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Post by antifrodis on Sept 13, 2009 12:11:05 GMT -5
OK crabby, I just splurged today and did what I said I was not going to do and that is ... I bought the new DVD set from Genius Products that came out last year. Went to Best-Buy and they had 2 copies on the shelf. I did this for you!!! Well, not really, but this forum topic got me thinking about that Genius Set again. I wanted to see for myself if this set, which contains a bunch of the Blackhawk prints and supposedly does not match the Cabin Fever VHS tapes in terms of quality, is really as disappointing as others on this forum have said. My verdict so far (I have watched the Special Features on DISC 8 and all of the shorts on DISC 1) ... DON'T BUY THIS SET. Do what Mark suggested above and hold out a bit longer to see if the German set is better. Just my 2 cents, I hope I didn't confuse you too much ;D! 16 of the shorts on the Genius set are Blackhawk prints. The rest of them are the original versions from the same source as the Cabin Fever versions, but on dvd, instead of inferior laserdisc or VHS. So while you're not getting ALL the films in the best quality, the majority of them are there in better quality. It is most unfortunate that Genius screwed up their set with the Blackhawk prints. I doubt they made much profit from their sales at this point, especially with all the bad press among fans. Furthermore, I can imagine anyone else releasing these films again in the next several years. So I think we have to reconsider the Genius set...unless, of course, VHS or Laserdiscs are your cup of tea. If you're lucky enough to be able to play PAL discs on your dvd player, then try the German set. (Many dvd players won't play them.) It looks like it's missing several shorts tho'. At least the Genius set has those shorts. Also, all the films on the German discs will be sped up by 4% due to PAL conversion. I'd rather have a scratchier version of a film than one that plays too fast, but that's just me. Let's also not forget that the silent films on the German set will most likely have recreated opening titles and intertitles if they're the same versions with Beau Hunks music that were floating around among fans from Kinowelt a few years ago. So while there's no perfect way to get all the Our Gang shorts (I won't even get into the Pathe silents), the Genius set is your best bet at this point. Heck, buy the old Cabin Fever laserdiscs on Ebay and get a laserdisc player to replace those 16 Blackhawk shorts that you don't like. Problem solved.
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Post by antifrodis on Sept 12, 2009 23:36:22 GMT -5
So is that list saying that they have a foreign language version of "Little Daddy"? That'd be quite interesting to see.
It's nice that they will have the 14 "available" MGM silents in one place. Too bad they weren't able to track down "The Old Wallop", "School Begins" or "Fair and Muddy". I wonder if all the silents will have the Beau Hunks soundtracks, or if they'll have any of the original soundtracks available as well.
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Post by antifrodis on Sept 12, 2009 23:29:19 GMT -5
The laserdiscs were released of all 21 volumes. I haven't transferred my copies of them. I'm holding out for those Kinowelt DVDs to save myself the trouble. You're gonna hate the PAL speedup on those Kinowelt discs. I have the Laurel and Hardy sets and the effect on the audio with the PAL speedup is quite distracting.
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Post by antifrodis on Aug 17, 2009 20:49:39 GMT -5
Has anyome have any updates or any news. I hear the outcome of the lawsuit was to be settled in Feb/09 Elvin There was news on another message board from June that things still aren't settled. I'm assuming that info is still good since the guy that runs Laughsmith regularly contributes there. When he has something to tell us, I guess he will.
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Post by antifrodis on Aug 16, 2009 7:22:39 GMT -5
I received a copyright infringement complaint for showing Our Gang silent films so I will no longer be running the channel on Justin.tv anymore. Thanks to all that visited my channel and I hope you enjoyed seeing many of the rare films I've shown. Also, thanks to everyone involved in helping me to have such a large collection of silents to show! You know who you are!
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Post by antifrodis on Jul 26, 2009 15:19:22 GMT -5
Hey all, Here's the latest film I've been working on..."Telling Whoppers" in two parts. I used 4 different sources to compile this version. My edit of the film clocks in around 20 minutes, as opposed to the 3 minutes or so of the currently available version. I also added a new soundtrack to the film. Special thanks to James and Wayne for their generosity. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/user/ThatOldGangOfMine
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Post by antifrodis on Jul 15, 2009 16:51:26 GMT -5
Hey all, Just wanted to let everyone know that my Our Gang silents channel on justin.tv is back up and running. I will try to have it going in the evenings, but I can't guarantee it will be on every night. Plenty of rare Our Gang silent footage will be shown. Here's a link... www.justin.tv/thatoldgangofmine/Make sure to join the chat and say hi! See ya then! Geoff (thatoldgangofmine)
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Post by antifrodis on Jun 20, 2009 16:20:51 GMT -5
Hey all,
Well, I decided to switch the channel back to the original location last weekend. I was up and running for a few minutes and decided to update the streaming software I use. This resulted in multiple BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH computer crashes. Later that day, my computer was hit with a NASTY virus and I had to reload Windows to my PC. So at this point, I'm still recovering from that. I will leave a message here when the channel is back up. Plenty of new Our Gang silent footage is on its way!
Geoff (ThatOldGangOfMine)
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Post by antifrodis on Mar 15, 2009 9:46:46 GMT -5
Hey all,
I am putting the channel on hiatus for now. I have too many Our Gang silent films that I'd like to work on but running the channel is slowing my progress. So for a while, the channel will not be broadcasting. You can still chat and watch the same 4 Youtube videos over and over if you'd like. I just won't be showing anything for the time being.
On the plus side, when the channel is operational again, I should have plenty of NEW Our Gang silent film edits to share with you. Thanks to James and several other friends, I have a lot of new silent film fragments, many containing scenes that have been missing in the common silent versions of the films we're used to. So my work is cut out for me.
I'll post another message here when the channel is back up and running again. Until then!
Geoff (thatoldgangofmine)
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Post by antifrodis on Feb 9, 2009 18:15:19 GMT -5
I like it....does part two of telling whoppers have a music track? I hope it is silent and my player is working fine. :-) Telling Whoppers currently doesn't have a soundtrack. By the way, I only run the films in the evening (Never on Wednesdays). When the films are NOT running, you will see my Youtube version of either "Telling Whoppers" or "Giants Vs Yanks" running in a loop. Stop by and say hi on the channel chat room sometime!
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Post by antifrodis on Jan 5, 2009 22:05:16 GMT -5
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Post by antifrodis on Dec 31, 2008 18:23:24 GMT -5
Wow, 13 minutes more than the version I had. Bless you, you are a saint. The version of "Giants Vs Yanks" that I posted actually runs at "silent speed" so it may appear longer than other versions. However, there's still plenty of footage and intertitles not seen in the "Lovable Scallawags" commonly found version of the film. More soon!
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Post by antifrodis on Dec 28, 2008 20:45:49 GMT -5
Hey all, Here's the complete (sans opening credits) version of the Our Gang silent "Giants Vs Yanks". If you're familiar with the film, there should be a good amount of "new" footage for you to see in this version. A new soundtrack has been added. Special thanks to James for providing this rare film! You can find the film here. www.youtube.com/user/ThatOldGangOfMineEnjoy!
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Post by antifrodis on Dec 6, 2008 17:05:20 GMT -5
It's funny how the first Our Gang film always gets the notoriety of being lost when there are several others that don't seem to exist in any form. Thanks to Robin, as well as Exclusive/Excel Films, we have a good amount of the first film available.
Now if someone would cough up "Bring Home the Turkey" then I'd believe that one isn't lost too. heh.
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Post by antifrodis on Nov 30, 2008 14:33:48 GMT -5
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