Submerged in ATLANTIS!
Monday, January 4, 2010
First of all, a very happy New Year and New Decade wishes to one and all from Sarcophilous Films!
Well, how better to start 2010 than by announcing another release delay! =D
ATLANTIS had originally been planned for around the end of 2009, sometime between October and end of November at the latest. The director had dug out the original camera elements for the film and this was an exciting prospect for us...being able to work on our first release utlilising the original materials to come up with the best quality film transfer possible.
Well...nothing is ever as simple as that, right? Right. Especially where Sarcophilous is concerned anyway! =D
The film was originally shot on 16mm reversal stock, which means that whatever was shot in-camera also became the cutting print and the final print. Such elements yield problems the likes of splice glue issues, more than than the usual amount of scratches and dirt, etc, etc. Still, Mike went through the 16mm elements foot by foot cleaning it by hand and felt the overall condition was better than he had expected.
The hand-cleaned camera-elements were sent off to a company to be professionally transfered, something that was meant to include a basic clean-up of the worst dirt and scratches but that would leave us to further correct and clean up any freshly-struck transfer when returned. Splice damage was also part of the work paid for. However, the 2 weeks quoted for the work was "queued" and we were looking at possibly double or triple the time. No problem. We were fine with that. Except, when we would chase up progress we would find that work had still not actually begun!
Several phone calls over subsequent weeks would eventually offer us the promise that work on the transfer was pencilled in for the first week of October and that we could expect it no later than 2 weeks after. The lady on the other end of the line was even polite enough to ask whether we were "desperate for it back soon", to which i pointed out that we had plans to release it sometime in October but that the end of October would be a time we were looking at having work finished and the authoring of the DVD rolling. She was confident that work would be done, the transfer and elements returned in advance of that date and that we would meet our somewhat dubious deadline.
Early October came and went and I found myself yet again phoning up to find out what was taking so long...to which the response was one of...uncertainty on the other end of the line! The person i spoke with was unsure of the work and had to go ask someone if they knew what the deal was! Upon returning to the phone she informed me that work was indeed in progress...in fact, it was nearly finished and would be couriered by the end of the day or at least sent no later than the next morning...
A day later, Mike received his original 16mm camera elements back along with the freshly created digital master. Waiting anxiously to hear his thoughts on what we envisioned would be a fairly nice transfer...sharp, colourful and reasonably clean enough...i was a little surprised to hear from the director that the transfer was indeed sharp and colourful, yet with a deluge of vertical "tramline scratches", dirt and even the film melting off the screen where splice-glue issues were apparent!
After viewing the new master myself, i was even more horrified to discover that Mike had been maybe a little restrained and polite in his assessment of the digital master! It gave me the impression that the company ('Alive Studios' in case you wish to avoid them anytime in the future) had forgotten about the work completely and, upon my final phone call prompt, had rushed a transfer through that day and sent it the next morning! Indeed, the colours were lovely and the clarity was great...as good as we could have wished for in fact. But the basic/worst damage and dirt removal that was meant to be part of the basic service we paid for was not done and their claims to repair any splice damage/issues also was obviously not undertaken. What we ended up with was a beautiful, vibrant, colourful and sharp transfer of ATLANTIS ruined by more vertical tramline scratches than an old silent movie and the image virtually slipping off the screen at times during spliced sections. It was deemed unusable, due to the amount of time and money that would have been needed to try and make it good...
Fearing that we may have to go with the old 3/4" U-Matic master, i was happy to learn that Mike still had the original 1" video master that was originally created from the camera-elements when the film was completed. This 1" video master had been used to create the U-Matic master all those years back and so would be superior to that less-desirable 3/4" source even if it would maybe not match the sharpness and colour palette of the digital transfer.
Mike sent the 1" video master off to a studio he has used in the past and they created a fresh Betacam SP master. The transfer looks clean and stable and the colours, whilst not to the strength of the digital transfer, are solid. With work still to be finished on getting it just right, we are sure this will be a happy ending to an otherwise nightmare of a few months for this film!
The director has been working on correcting various issues with the transfer as far as image and audio quality as well as edits and even continued to do so over the Xmas period! And, just so you know, he even huddled together actors Phil Lyndon, Judith Holding and June Bunday to sit in on the commentary with him and they had great fun recording it....so, all's well that ends well!
So, with various issues causing setbacks (the lazy transfer service of 'Alive Studios', the recession, distribution hassles, etc, etc.) the ATLANTIS release was put on hold. The work continues, the end is drawing near...but it could be a month or more before we can finally get this one out there...
