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Author
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Topic: In Praise of early Blackhawk ...
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted May 07, 2016 12:59 PM
I must give our own Shorty great credit for getting me back into collecting standard 8mm, as I decided to upgrade my Blackhawk collection of silent era Laurel and hardy shorts ...
... and, at least in the case of the ones that I have selected to find, the image quality is by far, much better on the early standard 8mm releases, than any of the super 8 prints that came out later. I think it was Shorty or another person that stated that these early releases were very close if not equaling 16MM quality, and it's no lie!
Many thanks Shorty.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted May 09, 2016 12:06 PM
In some regards, to be fair, some super 8 did improve over time ...
The early MGM super 8 opticals features were absolutely atrocious for image quality! They took what must have been 16MM copies that were bad to begin with, and made super 8 from that. I have a full feature print of "Westworld" from 1974 that goes from barely passable focus to literally "un-focus-able" (yeah, that's probably not a word) ... lacking focus, all in the same print ...
Yet, later on, they're print quality on super 8 optical sound features drastically improved by the late 70's and continued to be "drop jaw" outstanding for the rest of the super 8 optical sound feature run, (ending in 89).
What was so bizarre to me, is that, on the same print as "The Man who Loved Cat Dancing", (a feature I used to have), there would be a 10 minute comedy short from the 1950's (B/W in sepia tone), and the image quality would be incredible, all from the same studio.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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John Hourigan
Master Film Handler
Posts: 301
From: Colorado U.S.A.
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted May 09, 2016 12:34 PM
That inconsistency in quality of prints of that era, coupled with large cash outlays, really tried my patience with film prints. However, the general consensus seems to be, "Well, 'dems da' breaks" or "just re-record the soundtrack" ??????😯
Call me crazy, but if I'm laying out a big chunk of dough, my expectation is that, outside of some understandable imperfections in a negative, the (new) film print should be damn-near perfect -- and why not? We would expect that of any other product, even if it represents less cost than a new film print. Who among us would put up with muffled sound on a $12 CD?
I know that some people will respond that Derann produced good prints in the later years, such as the Disney prints. That was because they negotiated and obtained legal rights to those negatives -- which is required when one is working with copyrighted works.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted May 11, 2016 01:57 PM
I'm just into upgrading my silents, thus far ...
Double Whoopee, (only the second printing of the title, standard 8mm), and "Big Business" (very first run of this title by Blackhawk) ...
In fact, I will do a review of Big Business in a week or two for the review section, which may be a very special, first time ever, review!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted May 13, 2016 11:53 AM
Are you referring to the "Big Business" with music track? I have that re-release as well, and maybe it's just because it was printed a little too bright, but the negative they used (or the original source material was already that way) was more worn overall compared to the U.S. version, as well as, in the case of my print, not quite as sharp ...
... but I must admit, I'll keep it as well as it is interesting to see the same film with different angles, and it is a fun one to project, side to side with the U.S. version!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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