My name is Doug G. I've been involved with this project since around 2012 in a behind the scenes fashion. I'm taking over the reins due to the ongoing health problems that Doug Q. is experiencing.
Without going into more detail than necessary, Doug Q has had a lifelong battle with cerebral palsy. In the last five years he has spent approximately half that time immobilized, depending on the extent of the pain he was in. While his dedication the project never wavered, he was quite honestly unable to physically take part in the process more often than not. I know that we've ALL been waiting patiently to get this off the ground and Doug finally came to the realization that if left in his hands, it may never be completed.
He turned everything over to me several months ago. And when I say everything, I mean half a storage unit filled with books, magazines, video equipment, film media (tapes, discs, records, etc) and whatnot. Being that I lived in another state, it took me a while to get down there and haul everything back in a U-Haul van. I've turned my basement into a makeshift studio/lab, and to wrap myself in the nuance of everything, I've got it decorated with period decor. A poor man's Vito-esque study, where I can share "many things" with my fellow fans thru the magic of hi-speed internet.
So here I am. I want to first thank Doug for everything he's done so far. I mean, we estimated the amount of time it took him just to VIEW all of the different sources he's accumulated at around 650 hours and that's not considering the actual editing and sequencing he's put into it, easily double or triple the viewing hours. While he may have been silent here on the blog for long periods of time, he was always researching these films for inclusion. Thanks Doug! I hope to make you proud with the final project.
My Thoughts On This Edit, And What I'm Doing Differently
There were a few calls that Doug made that I didn't agree with. First, I think the project should be in HD. I don't think that hard drive space and seed/leech time should be a determining factor in the quality of the project.
You've heard it here first: time to get either a large internal hard drive or a good external HD. If your internet sucks, time to upgrade. If you're unfamiliar with torrenting, start playing around with it now. (I recommend UTorrent, and you can't go wrong with The Piratebay or Kickass Torrents). Remember, like everything online, downloading copyrighted material is, for the most part, illegal. Grey areas exist, like historical/educational critique of certain film trilogies. Go to Ebay or Amazon and purchase the source of what you're downloading. While you're there, make sure you pick up some ink or toner for your printer, along with some semi-glossy/professional paper so you can print out our awesome liner booklet and covers. Grab a three-disc Blu-Ray case (two for the film, one for the bonus material.) Get ready! It's the perfect opportunity to upgrade for the future.
If you haven't made the switch to a Blu-Ray reader/writer optical drive, now's the time. And if your TV or monitor is not 16:9 or at least 720p, get a new one. There's so much out there right now that you're missing out on (Harmy's Star Wars trilogy restoration for one.) Of course, if you only stream on your PC and don't have a home theater setup, ignore the Bluray comments above.
It's going to be big, loud and as clear as possible. The caveat though is that most of the footage sourced is standard to sub-standard to sub-sub-substandard definition, and when upscaling, it's not going to look as good as it probably would if the whole thing was SD. It's going to be 720p as opposed to 1080, due to the above-mentioned upscaling issue. Still high definition at twice the resolution of DVD but without the extra visual artifacts.
My thoughts on this is that once the project is released, somebody else that has a background in restoration could "clean it up" as best as possible. If anyone reading this feels up to the task, please leave a comment. I'd love to see this stuff look great at 1080 resolution.
Second, when Doug first began on this project, DVD was the standard video format of that time. Blu-Ray has definitely emerged since then as the preferred standard due to quality and the amount of data that can be stored on it. Whereas the original program was going to be on 5 DVDs, I'm going to format this for two single-layer Blu-Rays. Of course, if anyone wants this to be on DVD they can use a project like ConvertX to burn it to as many DVDs they want it to be on.
Audio has been a problem for us. It was originally going to be in 5.1 Dolby. Then we found that Headphone X sounded as good, if not better than the old mix. I think if we can find a happy medium between the two we'll be golden. Suggestions are always welcome.
Where We Are Now
I'm sure the biggest question you have is "when is this thing coming out?" Great question! Short anwer? "I don't know."
I'm essentially right now working alone. I work both a full time and a part time job, so I don't have a lot of extra time on my hand. I haven't even gotten into the hard drive that houses the project. I do know that there are approximately 50 hours of footage that I have to screen to find any possible inclusions for our project.
So unfortunately that's all I can say. I'm on it, and I'm doing everything as quickly as I can with the time I have. I'm actually pencilling in times for the project in my planner. I figure if I put at least two hours a day into it, we might have something for Christmas this year. It's optimistic but it's the best I can come up with.
A quick word about the Santino Jr scene that I've been noticing in the comments: yes, this scene is in our edit. It is in color. And it seems to be a few frames longer than what I've seen on youtube. So if you guys want to work on colorizing it, it's cool, but I figured I would mention that in case anybody wants to hold off on it until ours is released.
Please leave me a comment! And feel free to wish Doug a bon voyage as he focuses on his health and family.
Thank you Big D for all you've done. I've never seen one individual invest as much time and money into a fanedit as you have and I hope the final product meets your expectations.
As Doug is wont to say,Til next time!
Godfather Museum
