Making original Young Indy Chronicles available to everyone... any ideas?

the Fiddler

New member
It seems that the new DVD releases, which will finally give us "all" the original episodes, probably won't have the true original episodes. They'll have the new edited up ones without old Indy or whatever. At least that's what I'm getting by reading between the lines and looking at LucasFilm's past record. I just don't see them doing all that work to create these new "movies" and then going back and giving us the original Chronicles on DVD.

So here's the idea I've been rolling around for a while: Make our own set from the best sources available. There are several sets of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD available through bittorrent. The torrents can be found at the www.originaltrilogy.com forums. I been thinking of doing something similar with Young Indy. We could start with the LaserDisc set sold here on ebay. Transfer these 15 episodes to DVD (plus the behind the scenes feature), then start looking for other sources (maybe somebody has some beta recordings of them, or if not then VHS), to finish the set. I would color correct and do what I could to make them the best transfers possible within reason. Then they could be made available to true Indyfans through bittorrent. Maybe in two forms: a made to burn to DVD set, and a DivX set for download to computer only.

I'm doing a side business, to put myself through college, of converting people's old videos to DVD and various video editing and conversion stuff like that. So I'm going to get or already have certain equipment needed to make this happen, such as the Canopus TwinPact100 which will clean up analogue video as is converts it to digital. This I can justify buying on my own, as an expense that will pay itself off. However, I don't have the same justification when it comes to $350 for Young Indy LaserDiscs and a LaserDisc player (remember I'm just a college student, and live from check-to-check that I get from my video projects). I don't have the money to do it on my own. And wouldn't want to do it for just myself anyway. If I'm going to do all that work, I might as well make it available to everyone or at least all true Indyfans.

So I'm wondering if anyone has any great ideas on how people might be able to contribute to some sort of fund or something, so I could get this stuff and start making these DVD's for everyone? The problem is, I don't want to just say, hey donate to this non-profit paypal account that's in my name. You guys don't know me and I don't expect you to just say "sure, we'll throw some money at you," with no way to know if I'm for real. But I haven't thought of any other ways to make something like this work. In fact, mostly what I'm needing is just the money to purchase the LaserDiscs. I may be able to borrow a LaserDisc player from a friend of a friend, in return for converting some of his LaserDiscs to DVD. So really the only expense I'm not covered on is the LaserDiscs. Any ideas on how best to raise the $350? Assuming some of you are interested.

In fact we could get everyone involved, and have people make disc lables and DVD clamshell covers, and perhaps even menus (depending on how many go on a disc) and all that. As well as contributing their original tapings of the shows from when they originally aired and such. This way, everyone who really cares and would like to have their own set of the original Chronicles, could have just that.

What do you all think?
 

the Fiddler

New member
Sorry that the above is so long. I just wanted to explain it all.

On second thought, I suppose I could to a non-profit paypal account and let people donate. However, if we can come up with something better, with more assurance for those who donate, I'd be happy to go that route.

Oh, and if you want to support this project, put links to this thread in your posts on other boards here at the Raven, or other related forums you might visit. http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?p=187074
 

the Fiddler

New member
I'm surprised nobody seems very interested in this, at least not so far. But it has been several days. Anyway, here's a quick update: I got him to agree to sell me the LD's directly since the auction closed and nobody bid, and he said the lowest he would go is to take off 10% from the opening bid. I assume this is because selling them directly, he wouldn't have to pay auction fees. This puts the cost somewhere around $320 for the LD's and shipping.

C'mon people. At least let me know if there's any kind of support for a project like this. I just can't afford to do it by myself right now, so I need to know at the very least if there are people who would support this kind of a project. 'Cause if not, I'll just quit wasting my time. If some people will show some support, I'll throw together a quick website for updates and cooridination of stuff related to the project.

EDIT: just thought of something else: this site is a good example of a similar LaserDisc preservation project: www.x0project.com


Thanks,

--Tevya aka "the Fiddler"
==================================
Oh, and check out my Indy/Star Wars fanfilm:
Official site: www.jandjadventures.com
theRaider.net page: http://www.theraider.net/community/theater/jefferson_jones.php
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Hi Fiddler, welcome to The Raven!:whip: Thanks for posting the link to
the laserdisques. I'm curious to know if they are in English or Japanese...

