tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87093022684935722062024-03-21T06:18:07.161-07:00The Godfather MuseumOnline site devoted to all things Godfather: the original trilogy, the chronological edits and the Godfather Saga: The Complete Epic Trilogy faneditGodfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-3073724319317562092016-11-14T13:00:00.000-08:002016-11-14T13:00:17.030-08:00Video Magazine Exhibit and Much MoreIt's been a long time since we've had an article exhibit here at The Museum, so I went ahead and scanned an old magazine for your perusal. (As far as I know this magazine falls under the public domain, and if not, it's presented entirely in fair use.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wrs87gJRYOQIt3eHadwz2frZZFena8TSqSm-Teljhdez4rTkLPrn6mNEkwmhJFe0GBjnXf-G9HkMZIZKZBcjl7VS_BGYQDHvfDxh3mKCae5lFArdwHPR45KG-ZDitKQyGt32QlBZGl8k/s1600/Page+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wrs87gJRYOQIt3eHadwz2frZZFena8TSqSm-Teljhdez4rTkLPrn6mNEkwmhJFe0GBjnXf-G9HkMZIZKZBcjl7VS_BGYQDHvfDxh3mKCae5lFArdwHPR45KG-ZDitKQyGt32QlBZGl8k/s640/Page+1.jpg" width="483" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video Magazine, May 1984.<br />
(Yes, VCRs are so easy to work on, even your stupid, unattractive and elderly mother-in-law can fix them.) </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxaRQCv6g3jGn4JZEuVsQec60M9wKfPKwnDBqnnozXaZZcwED8M_K2yVJXgxIA_jJ1QZXDSih2J7mRtqXhNac2cimxmdlH8nU7auA6xBlwwSHU0QbwlugGj5gd0GRbRTajP4BPcDOIHpPp/s1600/Page2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxaRQCv6g3jGn4JZEuVsQec60M9wKfPKwnDBqnnozXaZZcwED8M_K2yVJXgxIA_jJ1QZXDSih2J7mRtqXhNac2cimxmdlH8nU7auA6xBlwwSHU0QbwlugGj5gd0GRbRTajP4BPcDOIHpPp/s640/Page2.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Video Magazine</i> was a periodical that was fairly hard to find on newsstands in the US. From its inception, it was sold mainly in Video equipment & rental stores, and later in some chain record stores. I don't recall seeing it past around 89 or so. The last issue my family had featured <i>Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade</i> on the cover, and I don't know how long they kept going after that. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEh8hkitkuuPvx_9l2UraVIjwbPLU0tpGB8fTXVHgchRjQ5pka_j8IpuzDxT3b3L_Uy2Wim-H4Np0hB9xccHYVeJcxO9nT-h6-EAXE6-0ikSTTXNIolWJzNCmYI3TK2HftuAX2mjNieMq5/s1600/Page3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEh8hkitkuuPvx_9l2UraVIjwbPLU0tpGB8fTXVHgchRjQ5pka_j8IpuzDxT3b3L_Uy2Wim-H4Np0hB9xccHYVeJcxO9nT-h6-EAXE6-0ikSTTXNIolWJzNCmYI3TK2HftuAX2mjNieMq5/s640/Page3.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For a non-genre magazine, the articles are fairly in-depth. It's the only real magazine outside of TV Guide that focused heavily on the <i>Epic</i>/<i>Saga</i> cuts.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzf-8LJe9Mt2RHl4Ew2lR980yj8regttOVPTymgRsCjCfLGp9HS0CisHzBlH8i6zFiTpozFrOZxsNsvDiZcFFy-XtE45o_4VDmYs0gfC5GTH6MkbI6zOGqnW9FXMbIAKZRgp5nx8E3WxYi/s1600/Page4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzf-8LJe9Mt2RHl4Ew2lR980yj8regttOVPTymgRsCjCfLGp9HS0CisHzBlH8i6zFiTpozFrOZxsNsvDiZcFFy-XtE45o_4VDmYs0gfC5GTH6MkbI6zOGqnW9FXMbIAKZRgp5nx8E3WxYi/s640/Page4.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interesting note about the scene with Vito refusing the grocer's box of food. It was indeed cut out of the disastrous first screening. In fact most of that section of Vito's backstory was re-edited right up until the national release. <b>(For more about the frantic editing, check the bonus article included at the end of this exhibit.)</b><br />
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The order of events shown in the first TV <i>Saga</i> is how it was edited in the original screening. People reacted negatively to the frequent cuts between Michael's story and Vito's story. Coppola didn't realize that this is the reason the audience reacted negatively; he thought it had more to do with the order of Vito's story. So he restructured it into what appeared in the theatrical cut of <i>Part II</i>. <br />
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When time came for the TV edit, Coppola went back to the original order of events from the first preview screening. (Vito gives her the pear earlier; Vito is fired, the grocer offers him a care basket, then Vito and his wife have a tense dinner which is interrupted by Clemenza's gun problem.) This was the way it was written in <i>all</i> existing screenplays, treatments, drafts and scripts and makes the most sense linearly. <br />
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Fun fact: The scene with Vito refusing the care package, when added to the nationwide theatrical release, was actually the wrong take. (You can see that some of the dialogue doesn't synch up.) That take was substituted for the correct take for the TV <i>Saga</i>. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkXM4OA1c7oqubE5rXiMtX6-dq0L0Y1lWUtrLwTVS9rWkTuLk5rpXk3FdbF61BsgbEAcJ_NXcRvXr5NzRMBUvZENftTR7Jbxk-DdEjSXvR9v_vtKscXvjueNZYUZexzGveRhP9jRc1U4Z/s1600/Page5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkXM4OA1c7oqubE5rXiMtX6-dq0L0Y1lWUtrLwTVS9rWkTuLk5rpXk3FdbF61BsgbEAcJ_NXcRvXr5NzRMBUvZENftTR7Jbxk-DdEjSXvR9v_vtKscXvjueNZYUZexzGveRhP9jRc1U4Z/s640/Page5.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun Fact #2: The scene with Kay and Michael on the bed at the hotel was voted unanimously as the worst scene in <b>Part 1</b> and <b>Part 2</b> by every member of this project. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwD2lMKkp3foDotJm25iWiih1lmOVxP1WMKwMp41u6xWZr8cURy8evyc74zP5-6ZYdaf6Bi_vuk2gbO3KB1M8-qCEdMhiBLp5cnZw6F0z6kKKCygT0g7pHVbnSn_0rsR-dKvqYEOL_JlEY/s1600/Page6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwD2lMKkp3foDotJm25iWiih1lmOVxP1WMKwMp41u6xWZr8cURy8evyc74zP5-6ZYdaf6Bi_vuk2gbO3KB1M8-qCEdMhiBLp5cnZw6F0z6kKKCygT0g7pHVbnSn_0rsR-dKvqYEOL_JlEY/s640/Page6.jpg" width="436" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Item 15: I agree with the author that the re-sequencing of the Klingman dialogue is fixed in the<i> Epic. </i>It was an anachronistic gaffe caused by rushed editing. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaSYOv7fzUT91zYv9eQhyphenhyphenHGe1FyGXAe-XY0v_IaFZ-gIYVwSZYDhRzXoAfduGMKxMgR81nq8hqO04wArcWbZszgRBDIX98WONpQDMwWlcHZVJelixgFeP-8N9riTRRkRTALLnv7AdgG5d0/s1600/Page7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaSYOv7fzUT91zYv9eQhyphenhyphenHGe1FyGXAe-XY0v_IaFZ-gIYVwSZYDhRzXoAfduGMKxMgR81nq8hqO04wArcWbZszgRBDIX98WONpQDMwWlcHZVJelixgFeP-8N9riTRRkRTALLnv7AdgG5d0/s640/Page7.jpg" width="432" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I realize that I may not be in the majority, but I believe that as a sustained narrative, <i>The Godfather</i> works best chronologically. I agree with George Lucas's original assessment of <i>Part II</i>: "Francis, you have two films. Throw one out, or make two movies." Think of how different the world would have been if Coppola would have gone with Plan A? </td></tr>
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What was "Plan A" you ask? <i>Godfather Part II</i>, as we know it today, is actually Plan D. Briefly, here's the first three ideas presented by Coppola during filming:<br />
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PLAN A:</div>
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<b>Part II</b> would have actually been two separate movies- <i>The Godfather Part II</i> and <i>The Death of Michael Corleone. </i>This version of Part II would have focused entirely on Vito's story, running well into the 1930s. De Niro put on 40 pounds to play this older Vito, and was publicly annoyed that it was all for nothing, as those scenes didn't make the final cut. A few stills exist, most notably the cover for Peter Biskind's <i>Godfather Companion</i>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg87AM6m-qEKhrQa5UenA0xzvhiNweoeN3SFAhcIw7mIeDv87t4Zs7KQJT-Eka5JjDOZz_7G0DVoMFpNq3VS6529wOf4z3JmGnuALpYTbTzws7aBIVZ6QGHT8RRsP6BHfOtCc9Op5UxSjMf/s1600/GCPB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg87AM6m-qEKhrQa5UenA0xzvhiNweoeN3SFAhcIw7mIeDv87t4Zs7KQJT-Eka5JjDOZz_7G0DVoMFpNq3VS6529wOf4z3JmGnuALpYTbTzws7aBIVZ6QGHT8RRsP6BHfOtCc9Op5UxSjMf/s320/GCPB.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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Surprisingly, Paramount loved the idea, but Coppola was apprehensive. (If you're curious to how this would have played out, Ed Falco's novel <i>The Family Corleone</i> was based on this storyline.) Coppola wanted the movies to be more directly linked. In fact, he wanted the entire saga to be a whole, which brings us to:<br />
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Plan B- <i><b>Mario Puzo's The Godfather Saga</b></i></div>
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After Coppola confirmed that he would be onboard for <i>Part II</i>, but before the first treatment had been finalized, he told <i>Action</i> magazine that this wasn't going to be your typical, everyday Hollywood sequel. He wanted to restore some of the cut scenes from <i>Part 1</i>, and bookend that film with the two stories of young Vito and older Michael. The "sequel" would be one long, continuous narrative very similar to what ended up as the TV <i>Saga</i>. Quote:<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />"The
movie isn't a sequel in the Hollywood sense of the word. They're two
distinct pieces that are formed together to make one story. They should
be told together. I want the [Saga] to be an event... like, you have to
call out sick and take the day off because you know you're going to be
sitting in the theater for 8 hours!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>Understandably, Paramount nixed that idea immediately. His grand restructuring would have to wait a few years.<br />
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Plan C- <b>The Loooooong Version</b></div>
