MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR ON BLU RAY OCT 9 (1 Viewer)

[Paul D G]

Really, you watch MMT for the musical sequences. Walrus and Your Mother Should Know have always been favorites of mine. A bonus is the appearance by the Bonzo Dog Band.

Anyway:

Apple Films has fully restored the long out-of-print "Magical Mystery Tou" for October 8th release worldwide (October 9th in North America) on DVD and Blu-ray with a remixed soundtrack (5.1 and stereo) and special features. For the first time ever, there will be a limited theatrical release in certain territories from September 27th.
"Magical Mystery Tour" will be available in DVD and Blu-ray packages, and in a special 10”x10” boxed deluxe edition. The deluxe edition includes both the DVD and Blu-ray, as well as a 60-page book with background information, photographs and documentation from the production, and a faithful reproduction of the mono double 7” vinyl EP of the film’s six new Beatles songs, originally issued in the UK to complement the film’s 1967 release.
The restoration of "Magical Mystery Tour" has been overseen by Paul Rutan Jr. of Eque Inc., the same company that handled the much acclaimed restoration of "Yellow Submarine." The soundtrack work was done at Abbey Road Studios by Giles Martin and Sam Okell.
All of the packages contain a host of special features, packed with unseen footage. There are newly-filmed interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and other members of the film’s cast and crew, as well as a director’s audio commentary recorded by Paul.
Apple Films and EMI have partnered with Omniverse Vision, the leading distributor of music events to cinemas worldwide, to bring exclusive showings of Magical Mystery Tour to the big screen for the first time. Screenings will take place in selected cinemas from September 27th in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Italy, Japan, and other countries worldwide. Once confirmed, full listings will be available at www.thebeatles.com. In addition, The British Film Institute has announced a special screening of Magical Mystery Tour at BFI Southbank on October 2nd. Tickets are now available from the BFI website.
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR SPECIAL FEATURES
Director’s Commentary – by Paul McCartney
“The Making of Magical Mystery Tour” [19:05]
- Features interviews with Paul and Ringo, along with other cast members and crew. Includes unseen footage.
“Ringo the Actor” [2:30]
- Ringo Starr reflecting on his role in the film.
“Meet the Supporting Cast” [11:27]
- A feature on the background and careers of Nat Jackley, Jessie Robins, Ivor Cutler, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Victor Spinetti, George Claydon, and Derek Royle.
“Your Mother Should Know” [2:35]
“Blue Jay Way” [3:53]
“The Fool On The Hill” [3:05]
- Three new edits of these performances, all featuring footage not seen in the original film.
“Hello Goodbye,” as featured on “Top of the Pops” - 1967 [3:24]
- The Beatles allowed the BBC to film them in the edit suite where they were working on Magical Mystery Tour. This was then turned into a promo by the BBC, who shot their own additional footage. It was then broadcast on “Top of the Pops” to mark the “Hello Goodbye” single going to No. 1 in December 1967.
“Nat’s Dream” [2:50]
- A scene directed by John featuring Nat Jackley and not included in the original film.
Ivor Cutler – “I’m Going In A Field” [2:35]
- Ivor performs “I’m Going In A Field,” in a field. This scene was not included in the original film.
Traffic – “Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush” [1:53]
- The filming of Traffic acting out their 1967 hit single “Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush” was commissioned by The Beatles for possible inclusion in Magical Mystery Tour, but was not included in the final edit.

 

[DVDvision]

Is it 4/3 1.33 or 1.37:1 ? One would want the full frame not cropped off the edges.

 

[Sam Favate]

Originally Posted by Russell G /t/323175/magical-mystery-tour-on-blu-ray-oct-9#post_3965307
so this leaves "Help" and "Let It Be" still needing a release on Blu right?

Although it's certainly not the final word, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg has said that he was told Let It Be is coming in 2013.

Help is also not on blu-ray, nor is A Hard Day's Night -- the BD of that film wasn't properly transferred to HD.

 

[JamesNelson]

...Help is also not on blu-ray, nor is A Hard Day's Night -- the BD of that film wasn't properly transferred to HD.

HDN is indeed on BD, although it now appears to be OOP. As others have noted, the video is 1080i. However, it still looks and sounds pretty darn good -- certainly appreciably better than the DVD.

 

[Alan Tully]

My brother Ron did a restoration on this for Apple many years ago. He located and transferred from the original 16mm elements, magnetic audio and music multi-track masters. I believe clips were used in the Anthology project. The quality was sensational and the color looked better than the clips shown in that new promo.
I wonder what happened?