Your cause is a noble one and I'm sure the lack of response is discouraging
but I guess I'll speak up and attempt to explain why. I've only been here
9 months but from what I gather, a certain % of members have never seen
the shows and the % who have, didn't tape them. The rest of the bunch
just aren't interested. Alas, there are only a few here who actually have
the originals on tape (unless there are others who don't post).

Burning my original Young Indy episodes has been an ongoing project and
I'm nearly finished. One show per DVD and the final 13 mins. filled up with
footage from corresponding documentaries - just like Lucasfilm is doing.
The "next week" previews and commercial bumpers are all there. I even
went as far as compiling all the bookends onto a single DVD which is funny
because it basically creates a 1 hour movie. (Now, should that be called
"The Old Indiana Jones Chronicles" or "The MISADVENTURES of...")?

I also have a considerable amount of promotional bits and making-of stuff.
The H.Ford on-set interviews would be great for a Bonus DVD! I also have
a slightly different version of "Northern Italy" in German on a PAL VHS that
I've never bothered to transfer to NTSC. I traded for it about 7 years ago.
Here's what I'm missing:

Prague (European TV - the only episode I don't have)
Transylvania (European TV - as seen in "Masks of Evil")
Palestine (European TV - as seen in "Daredevils of the Desert")
Florence (European TV - taped it in French / looking for English)
Mystery of the Blues (European bookends)

When you mentioned making the series available for fans...
what exactly did you have in mind?
 

the Fiddler

New member
Great! Finally some response. Don't worry about welcoming me. I haven't been around in a while, so it was an honest mistake.

Well, as I said, I'd like to preserve all the originals if at all possible. But my idea was to start with the 15 episodes on the LD's. Since they are the highest quality coppies that I'm aware of. They are in English, with Japanese subtitles (I'm not really familiar with LaserDisc, but I assume these can be turned off). The episodes they contain are as follows:

Side 1 - EGYPT - May 1908
Side 2 - MEXICO - March 1916
Side 3 - VIENNA - November 1908
Side 4 - BRITISH EAST AFRICA - September 1909
Side 5 - PEKING - March 1910
Side 6 - LONDON - May 1916
Side 7 - SOMME - early August 1916
Side 8 - GERMANY - mid-August 1916
Side 9 - VERDUN - September 1916
Side 10 - PARIS - October 1916
Side 11 - GERMAN EAST AFRICA - December 1916
Side 12 - CONGO - January 1917
Side 13 - AUSTRIA - March 1917
Side 14 - BARCELONA - May 1917
Side 15 - PETROGRAD - July 1917
Side 16 - Making of THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES

After that, we'd have to go with people's home recordings and such, since I'm not aware of any other releases that would help (there was a UK/Netherlands release, but everything in that release is on the Japan-released LD's). We might even be able to use some of the new VHS release (for a cleaner source) mixed with people's tapping of the show to restore the bookends and such. You see, I'm not just wanting to preserve them, I want to preserve the best quality copies we can come up with as well.

"When you mentioned making the series available for fans... what exactly did you have in mind?"
As for this. Have you heard of a little thing called "bit torrent"? It makes large amounts of data easily sharable between many users (It's mostly used illegaly, so I'm not a bit user, just aware of it because of the SW preservation projects I mention further down). Anyway, the way I see it, most people who would be interested in this are people who went out and bought all the VHS's when they came out, and would have bought the rest if they'd been released. These same people will probably buy the DVD's when they come out as well. So even though the legality of the whole thing might be a little on the shady side (something I usually try to avoid), I don't feel like we'd really be depriving LucasFilm of sales. In other words, we'd be in compliance with the "spirit" of the copyright laws, if not the letter. And in the process give some true fans of the show what they really want: quality DVD's of the show as we watched it on TV.

The Original Star Wars trillogy projects I mentioned are distributed in this way, and under this same assumption. They want to make available the trillogy as it was originally created, not the special editions, and not the even further tweaked DVD release. But lets face it, the people downloading these "original" DVD's, still went out and bought the new DVD release on the first day.