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<b> </b>This was the rough cut, running anywhere between 5 and 6 hours depending upon the source.<b>¹ </b>What is known is that these were two, nearly three hour long films separated by an intermission. The first half chronicled Vito's rise, and the second half focused on Michael's demise.<br />
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By all accounts, Coppola was pleased with this structure. He knew it was long and would need to be trimmed, but overall felt comfortable with the two storylines occupying the same film. But by now he had begun toying with the idea of intersecting, parallel narratives.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>¹</b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000;">Reports range from 5 hours to 6 hours as a running time for the Rough Cut. </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000;">Fred Roos, Gordon Willis, and Robert De Niro state that the cut was six hours long.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000;">Robert Evans stated that the Rough Cut was 8 hours long. (I believe that he's thinking of the second assembly cut, described below by Barry Malkin.) </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000;">Barry Malkin said that approximately 16 hours of footage was assembled, and roughly half of that was excised into a linear structure. Approximately 2.5 hours was cut from that 8 hours, which would put the rough cut around 5.5 hours. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000;">Coppola has been quoted variously as saying it was 5 hours, or 5.5 hours long. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000;">I believe that it was most likely 5.5 hours long, and with the intermission, exit music and <i>entré act</i> added, it would have been fairly close to six hours. </span></span></li>
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Plan D- <b>First Director's Cut/Test Screen Cut </b></div>
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<b> </b>This cut was test screened in San Francisco's Roxie Theater two months before its release. And it <b>bombed.</b> <b></b>It was perhaps the most disastrous test screening of a future screen classic aside from <i>Star Wars</i>.<b>²</b></div>
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Chief criticisms were the length, the constant back and forth between the dual narratives, and the loss of the 'hopeful' enthusiasm from <i>Part I.</i> <b></b>While the loss of 'hopeful' enthusiasm was exactly what Coppola intended, he did take the length and crosscutting into account and restructured it accordingly. </div>
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Instead of flashing back between stories every 10-15 minutes, Coppola instead decided to do so a handful of times. He excised the intermission, dropped the <i>entré act</i>, and cut a further 45 minutes. This version went on to become the final director's cut, which is what the rest of the world saw when they packed into moviehouses across the globe. </div>
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<b> </b> <br /> </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b>²</b> George Lucas attended this screening of<i> Part II</i> and told Coppola that this narrative would never work and that he needed to scrap half the movie. Later, when Coppola attended the test screening of <i>Star Wars</i>, he told Lucas that he needed to cut down on the amount of outerspace dogfights and "corny robot crap." <br /><br />Another trivia item that some people don't know: Coppola opted to direct <i>The Conversation</i> in lieu of <i>Godfather Part II</i> and nominated either George Lucas or Martin Scorcese to direct it in his place. (Lucas served as assistant on the first <i>Godfather</i> and actually directed and edited the "newspaper headline" montage.) On the flip side, when 20th Century Fox balked at the idea of Lucas directing his own script for <i>Star Wars</i>, he nominated Coppola to produce and direct it. It makes you wonder what either film would have been like without their respective directors...</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The price of some of that video equipment was amazing. $500 bucks for a video processor would be over a grand in today's money. And while it may have been a good unit, it doesn't even come close to what you can achieve in the most basic video editing software today.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiNDMChtahbkBMo9kqPGTy2yVkwebMULeT0rmkM_nMFAWEHASangQRz5WP20-7MAFhwho69STUrbVanPoMxJmfxp9Sf9i0UxA9yLFys_y2Xv8FC03TUSDzsZgdKLWm8WQ2VH9nAc4T0mRg/s1600/Page9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiNDMChtahbkBMo9kqPGTy2yVkwebMULeT0rmkM_nMFAWEHASangQRz5WP20-7MAFhwho69STUrbVanPoMxJmfxp9Sf9i0UxA9yLFys_y2Xv8FC03TUSDzsZgdKLWm8WQ2VH9nAc4T0mRg/s640/Page9.jpg" width="436" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cable TV showing original programming? It'll never happen.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8wp_RG-2oKWNE-xOWgVnmk1YJrVyoa9dTR-gZI671jPq0GMX5zzJ9EqGBiCqxgv0iJ6BHZHVqc0W_f-YssGIUERZgW9vdYNLrX9InX91YZ8M9sWjTmvB1ORchJaDsFDJSm-E8nGfWZ1qF/s1600/Page10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8wp_RG-2oKWNE-xOWgVnmk1YJrVyoa9dTR-gZI671jPq0GMX5zzJ9EqGBiCqxgv0iJ6BHZHVqc0W_f-YssGIUERZgW9vdYNLrX9InX91YZ8M9sWjTmvB1ORchJaDsFDJSm-E8nGfWZ1qF/s640/Page10.jpg" width="436" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just for fun, I figured I'd show this ad from the back of the magazine that has <i>The Complete Epic</i> selling for 179.00. That would be over 400 dollars in today's money. <br /><br /></td></tr>
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Overall it's an interesting issue. If anyone my age that remembers the early days of home video will recall, it's the overabundance of pornography in mainstream periodicals. This magazine has page after page of advertising for Adult movies. It's estimated that over half of all VHS rentals and sales were specifically for porn. By today's standards, it's pretty weird to see a full page ad for tape sales with the top half devoted to Disney movies and the bottom half devoted to Swedish Erotica.<br />
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In modern mags, you may see a small advert for Adam and Eve or Penthouse.com in the back of the issue, or a very generic listing for 'marital aids' or something, but nothing like the late 70s to mid 80s. I guess the internet killed the need to advertise that stuff.<br />
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Bonus Article: New York Magazine November 1974</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpJdcj50kMkzfLDqrcxNaC9ljJ2inxvjXQkqov8Jtq2GTb8dh0n5bnnae3wRhwPNQDEl4XiMMxI4vnWiG8FSRU_UGN3j8J94lo4cHU2QQrjKBKp4vvpAMilpVqiCu_a8T1s_yFAD3Wr-U/s1600/NY+Mag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpJdcj50kMkzfLDqrcxNaC9ljJ2inxvjXQkqov8Jtq2GTb8dh0n5bnnae3wRhwPNQDEl4XiMMxI4vnWiG8FSRU_UGN3j8J94lo4cHU2QQrjKBKp4vvpAMilpVqiCu_a8T1s_yFAD3Wr-U/s640/NY+Mag.jpg" width="464" /></a></div>
This was a quick writeup concerning the frantic post-test screening editing that was going on with <i>Part II</i>. Coppola has gone on record as saying that he was still editing the film just minutes before it printed and shipped to theaters.<br />
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<br />It's interesting that at the time, his next project was going to be <i>Tucker</i> starring Marlon Brando. What the article didn't mention was the top-secret (at the time) finagling of the <i>Apocalypse Now</i> project. In 1969 Coppola had purchased the screen rights to <i>Heart of Darkness, </i>the novella by Joseph Conrad. He hired John Milius to write the film treatment for it<i>, </i>with future <i>Jaws</i> director Steven Spielberg directing. Milius's screenplay was much different than what Spielberg had imagined the film to be, and so dropped out early on, but not before suggesting George Lucas for the job based on the 'detached, sterile' approach he took toward the subject matter in his experimental short <i>THX 1138</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spielberg, Milius and Lucas at the Universal Studios backlot.</td></tr>
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Coppola paid Milius $15,000 to write the screenplay with the promise of an additional $10,000 for a rewrite if Warner Brothers or Universal greenlit it. When the studios backed out, Coppola rewrote it himself. The plan at the time was that he would produce and finance it, and George Lucas would direct, or co-direct with John Milius. After release, he and George Lucas would change places with <i>Tucker</i>, with Coppola directing and Lucas producing.<br />
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<br />What happened next is disputed by the involved parties. What is known is that Lucas wanted to film it in black and white 16mm- a throwback, arthouse-take on the old newsreels of the WWII era. Coppola thought it was a good idea, but this is what reportedly caused all of the major studios to pass on the film. Coppola was undeterred, and began pumping his own money into the project. Steve McQueen and Burt Lancaster were attached early on. And then one by one, everyone dropped out of the project, leaving just Coppola alone holding the reigns.<br />
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George Lucas has said that he dropped out of the project because he felt that his take on the film would have been 'box office poison' and he didn't want to further bankrupt Coppola and American Zoetrope. Coppola didn't see it that way. He felt that George, somewhat selfishly, decided to pursue <i>The Star Wars </i>with Fox and so reneged on his agreement to direct <i>Apocalypse</i>. This of course led to the <i>Tucker</i> project gathering dust for the next 12 years as the two men didn't speak to each in the meantime.<br />
