Helen

Haven't got a DVD player yet but the computer grudgingly plays them so STE, if you are still planning on recording things on to DVD, here is a very brief sample of my wish list!

MY DEATH IS A MOCKERY (1951) and PORT OF ESCAPE (1956), two, I think, B movies with Bill Kerr in, along with Donald Houston in the first film and Googie Withers & John McCallum in the second. I keep getting my hopes up that they'll be on at about 3 in the morning on ITV, but it only ever seems to be 'Gaolbreak' and 'Cover Girl Killer' at the moment...

DANGER WITHIN and DANCE HALL would be welcome, as would THE BLUE LAGOON, from 1949, which seems to have disappeared. It would be great to have A KID FOR TWO FARTHINGS on DVD as that would look stunning in digital quality.

Oh, by the way, if you go on to the Blackstar website they are taking pre-orders for the DVD of HELL DRIVERS which will be released on 26th January. Great news! Don't want to rant off topic too much but it would be fantastic if there were far more Stanley Baker films on TV as IMHO he is not as widely known these days as he should be. The last however many years has seen a resurgence in popularity of Michael Caine and his elevation to lad icon; it's about time for a Stanley Baker revival.

I also think that it is about time more attention was given to past British actors in the media in general so that more interest could be created in them. (There was a very poor British showing in that Channel 4 poll.) Programmes like the recent David Niven documentary are a good start, but there's a long way to go.

DB7

I've come across a couple of sites selling DVD-R's of old classics. One using a co.uk domain and another US-based site selling discs usder the claim "movies that have not renewed copyright. They are in the "Public Domain" and can be packaged, resold and recorded in various formats legally for distribution."

Having had a quick peek at their list I immediately spotted Roy Ward-Baker's Asylum (1972) so I'm a bit sceptical as it's been recently released on DVD.

Steve Crook

I'd be dubious of any claim like that. Wasn't copyright extended to 75 years?

I'm not saying anyone should or shouldn't use services like that. Just be aware of the situation. If they're of dubious quality it does make it harder to complain

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

DB7

I've tried a few. Some provide accurate information on the condition of the copy, whilst others fail to mention they are selling second gen copies and charge an exorbitant amount.

I'll send you a mail of the sites I'm talking of Steve.

MissGossage

I share SteveCrook's concern - "public domain" is a notoriously nebulous concept that often has little legal basis, especially in the case of sites like these.

Also, definitions vary from country to country: what's public domain in the US may not be (and probably isn't) public domain here - a very good example being Hitchcock's British films.

In the case of the original request, 'The Night My Number Came Up' is currently owned by Canal Plus (which bought up the old Ealing catalogue a few years ago), and you would certainly need their permission in order to stay on the right side of the law regarding ANY form of distribution, profit-making or otherwise. Altruistic motives about letting more people see this masterpiece don't cut much ice with copyright holders when they're on the warpath.

And Sanndevil... you're right about the length of pieces of string. The cost of producing a DVD depends on all sorts of factors, such as the availability and condition of original materials (often shockingly poor: splices, scratches, colour fading, you name it), the quality of the telecine (doing it in one go is vastly cheaper than grading it shot-by-shot, but the latter is obviously far better quality-wise), whether or not any kind of clean-up (analogue or digital) is necessary, DVD authoring (bog-standard single-menu or elaborate multimedia interface?), extras and so on.

And much the same is true of the rights: 'Lawrence of Arabia' would obviously cost you millions even if Columbia was minded to sell, but an obscure cheapie from decades ago probably only a few thousand (or even hundreds, if it's REALLY obscure). Basically, the price reflects the likely sales and profits, and is negotiated on a per-title basis.

You also have to factor in physical production, distribution and marketing costs, and BBFC classification (compulsory for DVD) - so if you're talking producing a DVD from scratch (i.e. a celluloid original), we're talking a budget of high four figures minimum and probably five.

DB7

Out out of interest, approximately how much do you would it have would it have cost the BFI to produce the Hagen/Vorhaus double-header of the Ghost Camera & Broken Journey?

MissGossage

The only people who can accurately answer this would be BFI Video themselves: this kind of information is rarely put in the public domain except in the form of occasional case studies.

That said, educated guesswork suggests it probably wouldn't have been that expensive, as this is exactly the kind of thing I meant when I referred to obscure decades-old films.

For starters, I doubt the rights cost that much (there'd be very little commercial mileage), and the technical quality requirements wouldn't be that stringent either, as I believe it was a VHS-only release, so there'd be no DVD authoring, encoding and mastering costs, and I suspect it was probably a one-light telecine to keep costs down (i.e. hundreds rather than thousands of pounds). And presumably the BFI had physical access to prints from the NFTVA already - so quite a few of the costs I mentioned above would either be drastically cut or eliminated altogether.

But you still have to pay for physical duplication, artwork, distribution, marketing and BBFC classification - so even assuming the lowest conceivable costs you'd be unlikely to end up with a bill of less than mid-four figures. And that's about as low as it's ever realistically going to get.

philip_rhoades

Hi people,

I think going into DVD production is a great idea. I have been thinking about this for a little while myself but I thought I would just pay a company to do this particular job I had in mind.

If people could get the resources together to do otherwise unavailable Brit films, I would certainly be a buyer.

Regards,

Phil.

Jim

ALL THESE RECORDINGS ARE FINE, BUT HOW DO YOU EDIT OUT THE COMMERCIALS?

Good morning boys.

Steve Crook

That's what the Fast Forward button is for :)

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

DB7

It's taken me a few weeks of trial and error, reading conflicting help guides, trying different software but you can author a very good DVD with a menu and chapters from your PC.

I was so chuffed when my first authored disc played the fact that I'd titled it Wrong Asrm of the Law failed to damped my enthusiasm.

Now for a capture card so I can transfer my VHS's to DVD.

Wetherby Pond

If someone else owns the rights and hasn't explicitly granted you permission in writing to distribute copies (whether for profit or not), the answer is a very definite yes.

ANY sale is illegal without the permission of the rights holder - it doesn't matter whether it's to your best mate or a total stranger.

Of course, if there genuinely isn't a rights holder (for instance, if all the creative contributors are long dead and the production company went bust decades ago), then you might be in the clear - provided you can demonstrate that you have genuinely made every effort to track them down in the event that you turn out to be wrong.

Steve Crook

How do you know they'll last for decad es?

Steve
In a devilish mood

Wetherby Pond

The digital data is theoretically capable of lasting for ever - the problem is ensuring that the carrier preserves it intact!

Steve Crook

Aye, there's the rub - "theoretically"

Steve