So in my mind what we need is the cooperation of all those fans and people who are interested in making this happen. The first part of the effort would be just sorting out all the different edits, releases, airings, etc. to come up with one consensus "difinitive" set. Not that we wouldn't make alternate airings (Europe vs. US and such), available, but I think it would be cool to put together an as I said "difinitive" set. A second part of the effort would be getting people like you Stoo, who have resources, knowledge, and desire, to get together the best quality copies of each episode. A third major part of the effort would be sharing around high-quality images to our best artists (my brother has volunteered) to create DVD covers and disc labels for each episode. Fourth, it would be up to those who are able (so far you and I Stoo, if you're in) to put together these DVD's. And fifth, to share them around first to those who participated, then to others who are real fans, have bought the VHS's, and wouldn't go selling them on ebay and such like a bunch of bloody pirates! :mad: When I see that kind of thing it makes me mad. What we'd be doing is a little shady, but when people sell them (especially when somebody else did all the work of putting them together) they're completely crossing the legal, moral, and ethical line. Anyway, bittorrent only works if people share them, so we'd need to distribute to a few who have good connections and can leave them shared for a couple weeks while everyone is notified and allowed to download.

And yes, I'm well aware that there are many people who are Indy fans, but not Chronicles fans. But look at the two threads on the DVD releases, they've gotten plenty of attention. So I guess that's where my frustration was coming from. I know there are fans who would like to be in on this and make it happen, its just a matter of finding them.

Update on the LD's: he's asked for a down payment, I'm waiting to hear back how much he wants and how long he'll hold them based on that.

Sorry for another long one, hope that clarifies some things.
 

the Fiddler

New member
Well, I found out some bad news. The LaserDiscs have the Japanese subtitles encoded into the video. In other words, you can't turn them off. In my mind this more or less eliminates them as a source option, though they might be used, it's would be dificult and time consuming at best, unless you were okay with just leaving the subtitles on there.

Anyway, if there seems to be some interest in trying to me the original chronicles available. I would be willing to setup a site and a forum to cooridinate the effort. But people who have tapes of the originals would have to be the first ones to volunteer. Without the LD's as an option, I have nothing to offer other than a site, knowledge, graphics/menus, and a willingness to coordinate efforts (unless people would send their tapes to me, then I could actually make some of the DVD's). But if this thread continues to go mostly ignored, I'll assume there isn't enough interest/support and forget about it.
 

Sakis

TR.N Staff Member
Hey Stoo, I have the Prague & Florence episodes you are looking for but the quality of the recording is very poor and they have the greek subtitles on. The language is english, though. I remember you asked for my help in the past in another thread but you never actually told me what you wanted.:whip:
 

McSeem

Member
Are you sure that Lucas' DVD will include new 2-hour versions without old Indy? :confused:

I'd really like to help, this is really good project, but I have only "Treasure of Peacock's Eye", and it's language isn't english at all :(.

So I'll just say - great idea, man! :)
 

TombReader

New member
Not to be a stick in the mud,but when LFL did release the IJ films on DVD,there were no significant changes made to the films themselves were there?So why assume that he will alter the YIJC,aside from technical changes(such as sound mixes)?
 

the Fiddler

New member
Because they already reworked them for the VHS release that was supposed to be part of the "complete adventures of Indiana Jones."

So maybe there is some interest!? Like I said, I'm willing to host a site to coordinate efforts if people are interested.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Fiddler, there is so much to say on this subject that I'm not even sure
where to begin. At least, there does appear to be some interest. This is
a project of monumental proportions and I would be willing to contribute,
however, I do hold certain reservations about the attempt.

1) Being such a long-term effort, it might be much wiser to wait until the
official DVDs are released to see what is missing. It would be *extremely*
surprising if the Old Indy bits were included but you just never, ever know.
(Obviously, those episodes should be Top Priority and the project's main
concentration. Some of the TV movies have the lowest priority and might
not even be necessary).

2) I'm not crazy about using the Bit-Torrent thing (for various reasons)
so the sharing and distribution of any efforts is an issue which that I'd
like to discuss further before any real work begins.

Count me in. I have a video-editing station at home and have most of
the "ground work" done. As you say, it's mainly a matter of establishing
the best available sources and starting from there.

Too bad about the substitles on the Japanese laserdisque! I was worried
about that as it sounded too good to be true. Never realizing there were
any legit releases of the original shows, I'm intrigued by the UK/Netherlands
LD you mentioned. Securing this would eliminate a large chunk of work.
Does anyone have this?

