Vintage 3-D on blu-ray

[Robert Furmanek]

Thank you very much for all your kind words and enthusiasm. It's nice to know that our efforts are appreciated.

I wish I could say that we have an unlimited bank account to tap into to get these done. If we don't cut corners and keep the expenses to a bare minimum, the 3-D masters will never get made. There's just not enough interest at the studios and none of them will spend any money. After being in the trenches for the past several years, that's the bottom line and sad truth. The copyright holders just don't care.

We will always focus on the 3-D alignment first and foremost as that is most critical to a satisfactory viewing experience. The films won't be scrubbed clean of all dirt and anomalies but we'll fix the major damage and do the best we can with VERY little money.

You won't believe the corners we have had to cut just recently in order to secure that an important film - with name stars - gets released on 3-D blu-ray. The distributor was going to release it flat and we stepped in just in time.

It's a good thing we're not doing it for the money. That way, we're not disappointed. My goal from day one (nearly 40 years ago) was to get these films seen again and available in 3-D. Thankfully, slowly but surely, it's finally happening!

For anyone interested, here's how the Archive began: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/hi...of-the-archive

[omahajon]

Glad our dollars actually helped you. Been showing family and friends Bubble and Dragonfly on my 3D set. They loved them.

Eager for more.

[mar3o]

Very exciting news about all the titles coming out this year. It's sad to hear that the studios refuse to invest in these releases. They really just don't care.

Thankfully there are are a few people out there who do care about preserving these films in 3D, and making them available for the public. It's sad to know that the people that put so much hard work in these releases have to cut so many corners just to make it happen, and get so little back.

I think the studios are blind, honestly. If the Best Buy shelves were full of vintage 3D films years ago, when 3D TVs were first hitting the market, I think there would have been far more early adopters of the home 3D format. People would have been excited to have 3D content, especially strong 3D content like the older 3D films often had, to enjoy on their new 3D sets. All these titles were just waiting to be released properly - and the studios just sat on them and did nothing.

[sinople]

This is why we need serious copyright reform in this country.

[Robert Furmanek]

Originally Posted by mar3o

I think the studios are blind, honestly. If the Best Buy shelves were full of vintage 3D films years ago, when 3D TVs were first hitting the market, I think there would have been far more early adopters of the home 3D format. People would have been excited to have 3D content, especially strong 3D content like the older 3D films often had, to enjoy on their new 3D sets. All these titles were just waiting to be released properly - and the studios just sat on them and did nothing.

That was precisely our pitch to the bean counters a few years ago. Get the content out there and it will help sales of 3-D displays. No, they wanted to adopt a wait-and-see attitude and IF 3-D did well in the home, they would only then spend money on the catalog titles.

Well, you know what happened.

Of all the studios, WB is committed to restoring their huge 3-D library which includes RKO and MGM titles. But at one film every few years, it's going to be a very long time before they get around to films like THE MOONLIGHTER with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray or SECOND CHANCE with Robert Mitchum, Linda Darnell and Jack Palance. I've just about given up on ever seeing SON OF SINBAD or LOUISIANA TERRITORY.

NBCUniversal has restored CREATURE but none others. They hold excellent 3-D films from Budd Boetticher, Jack Arnold and Douglas Sirk. I tried to convince Criterion in licensing them but they had no interest.

Paramount has done nothing and Sony has only done "the important ones" which means the William Castle titles have not been touched. MGM has done some preservation of individual sides but does not have any 3-D masters. That's why I tried to convince Shout! to release BWANA DEVIL. They have the license but don't want to spend any money so it will most likely get released flat. We cut every corner to try and make it happen but they don't respond.

From my experience, the dedicated individuals in the studio archives are good people and want to see these titles preserved. But their hands are tied.

[Taygan315]

Originally Posted by Robert Furmanek

That was precisely our pitch to the bean counters a few years ago. Get the content out there and it will help sales of 3-D displays. No, they wanted to adopt a wait-and-see attitude and IF 3-D did well in the home, they would only then spend money on the catalog titles.

Well, you know what happened.

