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2-Feb-2006
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30-Nov-2018
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Post
#185260
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/185260/action/topic#185260
Time
to Klokwerk, Meedermow, Ash595:
Hey people. I just watched Jonno's Evolution. I am not a video expert as you are and I would like to know your professional opinions. For starters, it it the best version out of the three I have now. I watched it on a small screeen (PC monitor) only, so I cannot be sure how it looks on a big TV screen. As far as I can say now, I think that it is almost as good as the official Quadrilogy version. Sharp and clean picture, high quality 16:9 transfer, perfect sound. Some dark or glossy surfaces seem to vibrate a bit, but I did not notice any serious problem at all. How about you?

to everybody:
I am performing an intensive search for more videos. Current status:

Positive - I found a girl who taped "Director and His Work" documentary back in 1986. She promised to find the tape for me.

Negative - I contacted an editor of "Making of Alien Resurrection with Brad Dourif". He is not willing to help, unfortunately. My copy of this documentary recorded from Sci-fi Channel is not the best, but we probably have no other choice.

Unknown - The guy who owns Aliens CBS cut did not answer to me yet. Trying to PM him again.

Undecided - I have an opportunity to buy Alien 3 Workprint. I already got one from eBay, but it is just a VCD version. I do not know if I should spend my money for another copy (which can be worse than mine, no chance to compare).
Post
#182358
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/182358/action/topic#182358
Time
Originally posted by: Ash595

All comments are welcome, of course


Do you ask for opinions? Nice work, both the pictures are iconic in some sense. I think this cover could be totally perfect for - let's say - a collection of Making ofs. But if you ask me, I would prefer something else for this particular documentary. Alien Evolution has its own unique design already, very different from all other documentaries. (I should say it is the only documentary I know that has ANY remarkable design at all.) Moving retro-style backgrounds with cells and strange microscopic and makroscopic details, everything in dark blue, green and violet. So by my opinion the cover should reflect this unique concept, especially when Evolution is the only feature on the disc. The documentary also uses its own font, that can be recreated for the cover.

Post
#182180
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/182180/action/topic#182180
Time
Hey guys, you are wonderful, thanks. This re-wording 'Stop smile(ing) and drop (remove, take off) your clothing' makes me think about the following explanation: Stop smiling because you lost, I am the winner, I found them. And take off your clothes, as they are a part of the (imaginary) stake, the winner takes all. And he probably uses the words from the song to be more funny, to speak in verses like a poet.

In case you did not read it yet, here is a brand new interview with Cameron. He confirms the 4 years old rumor about him and Scott thinking about Alien 5 and in one breath he also adds that this case is closed now.
http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=22405
(If I have got a child, I will offer it to him too to force him to rethink his decision...)

Post
#180983
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/180983/action/topic#180983
Time
Originally posted by: meedermow
Though as you say Jiri, that might not be possible - unless someone has some *very* good friends in Prague


You already have one

Giger's Alien without subtitles: Even if you can trace down the original 35 mm movie from the exhibition and pay to a videostudio to make a DVD from it, the quality of the picture will be worse than the quality of the picture from the LD. And I believe that there is just this one version of the LD. Yes, Fox (or whoever owns the rights) can make a new DVD from the master copy, but I do not think we should count on this too much. "H.R. Giger DVD" project is a chance to do so. A chance, nothing more. I do not want to give you a false hope.



Post
#180980
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/180980/action/topic#180980
Time
Originally posted by: fezza2000

I can't actually think of the exact dialogue placement in that scene but that's how I understand it.

All this Alien talk is interesting and an extended cut would be great. Anyone know of a site to look at known and unknown missing scenes?


The scene takes place after Ripley cleans Newt’s face. Hudson is sitting in the Operations with other marines looking at the blueprints table. Gorman comes from behind and Hudson greets him with these words. H: „Smoking or non-smoking?“ G: „Just tell me what you are scanning for.“ Burke: „PDTs, Personal data transmitters. Every colonist had one surgically implanted.“
After your explanation it sounds like another Hudson’s joke. He asks him gently to choose a seat in this great restaurant, full of good food, drinks and friendly atmosphere, while they are in this cold end of Universe. It is sarcastic, right?
Two scenes later Hudson finds the PDTs on the screen and he announces this discovery to the others with „Stop your grinnin‘ and drop your linen. Found them.“ I know I am a bit boring and this question does not belong here, but maybe you can explain this sentence (verse) to me too? I promise it is my last question of this kind here!

