I actually remember those indian specialties being quite good, but I was younger then...

Uncanny Altman, thanks for the tip on the P&D website - I've enquired about higher quality versions, which they presumably have access to - I'll keep ya'll posted.

Marshman, I'm not really sure what would be the proper Dolby Stereo logo for this vintage, but I like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsRIVD8zwQU
Do you have anything similar?

Funny how we all have our own 'ideal' nostalgic ad reel! I'd have to opt for Kia Ora and Butterkist, of course, plus maybe a Kenner SW/Palitoy toys ad (pretty sure they showed those before the films, at least here in the UK).

ALSO! BBFC rating cards - anyone have any? I guess they won't have to be too film-specific, it's easy enough to mock them up with the right name and certificate...

You can get it here - http://www.stevescinema.themorris.org.uk/index1.htm    But if someone can figure out how to convert the video to its proper aspect ratio (its missing the 16:9 flag), please let me know!

But I second the request for BBFC cards!

don't know if you are aware but you can get 1080p versions of their titles from pearl and deans shop for £2.99

Doesnt seem to be a direct link so here: http://www.pearlanddean.com/?node_id=1.32

This is probably the oldest Dolby one I have (about 20 years old?):

I find the THX ones very nostalgic too, this one's my favourite (about 25 years old maybe, I associate it with "Return of the Jedi" but could be wrong):

Oh does anyone have the dobly surround one one which follows a helicopter through scenes from different movies e.g. Indie on the bridge.

Don't you just love the THX sound?

CW said:

don't know if you are aware but you can get 1080p versions of their titles from pearl and deans shop for £2.99

Doesnt seem to be a direct link so here: http://www.pearlanddean.com/?node_id=1.32

Thanks! I looked at that page before, but didn't notice that there were also options to download the older versions. I now have the 70s/80s version, converted to resplendent 16:9 PAL.

Regarding Dolby/DTS/THX logos, I was personally after the older stuff but I do happen to have a couple of discs of more recent idents (commercially manufactured, not entirely sure who for) - I can list the contents if there's interest for other projects.

I don't know where you saw Star Wars but all the films were shown in Odeon Cinemas when I was wee and it was Rank Advertising for that chain (and Pearl and Dean for ABC Cinemas) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ8fkJOQlBM

Just spotted this thread, so I though I'd add this in to help people out with their various projects. I made this some time back for a pet project I was working on.

Evil Dead BBFC Certification Title Card

This is a reproduction of the BBFC certification title card as seen among a vast list of UK cinema & home video released titles from the early 1980's into the 1990's. All the text & logos have been made & assembled by me, except for the signatures, which were scanned from an original BBFC plate a friend had available at his job (not for Evil Dead though)

The image is 300dpi and uncropped is in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. when cropped it's the following sizes;

2.35:1 (3434px by 1437px)
1.85:1 (2554px by 1437px)
1.33:1 (1916px by 1437px)

You can edit the film title text to suit. It also includes the '15' as well as the '18' logo and cropping guides for use in either 2.35:1, 1.85:1 or 1.33:1 aspect ratio projects. You'll need Adobe Photoshop CS2 or later to open the PSD file, or it can be used in Adobe Première for a fake BBFC certification sequence, or GIMP to open the XCF version.

The image shown here is a quick example of what can be done, I cropped the 2.35:1 frame down to 1.33:1 using the cropping guides, flattened the image, adding a 1.5px 'Gaussian blur', then applying a grain filter to give the final image.

Just on a technical note; The card has George Lascelles's & James Ferman's signatures, so if anyone wants to be very factually strict about using this in any projects, it would only fit for things dated between 1985 to 1997. Ferman was director from 1975 - 1999 and Lascelles chairman from 1985 to 1997, giving a window of 1985 to 1997 when they were both there. Really the card went through a number of design changes in the 90's so it would have been rare to see this design after 1995 in the cinema, and much earlier for home video, if at all.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/whj2gmmml2j/BBFC.Certification.Title.Card.PSD.&.XCF.(80's.&.90's)-EvilDeadChainsaws.zip

This ZIP file will not stay up forever without people semi-regularly downloading it, so if it's down, please let me know.

Thanks, that's really useful. Lovely work.

Just out of interest, what's the font used on the 'Only for persons...' part? That would need editing if other certificates were used (and that text layer seems to be rasterised).

One small issue, very anal and probably not even accurate - isn't the film title normally justified to the left on ratings cards?

That might be useful for ROTJ (as those certificate ratings came into being on 1 Nov 1982) but the certificates for ANH and ESB would be very different (especially with the aspect ratio).

Just found this site, it might help, the AA Certificate is closer to the mark (the OT were all U Certificates and green as I remember):

http://www.cbbfc.co.uk/why.asp

I was prompted to return this back to the BBC following the recent ta'do about religious costume, also from the Not The Nine O'Clock News team :

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tz_6DoOC8N0/SY1s1DqWp8I/AAAAAAAAAY8/eHDIFmni1q4/s1600-h/Not_Ayatollah_g.png

I could do with one of those in PVC at the moment (will it ever stop raining?).

Going by this the correct certificate would have been yellow (not green as I remembered it) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx1_e2VnvOg

Those of you intrigued by the sample certificate it dates from 1979 (not 1980 as often listed) so a perfect template for Star Wars and ESB and bits of this classic can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZ1xn2ml10

I can't make out what the pattern in the margin is (could it be the BBFC address?), different aspect ratios, I assume, would have just extended the coloured side.

I will have a go at replicating it when I find the time but if anyone can give more concrete details of the side margin I would be very grateful.

One small issue, very anal and probably not even accurate - isn't the film title normally justified to the left on ratings cards?

Yes & No. As I said above, "the card went through a number of design changes in the 90's..." The left aligned (re-designed) card came after this one.

I do have a HQ raw scan of this card but haven't ever needed it so it isn't properly formatted as per the older card in my last post.

Just out of interest, what's the font used on the 'Only for persons...' part? That would need editing if other certificates were used (and that text layer seems to be rasterised).

That font (in Gimp at least) is white (#ffffff) 'Times New Roman' regular at 69px, and -0.2px character spacing. It would likely be the same in photoshop.

Simon Bates  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-w6_J1Pi_Y

(I have no idea why that clip is such appalling quality!)

I prefered the Floella Benjamin ones.

Her intro had the notable phrase "some sexy scenes" delivered with the sort of panache that can only come from years of children's television.

A national treasure.

Floella did some?! Fantastic!

A treasure indeed - her Playschool years were my Playschool years ;-)

Here's one for U :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKGUrQxAy3M&feature=related

I imagine the one I'm talking about is the PG or 12 one.

I made this for a project I was just working on, and thought I'd add it up here to go with the other one for other people to use.


Evil Dead 70's BBFC 'X' Certificate Title Card

This is a reproduction of the BBFC certification title card see in UK cinemas through the 1970's and onto the early 1980's. All the text & logos have been made & assembled by me, taken from an original BBFC plate (not for Evil Dead though)

The image is (1801px by 973px) @ 72dpi and uncropped is in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The film title font is 'Georgia Bold' @ 51px in white, with a slight character stetch. Only the 'X' rated logo is included. The file is in XCF gimp format.



The image shown here is a quick example of what can be done, I flattened the image, added a 2.5px 'Gaussian blur', then applied a grain filter to give the final image.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mzzj4t13yn2/Evil.Dead.BBFC.'X'.Certificate.Title.Card-EvilDeadChainsaws.zip

This ZIP file will not stay up forever without people semi-regularly downloading it, so if it's down, please let me know.