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Coppola's suspicions (that Lucas cared more about <i>Star Wars</i> than <i>Apocalypse</i>) were confirmed, at least in his mind, when he viewed the rough cut of <i>Star Wars</i> with a group of fellow directors, among them Spielberg, Milius, Brian De Palma, Martin Scorcese and Paul Schrader. All of the old newsreel footage of WW1 and WWWII fighter pilots engaged in aerial dogfights (which Lucas said he wanted to mimic for <i>Apocalypse</i>) were shown in place of the special effects shots that would later astound audiences in the finished film. Coppola took it personally, and felt insulted.After he and the other viewers (save for Spielberg) told Lucas that his film was going to bomb, Coppola and Lucas spent the next decade taking polite jabs at each other in the press.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1yqAveyWLAP3sCjhNnXs1JdgvGDZHZ-D58T7YYeH1NU-LVfXV-jURFAbF3KVHuuAhTDtbP-qVa2T4mftCG_dClq1ayvIQ-RAw77sea2df8jg9JrjTWpBdLz5l1Dho9FlmyFQL5JuTHJ0/s1600/directors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1yqAveyWLAP3sCjhNnXs1JdgvGDZHZ-D58T7YYeH1NU-LVfXV-jURFAbF3KVHuuAhTDtbP-qVa2T4mftCG_dClq1ayvIQ-RAw77sea2df8jg9JrjTWpBdLz5l1Dho9FlmyFQL5JuTHJ0/s320/directors.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hollywood's Raging Bulls circa 1998: Spielberg (left), Scorcese, Milius, Lucas and Coppola. </td></tr>
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Their friendship was renewed when Lucas heard about Coppola's bankruptcy. In order to save Coppola from losing his house and vineyard, Lucas offered to buy the property from Coppola and sell it back to him when he got back on his feet. The bromance was rekindled and within a couple of years, the two released <i>Tucker: A Man and His Dreams</i> to mixed, but generally favorable reception. Brando, of course, was so out of shape and had caused Coppola infinite stress on <i>Apocalypse</i> that he was not asked to portray the title character, the role instead going to Lucas's first choice, Jeff Bridges.<br />
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**Special Request from the Godfather Museum** </h3>
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The most-viewed article in this blog is <a href="http://godfathermuseum.blogspot.com/2012_05_02_archive.html">A Brief History of the Chronological Cuts</a>. Since the writing of that article, and the announcement of our fanedit preservation project, a number of other fanedits have come about. I'd like to update that article with a list of the different fanedits and a general description of them. Since I'm up to my neck in stuff to watch, I've not personally seen any of these other edits such as the Hal9000 version. If our readers could get a list going in the comments section I'll be happy to update that article.</div>
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'Til Next Time----</div>
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GFM</div>
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<br />Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-29543792545234218992016-11-02T17:47:00.003-07:002016-11-02T18:27:36.552-07:00Introduction, New Project LeadHi folks, I'm writing you all to discuss the state of this project and to introduce myself.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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My Thoughts On This Edit, And What I'm Doing Differently</h4>
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br /><br />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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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Where We Are Now</h4>
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I'm sure the biggest question you have is "<b>when is this thing coming out</b>?" Great question! Short anwer? "I don't know." <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>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. </i></span><br />
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Please leave me a comment! And feel free to wish Doug a bon voyage as he focuses on his health and family. <br />
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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. </h4>
As Doug is wont to say,<br />
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Til next time!</h3>
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Godfather Museum<br />
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<br />Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-17009011995054582832016-02-24T00:42:00.002-08:002016-02-24T00:42:35.566-08:00Happy (Late) New Year From the Godfather MuseumGlad to see you guys are still interested in what we're up to! Here's a quick rundown of what's been going on with this project.<br />
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Back in October, about a week after I posted that we were back in business blog-wise, I went to log in and I got an error message saying that my account had been temporarily suspended, again. I sent Google a cease-and-desist email which was followed by a canned response on their end to the effect of "we're reviewing your blog as it has been cited repeatedly for copyright infringement." So I followed up with the info regarding their previous block and the legal threats that they faced. Nothing.<br />
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I checked up again on New Year's Day to see if I could get back in, but I was still blocked. So I said "screw it" and went back to work on our latest endeavor (more on that soon). Today I try to log in and boom- here I am. I'm thinking about moving the content of this blog to a personal site or something to keep this from happening again.<br />
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If any of you Godfather fans were lucky enough to experience the Columbus Ohio screenings of Godfather II in 70mm last year- you're welcome! I was actually expecting more of a turnout for such an unprecedented experience, but what the hell, we were up against Age of Ultron and other summer fare. I was contacted by an affiliate of the Gateway Cinema who had a 90% complete 70mm copy of Part II and was looking to complete the reels. I was able to provide about 3% more footage from my own 70mm clips. The remaining 7% of footage was from my existing 35mm print reels which were blown up to 70mm by the awesome crew at the Wexner Center for Performing Arts at OSU.<br />
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The first showing attracted all of 12 patrons. The second was a little better at 38. I had to fly back home but I'm told throughout the rest of the week the attendance picked up a bit. I know the tickets were a bit high at 18.00, but how much does the typical IMAX ticket cost? And you're getting to see possibly the greatest film of all time in an aspect ratio that you'll never see replicated again at home or in any other theatrical screening, in giant 70mm FILM on a Cinemascope screen? Geez, and I thought I was jaded.<br />
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Anyway....<br />
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Yes, we're aware of the HBO screening. I have a copy of it and am in the process of reviewing it. Any scenes or trims that aren't in our present cut will of course end up in the final project. Aside from the 70mm project that ate up most of my time last year, I've also been helping out on the Star Wars restoration which you can read about <a href="http://thestarwarstrilogy.com/starwars/post/2016/01/15/Team-Negative-One-completes-35mm-Restoration-of-Star-Wars">here. </a><br />
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The main bugs that have been slowing down the Godfather project have been in the audio department. I'm not a soundman so I don't have much input in that area, and the team member that was remixing everything into Headphone X leads a pretty busy life and isn't hitting any deadlines, so for that I apologize.<br />
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More updates to come... Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com65tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-71238483662255056122015-10-13T20:06:00.002-07:002015-10-13T20:06:54.373-07:00Google Couldn't Kill UsAs some of you know, this blog has been offline for five months. The reason? A copyright claim. Who filed it isn't important. But google saw fit to block access to the blog and our corresponding email account. We still don't have access to our email, but the blog is back up and running.<br />
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Here's what happened: a third party who holds no intellectual rights to any of the material shared on this blog under fair use doctrine claimed to google that we were infringing on said rights. Google blocked us, and informed me via my private email that I had been banned under their terms of service. Initially, they wouldn't even tell me who made the claim; I had to get legal help to find all of this out.<br />
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My attorney team cut through the red tape and challenged the claim. The claimant never responded, and today I got an email from google letting me know I once again had access to my blog.<br />
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I want to personally thank<b> </b>the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation for the help they provided in this matter. <b></b><br />
<a href="http://www.lexmundiprobono.org/lexmundiprobono/Default.asp" target="_blank"><b><br /></b></a>
<b><br />That's all for now. More news soon. </b>Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com171tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-7675189985153311892015-04-28T23:27:00.000-07:002015-04-28T23:36:12.758-07:00Misc. Comments<br />
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Hello, checking in with our friends in Corleone Land.<br />
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We wanted to give a general status update about the project. We're investigating a new source, which we received the other day and have quickly previewed. It's a home recording of a 1986 broadcast of The Godfather Novelette, which on the surface appears to be pretty much the same as our recording of a different, earlier broadcast. Other than that, we're pretty much 97% done.<br />
