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Post by ethantyler on Jun 30, 2005 21:15:34 GMT
Could someone provide me with a complete list of episodes of Steptoe and Son that are missing in colour? I'm currently in contact with someone who may have off-air colour recordings and I require a list of the missing colour episodes so that they can check.
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Post by David Buck on Jun 30, 2005 21:26:51 GMT
Series Five (1970)
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
A WINTER'S TALE
ANY OLD IRON
STEPTOE AND SON AND SON !
THE COLOUR PROBLEM
TB, OR NOT TB!
MEN OF PROPERTY
Series Six (1970)
ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE
TWO'S COMPANY
TEA FOR TWO
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
POT BLACK
THE THREE FEATHERS
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Post by ethantyler on Jun 30, 2005 22:44:08 GMT
Perfect! Thank you very much!
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Post by Rob Mould on Apr 20, 2006 8:45:09 GMT
So have you found any of these in colour?
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Post by Rob Moss on Apr 20, 2006 11:36:20 GMT
So have you found any of these in colour? I suspect we'd have heard about it... |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2006 9:24:55 GMT
They're all stored in my loft, Rob. I've kept it quiet as the recorder they were taped on is kaput. It's a unique format I devised myself and made from old shampoo bottles and Pez dispensers.
It's amazing though that Galton & Simpson had the foresight to keep their own copies though. There are not many comedy series of that vintage which are complete in any way! I'm sure that some DW style restoration work could enhance these open reel copies though; can any of the RT that happen to be reading this like to comment on
whether something could be done to improve the quality of what currently exists? Would Vidfiring help too?
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Post by Andrew Doherty on Apr 21, 2006 19:03:53 GMT
It has been suggested that some or all of the missing colour episodes of Steptoe and Son may be in existence, somewhere in the U.S.A.
Dick Fiddy had been looking into this possibility. However, a likely lead, sadly, has yet to materialize.
There is always a chance, though.
Yours,
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Post by Greg H on Apr 21, 2006 20:47:58 GMT
The glass is truly half full when it comes to steptoe though, missing colour prints yes, but everything existing in b/w = Woohaah! Props to the creators for taping their own work. Very very lucky for sure!
I also invented a video recorder from shampoo bottles and pez dispensers. You have clearly stolen my plans, you cad!
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Post by Sam Harrison on Apr 22, 2006 1:59:59 GMT
intruiging... how do you make a video recorder out of shampoo bottles? sounds like a great achievement of creativeness over advanced technical trickery.
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Post by ethantyler on Apr 22, 2006 11:01:25 GMT
It has been suggested that some or all of the missing colour episodes of Steptoe and Son may be in existence, somewhere in the U.S.A. Dick Fiddy had been looking into this possibility. However, a likely lead, sadly, has yet to materialize. Interestingly, my lead was also in America. Unfortunately, I lost contact with him, so nothing ever came of it. I did think there was a good chance that he might have some missing colour episodes too. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2006 11:57:37 GMT
intruiging... how do you make a video recorder out of shampoo bottles? sounds like a great achievement of creativeness over advanced technical trickery. Simple really; I didn't know it wasn't possible to do such a thing! |
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Post by Steve Roberts on Apr 24, 2006 19:05:18 GMT
It's amazing though that Galton & Simpson had the foresight to keep their own copies though. There are not many comedy series of that vintage which are complete in any way! I'm sure that some DW style restoration work could enhance these open reel copies though; can any of the RT that happen to be reading this like to comment on whether something could be done to improve the quality of what currently exists? Would Vidfiring help too? The original recordings were made at the BBC on a Sony CV-2000 skip-field recorder, by a guy called Brian Jenkinson. BJ was one of our high-up technical managers when I joined the BBC in 1987 - a very intelligent and quietly spoken man. He had worked with videotape since it first came into the BBC in the early sixties and there was nothing he didn't know about it. After he left the BBC, he joined the BFI as their video preservation manager - and found himself faced with task of trying to play back those self-same tapes he had made twenty-something years earlier! As I recall, many of the problems were caused by the tape lubricant having dried out over the years, so the tapes would literally squeal to a stop when you tried to play them. BJ's team modified a CV2000 so that the tape wiped against pads loaded with silicon polish as it came off the supply reel, and to stop it sticking around the head drum they blew air down into the drum so that it came out of the holes where the heads poked through and formed a lubricating film of air between the tape and drum. Some of the tapes played better than others and I remember a lot of work had to be done on a Harry image compositing system to try to replace broken fields etc. They can be made to a look a lot better these days by the use of digital picture and audio noise reduction, which really helps to clean the episodes up. Of course they will never look brilliant! Steve |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2006 22:16:22 GMT
Thanks for the info, Steve. I'm very interested to learn more about those Steptoe recordings, being something i'd like to see restored as much as possible. If some kind of improved restoration / enhancement were attempted these days, would that involve a new transfer of the original reels (assuming they would still play back) or would it just be a case of working with the early '90s transfers? Also, how much improvement would actually be possible (given that they will never look 100 per cent)? Could Vidfire help?
Would the RT be interested in working on them? If anyone could possibly improve those recordings, then it's the DW restoration team!
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Post by Steve Roberts on Apr 25, 2006 12:52:04 GMT
There would be no point in trying to get a better replay from them, I don't think - it's several years further on and the tapes and equipment to play them on will have degenerated further.
Although you could do a full grade and step-by-step repair of any problems, realistically the most that is going to happen is that they would get a pass through DVNR and Cedar audio-denoise, which would improve things quite a lot anyway.
Steve
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2006 12:57:30 GMT
There would be no point in trying to get a better replay from them, I don't think - it's several years further on and the tapes and equipment to play them on will have degenerated further. Although you could do a full grade and step-by-step repair of any problems, realistically the most that is going to happen is that they would get a pass through DVNR and Cedar audio-denoise, which would improve things quite a lot anyway. Steve Thanks, Steve. As I suspected then, that the original tapes are getting towards the unplayable stage now. On the specific question of Vidfire though, would this help at all? There is a kind of filmised look to the way these episodes play back so I wondered if that was an option (amongst other the restoration armoury). |
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