We just thought you would like to know what has been going on...=D
Your thoughts on the work, the release and anything else Sarcophilous Films-related are always welcome...so jump in!
Well, how better to start 2010 than by announcing another release delay! =D
ATLANTIS had originally been planned for around the end of 2009, sometime between October and end of November at the latest. The director had dug out the original camera elements for the film and this was an exciting prospect for us...being able to work on our first release utlilising the original materials to come up with the best quality film transfer possible.
Well...nothing is ever as simple as that, right? Right. Especially where Sarcophilous is concerned anyway! =D
The film was originally shot on 16mm reversal stock, which means that whatever was shot in-camera also became the cutting print and the final print. Such elements yield problems the likes of splice glue issues, more than than the usual amount of scratches and dirt, etc, etc. Still, Mike went through the 16mm elements foot by foot cleaning it by hand and felt the overall condition was better than he had expected.
The hand-cleaned camera-elements were sent off to a company to be professionally transfered, something that was meant to include a basic clean-up of the worst dirt and scratches but that would leave us to further correct and clean up any freshly-struck transfer when returned. Splice damage was also part of the work paid for. However, the 2 weeks quoted for the work was "queued" and we were looking at possibly double or triple the time. No problem. We were fine with that. Except, when we would chase up progress we would find that work had still not actually begun!
Several phone calls over subsequent weeks would eventually offer us the promise that work on the transfer was pencilled in for the first week of October and that we could expect it no later than 2 weeks after. The lady on the other end of the line was even polite enough to ask whether we were "desperate for it back soon", to which i pointed out that we had plans to release it sometime in October but that the end of October would be a time we were looking at having work finished and the authoring of the DVD rolling. She was confident that work would be done, the transfer and elements returned in advance of that date and that we would meet our somewhat dubious deadline.
Early October came and went and I found myself yet again phoning up to find out what was taking so long...to which the response was one of...uncertainty on the other end of the line! The person i spoke with was unsure of the work and had to go ask someone if they knew what the deal was! Upon returning to the phone she informed me that work was indeed in progress...in fact, it was nearly finished and would be couriered by the end of the day or at least sent no later than the next morning...
A day later, Mike received his original 16mm camera elements back along with the freshly created digital master. Waiting anxiously to hear his thoughts on what we envisioned would be a fairly nice transfer...sharp, colourful and reasonably clean enough...i was a little surprised to hear from the director that the transfer was indeed sharp and colourful, yet with a deluge of vertical "tramline scratches", dirt and even the film melting off the screen where splice-glue issues were apparent!
After viewing the new master myself, i was even more horrified to discover that Mike had been maybe a little restrained and polite in his assessment of the digital master! It gave me the impression that the company ('Alive Studios' in case you wish to avoid them anytime in the future) had forgotten about the work completely and, upon my final phone call prompt, had rushed a transfer through that day and sent it the next morning! Indeed, the colours were lovely and the clarity was great...as good as we could have wished for in fact. But the basic/worst damage and dirt removal that was meant to be part of the basic service we paid for was not done and their claims to repair any splice damage/issues also was obviously not undertaken. What we ended up with was a beautiful, vibrant, colourful and sharp transfer of ATLANTIS ruined by more vertical tramline scratches than an old silent movie and the image virtually slipping off the screen at times during spliced sections. It was deemed unusable, due to the amount of time and money that would have been needed to try and make it good...
Fearing that we may have to go with the old 3/4" U-Matic master, i was happy to learn that Mike still had the original 1" video master that was originally created from the camera-elements when the film was completed. This 1" video master had been used to create the U-Matic master all those years back and so would be superior to that less-desirable 3/4" source even if it would maybe not match the sharpness and colour palette of the digital transfer.
Mike sent the 1" video master off to a studio he has used in the past and they created a fresh Betacam SP master. The transfer looks clean and stable and the colours, whilst not to the strength of the digital transfer, are solid. With work still to be finished on getting it just right, we are sure this will be a happy ending to an otherwise nightmare of a few months for this film!
The director has been working on correcting various issues with the transfer as far as image and audio quality as well as edits and even continued to do so over the Xmas period! And, just so you know, he even huddled together actors Phil Lyndon, Judith Holding and June Bunday to sit in on the commentary with him and they had great fun recording it....so, all's well that ends well!
So, with various issues causing setbacks (the lazy transfer service of 'Alive Studios', the recession, distribution hassles, etc, etc.) the ATLANTIS release was put on hold. The work continues, the end is drawing near...but it could be a month or more before we can finally get this one out there...
We just thought you would like to know what has been going on...=D
Your thoughts on the work, the release and anything else Sarcophilous Films-related are always welcome...so jump in!