The unknown missing scenes for Alien: As far as I know, there are none scenes available other than these included in AQ and AL. The scenes from AL and from the LD archive on disc AQ 9 should be the same. I guess that AL ones are better mastered, but maybe I am wrong in this. There are also few shots all over the main documentary on disc AQ 2, probably useless. (And then there are the 100 boxes of unused material found by Scott’s team in UK in 2003 – lucky guys!)
For Aliens: Just the short scene with Newt and Hicks I described a page before, disc AQ 4.
For Alien 3: Few shots in Alien 3 Workprint did not find their way into Lauzirika’s restored maxiversion of this movie. If you do not have the workprint, Alien Legend site has a big archive of scenes from this version at http://www.planetavp.com/al/index2.htm The deleted scenes section was not updated when AQ came out, so have this in your mind while reading it.
For A4: Probably none.



Post
#180624
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/180624/action/topic#180624
Time
You mean you saved some props from this show after they cancelled it?
It is a pity I never been there, I was too young to visit London then. I saw just some short documentary that I downloaded from internet. I never heard about a death in there, I heard that the whole corridors in Trocadero were flooded and thus they decided to cancel Alien War rather than repair it. But this may be an official version for media to cover the real reason...

How about the Shock & Awe with Danny Boyle? You wrote that you repaired the audio-video synchronisation already.


Post
#180432
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/180432/action/topic#180432
Time
I always dreamed about it, but I never tried. Some people did so when the first SE edition LD came out. With the release of the DC I realized that no cut can contain everything. You can simply put toghether everything from AL and AQ. But you still cannot reach the original 3:12 running time.

When you compare AL and AQ deleted scenes section: Did you notice that in some cases they used different takes of the same scenes (the big meeting, for example)?

Sorry for repeating my question: Does anybody know what "Smoking or no smoking" means?
Post
#180423
Topic
*** The Official DigitalFreakNYC Release Thread*** (SW, Indy + Others!)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/180423/action/topic#180423
Time
Hi digitalfreakNYC.
I am new here, so please forgive me if my question sounds weird to you. The reason why I entered Originaltrilogy is that I was looking for some IJ trailers or Making ofs. And one of the search results pointed to this forum. Here I found the history of the discussion between you and Indy3. Then his thread ended and he probably left with everything he collected during that time, it is bad. Meanwhile you finished your work on the three IJ discs. I really like to download them, but I do not know how. I asked my friend to do this for me and I sent him the links from this thread. I cannot download something so big via a dial-up connection. He answered that he cannot download it too since there is something missing. He says: Looks like dead torrents. Does this mean that the files are not stored there anymore or what?
Post
#180408
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/180408/action/topic#180408
Time
Great news! A 4,7 GB version! This can be the best Evolution DVD-R even made.

As for the trailers: You are right, I completely forgot the LD archives. I think that there are no more trailers at all, just some TV spots (like these 6 Aliens spots included on Abyss SE). Alien trailers T2 and T3 are both 1,85:1, everything else is in identical format as in AQ. WS T2 is also on AL disc 1.

I made some research about Giger’s Alien. It was Japan-ONLY DVD and there was also a VHS tape in Japan. Nothing else. I assume that the tape has the in-picture subtitles too and thus there is no way how to get a top quality recording without the subtitles. The copy I saw on the exhibition in Prague had no subtitles since that was a normal „celluloid“ movie from a projector. I recorded it with my cellphone (just for further reference). The e-bay DVD-R version is missing few secs on both the beginning and the end. The man who did the transcript from the LD (or VHS?) did not care much about the quality…
Meanwhile, I found two copies of the LD for sale on LDDb. One for 150 dollars, the other for 200. It is too much for me, I am sorry.

Until now, we were talking about Alien and Aliens. How about parts 3 and 4? Here is the answer.
There are two main Alien 3 Making of featurettes. Both approx 25 mins. The first one is available on disc AL3 and on a promo VHS tape in USA (also packed with A1 and A2 in a 3VHS box). The second one was included in the famous UK facehugger box on a separate VHS, also available as a promo tape in an extra big plastic case in UK. It is a part of the DVD-R Archive mentioned earlier in this thread.
The Making of Alien Resurrection included on disc AL4 probably comes from an EPK, I guess. Its length is just 4 minutes. But there is also a longer featurette made for HBO. It is much more interesting and Ron “Johner” Pearlman is a funny narrator. Released as much as three times in UK on separate VHS tapes (a “play daily tape” for stores; in A1-A3 4VHS box; and in A4 double-VHS set), never in USA. Also released in 3VCD set in China with Chinese subtitles in picture. Not long ago I found an US collector who recorded it in 1997 from HBO (original title: HBO First Look – Behind the Scenes of A.R.). I bought a DVD-R copy from him for 20 USD. 26 mins, NTSC, DVD made from the first generation VHS recording, the quality of the picture reflects this fact. Not poor, not best.
If anybody is interested…

And here is another video we can try to find: a 4:00 min reel “Aliens: Ride at the Speed of Fright” made for a 3D turbo ride back in 1996. It may be funny to watch it even if your seat does not move.


