The Stone Tape (BBC, 1972) - 9th December, 2024 (101 Films)

[Number 28]

Originally Posted by JoelGoodsen

Haha. If they show our wallet some empathy and knock a tenna off the price, we will show them some empathy back.

Maybe they could have dropped the 3 art cards and knocked 50p or quid off the price for a start.

Anyway, I am pleased 101 Films are releasing this on BD and I am buying this ASAP as it is one of Nigel Kneale's works.

[oddbox83]

Price is fine by me - the “tat” looks pretty good and worth the price, same as the Ghostwatch LE.

[FollowTheBear]

Think I'll stick with my old 101 Films dvd, although this looks to be a nice upgrade for the fans. Truth be told, I always found this one's reputation to be overrated. Like a lot of Kneale's plays, the ideas and themes are fascinating, but last time I watched it, it seemed static and stagey. It certainly lacks the finesse that a good director like Lawrence Gordon Clarke brought to those wonderful M.R. James adaptations. Of course, those were shot on film, whereas The Stone Tape is encumbered somewhat by the videotape format. Nevertheless, I'd still be interested how they remaster this one. Let's hope an overzealous restorer doesn't erase those floating, orange orbs that terrorize Jane Asher by mistake! 😁

[BiggusDickus]

Originally Posted by everygrainofsand

That's it up at HMV

https://hmv.com/store/film-tv/blu-ra...Y5Ni4wLjAuMA..

Cheers! Thought i'd missed it with the Zavvi link showing unavailable, so ordered from the link above. I've ordered it on a whim; seen the title before, but not what it was about, and as i like a lot of 70's stuff of the same ilk, so thought i'd give it a go ...

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

Also, I'm not sure if Network were especially interested in doing shot-on-tape stuff on Blu-ray. I may be wrong, but I believe most of their Blu-ray TV releases were remastered from film elements of some sort.

Also I don’t remember Network licensing from the BBC much

[everygrainofsand]

Originally Posted by BiggusDickus

Cheers! Thought i'd missed it with the Zavvi link showing unavailable, so ordered from the link above. I've ordered it on a whim; seen the title before, but not what it was about, and as i like a lot of 70's stuff of the same ilk, so thought i'd give it a go ...

It's a blind buy for me too, Biggus. I know its reputation has largely lasted all these years, plus I was real happy with 101's treatment of Ghostwatch, which really was a gorgeous edition.

I did previously watch a small portion of The Stone Tape on YouTube, and was engrossed by what I saw. It really was quite mad and wonderful; and, as always with these things, it was a beautiful social document of the times. Real delicious stuff. But the upload quality was so bad I turned it off. So I've eagerly decided to give this edition a go. I hope you enjoy your copy, when it arrives!

It'll be classic BBC drama for my Xmas, as I've ordered the forthcoming Box of Delights blu-ray too! The wolves will be running, and big-reeled computers turning

[Sergeant Howie]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

is this restoration in the correct 1080i presentation for European TV stuff?

Excellent point, so we get the correct 25fps too.

[drush9999]

Ghostwatch was correctly 1080i (25fps), so no reason why this wouldn't be

[SamuelTurn]

Got an email from Gerry in their Customer Service dept. and the BD will be REGION B LOCKED

[annubis44]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

Maybe it'll get released in 2025 across the pond although the UK release would be a proper transfer & NOT the 50i-to-60i conversion that the US release of Ghostwatch was.

Not sure I understand the technical aspect, but does that mean my US Blu is inferior to the UK release?

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by annubis44

Not sure I understand the technical aspect, but does that mean my US Blu is inferior to the UK release?

Yes and no.

Original format is 50i and US compatibility and preserving the video motion meant converting it to 60i (no speed change). Basically it’s an upsampled framerate. Shouldn’t make much of a difference on a good converter as it’s not like you’re also downscaling for NTSC when it’s HD. The trained eye can tell the difference but it’s not worth worrying about.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by annubis44

Not sure I understand the technical aspect, but does that mean my US Blu is inferior to the UK release?

No, you really won't notice any significant differences between the two releases.

[annubis44]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

Yes and no.