Of all the studios, WB is committed to restoring their huge 3-D library which includes RKO and MGM titles. But at one film every few years, it's going to be a very long time before they get around to films like THE MOONLIGHTER with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray or SECOND CHANCE with Robert Mitchum, Linda Darnell and Jack Palance. I've just about given up on ever seeing SON OF SINBAD or LOUISIANA TERRITORY.

NBCUniversal has restored CREATURE but none others. They hold excellent 3-D films from Budd Boetticher, Jack Arnold and Douglas Sirk. I tried to convince Criterion in licensing them but they had no interest.

Paramount has done nothing and Sony has only done "the important ones" which means the William Castle titles have not been touched. MGM has done some preservation of individual sides but does not have any 3-D masters. That's why I tried to convince Shout! to release BWANA DEVIL. They have the license but don't want to spend any money so it will most likely get released flat. We cut every corner to try and make it happen but they don't respond.

From my experience, the dedicated individuals in the studio archives are good people and want to see these titles preserved. But their hands are tied.

They shouldn't even BOTHER releasing Bawana Devil if they are not going to release a 3D version,imo.

[TM2-Megatron]

With any luck, if the 3-D Film Archive's releases over the next two years do as well as Dragonfly Squadron and The Bubble in sales, maybe some of those studios who are currently resistant or just unwilling to spend any extra money to release their films in 3-D will wise up.

What happened with Inferno (reissuing a region free version with lossless audio due to better than expected sales) certainly indicates that good enough sales of a 3-D title can make a studio reconsider their poor decisions.

[Wootini]

I would buy Jaws 3-D in a heartbeat. Just sayin' ;-)

[evoll]

Originally Posted by Wootini

I would buy Jaws 3-D in a heartbeat. Just sayin' ;-)

Same here and Friday the 13th 3 in 3d would be nice.

[thebat2]

Originally Posted by evoll

Same here and Friday the 13th 3 in 3d would be nice.

I'd buy both as well.

[8traxrule]

Friday the 13th Part 3 is one of my holy grail titles. I have a bootleg DVD made from the Japanese field-sequential VHD videodisc, but the quality is awful and field-sequential won't even work on modern HDTVs. I would have bought the whole box set that came out last year just to get Part 3 in real 3D, but they screwed up and included the horrible old disc with the red/blue format instead.

[nycomet]

Originally Posted by Wootini

I would buy Jaws 3-D in a heartbeat. Just sayin' ;-)

Originally Posted by evoll

Same here and Friday the 13th 3 in 3d would be nice.

I would purchase those 3D BD releases and I would also like to see 3D BD releases of "It Came From Outer Space" and "Revenge of the Creature" among others.

3-D Film Archives have my complete support. Thank you for the commitment, enthusiasm and hard work.

[Wootini]

Originally Posted by 8traxrule

Friday the 13th Part 3 is one of my holy grail titles. I have a bootleg DVD made from the Japanese field-sequential VHD videodisc, but the quality is awful and field-sequential won't even work on modern HDTVs. I would have bought the whole box set that came out last year just to get Part 3 in real 3D, but they screwed up and included the horrible old disc with the red/blue format instead.

I actually found a copy online of Friday 3D that must have come from that same source, but they'd made it SBS, so I actually can watch it. But yeah, the quality is crappy and it's split into 5 or 6 parts (I haven't actually bothered to link them all together). A high-quality 3D Blu-ray would be awesome.

[Interdimensional]

Originally Posted by Robert Furmanek

Of all the studios, WB is committed to restoring their huge 3-D library which includes RKO and MGM titles. But at one film every few years, it's going to be a very long time before they get around to films like THE MOONLIGHTER with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray or SECOND CHANCE with Robert Mitchum, Linda Darnell and Jack Palance. I've just about given up on ever seeing SON OF SINBAD or LOUISIANA TERRITORY.

NBCUniversal has restored CREATURE but none others. They hold excellent 3-D films from Budd Boetticher, Jack Arnold and Douglas Sirk. I tried to convince Criterion in licensing them but they had no interest.

Paramount has done nothing and Sony has only done "the important ones" which means the William Castle titles have not been touched. MGM has done some preservation of individual sides but does not have any 3-D masters. That's why I tried to convince Shout! to release BWANA DEVIL. They have the license but don't want to spend any money so it will most likely get released flat. We cut every corner to try and make it happen but they don't respond.

