thxita

Leo, SilverWook and msycamore, you've all got messages from me.

Does this line make sense to you

A visual record has being taken and sent to...
...the terminal of our Biology Department

Were computers in the 70's called "terminal" also in English? As I said, I'm trying to stick to the original Italian wording as much as possible.

My original version was "A visual record has been taken and send to our Biology Department" (more plain and simple) but if I have to stick to the Italian version, the first line I posted is practically what they say.

___________________________________

Another question for you English speakers is this: which version of this catchfrase is better "Only in equality one finds happiness" or "Only in equality, happiness is to be found"? (literal translation from Italian would be the second but literal translations are not always correct)

After seeing this scene in English I'm off to tweak some of the lines in my "back-translation"

Thank you SilverWook. This helps the hell of a lot!

Who's the woman flashing at the end, Fight Club-style?

Sorry for my absence guys. I can't dedicate time to it until the end of the month.

Yes some of the audio has been left in the background.

Also when THX is in "prison" and a cop brings in the dwarf you can hear it saying "undescript" then the audio is replaced by Italian.

As I said, they didn't put much care into this dubbing, it's really rare to hear stuff like this in dubbed films.

thumbs up

Perfectly understood msycamore. Very well! Speaking of that, we're keeping this aren't we? http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/THX-1138-preservations/post/445295/#TopicPost445295

SilverWook thanks

haha, I don't even know how to solder but I'm trying to stick to a proper "re-translation". They do seem to have chosen existing components, not just invented words so I try to stick to those words.

In any case thanks for your help, your fresh approach always opens up my mind. Where is the new avatar from?

Sounds better however I don't know if it exists in English. Obviously the line is referring to frequency synthesizer based on quartz oscillators... "quartz-controlled" exists as a word (check out this website http://www.classle.net/bookpage/frequency-synthesizer-0 ).

Would "Activate quartz-controlled frequency synthesizer" work? Doesn't it sound too long? Or maybe "quartz-based"?

Any electronic components expert around here guys?

msycamore about changing the format, I was thinking what's gonna happen to the screens in Italian? Those that read "Radiation overload" or those computer screens.

I'm rewatching the film with subtitles. I'm very happy with the overall work and I'll soon send the few doubtful parts to Leonardo for a comparison.

I wanted to let you know that in the first sex scene when LUH says "I wanted to touch you so many times" in Italian she says what could be translated as "I've been wanting to touch you for so long". However, since the meaning doesn't change that much I decided to keep the original line so I subtitled it "I wanted to touch you so many times". Is that ok? For me that's kinda of a "famous" line of the film (together with "What's wrong?") so... may I leave it in its original form?

Leo I found another random electronic component from radios, around 18'50'' they say "utilizzare sintetizzatore di frequenza quarzato". I translated as "Activate quartz frequency synthesizer", what do you think? (aside from the laughable choice of the Italian dubbers)

Never used VirtualDub? Wow, there is a first time for everything!

It will make your life much easier I'll tell you that.

;-)

I understand now, sorry again Msycamore.

In any case I'm crossing my fingers and hope to find soon the film on VHS. Today on a market stall near my house they had tapes for 2 euro, including some old Warner tapes (the oversized ones). No luck this time but I'll ask the vendor next time if he can find me THX.

Sorry Silver, I was writing while you posted.

Hard to say for sure which year it was in the 90s, we might just say 90s. I like what you want to write in the back.

As for the "Italian version" vs. "Italian cut"... mmh, you're right about preferring "Italian cut" however we might later find out that also in Germany and France they have the same cut and we would have to call it a "European Cut". In that case though, calling it European cut, people would expect to hear it in English anyway. Choices choices

Remind me guys to write a longer explanation about the Italian version which we can put in the second disc along with the extras (posters etc). I'll prepare it nearer the time.

By the way, on Wikipedia it says that Tele+ broadcasted in PAL-G, I don't know if could be of any help or curiosity. About dating the film, unfortunately that network opened in 1990 and bankrupted in 2003, however in 1997 channels changed names so that "+1" seen on that video is referred to a date before the 1st of September 1997. I can't be more specific unfortunately.

Me and Myscamore were thinking to use the Italian poster for the front of Disc 2

I kinda like the idea of putting "+ ITALIAN VERSION BONUS FEATURE", it would definitely attract Italian fans who are unaware of what we are doing here. We can definitely work in that direction and I have a suggestion about that but I can't explain it in words... I'll try make a rough sketch.

I would go for an English cover though, as much as I like the Italian one it would be too misleading for the rest of the world... they would wonder if it is indeed THX 1138.

msycamore for the question of the four different aspect ratio I would just leave exactly as it is for two reason

First because it's less work for you

Second and most importantly because we want to preserve the Italian version "as is", including the letterboxing choices.

Afterall we (us Europeans) will still have the PAL version in Disc 1 with correct widescreen so in my opinion it's best to leave it the way Italians choose to release it, with all four different aspect ratios. They are editing choices that we should leave untouched if we want to show THX as it was shown to Italians (and maybe other European countries too... if I can find a German or French tape to make sure).

That is my opinion at least. It seems to be the best choice for the project.

Ah yes sorry 2.35:1, that's what I meant. If I'm not mistaken Lucas said in some audio commentary that 2.35:1 is the only format that preserves the original proportions. I never really investigated on it but I'm supposing that if Laserdisc has a different ratio (for example 1.85:1 or other) then it would necessarily have something cropped.

myscamore, I've got a little trivia about Italian 4:3 movies for you. Movies altered to fit into letterbox format often kept the ending titles in widescreen. I never understood why. Usually you would see the black orizontal bars coming in at the end of the film. The most noticeable I remember was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade because the ending credits roll in without cuts or fades to black so you see these two black bars squeezing the film. Was this procedure done also in other countries or did we only have the pleasure?

True, then the NTSC widescreen version is also cropped from a slightly bigger source. I can guess that the DVD (which is in Lucas' beloved 1.85:1) should include the complete picture? Is this a correct supposition?

Also the previous comparison showed the PAL being a bit darker, could it be from the screen capturing? What are you using to capture these images?

Thanks again Jaitea for your help!

poor SilverWook, sieged by retro technology! To think that I've never even seen a laserdisc!

Do you guys think that it could be possible perhaps to make two separate (but identical) products, one NTSC for Americans and the other PAL for us Europeans?

I know msycamore, don't worry. I agree with you 100%, we should definitely find the best source available. Unfortunately I haven't been able to secure a copy of this film yet. I'm still hoping that the guy I contacted on a forum will reply my message, he was selling it for 5 euro.

Leo, you did a fantastic job, I'm also very impressed. If we can't get a tape of THX in Italian for a higher quality then you already solved the problem.

The allmighty VirtualDub still seems to deliver many small miracles.

Link sent ;-)

Enjoy

Upload is at 87%, just a little longer ;-)

Or should  I say, transducer is at 87.--

Ahh too much time on that translation! LOL

SilverWook I feel what you are feeling now. I once had what I call "The Big Crash of '05", that's when I lost all data I had on the hard disk and boy it was a lot! Music, rare films... luckly this baby (THX in Italian pre-DVD) was on a CD otherwise it would also have been lost. Since then I try not to store anything at all on the PC hard drive, everything external!