Original format is 50i and US compatibility and preserving the video motion meant converting it to 60i (no speed change). Basically it’s an upsampled framerate. Shouldn’t make much of a difference on a good converter as it’s not like you’re also downscaling for NTSC when it’s HD. The trained eye can tell the difference but it’s not worth worrying about.

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

No, you really won't notice any significant differences between the two releases.

Good to know. Thank you both!

[Eidolon]

I'm satisfied with my dvd of this one, I'm not keen on upscales.

Apparently Prince of Darkness was inspired by Stone Tape; it becomes quite obvious when you know it. On all accounts John Carpenter made it in part as some attempt at an apology to Nigel Kneale for what happened with Halloween III, but Kneale remained entirely unforgiving.

[Big-D]

I've preordered my copy direct from 101 themselves, so that they get 100% of the profit, rather than the big boys at Amazon.

https://101-films-store.com/collecti...imited-edition

[Big-D]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

I'm satisfied with my dvd of this one, I'm not keen on upscales.

Apparently Prince of Darkness was inspired by Stone Tape; it becomes quite obvious when you know it. On all accounts John Carpenter made it in part as some attempt at an apology to Nigel Kneale for what happened with Halloween III, but Kneale remained entirely unforgiving.

And Halloween III was based on an unfilmed script he wrote for the BBC called "The big, big giggle". Which entails a tv signal causing teenagers to commit suicide.

https://dcairns.wordpress.com/tag/the-big-big-giggle/

I watched the John Mills' Quatermass (1979) recently and there's elements of The big, big giggle in that. Even though I wanted to like it, I found it tedious, convoluted and disappointing. It just wasn't the Bernard Quatermass I knew and enjoyed from previous iterations.

[LigandFields]

The picture artefact people have been talking about is not "lens flare', it's 'tube lag' (is that the correct term?) - part of the electronic camera circuitry becomes saturated by high level signals and takes a while to die down, so it leaves those glowing trails.

I will certainly be pleased to watch this without yukky MPEG compression that is inherent to DVD, and there'd be a lot of scope for sensitive denoising of the audio.

Worth pointing out that they probably preferred to shoot this one on video because of the various visual effects it uses (ghosts etc) which were done with Colour Separation Overlay ('blue screen'). CSO didn't work well on film because it made the film weave/jitter really obvious.

[LigandFields]

Originally Posted by FollowTheBear

Truth be told, I always found this one's reputation to be overrated. Like a lot of Kneale's plays, the ideas and themes are fascinating, but last time I watched it, it seemed static and stagey. It certainly lacks the finesse that a good director like Lawrence Gordon Clarke brought to those wonderful M.R. James adaptations.

It is absolutely an example of 'electronic theatre', totally performed like a stage play is a limited number of sets. Personally I love that. Many of Kneale's best works use the same format (for instance the astounding 2-hander of 'During Barty's Party')
A lot of what I find so effective about the Stone Tape is the intensity and hysteria of the thespian's performances

[Eidolon]

Originally Posted by LigandFields

The picture artefact people have been talking about is not "lens flare', it's 'tube lag' (is that the correct term?) - part of the electronic camera circuitry becomes saturated by high level signals and takes a while to die down, so it leaves those glowing trails.

I will certainly be pleased to watch this without yukky MPEG compression that is inherent to DVD, and there'd be a lot of scope for sensitive denoising of the audio.

Worth pointing out that they probably preferred to shoot this one on video because of the various visual effects it uses (ghosts etc) which were done with Colour Separation Overlay ('blue screen'). CSO didn't work well on film because it made the film weave/jitter really obvious.

It's an issue inherent to old tube cameras, and no way around it.
When I was in early days of video production, we used U-Matic systems with old tube cameras, and they all did it. At the time I found it immensely frustrating, but nowadays I look back at it's effects in old shows and videos as being a bit nostalgic. It's strange how time changes perceptions of things sometimes.

[pferreira]

Strangely enough for the anniversary I watched it for the first time and wrote a review, only realising when I was typing the review that it was the anniversary. A nice coincidence, that doesn't happen very often to me.

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Now up at 101 films. There's a warning at the bottom making note of it being shot on video tape, and asking for empathy. Never head of a label asking for empathy before

Why do I get the feeling when I put in the blu-ray it's going to start screaming and then my screams will end up being recorded on top?