Fiddler, if you want to set up a dedicated website, let's give it a try and
see what happens...:)
 

VP

Moderator Emeritus
Back in the 90's they published the Young Indy episodes in Finland on VHS. They have George Hall in them.
 

the Fiddler

New member
Stoo, you're my kind of guy. I'm a video editor and a Young Indy fan too. Isn't that neat, we have some things in common!

Okay, silliness asside, I think you might be right. We'd probably better wait and see on the official DVD's. At least wait to go all-out, until we have some indication of what will be on them. But I'm willing to start some things in motion if everyone else is. At the very least we can pool our knowledge and research to be ready once we hear more on the DVDs.

I just can't decide if it's best to have a forum on the website, or just keep this thread alive for now. Any comments on that? Anything else I should include? I was just thinking a few basic pages describing what we're doing, and how we will take any help that people are willing to give, as well as dividing things into different areas of research and development of the project. Then also maybe a blog of some sort on the front page for the latest news.

As for a UK/Netherlands LD: sorry I didn't write that part very well. There was a UK/Netherlands VHS release (PAL). All of the episodes that were in that release, were also on the Japanese LD's. So it looks like that's our best place to start if anyone can get us any info on these VHS's and where we might aquire them? I think these are what VP's refering to. Do you have any more info on them for us VP?
:whip:

Oh, one other thing, should we discuss the bit-torrent thing here, or through more private channels?

EDIT: See this link for more info on the episodes released in UK/Netherlands: http://www.innermind.com/youngindy/info/yijvideo.htm#YIJUKVID
 

VP

Moderator Emeritus
JJ's link said:
Vol. 1 Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal

Vol. 2 London 1916
         Vienna 1908

Vol. 3 Verdun 1916
         Austria 1917

Vol. 4 German East Africa 1916
         Congo 1917

Vol. 5 The Somme 1916
         Germany 1916

Vol. 6 Barcelona 1917
         British East Africa 1909

Those are the same ones that were published in Finland by CIC Video in the early 90's.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Fiddler and VP, that is cool news about the CIC videos! I'm curious about the
cover artwork/graphics but can't find any pictures of them. The Japanese LD
was really lame in that respect. I'll post more on your comments later, Fiddler.

Sakis said:
Hey Stoo, I have the Prague & Florence episodes you are looking for but the quality of the recording is very poor and they have the greek subtitles on. The language is english, though. I remember you asked for my help in the past in another thread but you never actually told me what you wanted.:whip:
Hey, Sakis. Yes, I should contact you privately to see if there's something we
can work out. Long overdue, I know, and it's my fault. Thanks for chiming in!

For the benefit of the project, how is the sound on your Florence copy?
You're the only person I know who has Prague! Are there bookends with
George Hall? (I know Florence has them but I'm missing the opening one).
By your description, how poor is "very poor"?

TombReader said:
Not to be a stick in the mud,but when LFL did release the IJ films on DVD,there were no significant changes made to the films themselves were there?So why assume that he will alter the YIJC,aside from technical changes(such as sound mixes)?
The omission of the Old Indy bookends was the major difference (and I can
understand why it was done) but because of this, some very nice opening
and closing shots are missing. Another significant change is in "Peacock's Eye"
where the voice of the lead pirate woman was completely redubbed by an
*American* actress. The original is much better. I didn't buy the entire VHS
series so there may be more...

George Lucas, you gotta love him and hate him at the same time.
 

VP

Moderator Emeritus
Stoo said:
I'm curious about the cover artwork/graphics but can't find any pictures of them.

64.jpg
65.jpg


66.jpg
67.jpg


68.jpg
69.jpg


http://www.sendit.com/video/item/7000000028464

I downloaded some YIJC videos that have George Hall in them. Resolution 320x240, pretty poor.
 

BrodyIsDead

New member
UK contribution!

Hi, fellow "Old Indy" fanatics!

I live in the UK and have 5 of the 6 original released VHS videos with George Hall on the beginning or end - I could send you copies sometime if that's any help... I'm on the hunt on ebay for that elusive 6th vid too!

;)
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Hi, BrodyIsDead. Very cool that you would be willing to contribute...:cool:
Which one are you missing?
 
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