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Post by Richard Tipple on Feb 19, 2020 22:52:36 GMT
Thanks for the kind words, Steve.
And thanks Robert, glad you like it. To colourise well you need a really good base to work with. We've spent ages restoring the film. Replacing titles, fixing all manner of bits and pieces to restore it as much as possible. The actual quality of the image is a huge step up from what's currently on the DVDs.
I find auto colourisation pretty awful tbh. I've never seen a good, non-flickery example. The ones that do look OK are very simplistic shots with little movement. I'm not convinced the quality is there yet so for best results it's best to do it manually. I think a four-parter like you've mentioned is probably a bit out of scope atm because of the time it'd take to do manually. Something like The Rescue is very possible with the right resources.
I appreciate the kind comments so far, thank you.
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Post by Richard Tipple on Feb 19, 2020 15:18:18 GMT
I'm very much enjoying revisiting this thread after so many years. I, along with a small but dedicated team, recently finished colourising an entire Hartnell era episode. It premiered in LA (GallifreyOne convention) on the weekend and was enjoyed by over a thousand people. I heard several stories about younger fans who had never watched early Dr. Who because they didn't engage with black and white footage. So for some this was their first exposure to the early years of the show. I've had lots of really interesting messages and feedback. The stuff I found most exciting was a) the younger fans who now wanted to watch more Hartnell and b) (generally) older fans who didn't like colourisation but went in with an open mind and enjoyed the experience. I haven't uploaded many colourisations in the past six years because I've been so focused on this project. It's been a labour of love, and the whole team have worked incredibly hard to produce something to the highest possible standard. If you'd like to see a trailer for the episode we colourised, it can be viewed here: And I spoke to BBC Breakfast this morning: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtawY68s4fA&feature=youtu.beI understand colourisation is quite a divisive subject, and I'm entirely open to criticism, but please keep it constructive.
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Post by Richard Tipple on Jul 3, 2019 12:28:13 GMT
Is the audio for this Get Off My Cloud publically available?
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Post by Richard Tipple on Jun 16, 2019 8:23:26 GMT
Being born in the 1980's is close enough to the black and white era. We still could buy black and white TV's (I know I had one in my bed room until 1983). My wife's country the Philippines still regularly sold black and white TVs as late as 1990 when I ended my tour of duty. Growing up in the 60's and 70's even after color came to the USA we still had many black and white shows repeated (unlike today) So for me its no big deal to watch and enjoy in black and white I will say though that my wife born in 1986 cant stand a minute of black and white TV. I tried to get her to watch William Hartnell and it was like pulling teeth. She just could not relate to it having grown up with color TV as all she could remember. Still colorization of old black and white material is clearly in the future and it will come. They released a Lost in Space Blue Ray of the new series with a colorized version of the pilot film on it. People are split on it. Every one agrees that it looks nice in black and white but many say it was shot and the lighting was done for black and white and it doesn't look natural. I was born in 1986 and love the William Hartnell era more than any other, so I don't agree you need to be born in the B&W era to appreciate it. I agree on the colourisation point, it'll open 60's Dr. Who up to a whole new audience that wouldn't otherwise watch it. I'm working with a team to colourise an entire episode from the Hartnell era. It's all being done manually, by hand, with the utmost care and attention. A real labour of love but it shows in the results I think.
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Post by Richard Tipple on May 31, 2019 8:48:42 GMT
Because it's only going to be a short clip, and probably not very convincing, and people are going to be trying to rip people off by trying to convince them it's an excerpt from the complete episode which they'll try and convince people they're hoarding. Those fakes are convincing enough when it's someone standing still and talking. You could do it with a telesnap. Once you try and make things move a bit more, a few pans, a bit of action, it's not going to look very convincing because you have no information for that part and it's a stretch too far for the software to extrapolate something it has no information for, it's going to be all too obvious it's a fake. The Hartnell Bradley deep fake is amazing and shows what could be achieved - tinyurl.com/HartnellBradley. There are calls for them to try Hartnell over Hurndall in The Five Doctors. With a bit more sophistication this could be a nice dvd extra. I'm currently working with this guy to produce better results and have sourced a lot of source material which should improve the process significantly. For example, there's a scene from 'Double Confession' which shows Hartnell in various mid-shots, with a wide array of facial expressions and, most importantly left/right profile shots.