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We've had a lot of comments and emails recently, so I'm going to answer as much as I can. I broke my collarbone and dislocated my shoulder last week, which is why I haven't made any recent updates to the blog as sitting and typing was just too painful.<br />
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On to the comments/letters:<br />
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<i><b>Thanks for the progress update! One further item pursuant to the whole
fileshare upload thing: the other major site for free uploads of large
files would be WeTransfer. Fast speeds and uploads up to 2GB in size for
free accounts. Might also be worth a looksee... :) </b></i><br />
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We're still looking into these staggered upload sites, so we're welcoming any feedback about such sites like this. Thanks for the info!<br />
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<i><b>Also came across this Australian VHS release of Godfather: Part 1 on eBay:</b></i><br />
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<i><b>http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=221277542824</b></i><br />
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Yep, we've screened all of the Aussie VHS releases that we know of. There were a couple of quick trims that we used, but for the most part they were all identical to the US/Euro VHS releases.<br />
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<i><b> I would gladly download and seed the highest quality that you can post... 90gb+</b></i><br />
<i><b>A restoration of this magnitude should be seen in the highest quality possible!!!</b></i><br />
<i><b>Thanks for all of your hard work, looking forward to viewing the result!</b></i><br />
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Thanks! I agree, that if there ever was a project deserving a large file size, this would be it. Unfortunately, most folks aren't like Godfather fans. (Well, maybe hardcore <i>Star Wars</i> junkies.) We've learned from some projects in the past that at least 3/4ths of downloaders simply hit and run, and the good guys get stuck seeding into oblivion. We hope that a reasonable file size like this will encourage as many seeders as possible.<br />
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And like I said in the past, we're always discussing a version 2.0 in the future that will be true HD for the discriminating aficionados among us. This brings me to another point we'd like everybody's feedback on. For our next release, would you like to see an upscaled, slick HD version of <b>The Complete Epic Trilogy</b>, or would you rather see a <b>fullscreen</b> version of The CET? Let us know. <br />
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<b><i>I was really crushed when I read that the scene of Michael killing
Fabrezio in the pizza parlor was officially lost for good, as this one
was a better and more crucial scene for the film compared to the obscure
car bomb death. I was also reading about a long sequence of scenes
taking place in the 1930's after Vito has killed Carlo Rizzi, where De
Niro puts on 40 pounds to more resemble the Marlon Brando Vito and many
others that bridge the gap between the young vito corleone segment and
the 1945 segment, Are those all officially lost for good ?</i></b><br />
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I'll turn you over to our buddy at Paramount for this question:<br />
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<i>I know that the bloody shootout at the Pizza Parlor death scene is gone for good. It was never actually finished. They spent a few days filming it before Coppola nixed it for good. When he viewed the dailys, he thought they looked absurdly ridiculous. It was so bloody that it was almost laughable, and he thought it might get them an X rating too, so he abandoned the scene midway thru shooting. All that remains is a few stills and I don't know whatever happened to the footage they shot. </i><br />
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<i>As for the other major sequences, I know that they are "officially" lost. After Barry Malkin made the rough cut of The Saga, pretty much everything that he didn't use went in the dumpster. But almost every single frame ever shot was transferred to video in '76 so Malkin and Coppola could make the edit more easily on tape. After they made their videotape rough cut, the engineers at Paramount used the tape as a reference to make the film master for the Saga. But nobody knows if these tapes were archived or not.</i><br />
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Just for clarity, even if these tape transfers were saved or not, they likely would not be usable since they were time coded to match the film reels they were taken from, meaning they probably would look like this:<br />
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Paramount has treated the Godfather franchise pretty badly. From destroying all of the excess footage, to ruining the negatives and losing first gen interpositives, it's a pretty shameful history. Even the excess footage from Part III has been lost, which is why the original opening to that film, which was finally released as an extra to the DVD, was taken from Coppola's crappy VHS dub. And that footage went missing less than ten years after it was vaulted!<br />
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So I'm not very hopeful that we'll ever get any "new" footage down the pipeline. I'm pretty sure that the only extra footage we'll be privy to is all of the excess material that has been spread out over the decades in hundreds of different commercial releases throughout the world.<br />
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<i><b>I just discovered a technique that could significantly increase the visual quality of this fanedit: superresolution. <br /><br />http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/132950-csi-style-super-resolution-image-enlargment-yeeaaaah<br /><br />Someone's doing it with Star Wars:<br /><br />http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-GOUT-in-HD-using-super-resolution-algorithm/topic/17552/</b></i><br />
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I think Superresolution can be a pretty big thing if it's used correctly and for a high-profile project, like Star Wars for example. We didn't find out about it until long into the editing process though, so we won't be utilizing it for this project, but maybe in a future release. I'm especially interested in what it can possibly do for upscaling some of the low-res footage we have. <br />
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<i><b>"Blood On Their Hands"<br />The Special Effects Of The "GODFATHER" Saga <br />http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/bloodontheirhands.html</b></i><br />
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Great, informative article. Thank you for sharing the link!<br />
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<b><i>Nobody talks about audio.....</i></b><br />
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<b><i>It will be AC3 (lossy) 256 or 448 kbps? But why not PCM, FLAC, DTS 768 or 1536 kbps (lossless)?</i></b><br />
<b><i>Bigger files, but for this EPIC I don't care. :]</i></b><br />
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We hear you (no pun intended). It will technically be lossy, but it will be a high bitrate.<br />
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I wanted to talk about the audio mix at some point, so I guess now's as good a time as any. I've been asked about the mixing project, and why we went from 5.1 DD down to 2.0 DTS. The reasons are manifold, ranging from file size, to best compatibility for the majority of viewers, etc. I think we reached a pretty good compromise in DTS:X.<br />
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For those unfamiliar with this fairly new codec, here's basically what you need to know:<br />
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1. DTS:X is an open-source codec that is designed to recreate a virtual surround soundscape in a headphone setting.<br />
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2. You do not need any special codecs to play DTS:X back on your PC. If you already have the DTS codec, you can decode DTS:X.<br />
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3. Playback on Blu-Ray or DVD is universal, however, only a few players and receivers support true DTS:X. For owners of home theater setups without DTS:X, the sound will play out in standard DTS.<br />
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4. While designed for use in quality headphones, DTS:X can still be enjoyed in a live multi-speaker setting.<br />
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5. DTS:X encoding can be mapped in a number of different ways, including a 32 channel soundscape. We have chosen the 11.1 channel configuration for this project. For a demonstration of this profile, <a href="http://soundgardenworld.com/superunknownxdemo/">check out this video</a> consisting of a sound test and a DTS:X 11.1 mix of Soundgarden's "Spoonman".<br />
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So the bottom line is that our DTS:X mix will sound great with 2 speakers or 20 speakers. And even though it's not flac, it's (in our opinion) the best sound you can get from a moderate bitrate and manageable file size. We think you'll enjoy it. <br />
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<b>WTF!?<br />Paramount confirmed shooting GF4 (prequel) based on book “The Family Corleone”. (2012)</b><br />
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Ha! Now that's an April Fool's Day joke if I ever heard one! Again, our man in the know:<br />