From my experience, the dedicated individuals in the studio archives are good people and want to see these titles preserved. But their hands are tied.

Is WB's commitment ongoing? I appreciate their efforts, but kinda assumed they'd stop, or at least slow down(even more) once they got through 'the important ones'. I hope they do eventually get to 'Second Chance', I've been going through a bit of a Jack Palance kick recently, I'd like to see at least one of his two 3-D movies at some point.

Seems strange that a fortune was spent converting Wizard of Oz for 3D, before going near MGM's original actual 3D features. Although that was certainly an excellent conversion, and a very popular film. The same could be said for Universal converting Jurassic Park, although I wouldn't be surprised if that expense was quick enough in paying for itself. I'd buy a Creature boxset just to get the second movie in 3d. If they ever manage to reboot that franchise (as they've occasionally planned), maybe it'll be an expense they can finally justify.

Much gratitude to all the individuals pushing to see that these and other 3-D films get preserved intact, and eventually become available in their original format.

[Taygan315]

Originally Posted by nycomet

I would purchase those 3D BD releases and I would also like to see 3D BD releases of "It Came From Outer Space" and "Revenge of the Creature" among others.

3-D Film Archives have my complete support. Thank you for the commitment, enthusiasm and hard work.

Right there with you nycomet...especially It Came From Outer Space and Revenge Of The Creature!!

[omahajon]

Originally Posted by Interdimensional

Is WB's commitment ongoing? I appreciate their efforts, but kinda assumed they'd stop, or at least slow down(even more) once they got through 'the important ones'. I hope they do eventually get to 'Second Chance', I've been going through a bit of a Jack Palance kick recently, I'd like to see at least one of his two 3-D movies at some point.

Seems strange that a fortune was spent converting Wizard of Oz for 3D, before going near MGM's original actual 3D features. Although that was certainly an excellent conversion, and a very popular film. The same could be said for Universal converting Jurassic Park, although I wouldn't be surprised if that expense was quick enough in paying for itself. I'd buy a Creature boxset just to get the second movie in 3d. If they ever manage to reboot that franchise (as they've occasionally planned), maybe it'll be an expense they can finally justify.

Much gratitude to all the individuals pushing to see that these and other 3-D films get preserved intact, and eventually become available in their original format.

WB continuously release the new films on 3D Blu-ray and they do have Kiss Me Kate coming in March.

[film11]

Originally Posted by 8traxrule

Friday the 13th Part 3 is one of my holy grail titles. I have a bootleg DVD made from the Japanese field-sequential VHD videodisc, but the quality is awful and field-sequential won't even work on modern HDTVs. I would have bought the whole box set that came out last year just to get Part 3 in real 3D, but they screwed up and included the horrible old disc with the red/blue format instead.

Perhaps your search for the Grail is over?

http://www.importcds.com/movies/2540...e-13th-pt-3-3d

Someone said that this is an anaglyph release. But I have to wonder if that is truly the case since it was released in January 2013 and active/passive 3D was already the standard.

[Interdimensional]

Here's actual vintage 3-D film:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANDY-WARHOLS...item58bc29babf

shot in the Space-Vision process.



If I had the money (and the ability to screen 35mm) I'd be tempted to consider it.

Apparently this was shown in 3d on Channel 4 back in 2009, but the only blu-ray release so far has been flat.

Originally Posted by omahajon

WB continuously release the new films on 3D Blu-ray and they do have Kiss Me Kate coming in March.

I'm aware of that (have it pre-ordered). My position is that their past actions give no guarantee of their future actions.

To date they've done Dial M for Murder, a Hitchcock film, House of Wax, a big hit in the 50s and in rereleases. Kiss Me Kate is another popular film.

I don't think it's hard for the studio to justify spending money on these important titles. But can we expect them to continue to give the same treatment to some of the more obscure films in their back catalog? I'm hopeful and I'd like to think so, but I'll take a wait and see approach.

[cinerama]

Originally Posted by Interdimensional

Here's actual vintage 3-D film:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANDY-WARHOLS...item58bc29babf

shot in the Space-Vision process.



If I had the money (and the ability to screen 35mm) I'd be tempted to consider it.

Anyone have the equipment to convert this to Blu-ray 3D?