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Post by Richard Tipple on May 30, 2019 12:36:56 GMT
Deep fakes take hours and hours and hours to compile and rely on thousands of pieces of data being driven by some very complicated code. That code requires masses of data to train just one deepfake algorithm. If someone managed to achieve this herculean task, what would be 'a bit off' about charging money for it? Because it's only going to be a short clip, and probably not very convincing, and people are going to be trying to rip people off by trying to convince them it's an excerpt from the complete episode which they'll try and convince people they're hoarding. Those fakes are convincing enough when it's someone standing still and talking. You could do it with a telesnap. Once you try and make things move a bit more, a few pans, a bit of action, it's not going to look very convincing because you have no information for that part and it's a stretch too far for the software to extrapolate something it has no information for, it's going to be all too obvious it's a fake. You've made an awful lot of assumptions there.
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Post by Richard Tipple on May 29, 2019 22:00:31 GMT
If someone's made a fake that looks so good that people are finding it hard to detect whether it's fake or real then let's enjoy it for what it is. It's gotta be better then the creepy "moving mouths" reconstructions I saw on VHS about 20 years ago. It'd be a bit off to charge money for them though, unless it's a tenner for a completed DVD of the entire story in which case fair enough (although the BBC would object). If it's just clips people should put them on youtube so we can either admire how good it looks or laugh at how bad it looks, depending on what's applicable. Deep fakes take hours and hours and hours to compile and rely on thousands of pieces of data being driven by some very complicated code. That code requires masses of data to train just one deepfake algorithm. If someone managed to achieve this herculean task, what would be 'a bit off' about charging money for it?
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Post by Richard Tipple on Jan 3, 2019 11:19:50 GMT
Did you ask him more like where they came from? Hopefully the original source had more dr who as well as other missing series episodes also if you put him onto mark ares, how did kaleidoscope get involved? I can't answer your last question, I only put him in contact with Mark. I could speculate but that'd be pointless. My first question, via DM, was about the original source. It appears these tapes came into his possession rather fortuitously. They were probably only moments from being destroyed for good before being rescued. It's probably not my place to divulge any more than that. Only to say a) there's no way (as I understand it) to contact the original owner and b) we're EXTREMELY lucky to have these recordings.
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Post by Richard Tipple on Jan 2, 2019 16:11:13 GMT
The chap that found these put it on Twitter and I immediately put Mark Ayres onto them. So that's my small involvement!
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Post by Richard Tipple on Oct 15, 2018 8:09:15 GMT
This is interesting, especially as it's episode 1. When The Aztecs SE DVD came out in 2013 I was surprised how good the first episode looked as on the first DVD release there is a really bad stratch on the picture for the first 5 minutes or so. This was before I knew anything about the search or any of the rumours about ME's being found, and yet I thought that the BBC might have found a better print somewhere somehow. The Aztecs exists on telerecording negatives which are the best available source possible, so any prints turned up are not going to be of any use - they are at least 1 generation down. The SE DVD looks much better as there is an 11 year gap between restorations. Not strictly true. I believe the first few minutes of episode one are from a lower generation copy as the telerecording is damaged? Also, didn't the "Next Episode" caption have to be removed from "The Day of Darkness"? And there's a slight cut during the scene of Ian in the flooded tunnel beneath the Tomb of Yetaxa, again possibly due to film damage.