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<i>You're going to hear talk about the Godfather IV until the day you die. Bottom line, it's never getting made. Some of the big rumors right now are that they're making "The Family Corleone" into a movie but it is bullshit. See, "The Family Corleone" was actually written in the early 1980s as a script for Part III. The idea was that they were going to flesh out the 1930's sequence that was cut out of Part II and recast De Niro as Vito and find a new Sonny. They were talking about getting Stallone to play a young Luca Brasi and then it was Mickey Rourke, or Charlie Sheen, that was going to play the Irish kid. But Paramount rejected that script over thirty years ago which is why it sat in the dustbin until Puzo's kids needed the money. I've read the original treatment, it was garbage. And Ed Falco only made it marginally better. It needed Coppola to be a decent story. </i><br />
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<i>Other things you're going to hear are Eddie Murphy is going to be a black godfather or Denzel Washington. This too goes back to the 80s when Mario Puzo thought he could add a part of a young black crimelord based on the real life criminal Frank Lucas. But Coppola nixed the idea and that character ended up being Joey Zasa. But yes it is true that Eddie Murphy was who Puzo had in mind and he even agreed to do the film if it ever got made. But that never happened and later they made a movie about the real Frank Lucas which was </i>American Gangster<i> with Denzel Washington, which is why his name has come up. </i><br />
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<i>Other rumors? They're going to make one with Al Pacino and Andy Garcia that takes place in the early 90's. They're making a sequel based on the Winegardner books, or the video games. Or that Francis Ford Coppola is writing a new script. They're all bullshit. The only truth to any rumor is that Coppola called Puzo and talked about making the 30's era movie with all new unknown actors, but Puzo died a few weeks later and Coppola said that he would never make another Godfather film if Puzo wasn't involved. </i><br />
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There you have it, straight from the decapitated horse's mouth. <br />
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<i><b>never coming out (((((:- never coming out (((((:- never coming out (((((:-</b></i><br />
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<i><b>i think it will never come out, same thing in 2012 , this blog has been
around since 2011-2012 and we are in 2015 now , they promised allot and
delivered nothing !!</b></i><br />
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<i><b> yes it is never coming out, they been saying it will come out for 3 or 4
years now !!!, i mean why would i believe they will release it now!!,
they could at least release what they have ,and re -release a better
edit each time they do it, also editing dose not take that much of time ,
i've been editing for years , i edited a godfather 1 an 2 films in one
huge 7 hours and 32 minutes edit and it took me 2 days to do, so spare
me the it takes time crap, if they wanted to release it they would have
done it 4 years ago!!! </b></i><br />
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Seriously man, just stop. Pretty much every post with you is "this is never coming out, these guys are liars, waaaah waaaaah waaaaaah". You haven't contributed anything to this project, so please stop bitching as if we've taken money out of your pocket or something. As other posters have pointed out to you, we all have lives, jobs, families and various little things that occupy our lives. We've spent hundreds of dollars and (combined) thousands of hours putting this together and all that we ask from you is a little patience.<br />
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I've apologized numerous times for the length of time that has elapsed from inception to completion. And the twelve month hiatus in between where I had no idea if this was ever going to be finished because one of the guys with the most recent batch of completed files went MIA or the other long break where our soundman was deployed to Afghanistan. Yes, the missed "deadlines" for this thing suck, and I take full responsibility. But in a way, it's worked out for the better because we turned up a few cool sources in the meantime that we've been able to utilize and it's better than putting everything together for download and then turning around every six months to say "Wait! We found another two seconds of deleted footage! Ignore the last release and download this again!" We want future releases to be complimentary, like an HD version or a full-frame version, not "mandatory" re-releases that contain new footage that we just found. Who wants to keep downloading the same thing over and over again? <br />
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Like Michael said to Clemenza and Tessio, "Be. Patient. There are negotiations being made that are going to answer all of your
questions and solve all of your problems. That's all I can tell you
right now." And any constructive criticism is always welcome, but if you're just going to keep posting inanities, you can take your nonsense elsewhere. <br />
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<i><b>Hey guys if you want an extended version of the two films with all hd
footage, this guy made an edit of that:
http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?14167-The-Godfather-Extended-Edition-HD/</b></i><br />
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Very cool. We were just talking about this a couple of weeks ago, for the guy that wanted an all-HD version of the first two films with just the AMC bonus scenes added in. Or vice-versa, I can't remember.<br />
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Someone asked me a little while back if we were going to submit our cut over at fanedit.org, and the answer is probably "no." Don't get me wrong, I love the site, but when I was told by a mod that we wouldn't get "approval" for this project because making a long chronological cut doesn't qualify as a "true" fanedit, I realized which way the wind was blowing. No offense to anyone over there, but we don't need fanedit.org's stamp of approval. This was made by fans for <b>fans</b>, not for wannabe film critics or amateur filmmakers with delusions of grandeur. The only opinions we care to hear are from you guys. <br />
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<i><b>I recall this scene in the book. Genco is on his death bead asking The
Don to help him cheat death. He is worried about satan. As I recall, the
Don says something like, "this is the life we choose". I never heard
about this scene ever existing in any version. Very interesting.</b></i>
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Regards<br />
(I was nine when my mom took my to see the Godfather in a theater on Cape Cod)</b></i><br />
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Yeah, that to me was a key scene that should have been included in the film no matter what. I mean, the most iconic element of the film's marketing, the marionette strings, basically came from this scene. (Not to mention the profile pic of Brando that was used so extensively in the Euro posters: <br />
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Which kind of reminds me of the Pacino pic from the deleted Pizzeria massacre scene that was one of the most famous publicity stills prior to the film's release...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-WY1gAFqf6ZRveaJBtI-BQji3pN4Hdm7MOEyxWiLy4VoAl4H89be82KBqa3vLLRKYgjq59-VYQe-GA7RfdhXPbUVmLC90S9yltCCjCzqUPUtcfcScz8D-ygTiErPi2tzrn-cdAPXS2pu9/s1600/Michaell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-WY1gAFqf6ZRveaJBtI-BQji3pN4Hdm7MOEyxWiLy4VoAl4H89be82KBqa3vLLRKYgjq59-VYQe-GA7RfdhXPbUVmLC90S9yltCCjCzqUPUtcfcScz8D-ygTiErPi2tzrn-cdAPXS2pu9/s1600/Michaell.jpg" height="218" width="320" /></a></div>
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Also, the accompanying scene just prior to arriving at the hospital spawned a number of publicity stills:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFD9Bu-qrs4LVSPV-oBiCNYSRFoysXi573i8BBtnxW2OmWmKztSJMjUIWereqkIxCAdzlc3JiQiTkmZ_fXxr1u4PGDUgyc4IeWDv-9Mm83qrC5AqDuhVfsp4nhkhLVgWEnp-7X6vCJwKh1/s1600/2222222222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFD9Bu-qrs4LVSPV-oBiCNYSRFoysXi573i8BBtnxW2OmWmKztSJMjUIWereqkIxCAdzlc3JiQiTkmZ_fXxr1u4PGDUgyc4IeWDv-9Mm83qrC5AqDuhVfsp4nhkhLVgWEnp-7X6vCJwKh1/s1600/2222222222.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a></div>
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... but I digress. It can be argued that the puppet strings in the logo are merely implied throughout the story and really don't need to be explained, but then again you can say that about any number of scenes, both excised and intact. To me the Genco scene, and the accompanying scenes that were also cut, establish so much about Vito's character that we wouldn't easily infer otherwise, such as:<br />
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1. Prior to getting to the hospital, Vito asks mockingly if Micheal's "American" girlfriend can find her way to the city alright. It shows that Vito clearly doesn't 100% approve of Micheal's WASP paramour.<br />
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2. Things are already tense between father and son. "What are all these Christmas ribbons?" he says, while running his hands along Micheal's tokens of valor. "They're for bravery," he answers. "What miracles you perform for strangers..." Vito trails off. "Michael, you never come to me as a son. I want to talk to you about your future. I have plans for you." "Si," Micheal answers, walking away, obviously not wanting to pursue the conversation any further.<br />
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3. Vito's oldest friend and counselor Genco believes that the Don is so powerful he can even cheat death. Obviously the man has left a larger-than-life impression on even his closest friend. But he himself is modest. "Genco, I have no such power."<br />
