E.T. on ebay

[Osi Osgood]

Neat, in that it's letterboxed, or were all super 8 prints in the letterboxed format?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/E-T-The-Ext...UAAOSwEDFeKe19

[Brian Fretwell]

I image it depended on the master material, though showing the full theatrical frame of 1.85:1 wasn't common it did happen. Much better than cropping to the centre section.

[Mike Newell]

Yep pretty similar to what I had in terms of print.

[Brad Miller]

The ET I had many years ago was definitely from a different source. It looked like a dupe of a dupe of a dupe of a dupe and was terribly dark as well and had major vertical jitter issues...but it did have full English titles. The print I had did have letterbox bars, but not quite this pronounced. The print I had also had 35mm changeover cues, splices, etc. It clearly came from a used 35mm theatrical print.

It is interesting to see this, as I was under the impression the ET print I had was a bootleg (that part was obvious) and it was never officially released. I'm guessing this is another bootleg of substantially higher quality.

[Chip Gelmini]

Brad, I still have the copy I bought from you.

[Chip Gelmini]

I was amused by this

[Brad Miller]

Chip, Since you have the actual print, next time you pull it out you should take a few shots and give us a more recent report so we can see how it compares.

[Burton Sundquist]

...There was a print last year on eBay where the seller had no means of offering screenshots, but I took the chance anyway. From Brad's description I probably have the same print, as the vertical jitter was the first thing I noticed during the opening credits. I gave the print a good Filmguard treatment and set it aside. Now may be the time to have a second look. I will report back with screen captures.

[Brad Miller]

Burton, the vertical unsteadiness was printed into the film. It's not your projector.