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Post by Richard Tipple on Aug 24, 2018 19:16:18 GMT
Dalek's Masterplan-even if it were only a couple more episodes recovered.Absolutely stunning and I'm listening to the soundtrack at the moment. Yep, any DMP return would be amazing. For me, the best Doctor Who serial ever made. If only *ONE MORE* Missing Episode is ever found, I hope it's The Destruction of Time.
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Post by Richard Tipple on Jul 9, 2018 10:27:20 GMT
I'm optimistic.. but then I am an optimist! So yes, more to come!
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Post by Richard Tipple on Jun 13, 2018 16:14:24 GMT
I might be remembering the Australian club wrong, but the quote that "JN-T now produces Doctor Clown" sticks in my head after all these years. The reason I believe this one is based on the following facts: - Mister X claims to have seen "all the first stories of each Doctor" in a public forum. I will ask a friend of mine who might have save something from this forum to dig through his archives. - Mister X has a clip from "The Power of the Daleks" a public event - said clip was not in the BBC archives at the time and is not in the BBC archives now. There is no question of this. Although it is not an open-and-shut proof that I would end with "Q.E.D.", it is a reasonable inference that yes, Mister X has TPOTD E1. It is not a big jump to then assume that Mister X has the other 5 episodes. It is a particularly tiny jump when friends of yours have said they are certain that Mister X has them. In any event, I don't think it is a coincidence that Mister X has a clip handy that can be seen at a moment's request. I am more than willing to accept that maybe Mister X was exaggerating. But why bother? It's not like anyone would have thought the less of Mister X if he had said he had seen all but one of the opening stories. And, in any event, Mister X still has a missing clip that all the rest of us would love to see let alone have. It seems gallifreybase.com/w/index.php/The_Power_of_the_Daleks that there were only two sets of prints. The ones that ended up in Singapore are probably long destroyed unless someone “acquired” them. It’s possible that one, or more, prints were “rescued” from the batch returned from Australia. The Australia returns were 1975, right? Am I right thinking they contained: Galaxy 4, The Myth Makers, The Smugglers, The Tenth Planet, The Power of the Daleks, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase, The Faceless Ones, The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowmen, The Invasion, The Ice Warriors, The Web of Fear, The Space Pirates, We know Galaxy 4 'Air Lock', The Underwater Menace 2, was from this batch..
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Post by Richard Tipple on Jun 13, 2018 15:55:34 GMT
I wasn't aware that there was ever an Australian branch of the DWAS. Australia had its own fan club. That aside, what make you conclude that this was any different to a lot of the other blatantly untrue fan boasting that used to go on back in the 1980s? I might be remembering the Australian club wrong, but the quote that "JN-T now produces Doctor Clown" sticks in my head after all these years. The reason I believe this one is based on the following facts: - Mister X claims to have seen "all the first stories of each Doctor" in a public forum. I will ask a friend of mine who might have save something from this forum to dig through his archives. - Mister X has a clip from "The Power of the Daleks" a public event - said clip was not in the BBC archives at the time and is not in the BBC archives now. There is no question of this. Although it is not an open-and-shut proof that I would end with "Q.E.D.", it is a reasonable inference that yes, Mister X has TPOTD E1. It is not a big jump to then assume that Mister X has the other 5 episodes. It is a particularly tiny jump when friends of yours have said they are certain that Mister X has them. In any event, I don't think it is a coincidence that Mister X has a clip handy that can be seen at a moment's request. I am more than willing to accept that maybe Mister X was exaggerating. But why bother? It's not like anyone would have thought the less of Mister X if he had said he had seen all but one of the opening stories. And, in any event, Mister X still has a missing clip that all the rest of us would love to see let alone have. Is it not possible that the person claiming to have 'seen all of the first stories for each Doctor' meant he had watched them on Broadcast? If they had a clip or episode they didn't want to share, why did they give it a public screening? And you've definitely seen the Katarina clip? I do hope you're right and people are generous enough to return these clips/epsiodes one day,
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Post by Richard Tipple on Jun 13, 2018 13:40:16 GMT
Link to the excerpt in question:
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