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4. Vito, if not religious, at least has some concept of Christianity. "You blaspheme," he warns Genco after his old friend begs his Godfather to chase Satan away. He also has come to terms with his own mortality, (or maybe he sees such fears as unmanly) as he gently presses Genco to not fear death. <br />
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5. Vito cares deeply for the suffering of others. "Stay with me Godfather," Genco begs, and he does. <br />
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So yeah, I think it was an important scene in the book and on the screen. But I think it was better in the film than in the book, as the dialogue was more natural and less contrite. Which is a general criticism I have with Puzo's writing. His dialogue comes off stiff and preachy. Read the dialogue in any of the shooting scripts (Coppola mainly handled the framing and narrative; he let Puzo write the dialogue for the most part) and compare it to the finished product, which was altered by Coppola and/or the actor during shooting. (A really great example is the <a href="http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Godfather-Part-II.html">semi-final screenplay for Part II</a>.) But that's another discussion for another day.<br />
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(And don't get me started on the line "a lawyer and his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns" line that Puzo fought tooth and nail to include in the final film, but was shot down (pun intended) by Coppola, not just once, but for all three films!)<br />
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Also, I'd love to hear more about the first time you saw The Godfather out on Cape Cod. In fact, I'd like to do an entry about everybody's first contact with the franchise- what was it like the first time you saw the Godfather or its sequels, and what were your impressions? How old were you, where was it, etc? Leave a comment or email us at godfathermuseum@gmail.com!<br />
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We want to extend a huge thanks to everyone that has supported us, even with our less-than-stellar release timelines. Your comments and emails mean a great deal to me personally and we deeply appreciate your understanding and eagerness to see this cut.<br />
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Till next time!<br />
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<br />Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com79tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-64129240480890495132015-04-10T01:00:00.000-07:002015-04-10T01:00:29.732-07:00VCD UpdateWe're happy to report that we found some unique material in our Japanese VCD of <b>The Epic</b>. Nothing earth shattering, but some good lifts and extensions that aren't in any other source we know of.<br />
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Probably the biggest thing in this set is an alternate take of Genco in the hospital, begging Vito to help him stave off his impending death. Unfortunately, the dialogue is in Japanese. We have no reference for what the dialogue is in this scene, and the translation from Japanese into English is bizarre, to say the least, which precludes any attempt at redubbing the dialogue into something that makes any sense. Also, most of this dialogue can be found in the alternate take of this same scene that is already in our edit.<br />
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We decided to place this alternate take in the opening credit montage where we also put the other alternate take that we couldn't fit into the main storyline. If you'll recall the scene from Part II where Vito's boss Abbandando is trying to give him a box of groceries as a small consolation for having to fire him, there exists two different, but nearly identical, takes.<br />
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In the theatrical version, the dialogue is faster and Vito exits the sidewalk onto the street, where the scene fades out. In the Saga version, the scene plays out a little slower, and the shot of Vito walking into the street runs about 10 seconds longer.<br />
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Unlike the other alternate takes that we edited into the core storyline, these two scenes are so similar to their counterparts that we could not fit them into the main narrative. Therefore we put the shorter, theatrical take into the opening credit montage where we're also going to place the Genco scene. This is the only way we can place all existing footage for the Trilogy into the project.<br />
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While we're at it, we're also going to replace some of the footage that we took from the Betamax edition of <b>The Complete Trilogy</b> with this VCD cut, since it is of noticeably better quality than what we had. (Yes, we used the Betamax version when possible since it had a slightly higher resolution than VHS. The picture quality is pretty much the same, but the blacks and browns look way better on Beta than VHS does.) Then we can get to the finalizing stage and put this out for download.<br />
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On to some comments:<br />
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<b>My my my, after all these years, can't wait to see it!!!!! Finally!!!</b><br />
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We can't wait to finally get this thing off of our hard drives! Honestly though, I'll be really happy when we get this last bit of footage done. I know you've all waited a long time.<br />
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<b>Could you also upload this to mega.co.nz? You could each make a free 50GB account and split the discs between them. <span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"> I think Mediafire and Mega offer
the most free space and fastest downloads, and Mega seems least
susceptible to takedowns. I prefer direct downloads because torrents
receive much more unwanted attention. Those who do torrent should use
anonymizers (VPNs).</span></b><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">Just as a test, we uploaded some files to share between the three of us on Megaupload and Uploaded. Megaupload was relatively painless, but we will DEFINITELY NOT be putting anything up on Uploaded. It will probably be some time before we attempt to put the whole thing up on Mega since it took forever just to load about 800 mb. I shudder to think how long it would take for 6 gigs to go up. But anyone who downloads the finished project should feel free to upload it anywhere you want to, whether it be a torrent or on a staggered download site. You can even feel free to post it to a streaming video service if you think it's worth doing.</span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">I only mention that because apparently some uploaders are screwy when it comes to other people uploading the torrent they "created." Isn't the whole point of file sharing to um, share? As long as you're not charging money for it, you have our blessing to spread this over the whole world if you see fit. </span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">You bring up a point that we wanted to address before, but never really had the chance to bring up. About the legality of torrenting, and fan edits, and perceived unwanted attention, we really don't have any opinion either way. We feel that fanedits are legally protected expressions of artistic merit and they need to be shared to be appreciated, and torrenting is the best means of sharing that information with the public at large. I'm also not aware of anyone being busted for "piracy" because they downloaded or shared a fanedit. Even though we're delving in to the murky waters of "copyright protection" and "creative freedom", at the end of the day, downloading the Despecialized Editions of the original <i>Star Wars</i> Trilogy is <b>NOT</b> the same as downloading an illegal, commercially available copy of the legitimate Blu-Ray set. </span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">I use the<i> Star Wars Despecialized</i> cuts as an example simply because they're damned good edits. We're also on the eve of the official release of the six<i> Star Wars</i> films as a digital download. When they're released tomorrow, you should purchase them (if you don't own them already) and then turn around and download Harmy's Despecialized editions. That's the way we feel about this set: buy the GF Trilogy on DVD or BD (one) so that you can support the filmmakers and the studios that put this out and (two) so you have the legal impetus for downloading this historical preservation of material that is out of print or simply doesn't even exist anymore. If Paramount were to release a chronological cut that contains all of the material that we have in our edit, then we would pull our version down in a heartbeat. </span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">My last thought on the subject: if you feel wrong about downloading something because it may contain protected material, then you shouldn't download it. If you feel fanedits are <i>not</i> bootlegged, pirated works meant to infringe on the earnings of the rights holders, then go nuts!</span><br />
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<br /><b><span id="bc_0_9b+seedsc1UD" kind="d">[About a full-frame edition of the CET]: I'm glad to hear it! I can wait
(hopefully not three years, though, lol). What percentage of footage do
you estimate is available in fullscreen?<br /><br />Variable aspect
presentation can be significantly less jarring if the blurred pillarbox
effect I mentioned is employed. Instead of black pillarboxes, the edges
of the image are repeated and blurred, tricking the peripheral vision
into thinking the 4:3 image is 16:9. I don't know what software is used
