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OgOggilby

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22-Feb-2006
Last activity
5-Sep-2007
Posts
295

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Post
#294280
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler Super DVD (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294280/action/topic#294280
Time
Originally posted by: Faustus
OgOggilby, in another thread a while back you were talking about possibly releasing all of the Thief and Richard Williams material on several DVDs. Have you thought about it, at all?


I'll ask ocpmovie. More footage has been found and a nice amount of pristine video found for stuff in all cuts (miles better than what's on even the legitimate DVD releases). Not enough to replace everything from the workprint (most of this footage is in all cuts), but the emerald stealing and hand chopping scenes are complete and can be seen in beautiful near-HD quality! Sadly, it's only stuff from the pre-1990 period, so a lot would have to remain R2 (or workprint).

Here's some comparisons between the newly found footage and what's on the existing Recobbled Cut (old on top, new on bottom)...

First off, here's the Region 2 Miramax cut (16x9) DVD (on top) versus the newly found source:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/8258/pdvd113lp7.png
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/9617/oneeyesjump1fv4.png

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2705/th1byk9.jpg
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/5908/th1amz4.jpg

One workprint-only shot vs. the new footage:
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8522/th6bqx5.jpg
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/3521/th6ara1.jpg




Post
#293640
Topic
Info: Roger Corman's The Terror (1963) - Widescreen digital remaster on TCM in a few hours
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293640/action/topic#293640
Time

The Terror, starring Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff, is often on crappy public domain tapes and DVDs. Turner Classic Movies is airing a remastered 1.85:1 widescreen version at 3:00 AM Eastern. So, get your recorders fired up if you want to replace the old faded prints. The clips on TCM’s website show it looks fantastic - lots of color and sharpness.

Post
#293421
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler Super DVD (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293421/action/topic#293421
Time
Originally posted by: Knightmessenger
How did you get the Calvert version in widescreen if it was only offered in pan & scan? And shouldn't the out of print R2 (is that the same as the Miramax one on the disc?) version along with the recobbled cut be in anamorphic widescreen?


ocpmovie, who created the RC, found someone with a screener VHS of the 80 min. cut that was letterboxed. The RC was also produced in 16x9. He's the source for all the versions except for the workprint, which is from an AVI off emule.

Technically, it would be possible to have a seamlessly branched DVD with all four versions since the continuity isn't that radically different. It's mainly footage missing rather than scenes being re-arranged (with the exception of the first One Eyes scene being moved to the prologue in both released cuts).
Post
#293353
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler Super DVD (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293353/action/topic#293353
Time
Originally posted by: Moth3r
Thanks for making the effort to contribute. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Calvert and Miramax versions have had official retail releases. Therefore, this is a Custom DVD and you should not discuss the distribution of this disc.

(I'm assuming you didn't author this disc using seamless branching, and all 5 versions are separate and just heavily compressed.)


Calvert version (80 min cut) was only available in Region 4 (VHS/DVD) in pan & scan. It is now out of print.
The Miramax version (72 min cut) is available in Region 1 as a pan & scan DVD. The Region 2 Japanese DVD is 2.35:1 and 16x9 enhanced, but it's also out of print. So, only the R1 pan & scan Miramax version is in print worldwide. So, everything on ZigFried's disc is unavailable at retail.
Post
#290896
Topic
Info Wanted: Fullscreen versions of James Cameron's movies?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/290896/action/topic#290896
Time
Originally posted by: pittrek
Yes, I thought it's a common fact, that JC prefers the fullscreen versions of his movies ...


That's ridiculous. He's one of the few directors that hasn't allowed a single film of theirs on DVD in anything but widescreen. Now, he did OK fullscreen versions for TV and VHS (with his full supervision), but that's just not true. Besides, 16x9 is the current norm, so he wouldn't prefer 4x3 fullscreen versions anymore. Maybe 16x9 unmatted versions (which wouldn't affect The Terminator or Aliens), but keep in mind that the best that can be compromised without cropping the sides would be 2:1. It's just a compromise in the laserdisc era when everything was low resolution (which is why Kubrick was fine with keeping mattes off on his films back in 1991 when he made his last approvals for video transfers).

Post
#290337
Topic
Info Wanted: Fullscreen versions of James Cameron's movies?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/290337/action/topic#290337
Time
Just because they're shot open matte doesn't mean the matted areas are meant to be seen. The pan & scan versions are NOT just opened up. T2, for example, has extensive re-framing ranging from zooming in a lot to opening up most. Also, all effects shots (CGI or optical) are hard-matted to at least 2:1. So, you're losing picture. Original prints of Aliens were hard-matted to 1.75:1, too. James Cameron always shot the films for the theatrical aspect ratio. He would at least supervise the pan & scan versions, but it's not like your ordinary open matte.

The Harry Potter films, as well as the Lord of the Rings films were all shot in Super-35, but since they had digital intermediates, the most they can be opened up to is around 1.78:1. Same thing for The Matrix trilogy. In fact, in The Matrix, there's a ton of mistakes visible when the mattes are off. You can see greenscreen that was never filled in, for example. Of course, any special effects shot is cropped a ton on the sides. A lot of directors won't even allow pan & scan versions on DVD. Take note on how the Pirates of the Caribbean films are widescreen-only, despite being Super-35. David Fincher shoots in Super-35, but Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, and Zodiac are all without pan & scan except on TV.

But if you want it just for the nudity, you might as well go all the way and support pan & scan so your TV can be filled up.


As for other mistakes caused by not correctly framing for widescreen, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure has two shots ruined. You can see road signs being pushed along a track and a chain being pulled out of a hole. The Godfather has to be zoomed in a lot since there's boom mikes in nearly every shot if you take off the mattes. The Cable Guy is Super-35, but the entire film is panned and scanned from the 2.35:1 image.
Post
#275110
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/275110/action/topic#275110
Time
YouTube deleted ocp's account, so you can't watch any of his Thief stuff there anymore (deletion was apparently for his Deleted Magic videos). However, everything is still up on Google Video here. RW's A Christmas Carol has gotten almost 15,000 views since Nov. 16! The Recobbled Cut has received almost 12,000!

Originally posted by: Faustus
OgOggilby have you given any more thought to doing a 'Thief in a box' release, with all the high-quality video files you've got? I've loads of art which I'd happily contribute towards it.


I'm still working on it. The big thing I have to do is to create a new master of the workprint. I'm going to take care of this in Final Cut Pro this or next week. It has to be re-synched and partially "replaced" with 2nd gen footage (in the handful of dropouts and some audio needed). Once I get the workprint re-synched and made as complete as possible, the Cobbler in a Box will be ready. I'm going to send the DVD-R discs to one person first (the guy who sent me the 3rd gen sourced DVD-R that was my first exposure to the entire film), then either he can upload the zipped files or I can send a second/third set to others who can start a strong torrent. But the workprint is what's holding it up. I won't settle for the 2nd gen, nor will the out-of-sync eMule print be kosher. Best of all, I'm going to design an HTML menu to access stuff easily.
Post
#270967
Topic
Info & Help: Looking for... Raiders Of The Lost Ark - on HDTV
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/270967/action/topic#270967
Time
Originally posted by: skyjedi2005
yes but if there are no edits to the picture surely you could replace the soundtrack/dialogue track with one without cuts or censors.

as for the commercial cuts I for one could live with them, as the film is not retouched digitally.

I have read reviews and I would have to concur that the picture on the dvd's suffer from compression and they picture is darker than it should be and the constrast was was too high.

No one should ever trust Lowry to retouch the color of there films, they did a complete hack job on star wars.

and now the color job as nice as it looks on the new bond dvd's is not what the orginal cinematographer intended the shots look overly blue hued and way too much brightness/contrast ajustment just like on the afforementioned films. I also find their "Digital film grain" to be extremely annoying and laughable.

If you watch any of the old criterion bond laserdisc releases you will see what the cinematographer and terrence young wanted the movie to look like, although by the time it was presented on disc the print was dirty amd dammaged a bit.


The old Criterion laserdiscs were often director-approved, but it just means it was as good as they could make it with the available materials. Only recently has MGM gone back to the camera negatives and made new transfers in HD. Criterion constantly had to put up with mediocre prints and ended up having to clean up a lot of stuff. Only for the last few years has Criterion had the pull to force prime materials from companies to use for DVD. An old composite transfer from 1991 has no relevance to today's technology. Today, they're able to do director-approved or cinematographer-supervised transfers from original negatives and fresh prints made off the negatives.

The DVDs for the Indiana Jones films are pretty much perfect. They didn't erase all the grain (per Speilberg's instructions since he approved the transfers) and only took out debris and other artifacts. The compression is excellent from what I can tell. I'm not sure why anyone has to be so anal about the digital fixes. It's a waste of time and effort to go through three films, edit out commercials, re-do audio, and recompress from HD because of some mistakes being corrected. Warner Bros. had wires painted out in their North by Northwest and The Wizard of Oz restorations. The Fugitive had a few frames corrected due to an effects gaffe. It's not like they redubbed a character or replaced a background with CGI.

LDI (now DTS Digital Images) only does what their patron wants them to do, anyways. In the case of Star Wars, the only work they did was grain reduction, dirt/scratch removal, and any other repairs needed. ILM did all the color correction and CGI revisions/additions. The LDI guys complained about the short time span they had to work on the films, so ILM probably had to rush through the films as well. Pretty much all of their other restorations are excellent. The James Bond films are a little spotty (again, any faults were decisions made by MGM).
Post
#269514
Topic
Idea & Info: The Challenge of Re-Editing a Crap Flick
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/269514/action/topic#269514
Time
Originally posted by: SilverWook
Probably impossible, but I'd like to see someone recut "Manos:The Hands of Fate" into a decent scary movie.


I've actually considered this. The problem is that it would mean taking the 68 min. film and in the end having something barely over 20 minutes. The good thing about the film is that it is kind of creepy (mainly because it looks like a snuff film).