Yeah, I was wondering what they used, I'd think it was the original cut negs (if they could find them). It will be interesting to read a few reviews. A trip down memory lane for us baby boomers, but I don't know what the younger viewers will think.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

It was all shot in 16mm.

 

[JamesNelson]

Bob, wasn't Let It Be shot in 16mm as well? Do you know what LIB's intended (theatrical) aspect ratio would be?

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I think the rehearsal footage was shot 16 but some of the rooftop may have been 35. I'm not sure what the intended AR is on this one.

 

[JamesNelson]

I'm not yet seeing a pre-order for the MMT Collector's Edition anywhere -- only the single BD and DVD. Anyone else having any luck?

 

[Steve Tannehill]

It's at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008RTE066/

 

[JamesNelson]

Thanks!

 

[Ruz-El]

$20 cheaper on Amazon.ca, our dollar is pretty much on par with you guys these days. Not sure how much shipping is to the states though, might be worth checking out.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B008RTE066/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

 

[rayman1701]

Originally Posted by Russell G /t/323175/magical-mystery-tour-on-blu-ray-oct-9/30#post_3965759
$20 cheaper on Amazon.ca, our dollar is pretty much on par with you guys these days. Not sure how much shipping is to the states though, might be worth checking out.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B008RTE066/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

I just did a quick check and it looks like it's $9.98 CDN for standard shipping to the US (I'm near Chicago) for a total of $58.97 CDN, just in case anyone is wondering. I'll probably end up with the Blu-ray only package, just not sure I wanna spend the extra for the 7" EPs and a DVD that I'll probably never use.

 

[Paul D G]

Originally Posted by rayman1701 /t/323175/magical-mystery-tour-on-blu-ray-oct-9/30#post_3965792
I'll probably end up with the Blu-ray only package, just not sure I wanna spend the extra for the 7" EPs and a DVD that I'll probably never use.

I'm with you. Normally I'm all over special editions, esp in the case of Beatles material, but I'll never use the DVD and have the original 2 EP issue. But still...

And, BTW, Let It Be was filmed for TV so it's ratio is, I assume, 4:3. It was cropped for theatrical, and cropped again (!) for home video.

 

[DVDvision]

Here's a statement from Ron Furmanek, which was published on the SF forum in 2005



Quote:

Hello to Steve & the gang!,..I was just made aware of the thread regarding MMT & asked your friend & mine,.Mr. Evan to please post this for me!,..(sorry for any typo's!)

I restored the entire visual & audio for the entire film in 1988. It was shot on 16 mm Ektachrome film stock originally in 1967,..(the mention of 35 mm at the beginning of the original MPI release is a MISTAKE!,.it should have said 16mm,.they got the film lab's name wrong also!!),..The elements were missing!,.After two weeks I located the original A&B negative rolls intact & in mint condition giding in a film lab in London,..they were "lost" there since the early 70's!

The entire film was transferred on at the time state-of-the-art rank telecine equipment,..both A&B rolls seperately,&,each scene color corrected!,..its perfect!,..crystal clear & sharp,.professionally filmed!,..the only problem I had was some printed-in dirt during some of the "opticals",..this was done in 1967 originally,&,because I couldn't find the overlays for this transfer,.I couldn't "re-do" the opticals to remove the dirt,..very minimal I might add!

The entire audio track was re-transfered from the original mag tracks,.."tracks" I say here,..there were as many as a dozen rolls of 16 mm mag that had to be locked in sync for the duration of the 3 reels,..sometimes a roll would contain only ten seconds of audio,&,the rest was blank,.but,.needless to say I went the extra mile to resync everything,.with the tedious task of having to re-splice 90% of the 16 mm mag splices from 1967,.which actually was falling apart during the winding of the rolls!

I'm always surprised that no one ever notices that the entire films audio is in stereo?,.I mean,.there are sounds & sound effects coming out all over the place!!,..again,.I could have used the mixed mono master mag,.would have taken an hour to transfer,.but,.no,.I spent probably 100 hours!

The 3 remixed songs are another matter entirely,..George is credited as remixing them,(so he wouldn't get hurt).but,.guess who really did?,..it was my idea to sync up the different 4 track stage tapes to create 8 or more tracks to mix with,.providing for a much better stereo spread & image,..(ya really gotta admit,.the 3 songs I remixed kinda stink in stereo on vinyl & CD!)..George & crew at Abbey Road thought it was a crazy thing to do,..but,.we pulled it off,.all by hand,.no digital computer action then!,..We cued up Blue Jay Way,.his exact words to me were,."this is rubbish!,.did we release this!?",.so folks,..there ya go,..a short version of the whole story.