to accomplish it, but you've probably seen it before on television and
can discover how to do it.</span></b><br />
<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"> </span><br />
<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"> </span><br />
<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"> </span><br />
<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">I'd say probably 99% of the footage used to make The CET is available in a full-frame ratio. The problem is the quality of the reference material. Probably the best source to use would be the THX laserdiscs of 1997 (including the <b>Trilogy</b> edition) but when I think of all that blue and red that needs to be color corrected, I get a migraine...</span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">I've seen the technique you're talking about used before on some television documentaries. It's a nifty idea, but it's a little weird to me. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhx6qwvYtspTUVuKGMjRTn94JAeCxhlKpb6JAox9HhkIE-VA47JrdwSaHMavF9J6rCRuHmDQvq32uSD2xRyUZIrWvsIhHI0kWG1Cw7LbahJVWQhlJG1RukYWUPfFNVEGPvdWxY41Cn6qUZ/s1600/index.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhx6qwvYtspTUVuKGMjRTn94JAeCxhlKpb6JAox9HhkIE-VA47JrdwSaHMavF9J6rCRuHmDQvq32uSD2xRyUZIrWvsIhHI0kWG1Cw7LbahJVWQhlJG1RukYWUPfFNVEGPvdWxY41Cn6qUZ/s1600/index.jpeg" height="299" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">It reminds me somewhat of those old "color" magic sheets that you could put on black and white tv sets. (I know it's a completely different barrel of monkeys, but the principle is the same. I think.) For anyone that grew up in the 70's you might remember that gimmick if your parents were too cheap to buy a color set and happened to do all their shopping at K-Mart. The Magic Screens were sheets of thin plastic that looked like brightly colored deposits of mud. You cut it to fit the screen of your b&w set and it was held in place by static electricity. Suddenly everything was in color. Except it was horrible. Skin was green, the sun was purple, grass was blue, etc. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjUBCPPU1cqxQ_iVRmZGF1sLqyklUJWhaLTKk9PTFGsNWe4okZ8KrKoMn1OdNYkR3UL3YdTgwHUpN-eigAzAuDJecklDBULqwpJ4SNITmizX-l4C4VhwDKVuVNklSRW8rlDcKMlhlz3vs/s1600/colorscreen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjUBCPPU1cqxQ_iVRmZGF1sLqyklUJWhaLTKk9PTFGsNWe4okZ8KrKoMn1OdNYkR3UL3YdTgwHUpN-eigAzAuDJecklDBULqwpJ4SNITmizX-l4C4VhwDKVuVNklSRW8rlDcKMlhlz3vs/s1600/colorscreen.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Instant color for only two bucks? Sold!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi172VEzZgjzX-afYLgHztAnQGpM6MZe149e2oSZ0qxvVSY8VF5eqrh6q17E35SKmPX2yhhhiqxsOHp_hyDrBodMpmMbBtgdxlIG1184it50_ZF1dUrmJzmZvPHXriylN_VwNpz-sfqRqln/s1600/instantcolortvscreen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi172VEzZgjzX-afYLgHztAnQGpM6MZe149e2oSZ0qxvVSY8VF5eqrh6q17E35SKmPX2yhhhiqxsOHp_hyDrBodMpmMbBtgdxlIG1184it50_ZF1dUrmJzmZvPHXriylN_VwNpz-sfqRqln/s1600/instantcolortvscreen.jpg" height="282" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Son of a bitch!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">My aunt and uncle were too cheap to buy a color set, so they figured that they could buy one of those sheets for a couple of dollars and have a "new" color TV. I think they tried to watch a football game or something and when the yellow football field started giving my uncle nausea, he threw it out immediately. (I used to put it on just for fun and pretend that Phil Donahue was a martian and he was hosting his show from another dimension.)</span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">I get an instant wave of nostalgia whenever I see that blurred pillarboxing effect. It just makes me want the black bars on the side instead. </span><br />
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<br /><b>You will make longest saga in SD.<br /><br />But what do you say about this offer? :] Maybe you can't refuse? :)<br /><br />Godfather Saga AMC in HD is released 3 long years ago,<br />and looks like no one have intention to make uncensored version.<br /><br />Use AMC and import scenes from Blu-Ray, or opposite.<br />And maybe 5.1 track (DTS)<br />Without GFIII<br />Release as Blu-Ray.<br /><br />That can be best chronological version in best quality (HD) for a long long time.</b><br />
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I think this was best answered by the following poster:<br />
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<b><span id="bc_0_16b+seedsc1eD" kind="d">They've answered this question in
previous posts. They used the AMC cut when it was the best option, but
it's not a true HD transfer, and has the station logo and bumpers, which
force them to crop the image. They've painstakingly selected the
best-looking sources on a per-scene basis.</span></b><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">I just really can't find the appeal in something like this. Why would you want to use the AMC broadcast as the core source for an edit, complete with bumpers, commercial break fades, and chunks and chunks of missing footage? Just to "say" that it's in HD? I mean, if it's all about HD for you, why wouldn't you just use the Blu-Rays as the core footage and then fly in the additional scenes from the Saga? </span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">Don't get me wrong, I love HD. We put this project together in HD and we were going to release it in HD before we realized how large the files were. But even if the HD files were the same size as a high quality DVD file, I would never delude myself into thinking that this cut was "true" hi-def. It's all about the source footage. You can add as many pixels as you like, but a blurry VHS rip is going to look as bad in HD (if not worse) than it will in SD. The same goes for the AMC Saga: a fourth generation 16mm print is going to look just as bad in an HD broadcast as it does in its native form unless it gets a from-the-ground-up digital restoration. </span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d">It's kind of like when TV stations started broadcasting in stereo. All of the source material was recorded in mono and even though it was now being broadcasted in two channels, it was just mono being broadcast in two channels. I remember when TBS started airing monaural classics like <i>Casablanca</i> and <i>Citizen Kane, </i>people were saying "it sounds so great in stereo!" I shook my head then, and I shake my head now when people swoon over old-generation SD masters that are broadcast in HD. </span><br />
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<span id="bc_0_4b+seedsc1WD" kind="d"></span><b>Hi, I'm not sure if I read it correctly on any of the posts, but how
will you be presenting the ending credits? Will you be doing it as all
three played in a row? Sections of it edited together? <br />Or creating your own? <br /><br />I
own the DVD collection and will have no problem creating a customized
ending credits from scratch in the same format and font as the films. <br /><br />I
really feel that what would also make this a true complete version
would be with all ending credits merged into one incorporating all cast
and crew.</b><br />
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For the end credits, we used all three original films, the four separate credits from the<b> Saga</b>, T<b>he Complete Epic</b>, T<b>he Trilogy</b>, the Restoration project credits, and then our own quick credits. We did not use the credits from <b>The Epic</b> since it was virtually identical (in font) to <b>The Complete Epic</b> and (in content) to <b>The Trilogy</b>. When we said "complete", we meant complete- even down to the end credits.<br />
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We also didn't use anything that was basically a dupe of other credit sequences, like <b>The Novellete</b> or the "new" credits for the AMC broadcast, since they were just variations of the original NBC broadcast credits with certain actors added or deleted depending on how that particular segment aired. Also, the ending montages from the first three nights of The Saga are on the bonus disc. These were just previews of the scenes from the next night's broadcast and didn't contain any non-theatrical footage and so didn't need to be part of the CET. But we did add them as a supplement just for curiosity's sake. <br />
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That's also another plug for the bonus disc. It's almost three hours long and the only material that overlaps with the bonus features on the box set are the three original theatrical trailers. There's a lot of neat stuff on there like the original intros to The Saga and Part I broadcasts. We've (along with other awesome GF fans) put a lot of this stuff up on youtube in the last few years but this is a chance to have it all in one place. <br />
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<b><span id="bc_0_18b+seedsc1fD" kind="d">Good idea. Also, what's the runtime without credits? 634 minutes, or less? </span></b><br />
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I'll have to get back to you on that one. I know the end credits run about 12 minutes total but I have no idea what the total runtime for this project is now with the new stuff we're putting in to it.<br />
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<b>Who else plans to splice all five parts into one for seamless viewing off hard drive or dual-layer Blu-ray? :D </b><br />
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I know at least two of the guys that helped put this together have the same idea! <br />
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<b>You don't need to know anything. I learned how to do simple splices and
cuts with SolveigMM Video Splitter in about ten minutes (after using
Handbrake to effortlessly convert DVDs to editable files). Also, Final
Cut Pro and Sony Vegas are among several popular basic video editors.
