|
Hi, Mark I'm trying. For the past couple of months I've had to deal with something called a 'Dazzle Hollywood' firewire device that transfers analogue video into digital video so it can be edited in the computer (Mac G4, in this case). This has been a nightmare beyond belief, as it seems that that device has the not-too-endearing characteristic of locking up the computer and trashing OSX so it won't even boot. Not surprisingly, Dazzle blames Apple... Apple blames Dazzle... and no one else using this device seems to have had any problem but me (!!!). Well, after returning the device to Dazzle, I got a replacement which worked long enough for me to get some of the material into digital format.. but that, too, has now ceased working (and resumed locking the computer), so I'm giving up until I can get a working video input device (Formac, or perhaps even a digital camcorder with DV pass-through).
There are a couple of other areas to work on in the meantime... I've got satisfactory .gif files of generic opening and intertitle Keystone titles, but I have not been able to find the font that David Shepard pointed out and, once I do, I will need find software to appropriately age the titles so they don't stick out like a sore thumb (if you've seen the restoration of 'Battle of the Century', you'll know what I mean). I had this software, but the a week or so ago EVERYTHING crashed on my computer (including the data drive), and it was lost.
The third problem (and certainly not the least!) is getting good sources for everything - well, that's impossible, of course, because there simply AREN'T good sources for everything! ... but, for instance, I have 'Laughing Gas' on 16mm that looks superior to Blackhawk's, and I'd like to use that. Thankfully, someone here has offered assistance in having the films transferred to video (which, of course, will do me exactly no good until I get an input device working!).
One possible workaround is using a standalone DVD recorder (my brother has one). This is able to record weak signals which the Dazzle locked up on. The trouble is, the Mac seems unwilling to play or rip these DVD-Rs, and until I figure THAT out, I don't know how to extract the signal... but I'll keep trying.
If you want to bat this stuff back and forth, I'm always open for help and suggestions. You can continue here, or e-mail me directly at
P.S. ... Has anyone ever seen a print of 'His Prehistoric Past' that's NOT a WAFILMS print? The 'Hollywood Films' abridgement is abridged from the WAFILMS version, and the toy editions are abridged from the Hollywood Films abridgement. I watched a 16mm of this last week, and was surprised to see that it appears to have been patched together from several different source prints (in wildly varying quality)
|
