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Post by Ian Menkins on Jan 10, 2012 7:04:38 GMT 10
Hi everyone,
Contrary to the opinion of some members, this forum really has nothing to do with the sale of DVD copies nor does it condone their sale. Some members of this forum may choose to sell copies outside of the forum. Obviously this forum or its moderators cannot be held responsible for any loss of items through the post or technical issues relating to DVDs sold outside of this forum. It is for this reason that I have decided to remove from this forum any future references to the sale of DVDs, as I feel it could be creating the wrong impression that this forum is somehow involved with the sale of DVDs when it never was. The topic has been discussed on this forum, but no advertisements have ever been allowed to appear and no sales have ever been condoned and therefore this forum takes no responsibility for any items sold outside of this forum by persons who are its members.
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Post by fuguewriter on Jan 15, 2012 11:11:26 GMT 10
Understood! Most of all, we simply must lobby for the release of a restored original-print DVD.
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Post by jpavia on Jan 16, 2012 3:28:57 GMT 10
im afraid that will never happen, was in touch with the bbc a few years ago , the original tapes are damaged and would cost between £30,000 and £50,000 to repair. That was from someone very high up in the bbc , and we also had another company look into it
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fred
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Post by fred on Jan 23, 2012 9:16:20 GMT 10
There must have been more than one ' original tape' when it was first screened all over the globe....
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Post by jpavia on Jan 25, 2012 0:31:45 GMT 10
There must have been more than one ' original tape' when it was first screened all over the globe.... all copies from the orignal that would of been shipped to other countries, under bbc contract would of either been returned and destroyed, and that was from a close source at the bbc. Its a real shame |
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Post by Ian Menkins on Apr 23, 2012 16:56:24 GMT 10
I understand that some of the film was shot on ordinary video tape, which often has a short life no matter how well it is stored. I suspect they have most of the film, just parts of it are damaged. Perhaps they are waiting for the right technology to come along to do a repair? Many of the old Goodies and Dr Who films had degraded badly but these were repaired at similar cost. Actually £30,000 and £50,000 would not be much for a company like the BBC, but I guess they are looking at the fact that they may never recover this in sales. The only other alternative would be to refilm it, which would of course be far more expensive. You could add an extra zero to those figures I should imagine.
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Post by Ian Menkins on Apr 23, 2012 16:59:22 GMT 10
I still hold hope that there will be a copy lurking somewhere that will turn up in a trunk in a former BBC employee's attic or basement.
Copies were sent to America too, and some rescreenings on TV occured there some years after the series had finished screening in the UK.
Edits and unused bits may have been left on the cutting room floor by BBC, but some film could still be in the hands of the director. Lost film sometimes turns up decades later in the collections of deceased estates.
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Apr 27, 2012 10:42:19 GMT 10
jpavia's source at the BBC is right. Officially, anyone who bought copies of a programme had the rights to three screenings, then the tapes had to be either destroyed, passed on to another buyer, or returned to the BBC.
In practice, however, many a show slipped through the net. For example, all four episodes of a Doctor Who story sold to Hong Kong in 1967 and long believed destroyed turned up again in 1991.
Diana was shot on film (probably 16mm) and videotape, then edited entirely on to 2" quad videotape masters. This was standard practice for BBC programmes of the 1980's and earlier, though there are odd exceptions. For overseas sales, film prints were made for countries who didn't have the tech to broadcast from vt.
In the early 1990's, the BBC began transferring all it's old programmes made in analogue over to the new D3 digital tapes.
This means no loss in quality, and near perfect cloning (copying) of material.
Given that shows made in the early 1970's are able to be released with a minimum of cleanup/restoration, I find it hard to believe that Diana, made in the mid 80's had deteriorated so badly that a release is out of the question.
Of course, it has been known for masters to suffer damage at the hands of malfunctioning equipment or careless technicians.
There are almost certainly other copies of the show out there. I believe the Beeb just lacks the will to find them, as it's not a 'missing' show, and that's where they're concentrating their efforts at the moment.
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Apr 27, 2012 12:03:44 GMT 10
One final ray of hope...
When film and vt material was edited to master, these were known as '71 edits (I have no idea why). More often than not, these were not the transmitted version of a show. An episode may have overran, or the director and/or producer might have wanted to change the order of a scene, or use a different take of a given shot. This new edit was a '72 edit.
Sometimes an episode would go to a '73 edit, and it's not unknown for '74 edits to occur.
And there are many instances of these earlier edits still surviving in the archives, some containing untransmitted material.
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Post by Ian Menkins on May 23, 2012 18:03:15 GMT 10
Hi Phil, Thank you for the details. So it seems there are some rays of hope that this film has survived, and as you say, it is doubtful that the BBC are going to any great lengths to secure archived film or tape. It will take someone at BBC or elsewhere to make the effort to do this, as occurred recently with The Goodies remasters for example. If there is no interest then there is no priority...
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