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Post by Paul Vanezis on Apr 3, 2023 7:30:41 GMT
A few points to clarify the situation with Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part 1.
The film recording is not as good as some of the earlier film recordings for Doctor Who. It's slightly out of focus on the right hand edge for a start. Chroma dot recovery doesn't fully work with this film recording; in fact, the most successful colour recovery was for Planet of the Daleks and few colour recoveries for any film recordings have been as successful as that. People think that it looks so good because it was combined with the manual colourisation, but in fact the latest iteration of it (featured on the Bluray) only used colour recovery and nothing at all of the manual colourisation.
The chroma dot recovery of Invasion of the Dinosaurs has delivered an incomplete colour gamut. There is little or no blue, but other colours are mostly accurate. That being said, all colour recoveries need a large amount of manual intervention to get them to look presentable and the colour for all recovered colour requires a lot of stabilisation. In the case of this recording, it is impossible to recover the full colour gamut. Obviously another solution, such as manual colourisation is required.
The colourisation of Hancock's Half Hour is a new process, not in terms of the physical creation of keyframes (which has to be done manually) but in the number of keyframes required... a lot less. Tracking technology has improved so much since 'The Mind of Evil' and that reduces by a significant amount the number of keyframes required to render a shot. Previously some shots needed up to 65 keyframes. The same shot now may require just 3. However, achieving that requires some quite pokey and pricey software and 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs' has many tricky sequences, shot on location for which there are few true colour references.
Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 27, 2023 10:43:03 GMT
To all contributors of this thread, I've edited some posts to remove the use of the word 'socially aware'.
You may ask why...
No-one is using that word in the context of its true meaning and I don't want that kind of slang to become normal here. It's already been hijacked and used as a slang term, the meaning of that being politically and socially aware. It's not going to be hijacked further here. It's lazy and weak and some may regard the use of it as derogatory.
When someone writes "pre-socially aware", I read it as 'pre-socially and politically aware'. Clearly wrong, the opposite in fact of reality. The BBC and other broadcasters have been cutting material for taste and decency for years. They did it in every decade I have been alive, as have others so I don't see why people should suddenly be surprised that it is still happening. If you want to organise a project to preserve the uncut versions of 'The Burkiss Way', by all means go ahead.
That means that you're going to have to be 'socially aware' about it, that is to take note of the forum rules about file sharing and piracy. You see, there is a context in which you can use that word, even if it is a rubbish comparison, so it makes sense to anyone with an understanding of the English language.
Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 27, 2023 8:55:54 GMT
Just to be clear, can someone clarify if the Bowie/Caraval TOTP 19/04/1973 promo version of Drive In Saturday is one of the Super 8 films? Thanks There is a Bowie recording, but it's the 'Life on Mars' promo, screened July 13th 1973. Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 27, 2023 8:47:32 GMT
It might just be me but i can't see why they don't just have a special night on BBC4 where they show them all. I thought budgets were tight at the Beeb and it presumably wouldn't cost much, plus some of the artists featured are still popular and remembered. Maybe they think there's not enough of us "boomers" left to justify it. Actually, there is big interest in these from the BBC and record companies. I'm quite sure that they will be made use of. Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 18, 2023 0:24:27 GMT
He recorded the audio separately and they were synched somehow using a capstan motor or something. Paul Vanezis will know exactly. I don't know about that. Roger did explain it to me but I'm no engineer and he is a master tech boffin. However, this is what he told me. The footage was shot on a super 8 camera on a tripod from a 12 inch Sony Trinitron television. The footage is slightly zoomed in as you would expect but you can't see the edges of the screen. There is some flicker and it isn't consistent across all the films. The sound was recorded separately on quarter inch tape as a line recording, then he used some kind of dynamo connected to the motor of his projector to sync the quarter inch tape to the film. But before he could do that he had to paint a magnetic stripe onto the edge of the films because they were mute films with no stripe! This caused a few issues though when transferring the films because if I'd had the films cleaned first it might have damaged or even removed the magnetic stripe and that would have been a bit of a disaster. So that's the story. There's a total of 31 performances recorded although three of them are either filmed promo's or videotaped promo's, which leaves 28 studio pieces. Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 18, 2023 0:02:29 GMT
Great to hear the Totp Super 8 s have found there way to the BBC archive, maybe they will get shown one day? Is T.Rex The Groover one of them? Would love to see that ! It certainly is! And complete, almost. Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 17, 2023 11:42:07 GMT
Hi all,
On my visit to the BBC Archive yesterday, as well as delivering the recent TOTP super 8 recordings, I repatriated a couple of film recording masters.
The BBC already had a telecine transfer of 'The Very Merry Widow and How', the episode 'How About It?' from May 23rd 1969. It's the only example and turned up in 1996. The film was acquired by a member of the Doctor Who Restoration Team which is where the BBC's transfer came from. Also part of that same collection is 'Wildcat', the 4th episode of the first series of Mogul. This has been screened, from the film print at 'Missing Believed Wiped' some years ago, but never scanned or copied to another format. The film was then returned to the collector. Although listed as 'in the archives' by some search engines, it never really was. Thankfully it is now in the BBC Archive for the first time along with the 1969 sitcom.
Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 17, 2023 10:41:45 GMT
Yes, I have your answer.It's from 19/04/1973! Cheers Ray!
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 17, 2023 0:35:51 GMT
Hi all,
Today I delivered the 8mm scans of Roger Hill's colour 8mm film recordings of various 1973 TOTP performances to the BBC Archive. However, there is still one performance that I haven't yet been able to identify a TX date for.
According to the Television and Radio Database, the band Argent only appeared on TOTP performing two tracks, Hold Your Head Up and Tragedy, both in 1972. However, Roger recorded the band performing God Gave Rock and Roll to You, a performance I can't find on the database. At first I thought it might be their performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test... but that exists and I've seen it... and Roger insists that he only ever recorded performances from TOTP. What makes this tricky to ID is that it is obviously not recorded in the TOTP studio, but rather in an empty and darkened studio space, so it's pre-filmed somewhere. The TOTP giveaway is that at least once during the performance, the studio audience is mixed into this footage.
The record was released on February 23rd 1973 and Roger did record more than one performance of acts during the same programme on a few occasions. For February 1973 he recorded one performance from the February 8th edition (The Faces - Cindy Incidentally) and two from the February 22nd edition (Slade's Cum On Feel the Noize and Pans people dancing to Doctor My Eyes by Jackson Five). The Faces performance was also repeated in the February 22nd edition so it's possible that all three recordings were from that one edition. There would have been time for him to change the film.
I don't think Argent could have appeared in that edition because it's rammed with other acts. Anyone got any insight?
Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 11, 2023 0:31:31 GMT
Before Graham and David Holman's recordings came to light, the recordings that were going around in fan circles came from Richard Landen and James Russell, plus some Australian off-air recordings. James very early recordings were actually made by John de Rivaz and that does include 'An Unearthly Child'. Yes, he not only recorded the very first episode, but he also recorded it on first transmission and not the repeat. I know this because it has the introductory continuity on the front. There is also a much higher quality recording of the first episode, made in the presentation gallery during first transmission. It was requested by Desmond Briscoe of the Radiophonic Workshop and also includes the continuity into the episode. Paul Did John de Rivaz record Marco Polo on audio, Paul? If so, do the tapes still exist and how do they compare with the existing CD release? He did. No idea what they sound like.
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 8, 2023 9:16:59 GMT
Before Graham and David Holman's recordings came to light, the recordings that were going around in fan circles came from Richard Landen and James Russell, plus some Australian off-air recordings.
James very early recordings were actually made by John de Rivaz and that does include 'An Unearthly Child'. Yes, he not only recorded the very first episode, but he also recorded it on first transmission and not the repeat. I know this because it has the introductory continuity on the front.
There is also a much higher quality recording of the first episode, made in the presentation gallery during first transmission. It was requested by Desmond Briscoe of the Radiophonic Workshop and also includes the continuity into the episode.
Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Dec 4, 2022 16:28:54 GMT
So what happens now with these priceless clips, would love to see The Groover! Is it broadcastable and are the BBC interested? They haven't shown any interest in reshowing the other TRex found TOTP clips like New York City, Teenage Dream. The BBC Archive are very interested in the material and will be taking delivery next week. As for the re-use of it, tricky. The quality is substantially below that of other similar surviving material. Nevertheless, the appropriate people will be informed. In all cases it's what use programme makers can find for this kind of stuff, bearing in mind that there is a wealth of rarely or never seen material of much higher quality sitting untouched in the archive. Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Dec 1, 2022 22:17:02 GMT
Hi all,
Dick Fiddy has announced "A feast of newly unearthed performances from Top of the Pops" which "will screen as part of the Missing Believed Wiped screening this Saturday (Dec 3) at BFI Southbank!"
I can't make it because I have family commitments, but I have been compiling the material for Dick. It's turned up as part of The Radio Times Treasure Hunt initiative.
From the BFI South Bank website:
"With huge thanks to our colleagues at the Radio Times Treasure Hunt, we are delighted to announce the first screenings anywhere of an exciting new find. Earlier this month we learned of a precious collection of over 20 missing performances from Top of the Pops (in 1973) recovered from Roger Hill, a private collector who had filmed the material from the TV screen (on Super 8) and taped the sound on ¼” tape. At this year’s Missing Believed Wiped event we will get the first glimpse of some of these wonderful finds including performances from T-Rex, Roxy Music, The Faces, 10CC, Hot Chocolate and Gladys Knight."
More news on Saturday after the screening!
Paul
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Nov 17, 2022 0:15:03 GMT
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Aug 24, 2022 8:44:42 GMT
Can someone tell me if this article is nonsense? (It isn't) - there fixed it Sorry, no. There is no 'Wheel in Space' DVD or Bluray. There isn't one planned. The missing episodes of 'The Wheel in Space' have not been miraculously returned and the article is nonsense. Good luck with your pre-order.
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