Charlie Chaplin's Essanay Comedies 1915-1916 Blu ray

[easydreamer]

The slipcover I have clearly says "With music by Carl Davis" just like the Mutual one, but the mockup artwork, seen in the DB entry here or in Amazon, does not. I wonder if BFI removed the slipcover due to the misprint...

[Count Orlok]

Originally Posted by easydreamer

The slipcover I have clearly says "With music by Carl Davis" just like the Mutual one, but the mockup artwork, seen in the DB entry here or in Amazon, does not. I wonder if BFI removed the slipcover due to the misprint...

Interesting. I wonder if the BFI will offer a replacement program for the misprinted packaging and slip.Maybe if enough people inquire about it, they'll consider the offer.

[MichaelB]

I'd rather the BFI's increasingly limited resources were spent on the contents of discs rather than packaging fripperies.

[Count Orlok]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

I'd rather the BFI's increasingly limited resources were spent on the contents of discs rather than packaging fripperies.

I agree, but it was just a thought.

[Magic Monkey]

BFI seems to be a company that goofs up their releases, both Essanay and Mutual Blu-ray sets have errors everywhere.

I wonder if they goofed up the "Triple Trouble" as well.

I received the Essanay set with the erroneous slipcover, however, the Mutual set I ordered at the same time, came without the slipcover. Perhaps the slipcovers are limited?

[Count Orlok]

Originally Posted by Magic Monkey

BFI seems to be a company that goofs up their releases, both Essanay and Mutual Blu-ray sets have errors everywhere.

I wonder if they goofed up the "Triple Trouble" as well.

I received the Essanay set with the erroneous slipcover, however, the Mutual set I ordered at the same time, came without the slipcover. Perhaps the slipcovers are limited?

I'm actually happy with the BFI BD's I own, but quality control should always look twice before replication. If you want a few goofed up silents, look up Kino's Nosferatu frame rate issue, their botched ratios on Diary Of A Lost Girl and Spione, and the audio sync issues on Madhouse. They seriously came out and told customers it wasn't their fault that they botched up, and then blamed the problems on the masters they were given. It was complete BS. We had emails from the restoration workshops with the tech info on the restorations, but then they just blamed us customers for our equipment being set up wrong. Completely unprofessional.

[Magic Monkey]

Sounds truly awful.

I don't know if it's better than lying and blaming others, but BFI plays mute with my inquiries of the "Triple Trouble" (+other minor errors with the release).

[bigshot]

And if you want a goofed up set of the Mutual comedies, check out the Flicker Alley set. Several of those have soundtracks that are as much as two or three seconds out of sync with the picture.

My recommendation is if a disc has problems return it for a refund.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Magic Monkey

BFI seems to be a company that goofs up their releases.

It's would be much fairer to say "a small amount of their releases", except if you consider a rate of defect below 5% to be already enough to make such a wide consideration.

NB : I don't want to defend their errors / whatever you want to call them, I just think that this statement is way hyperbolic considering how many BFI actually have issues and how many of them aren't fixed by a replacement program.

[Magic Monkey]

Well, all BFI releases I have bought have errors, so it's 100% error rate for me as a consumer. I.e. my experience is that "BFI seems to be a company that goofs up their releases.".

I don't know about their replacement program, good if they do it. However, like I posted already, my experience about them taking responsibility of their releases is not good since they play mute to my inquiries.

[aewb]

Originally Posted by Magic Monkey

Well, all BFI releases I have bought have errors, so it's 100% error rate for me as a consumer. I.e. my experience is that "BFI seems to be a company that goofs up their releases.".

What releases are you talking about?

[Magic Monkey]

Originally Posted by aewb

What releases are you talking about?

Why? Does it change my experience with the BFI releases because how many of them I have?

[aewb]

Originally Posted by Magic Monkey

Why? Does it change my experience with the BFI releases because how many of them I have?

No, I was just curious because I own quite a few BFI releases and can only think of a couple (Potemkin, Autumn Afternoon) with errors.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Magic Monkey

Why? Does it change my experience with the BFI releases because how many of them I have?

Your samples might not be representative. It would be YOUR experience with their work, not their actual general work.

Let's imagine :

- your view : You like Chaplin. You're living in the UK. You bought the 2 sets (Essanay and Mutual). That's the only BFI releases you have, and it's not so much for being BFI releases than being Chaplin stuff. They have mistakes so 100% of your BFI releases are flawed.

- their actual general work : The BFI have roughly released 160 BDs. Here are the ones with known issues : Essanay set, Mutual set, Eyes without a face (master supplied by Gaumont lacks 40 sec), Battleship Potemkin (wrong resolution used for the master), An Autumn Afternoon (main movie over-compressed), The Innocents (freezing issue), The Leopard (pixellisation issue). You could add Bande à part which didn't correct the color-timing like Criterion did. That's 5% faulty releases. Out of these, 4 of them have received a replacement program. That leaves 2.5% faulty releases.

Your view says "100% faulty". The real view is closer to 2.5% faulty. Even if I missed half of them, it's still only 5% faulty : 20 times less.

[Magic Monkey]

Don't twist my words. I wrote: "Well, all BFI releases I have bought have errors, so it's 100% error rate for me as a consumer."

[bigshot]

If you think a release is messed up, return it for a refund. Don't encourage sloppiness by supporting sloppy releases. If it isn't a big enough problem for you to bother to return it, then don't get all hot and bothered over it.

There's no point in sweating the little things.

[mattyl149]

Originally Posted by Magic Monkey

Don't twist my words. I wrote: "Well, all BFI releases I have bought have errors, so it's 100% error rate for me as a consumer."

No one is twisting your words. Tenia has listed the releases that have had problems

I suppose Seven Samurai could be included because not everyone was happy the transfer and there might be other similar titles

If you have all 160 releases and they all have a problem then clearly something is wrong. If you have five including some of those listed then I can understand

If you have 20 or more then I, along with other people would be interested which other titles are affected because with the number of people here who buy these releases then I'm sure these would've been picked up by other people

A damaged booklet could be an issue to some people but most would tend to agree a problem with the transfer is more important

[Magic Monkey]

Originally Posted by bigshot

If you think a release is messed up, return it for a refund. Don't encourage sloppiness by supporting sloppy releases. If it isn't a big enough problem for you to bother to return it, then don't get all hot and bothered over it.

The world isn't black & white. There's other options. Like trying to contact them and possibly getting a corrected replacement.

By your advice, I should only either A) return the item and don't have all of the Chap Essanay shorts, B) keep the item and shut up. I'm sorry but neither one of these are an option for me.

[Magic Monkey]

Originally Posted by mattyl149

No one is twisting your words.

Are you really trying to say that the following is not trying to make my words appear in different way?

Originally Posted by tenia

Your view says "100% faulty". The real view is closer to 2.5% faulty.

Perhaps I don't understand this "view", for what it's trying to say, I'm not a native English speaker, but if somebody says that "real view" is something other than what I wrote, then I take it as like somebody is trying to make my words/opinion false.

This is what I wrote, once again: "all BFI releases I have bought have errors, so it's 100% error rate for me as a consumer." Are you (plural) saying that my view/experience is incorrect, i.e. not real?

I'm little surprised that this is what you're interested in more, not in the, in my opionion, BIG "Triple Trouble" problem I wrote.

[gouryella]

Originally Posted by tenia

....Here are the ones with known issues : Essanay set, Mutual set, Eyes without a face (master supplied by Gaumont lacks 40 sec), Battleship Potemkin (wrong resolution used for the master), An Autumn Afternoon (main movie over-compressed), The Innocents (freezing issue), The Leopard (pixellisation issue). You could add Bande à part which didn't correct the color-timing like Criterion did. That's 5% faulty releases. Out of these, 4 of them have received a replacement program.....

I have bought Eyes Without A Face, An Autumn Afternoon, The Innocents, The Leopard and Bande A Part within the last 6 months. Could you please tell me which of these have had a disc replacement and roughly how long ago? Just wondering if there is anything wrong with the ones I have.