Post
#178534
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178534/action/topic#178534
Time
to Ash595: Thanks for your effort, the information helps. I have the trailers already (otherwise I could not be able to describe them). But I still consider that DVD to be an interesting collection, since it is the only DVD where all these trailers are together on one disc.
I do not remember the DC trailer, but I think that there were two at least, not just one. Checking...
What is Batman Dead End? Sounds like a name of a comic book. I saw just the standard line of Batman movies (Kilmer, Schwarzenegger, Carrey, Pfeiffer, Keaton, Nicholson, Clooney quartet).
The Pepsi commercial: Do you mean this one?
http://www.orphic.nl/aliensNL/PAG-pepsi.htm
Post
#178439
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178439/action/topic#178439
Time
to DarkFox: Yes, this belongs to another thread. And I must ask again: What is the question?
You wrote: "Ok fair enough, so why is okay to copy what you don't have in your collection?". I am new here and I have no right to make any statements. But if you want to know my personal opinion: It is OK because I cannot buy it for money. You asked about Alien Saga and I spent 30 mins by writting the answer to let you understand what is the difference between AQ, AL and Saga. Am I offering a DVD-R to you? No. It is a list of OFFICIAL DVDs you can buy. I have both R1 and R2 editions of Legacy, R2 Quadrilogy, the promo reprint of Legacy documentary and the Alien Saga DVD and copying of these discs is out of question. But I want a copy of an old laserdisc. I cannot buy it for money since it is OOP for years. And 20th Century Fox missed an opportunity to release it again two times, so we can assume their decision is final. If I find a nice a) DVD-R or b) original LD, I will be happy to share it with anybody since I know how hard is to get one.
This is not PIRACY. I hate to see some of my friends downloading new US movies from internet even sooner than the movie hits our market. That is wrong and I am telling them what I think about that. That is where the line lies.

Post
#178175
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178175/action/topic#178175
Time
Nope.

If you want to have the most complete collection of OFFICIAL DVD releases, you need:

A. Quadrilogy - 9 discs set. The 2-discs movies were released separately in standard cases too, but you cannot buy the 9th disc alone. It contains the bonuses from A1 and A2 laserdiscs, many trailers etc.

A. Saga - see above. Not a part of any set. Not now, not never. Fantastic camera tests with Sigourney (a short example of these you can find in AQ), an interesting main feature narrated by "Kane". Personally, I like this DVD more than AQ bonuses.

A. Legacy - 5 discs set. Again, you can buy these separately. The 5th disc is packed in A1 case in UK (YOUR PHOTO), no matter if you buy A1 separately or in the set. In USA it was a "mail-to-Fox" bonus for the owners of this box (i.e. there are only 4 discs in the set in USA and you must ask for the 5th). US VHS version of AL box contains the content of the 5th disc on a separate videotape. In UK, you can find a 2nd edition of this bonus disc released as a promo DVD announcing the release of Quadrilogy (that is why this 2nd edition contains an AQ trailer as a bonus). The first edition does contain no bonuses, just the main feature, a 65 mins A1 retrospective - interviews with Dan O'Bannon, Ridley Scott, unused shots etc. The main feature's name is ALIEN LEGACY and thus it gave a name to the whole set and vice versa. If you do not want to buy both AQ and AL, you still need the disc 5 and I recommend also discs 1 and 2 at least. Disc 1 (i.e. A1) contains an unique audio track not used in AQ again, disc 2 (i.e. A2) has the nicest DVD menu I ever saw and some minor extras not repeated in AQ (not 100% sure, I did not compare them for a long time). Disc 3 is priceless and disc 4 contains a short Making of Resurrection not included on AQ.

Plus, of course, either UK 2-discs AvP or US Unrated AvP.

And before you ask: The people here are talking about A. Evolution - this documentary is not on any official disc yet. You can find a shortened edit on AQ disc 9.

Post
#178140
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178140/action/topic#178140
Time
to DarkFox: What is the question? Are you asking what Alien Saga is? Alien Saga is a DVD on its own, not "included" anywhere else. It was released shortly prior the release of Quadrilogy and Fox is not involved in it at all (not counting the copyright). The main feature comes from TV, the bonuses from Fox's archive. I suppose that they made a deal with Lauzirika's (Quadrilogy) team to avoid duplicating the bonus material between Saga and Quadrilogy. Thus, effectively, it is a 10th disc to Quadrilogy. SRP approx 15 USD.
Post
#178122
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178122/action/topic#178122
Time
to Ash 595: Galaxy and Beyond

OK, I did some research and I need your help. If you have the Galaxy and Beyond DVD somewhere near you, can you check please the trailers and compare them with my description??? There should be 3 trailers for Alien and four for Aliens in the following order:

Alien
Trailer 1 – begins with still photos, Kane’s body on a monitor, the narrator repeats “Word of warning”, length 0:45
Trailer 2 – the egg, rolling surface of a planet, Alien logo, no footage from the actual movie, just different shots of the egg, ends with the line “In space, no one…”, length 1:10
Trailer 3 – begins as trailer 2, but then continues with actual footage with sounds, hissing cat, the speed accelerates until the final shot of a shuttle leaving the planet behind – simply the most well known Alien trailer, but in its rarest WS version with the original “preview approved blah, blah” screens that are light blue, not green, length 2:07

Aliens
Trailer 1 – with background sound from Alien trailers, begins with the hostile surface of LV426 (used in DC only) followed by a marine’s boot, no actual sounds from the movie except for one firethrower blast, length 1:47
Trailer 2 – the most well known one, begins with “Just tell me one thing, Burke”, ends with “This time it’s war”, length 1:56
Trailer 3 - begins with the narrator who sings an ode on the movie, he says “Best action film of the year etc.”, ends with “Playing everywhere”, length 0:38
Trailer 4 – begins with the narrator “First time she survived the deadliest creature…”, ends with “This time it’s war”, length 0:30

IF my description is 100% CORRECT, then…
Alien T1 and T3* are in Quadrilogy, T2 is not. All Aliens trailers are in Quadrilogy.

* (in FS and without the light blue screens)

If I am wrong and there are another trailers instead, then they are really very rare and not included anywhere else.

Does the main Hamill’s feature contain some interesting info or shots?


Post
#178115
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178115/action/topic#178115
Time
Originally posted by: meedermow
Sounds a great idea Jiri. Presumably the rights to the documentary can be bought by the Czech production company or do they even reside with Giger himself ?


I did not ask about the rights. This team lives with HRG for two years, and thus I assume they are friends. And HE can get the access to the rights regardless of the current owner. They promised to include Necronomicon. What is the difference between Necronomicon and Giger's Alien? Oh yes, maybe Brandywine/Fox must be invited into the project... Now it sounds much worse, right? (Thanks!)
Post
#177936
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177936/action/topic#177936
Time
Originally posted by: Jonno
I like the idea of making a better Giger's Alien transfer. A guy on the Home Theater Forums would frequently mention GA in the run up to the Quadrilogy's release... the hope was that it would be included in its entirety, he even offered Fox the use of his LD to master it! Needless to say, that didn't happen (though I think they use several clips in the disc 2 documentaries).


Yes, I saw this guy's offer some time ago. He claims that his LD is in perfect condition. But I cannot convice somebody to cooperate with me using my weak English. So I did not even try.

There are other ways. I am in touch with a Czech production company specialized on documentaries. They are working on Giger's biography for almost three years. During Fall they spent some time with him in NY and now, after their return to Switzerland, the documentary should be ready for release. The DVD should include the old Necronomicon documentary among other stuff and I am recommending to them to add Giger's Alien too. If there will be both (or even all three together with Passagen) these rare LD documentaries, the DVD collection may sell much better, don't you think?
Post
#177797
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177797/action/topic#177797
Time
Originally posted by: Jonno
Hi folks, sorry to have been slow with the replies - net access is a bit intermittent at present...

Alien Evolution:
This is my own transfer from a digital UK broadcast (I'm in the UK, in case that wasn't clear!) It was initially taped onto PAL DV as a 4:3 recording of the receiver's 16:9 output - squeezed, in other words. I subsequently encoded this and authored a simple DVD-R with some other odds and ends (it was early 2003 IIRC, and I wanted to backup some of the laserdisc stuff which of course ended up in the Quad set anyway).

It is a pity that there is the "other stuff" on the disc. A 1 and 1/4 hour documentary deserves to be the only feature on a single layer DVD-R. Everything else lowers the picture quality of the whole final product. I must agree with DigitalfreakNYC's point of view on this issue. Three maximum quality DVD-Rs are better than one DVD-R with the same stuff compressed to fit on it. But since you resized and burned it already, there is no way to get the maximum possible quality again, right? I mean, the master tv recording probably does not exist anymore. But even if so, it is still the "closest-to-source" Evolution DVD-R I heard of.

Post
#177682
Topic
Idea & Info: a Preservation of Alien Evolution doco?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177682/action/topic#177682
Time
Jonno: What a surprise! You have almost 1st generation copy of A. Evolution. This is very interesting.

My copy of Giger's A. came from e-bay too (together with Necronomicon), so we both have the same one. I do not like this DVD, I believe that I could be able to make a better transfer. That is why I want to find somebody who owns the original LD.

Does anybody have the DVD "James Cameron" from AFI's "The Directors" series? Is there any behind the scenes footage from Aliens?

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005Y71Z.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg