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SkinnyV

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Join date
1-Apr-2020
Last activity
14-Feb-2024
Posts
18

Post History

Post
#1564358
Topic
16mm Scanning project - An Everyday Miracle (1981) (Lost David Attenborough documentary)
Time

Hello everyone,

For the past few months, I have been working on a significant David Attenborough preservation project with two other Attenborough enthusiasts. So far, we have collected over 2TB of Attenborough documentaries, and I have personally purchased and transferred several documentaries that were either previously not available online (sometimes not even listed in his filmography) or provided upgrades to versions that were already online in lower quality. All the documentaries I have transferred are available for free on my Internet Archive page and on my YouTube channel whenever possible.

The reason for this post is that I managed to acquire a 16mm print of an Attenborough-narrated documentary that would have been considered lost media, called “An Everyday Miracle,” which would have been broadcast either in 1980 or 1981. It is a very interesting documentary following the pregnancy of a British couple in 1980, with groundbreaking shots of the fetus growing inside the womb and emerging technology of the time, like very early ultrasound machine that was just starting to be available back then and was in its infancy. Another BBC documentary with the same premise and name narrated by someone else was produced in 1998 and is available online, but this original version is basically lost to time, as I do not see how it would ever get released or shown again considering the subject and outdated information.

Now, I understand that this is not the kind of exciting thing you guys are used to helping fund. It’s not really as captivating as a scanning project for a cult movie from your childhood. However, I am hoping to find some people interested in vintage documentaries willing to help fund this scan. I am in contact with a really cool scanning company, and we estimate the cost of scanning 1200ft / 30 min of 16mm film with optical sound and shipping the reel to be about $350, if I do the post-processing myself. I have already paid about a hundred dollars for the reel, including shipping, and I’ve already spent a lot of my own money to buy various VHS, DVDs, and audio tapes to be able to transfer them and make them available online for everyone. So, it would be hard to justify and afford that very high expense for a proper scan. That’s why I’ve come here to see if anyone would be willing to help preserve this documentary.

I have already made a very low-quality telecine test transfer of the reel using a home method, which is better than nothing. However, the reel started getting damaged when I was ready to capture it with a better setup for capturing the sound and image. Therefore, I prefer not to touch it anymore and wait for a proper transfer. The company I am in contact with assured me that the sprocket damage won’t cause any issues with their scanning equipment.

If I can’t reach the full goal, I will try to supply the missing amount depending on how much we can raise.

Anybody interested can let me know, and I will provide the information in a private message.

Those who contribute at least $10 will receive access to our project’s Google Drive containing all the documentaries we have collected so far as a token of our appreciation. While I can’t guarantee access indefinitely, as you never know when Google might potentially close the drive, it has been available for a considerable time. We do plan to release everything in torrent form eventually, but due to the size of the collection, it presents some challenges. You can view the list of our current collection here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15-4UaR0ZzUzm6TF8mFHx8gK9ABuj_s5p/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=107688892267849423207&rtpof=true&sd=true

Here’s a few low-quality screenshots to give you an idea:






Thank you!

Post
#1555354
Topic
Massive 35mm Leaks on Reddit
Time

Unpopular opinion I’m sure, but I have donated to a few projects in the past (and did not get result on several of those donation) and absolutely understand the cost and work involved. But I would argue that many of those ‘‘preservation’’ scans are not preserving anything. There’s many projects that I have seen too late to contribute, and now they are being kept in secret hoard of the few peoples who managed to donate in time and were given the express instruction of never sharing it ever. Once the money has been recouped for the peoples doing the scan and the work, I really see no point in keeping it exclusive to the contributor. I’ve seen people starting on project to scan X or Y film that they know have already been scanned in the past and ‘‘preserved’’ because there was no way for anyone to get access to them, so whats the point?. Sometime, it feel more like people financing something that the scanner want to have for himself, more than preservation work.

Post
#1415324
Topic
Jurassic Park 35mm 16:9 (Released)
Time

That’s the problem with these 35mm preservation, not many peoples have access to them. It sucks sometime, there’s some I want so bad like the Lion King, but they are kept in the hand of a select few peoples who were fortunate enough to hear about the project before it got released. If anyone is looking for a 35mm preservation, I have access to most of the one who got a public release on private trackers. I would be happy to do my part to help peoples out getting their hand on the one that I am allowed to share as I feel it is doing everyone a disservice not to have access to them. I will honor the wish of the peoples who asked not to have their preservation shared around eventough I don’t agree with them tho.

Post
#1409117
Topic
Fantasia (a WIP)
Time

While we are waiting for the ultimate version, I worked on it for the past two weeks or so and have made my own restoration of the 1990 CAV LaserDisc version of Fantasia for those that are interested. This obviously won’t beat what poita is working on, but should be pretty decent to have while waiting. Its funny how we went for years without much for Fantasia restoration, and suddenly have two released on the same week almost at the same time lol

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/fantasia-cav-laserdisc-restoration-project-basement-archivist-v1-released/id/83405

Post
#1333454
Topic
Info Wanted: Jurassic Park - 35mm Restoration Project? Where is it? :(
Time

joesphroth said:

Hi I’ve been trying to find some information on the release: Jurassic.Park.1993.35mm.1080p.Cinema.DTS.v2.0. Is this available anywhere and what was changed from v1.0?
Thanks

The changes with V2 according to the info posted by the team:

Continuing our tradition of flooding the world with Jurassic Parks, here’s yet another version, this time matted for 16:9 screens. It’s intended to be an upgrade over our very first release (Jurassic Park 1.0), which had the same aspect ratio.

This version has not been completely cleaned up, but the worst scratches, frame jumps and cue marks were removed. The color is not faded and is completely intact, and no, saturation does not need to be increased. Aspect ratio of this release is variable - special effects shots are hard matted on the print (meaning that no extra image can be shown). The encode is blu-ray compliant, you can use tsMuxer to make BD iso from this, no re-encoding should be required.