Well, the "best ones" are in the eye of the beholder, of course. With regards to the deleted scenes, we picked what we thought were the most interesting ones and tried to find a balance in our selection between the three seasons (and the pilots), those that are already "out there" vs. those that haven't been seen before, and long ones vs. short ones. Sometimes, we had to make hard choices. For example, the deleted material from "Operation -- Annihilate" that shows Peter Kirk on the bridge is classic and memorable, but since it's well known and now available on the Roddenberry Vault Blu-ray set, we decided to give its slot to something else.If you hadn't planned on a volume 2 then you would have used all the best ones for the announced volume.
We really wanted to show that one but, unfortunately, the legal paperwork for the various permissions overwhelmed us. Oh, the pain, the pain...The deleted scene with Dr. Smith and the Robot from "What Are Little Girls Made Of" is my personal fave.![]()
Just one shipment of material that I had that Curt scanned and archived included 187 clapperboard shots plus a lot of other images.
We included many photos from slate (clapperboard) frames but only if they showed something very unique or were part of our narrative. IMHO, most slate frames are uninteresting unless you're a researcher looking for production information.
... and then they're really fascinating and important and invaluable, especially for stellar researchers like Harvey. However, we thought the more general reader might not be quite so enthusiastic about seeing a lot of them so we limited their inclusion.IMHO, most slate frames are uninteresting unless you're a researcher looking for production information...
I'm not familiar with any of this so I can't say.I am curious about 3 things:
1) What finally broke through to get the book project approved? Was it the change of hands to CBS? I remember my conversation with Robert Justman and how strongly he felt that approval for such a project would be virtually impossible. Did the regime change make the difference?
CBS allowed us to use all the images (700+) that we included in the initial draft of the manuscript.2) Tied in with that, just how tedious and involved has the legal paperwork been? I'm sure it wasn't a general 'blanket' agreement to include whatever images you chose, because behind-the-scenes involves many different areas. So, was it a painstaking, image-by-image approval process?
We used the good ones.3) This question gets into the scope of the project and that 'many different areas'. What types of images are 'in' as far as at least being considered and which are 'out'?
The retail price is only $40, and I'm sure it'll be discounted on Amazon, so it's not a lot of....cash.
Neil
As far as the non-HD part, it looks like the deleted scenes were transferred to DV —- DVCPRO or even Mini-DV, as there are a couple of scenes where people’s shoilders and other rounded objects have a stair-step look.I'm still waiting for the $20 to $30 hurdle. It came out for $50 but there's so little that's actually new that plenty of customers reported negative reviews over an expensive rehash, offering more previously released episodes with new commentaries than what's in the vault. "5% new, 95% recycled" doesn't make many want to run out, given the number of reels found in the vault, since a video clip shows tons of shelves with film - laid horizontally and not vertically, so if that was always the case then expect gravity to do a small number on the leading edge of the laid reels, but at least they're not VHS tapes... Did the vinegar effect rot most of the vault's material, meaning the 5% is in reality all that's left - even the mystical gag reels that Gene had decomposing because he played it too many times at conventions?
It might have helped if the Vault had a subtitle on the case reading "Volume I" or, for Truth In Advertising, "Tiny Sample of What Exists Mixed With What Everyone Has Seen Before, A Thousand Times".
As for viewer complaints of "not in HD", that also depends on the following:
* was it filmed in 8mm, 16mm, or 35mm? ( < 35mm will be grainier and not scale well)
* was it restored? (One reviewer claims it's 35mm but with faded color, which is not hard to fix nowadays - I did this sort of color remastering 15 years ago so the technology could only improve vastly since...)
All in all, given the reviews, any one of us or my coworker who hates all things Star Trek could put together a better release, if what the bulk of critics are saying is correct.
But I did buy the Doctor Who Complete Capaldi Years set just for one deleted scene, so it's a matter of time before I get this Vault set.
Even if they lack the funds to restore everything, just even archiving it before the vinegar effect sets in, that would be worth it. But what amounts to tokenism of title-related goodies in a release that's largely a double double-dip, that's one reason why the release has not had the best possible sales.
A lot of great stuff on this page:
https://www.pinterest.com/AlwayzLookin41/rare-star-trek-tos-behind-the-scenes-pics/
Too bad. I would have scanned all of it for free in HD at the Internet Archive so long as they'd let us keep copies, even if they could not be released publicly for X time period.As far as the non-HD part, it looks like the deleted scenes were transferred to DV —- DVCPRO or even Mini-DV, as there are a couple of scenes where people’s shoilders and other rounded objects have a stair-step look.
Considering that they were doing this over years, I wonder if they had done the transfers to DV originally just as a way to view the film reels more easily, with plans to rescan the footage in HD once they had located all that they wanted to use, and for whatever reason, CBS and/or RE decided not to spend the money on doing HD rescans, so the DV transfers had to be used.Too bad. I would have scanned all of it for free in HD at the Internet Archive so long as they'd let us keep copies, even if they could not be released publicly for X time period.
Sorry for the crappy quality, but gives you an idea of the layout at least...Okay, here we are 15 days from the book's release and are we going to get any glimpses or teases of some of the material? It's been a long time since the pre-order went up and we are finally nearly there. I'd love to see a page or two of how it looks and the format etc.
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