Maybe if I ever try this, I'll post about it here.
Post
#267417
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/267417/action/topic#267417
Time
Originally posted by: Esn


Heh, now you know why I asked you for those materials from your "alternative recobbled cut" edit a while back. I want to make my own cut for personal use, combining what I see as the best elements from your cut and Garret's. I certainly wish that I could just download them from Google. Could you possibly break the files up into sections and put them up for download at some download websites? Many of those sites allow up to 300mb files.

I just don't trust torrents, sorry - the process is very slow for me and it seems that it's like opening your computer up to malicious software. It seems safer to download something from just one website.


I'm not very hot about torrents, either, but they're a bit more practical than the download websites. You're safe as long as you have good protection on your computer, anyways. However, I'll see what I can do... but you know that the eMule workprint alone is 850 MB and suffers from a lot of compression issues.


By the way, I found some nice Nasruddin resource on Wikipedia. A lot of these stories are really funny!
Post
#267277
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/267277/action/topic#267277
Time
Originally posted by: Faustus
OgOggilby, thank you very much for posting all of these! I've watched them all and I look forward to the pencil and camera tests.
Is there any chance you could copy these files for me in the original higher resolution files?
I'd like to send you a PM, but you don't seem to have them enabled.


I'm thinking of somehow creating a "Cobbler in a Box" that would take everything ocp has put out and convert it all to MP4 video so it could fit onto two DVD-Rs via a torrent zip file.

I was a bit annoyed to find out that Google Video doesn't let you download the original MP4 videos I uploaded, but rather downscaled and re-compressed versions of those. All this time, I assumed they let you download the originals. This is purely aimed towards those who want to view it on a computer (or iPod/PSP), but very high quality.
Post
#265411
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/265411/action/topic#265411
Time
Originally posted by: Esn
Originally posted by: SilverWook
Unearthed Films did a superb job with Rock and Rule.


I heard as much. But a "Thief" release would be a much harder job than "Rock & Rule", if for the simple reason that "Rock & Rule" was already a finished film.

Ogg, did you mention that "Holy Grail of Animation" discussion that recently took place among animation fans in your letters to the companies? There was quite a strong showing for "Thief" over there, which seems to suggest that more and more people are hearing about this.

Also, do you think it would help if any of us emailed some of these companies as well?


It probably would. Here's the contacts...

Anchor Bay - suggestions@anchorbayent.com
Unearthed Films - heneverdies@aol.com
Fantoma - http://www.fantoma.com/fantoma.html (click on "contact us")
Criterion - mulvaney@criterionco.com
Home Vision/Image Entertainment - acquisitions@image-entertainment.com

Esn, if you could email that link to them (I already sent out a letter to each, with more technical stuff), that would be nice. Best to be brief and just give a short explanation on why you want it from them. Remember: These are companies that have no control over anything unless they get a license to deal with the movie. It's no one's fault if the rights can't be obtained.

I'm sort of worried that contacting this many labels could start some confusion (if all of them are asking about the title), but five DVD labels all asking about the same movie will help exposure... I hope.
Post
#265319
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/265319/action/topic#265319
Time
Originally posted by: ZakDrizzt
Would be cool if Criterion got interested. It seems to be right down their alley. They could do something similar to what they did with Mr Arkadin. Release both existing versions, then compile a recobbled cut as the main feature.


I think a Criterion would only happen if the film were restored and completed into a final theatrical re-release version. There's no doubt they'd do a fantastic job on it, though.

However, I did get a reply from one label. It may be difficult to wrangle rights from the Weinsteins (they aren't fond of licensing out), but given the treatment they've given the film, it can't mean much to the brothers. This label seems interested, though!
Post
#265252
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/265252/action/topic#265252
Time
Originally posted by: Esn
Hmm... some quite interesting things in that thread. If nothing else, there's the possibility of finding another excellent lost scene from the film.

I won't expect anything from that anonymous poster until something concrete actually happens, though. What I wonder is that if they're going to go ahead with this, what will Richard Williams' role be? On the one hand he seems to want nothing to do with the Thief nowadays (since he's working on a new film, apparently, and his mind is elsewhere) - on the other hand, I simply can't imagine an authentic, official restoration being done without Williams' involvement and approval.

Do you know more about this than you're telling us, Ogg?


Well, I'm in the process of contacting as many specialty DVD labels I can. So far, I've emailed Criterion, Anchor Bay, Unearthed Films, and Fantoma. Blue Underground's email doesn't seem to work. As for other stuff, I'm waiting to find out from some others.

Post
#265069
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/265069/action/topic#265069
Time
Originally posted by: Zagadgita
I signed up for this forum simply to express my gratitude for
the google video version of Raggedy Ann & Andy; a Musical Adventure.

At last, I can share a huge influence on my childhood with my own children.


Bless you!


Thanks! I'll be happy when Fox releases a 2.35:1 remastered DVD, though.


By the way, don't forget to check out ocpmovie's thread on his message board: http://ffrevolution.com/InvisionBoard

Like I said there, there will be a breakthrough in the next month or two on "Thief."