JayArgonaut

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/marketing-media/ebony-jet-photo-archive-likely-land-museum

Now this move by Lucas and Hobson to save the archive can only be commended and on a personal level, I’m delighted that they took this action, yet at the same time, it serves to reinforce the double standards and contradictions by Lucas regarding his own work.

Mellody Hobson, president of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, and her husband, film-maker George Lucas, sought through their San Francisco-based Capital Holdings V firm to take possession of the collection because it was used as collateral for a $12 million loan they made to Johnson Publishing in 2015. The loan has been in default for several years and they’re now owed $13.6 million. They were particularly concerned about the safety of the collection, noting it was sitting uninsured on leased premises.

“The risk of inadvertent disaster cannot be overstated,” the billionaire couple’s Capital V said in its April 22 filing with the court. “As the world has seen in recent days, historical icons are not immune from catastrophe and can be destroyed within minutes. Such risk is especially prevalent for fragile photographs.”

If only Lucas felt this way about his own material.

SilverWook said:

Ironically, Tom Selleck was almost in Raiders. 😉

Yes and there’s even an episode of Magnum (Legend of the Lost Art) in which this is parodied. 😃

SilverWook said:

There’s also the Robot Chicken sketch about the Jaws Special Edition, which is really about Star Wars.
https://youtu.be/pkba-r8NmJk

😄 I hadn’t seen that before! Hilarious.

Another good one that covers similar territory is the South Park episode, Free Hat.

http://www.southparkstudios.nu/full-episodes/s06e09-free-hat

A couple of strips by Penny Arcade that really epitomised the revisionist behaviour of Lucas…

😄 I actually remember the newscasts with footage of retailers throwing those objects of moral panic into the trash. I’m not sure if they did carry them - I never asked.

However, I was informed that another local video library definitely did have them and the advice was to become a member, rent a few “ordinary” titles and then, once established as a regular patron, request to view “the book”, within which they were listed.

The hoops we had to jump through before the rise of widespread internet shopping. 😃

No, it did not and I noticed that unnecessary revision immediately because when the BBC aired it in the past, the original logo was present. It bemused me even further to see the Saul Bass logo during the closing moments of the end credits. I pondered, why revise one logo but not the other, or better yet, why not just leave the films alone in the first place?

I was just glad that they used the correct AR and considering its length, passed on condensing or speeding up the end credits - which has become the convention for telecasts on many channels. I only know of one broadcaster on my channel line up that refrains from the practice.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

By correct aspect ratio you mean 1.66:1? Criterion’s decision to use that aspect ratio was initially controversial but they provided documents backing it up.

I do indeed refer to 1.66:1.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:
The old Blu was 1.78:1.

Yes, I know. 😃

There’s a scene in Filmworker, the 2017 documentary about Leon Vitali’s relationship with Kubrick, where Vitali is ranting at Warner Brothers for using the latter aspect ratio.

3,000 VHS tapes? 😮 Wow, there must be quite a few titles in their collection that deserve a preservation.

For years, Star Video was my “local”:

They had a banner outside that proudly declared their store to be the biggest video library in the country, that unlike the nearby Blockbuster, possessed every UK home video release. This boast was only slightly inaccurate. 😃 I really regret that when they closed down during the mid 2000s, I didn’t visit them and buy up the rarer VHS tapes but I wasn’t aware at the time about the extent to which home video is afflicted by alternate versions and out of print titles.

Watched Barry Lyndon on BBC Four last night, hadn’t seen it in many years and I was pleasantly surprised that they aired it in the correct aspect ratio and without any time-compression.

John Singleton, at the age of 51.

https://edition.cnn.com/entertainment/live-news/john-singleton-dead/index.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/29/entertainment/boyz-n-the-hood/index.html

Could be worthwhile to track down this as a reference point (and perhaps for a preservation.) 😃

eiyosus said:

The stuff about George saying “Grow up, etc.” was proven false, I believe.

You believe or do you know? If you have evidence that it was proven false, please share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vXdN0C_IxY

Don’t forget when he ranted to his own fans in 2011, “Grow up. These are my movies, not yours.” In response to polite questions about the prospect of releasing remastered editions of the unaltered OT. That was a far more revealing and candid answer than the PR spiel of Jim Ward in 2004 that, “this is about art and filmmaking.”*

The geeks eventually got their face time with Lucas and I want to stress how respectful these guys were, and that they paid a lot of money for face time with Lucas. This was not a surprise interaction; Lucas came to this event knowing he’d be expected to mingle with the peons. I don’t advocate bugging celebrities in their daily lives, but this was a professional event designed to encourage these interactions. The guys were not out of bounds. They started by telling Lucas that they loved him/the movies/grew up watching them. Then they very politely asked why he wouldn’t make the original versions of the movies available on DVD/Blu-Ray. They stressed that they don’t mind the retroactive edits (doubtful, but they were being nice), they just wanted good digital copies of the original cuts, too. Lucas’s response? An eyeroll and a huffy, “Grow up. These are my movies, not yours.”

https://www.laineygossip.com/George-Lucas-was-ungracious-to-Star-Wars-nerds-as-the-series-goes-Blu-Ray-06sept11/21142

*Referenced here in a very good article from 2004 on Lucas’ refusal to make the original versions available on DVD: http://www.filmbuffonline.com/FBOLNewsreel/wordpress/2004/07/19/george-lucas-and-the-not-so-special-editions/

oojason said:

Really enjoyed watching that - nice one and cheers for posting.