I know the original VHS & Lasers were fine,.what the heck happened with the DVD is anyone's guess!,..do yourselves a favor & track down the VHS,or,Laser on MPI,..put on headphones & enjoy! The current DVD's found is stores ARE bootlegs,..off the MPI probably.

For those who do not know,.anything that looks super clean in Anthology,."(Let It Be,.Shea,.Washington,Promo Films,.etc,.etc),.Its My work there,.picture & audio,..ask Mr. Hoffman,.he told me that if he were ever to remix Beatles,.he would do it exactly like I did!

enjoy!

Ron F

The Blu-ray version is definetely a recent transfert as this original restoration was I assume in SD only. However, if the trailer is to go by, I feel there are problems on it : very waxy figures and lack of detail, the bonus footage from lower resolution I guess is blurry and interlaced (why not fix it?), but more importantly, some of the shots looks cropped left and right.

I worked on HD restoration of a TV show similary shot in 16mm at around the same time as MMM was shot, (from 1970) so here's a few things I noticed:

- The complete exposed 16mm negative is 1.37:1 with round corners so you can't use it entirely for home video, or the corners will be black.

- All previous extractions are a 1.33:1 square from within the negative, losing as much as 20% or more image on all sides. Thus a feeling of boxiness and cropping and zoomboxing.

- To fix this, which in my opinion ruins the enjoyement of the show, as cropping is very noticeable, I suggested an alternate solution which is to use the entire exposed frame from left to right, and crop at the exact end of the rounded corners top and bottom, which results in an approximatively 1.57:1 ratio without round corners. The top and bottom information is just sightly taller than the original 4/3 extraction, and you don't get any feeling or left and right cropping as the entire frame is used, plus, it's more widescreen friendly that the zoomed in 1.33:1 extraction.

I feel this is how 16mm TV should be handled (since these rounded corners are very problematic, as unlike 35mm, they get in the way of using the entire frame for a transfert).

-

 

[Alan Tully]

Interesting. If it was shot on Ektachrome, then it was shot on reversal & not negative. I joined a 16mm only London film lab in 1968 (Colour Film Services) & as I remember it was about two thirds reversal & one third negative, but within a couple of years it was nearly all negative (but Anglia Survival continued shooting on reversal for another 15 years!). The 1988 state of the art Rank telecines are probably in a bin now. I don't know of any Rank telecines in London anymore, it's all Spirit's. I wonder what they transfered to? 1" tape? I think D1 & D2 digital were just around then (I didn't see one 'till 1990). I just don't see the problem with the rounded corners, if that's how it was shot. To get rid of them means losing picture information from all sides, I'd rather have them.

 

[DVDvision]

I would too in an ideal world, alas you don't see many releases where the corners are black and rounded on video, especially now that computers and TVs and WDTV live, and other boxes allows for 1:1 with no overscan. Publishers wants a fair and edged transfert (ie angled corners) so that they cannot be interpreted as faulty.

In any case, many if not all TV from the 60's onward, was shot "larger", with an actual square extraction made from within the larger area for transmission, be it 35mm or 16mm. At the time, shows were sent to foreign countries in 16mm dupes, but those were extractions already, not the entire filmed image. (Remember also, TVs had rounded corners and huge overscans then). Since we don't live in that world anymore, however, one would expect to at least have the left and right information breathe, and not feel cropped, tight or boxed.

 

[Alan Tully]

(Remember also, TVs had rounded corners and huge overscans then). Since we don't live in that world anymore, however, one would expect to at least have the left and right information breathe, and not feel cropped, tight or boxed.

Oh yeah, massive overscans, I think we lost about a quarter of the picture in those days!
EDIT. No pre-orders up in the UK yet.

 

[Vegas 1]

I have MMT on LD, played it once and never pulled it off the shelf again, I do remember it sounded quite good as far as the music goes. Will get the BR also, it's a Beatles thing you know!

 

[Ejanss]

Here's a statement from Ron Furmanek, which was published on the SF forum in 2005

I restored the entire visual & audio for the entire film in 1988. It was shot on 16 mm Ektachrome film stock originally in 1967,..(the mention of 35 mm at the beginning of the original MPI release is a MISTAKE!,.it should have said 16mm,.they got the film lab's name wrong also!!),..The elements were missing!,.After two weeks I located the original A&B negative rolls intact & in mint condition giding in a film lab in London,..they were "lost" there since the early 70's!

...Wow, the Internet's come a long way in seven years--Did he ever post like that?