Here’s to all the video stores still out there - and please remember… be kind, please rewind 😉
 

😃 You’ll love this one in that case, speaking of Blockbuster…

What the last Blockbuster has that Netflix doesn’t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi8BwUh3XOk

Probably TLDR:

I remember when Blockbuster opened their first UK store 30 years ago and now, there’s only one left in existence on the entire planet. Renting videos lost my interest when the cost of purchasing them became identical or in many cases, cheaper than hiring them. I’d have a legal copy that I could watch as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted. (This is why, for me, VOD streaming represents another form of renting because there are similar problems in terms of owning a permanent copy.)

Nonetheless, it’s still good to see that video stores - especially independent ones, at that, are still operating and here’s a rental store in my local area that has remarkably succeeded in surviving the market changes. (They haven’t even bothered to update their phone number! 😄)

More? Additional footage not seen even in the Roadshow version?

Thanks for the heads up.

It’s insane just how difficult it can be to obtain the best version of a film.

Has anyone visited this place?

If you’re local, it might be worth a trip to see if there’s any rarities that need a preservation…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7FFMZUywt0

Ohhhhhh!

Understood. 😄

Redbreast1 said:

I would love to wee it in its widescreen glory…

Wee? 😮

The BBC aired the uncut version of The Santa Clause a few years back and apparently the unedited version is on Amazon Prime. Neither count as a DVD/Blu-ray release but just letting people know of the availability.

Serves me right for posting in over-excitement. 😄

I saw the 70mm Roadshow version at Odeon Leicester Square and after learning about this situation, I’m very much glad that I got to enjoy the film in its full glory. If I’d purchased the Blu-ray, I would have been extremely disappointed not to receive the best cut. We’ll know for certain on Monday as to whether Netflix have the extended version. Fingers crossed. 😃

Thanks for the clarification and the offer, that’s very nice of you. Yeah, count me in, I would definitely like to see this version. It was very likely the version that I would have seen on ITV (UK) during the 80s but I didn’t pay that much attention to Bond films back then. 😃

What’s your verdict on the 1.66:1 LD’s vs the DVDs and Blu-ray releases, out of curiosity?

I don’t know how accurate these anecdotes are, especially given the myths regarding Dr No but perhaps others can clarify?

https://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/467998-what-original-aspect-ratio-island-earth.html#post7059959

https://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/467998-what-original-aspect-ratio-island-earth.html#post7060685

I never saw the laser disc versions of Dr. No and From Russia With Love so I can’t comment on the framing, but the DVD of Goldfinger is the same 1.66 as the 30th Anniversary Laser Disc (I believe the movie was released in 1.66:1). I did notice differences in some of the video versions of the Bond movies, especially Thunderball, which has VHS versions missing some music and a line uttered while Bond and Leiter are in the helicopter, but spoken by another character (presumably they wanted us to think it was Leiter who spoke the line). Also there are two versions of the line Bond speaks when he emerges from Largo’s shark pool. The current dvd has the music replaced and the “manta ray” line removed, but it has a different version of the 007 music from the original film, and which also is in the new edition of the soundtrack CD.

The line where Bond emerges from Largo’s shark pool: One version is “Now you can tell them about the one that got away” the other is “better luck next time”. All the old CBS/FOX video versions had one version, since MGM/UA took over it has been the alternate version.

Tantive3+1 said:

Does anyone know which of The Godfather laserdisc versions contain exclusive additional footage?

I know the fan edit the Chronological Epic from modernknife used shots from a laserdisc release but I don’t know which one(s).

That, I cannot answer, but I do know that according to a Paramount insider, the 1980 home video releases of The Godfather and Part II contain footage - albeit brief, that is absent from all subsequent home video releases: due to the studio’s careless treatment of the negatives during the mid 80s whilst they were preparing a new transfer.

Source: http://godfathermuseum.blogspot.com/2015/03/screen-shots-and-technical-errata.html

The first transfers were done in 1980 for VHS, CED, and Laserdisc. The original negatives had been used to strike new prints as Parts 1 and 2 were re-issued several times throughout the 70’s and so by the time that they had already been run through the ringer. So even on those first home video releases the print looked like shit. They made a transfer from the negatives onto U-Matic tape.

Paramount was reissuing most of their catalog and Part I and II needed a new transfer… They couldn’t find the interpositive [a first-gen dupe of the original negative] so they glued the negative back together with chewing gum and scotch tape. Only a slight exaggeration. And they complete fucking ruined the negative in the process.

So that’s why you have more visual information in the first-gen releases, simply put the dissolve doesn’t completely mask the image like it does in the second gen transfer. I would guesstimate that for every scene with a dissolve, you’re missing about three feet of footage [about 2 seconds of runtime]. That footage is gone. For good. And the Restoration edition comes from those same botched negatives. They’re only preserved on those first gen home video releases.