You could complete the edit you want within a week or two. <br /><br />Here's a guide:<br /><br />http://lifehacker.com/5785558/the-basics-of-video-editing-the-complete-guide</b><br />
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I think this was in response to the guy that wanted to do the AMC edit. It's a good tutorial.<br />
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We started this in Cyberlink Power Director and ended up in Sony Vega. Power Director is a good program for beginners but Vega has a lot more potential and is far less buggy.<br />
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Also I'm reposting this for anyone that might be having trouble working around bumpers and subtitles:<br />
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<i>How to extract/remove subtitles/logo from a video <br /> <br />http://www.videohelp.com/guides/category/how-to-extract-remove-subtitles-logo-from-a-video-5;66</i><br />
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<b>Hey, today is Francis Ford Coppola's birthday... Just sayin'... ;)</b><br />
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It should be a national holiday in my opinion! <br />
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Also, next month it will be a year since Gordon Willis died. I was going to post something when he passed away but it was during our "hibernation" period. I'm going to try to have a memorial piece written up. I may not agree with the way he guided the Restoration, but his original cinematography is without equal.<br />
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<b>Either way, we should know and have the release in our hands by the end
of the month - not long at all compared to the years some of us have
waited, although if it isn't out by month's end, then I'll start to
worry! </b><br />
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Don't worry, we should have it up by the end of the month. As long as we don't find something weird, like a Nicaraguan workprint of Part II with two hours of missing footage. (One could only hope!)<br />
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It's really hard to believe that we've been working on this for almost five years. My wife walked in the other day while I was doing something and said "Are you still working on that damn Godfather thing? I thought you were finished with it!"<br />
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<b>In searching on eBay today, I came across this release:<br /><br />http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=141613098704</b><br />
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<b>Appears to be an Indian/Sri Lankan VCD edition of the Trilogy. I didn't notice it listed within your sources.</b><br />
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When we found out that most of the VCDs on the market were bootlegs, we stopped screening them.<br />
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What's interesting is that this one is on the Sare Gama label, which is a legitmate Viacom license. But the Restoration was never released to VCD, which means this is probably a DVD rip. If anyone has anymore information about it, we'd love to hear it.<br />
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That's all till next time. Remember if you ever want to contact us apart from the comment section, our email is <b>godfathermuseum@gmail.com</b>. I don't check it every day so there may be a lag in response time. Take care, and may your foist child be a masculine child!<br />
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Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com51tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-62306607984688682192015-04-01T21:45:00.000-07:002015-04-01T21:45:06.527-07:00New Source- The Epic VCDI received an interesting email the other day from a fellow GF fan who lives on the other side of the world.<br />
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We get a lot of responses, which we all appreciate, from fans all over who have a version of the Godfather that they think may be of use to us. In most cases, we already have that particular version of the films or we've reviewed them and found that they didn't contain anything that we didn't already have. But this was a new source, one that we'd never even heard of.<br />
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I figured that we've seen or made note of every commercial release that existed, but this fan claimed to have something new: a Japanese VCD set of <b>The Epic. </b>I was incredulous to say the least, because in all the research we've done in the last few years, we've only come across two Japanese chronological cuts: <b>The Complete Epic</b> on Betamax and <b>The Trilogy</b> on Laserdisc. But this was that elusive re-issued version of <i>The Complete Epic</i> with Part III tacked on at the end. And it was Japanese. And it was on VCD. And it's a legitimate Paramount release. Yeah right...<br />
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A quick note about VCD. The video compact disc was a popular Asian video format that never quite took off in the West. It never gained traction in the US like laserdisc, and later DVD did. But in Asian countries like China and Thailand a cottage industry sprang up almost overnight. You see, the VCD didn't have any kind of copy protection. For a little more than the cost of a VCR, you could buy a VCD deck that both played and burned discs. Plug in another VCD player and boom: instant transfer.<br />
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American companies like MCA, Paramount and Fox were leasing their films to Asian VCD manufacturers. But when pirating and bootlegging became so prevalent, most of the major studios packed up and got the hell out of town. Asia went on producing VCDs, they just did it without any permission from the copyright holders. So for around 3 or 4 dollars US, you could own your very own bootlegged film.<br />
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When I say that Asia fostered a bootleg industry, I mean that it was a real industry. When we think of the typical bootleg DVD in America, we picture a blank disc with the movie's title hastily scrawled out in Sharpie ink, usually misspelled. If you're lucky to get a wrapper or container with your bootleg, it's usually a blank white ordeal or a xeroxed copy of the film's movie poster. When you pop in your disc, it's a safe bet that it's a crappy cam rip that somebody filmed in the theater with their smartphone.<br />
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These types of bootlegs are also found in Asia. But there also exists the more attractive grey-area bootleg- a professionally duped disc (or in the case of VCD, discs plural, as the highest quality VCD can only hold roughly an hour of footage) along with a printed, full color slipcase and booklet. They may not be up to par with the typical studio-released DVD or BD, but they're a damn sight better than the average burn and churn street corner bootleg.<br />
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I say that these releases are grey-market, and not quite black market, because most of the factories that are producing these bootlegs have approval from their governments. As long as they're splitting the proceeds with their leaders, they can produce whatever the hell they want. And with that government approval comes government protection. Every now and then you hear about a large raid that lands a lot of these bootleggers in prison. More often than not, it's because a rival bootlegger "donates" more money to the government and decides he wants to put the competition out of business. In come the feds, and out goes the business rival. <br />
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I don't want to potentially badmouth any legitimate companies out there. But I will go on record as saying that to the best of my knowledge, there doesn't exist any legitimate VCD copy of any Godfather film or films manufactured legally after 1993. I could be wrong, but I'm probably not. Before you are tempted to buy a Coppola Restoration set on VCD because it's supposedly rare, do some research. Don't be fooled by the professional-looking packaging.<br />
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Another thing that had me questioning the authenticity of this set was the fact that it was Japanese. Now, unlike the rest of Asia, Japan didn't quite take to VCD. The Japanese were all about laserdisc. They very reluctantly made the transition to DVD only after Sony made that format the Playstation 2 standard. But VCD fared about as well as the laserdisc did in America- it had its (very enthusiastic) supporters who considered it to be a superior format, but for the most part it got lost in the shuffle.<br />
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So while it's not uncommon to find Japanese VCDs, they're not exactly falling out of the sky. Especially non-Anime films. And the upshot is that if it's a Japanese VCD, it's probably not a bootleg. So I worked out a deal with the owner of this set and in a few short days received the discs in my mailbox.<br />
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According to the owner, the original slipcase has long since disappeared, along with one of the jewel cases. If you remember the old, fat two-CD jewelcases that we used to have (not the newer 2-disc case that's the same width as a typical CD case but has a popout tray inside), this set had three of them, each holding two discs. The front cover of each jewelcase has the standard white-on-black Godfather marionette logo in English with Japanese characters on the side, and underneath that, in English, the words "<b>The Epic, 1901-1980</b>". On the reverse side, there's more Japanese writing along with the numbers 1 and 2. (The other case is the same except that it indicates 5 and 6. Apparently the missing case held discs 3 and 4). And underneath that, the Paramount logo with the letters "PMJ".<br />
<br />
My source at Paramount confirmed that PMJ stood for Paramount Japan and was a licensed manufacturer of Paramount VCD titles. It was manufactured shortly before Paramount pulled out of the VCD market and the estimated date of purchase roughly coincides with the period that these units would have been marked down for clearance. It was indeed purchased on sale at Tower Records in Tokyo according to the owner, for around <span class="st">¥3,000 (about 20 dollars USD.) </span><br />
<br />
The reason that I'm describing the packaging instead of just posting some pictures is because I promised the owner that I wouldn't upload any pics, as he's afraid that someone would attempt to bootleg this title and it could possibly effect the value of such a rare set. I understand and respect that, and I am grateful that he trusted me enough to send me, a complete stranger, such a prized valuable. I thank you again, and I'm sure I speak for the fan community when I say that we appreciate your commitment towards sharing these wonderful films with the entire world. <br />
<br />
So does this set hold any new secrets? I don't know. I've only played the opening for disc 1 to verify that my DVD player can actually play VCD. When I saw the old "Paramount, A Gulf+Western Company" trademark, I knew I was good to go. <br />
<br />
I'm going to set some time aside this week so that I can go over it with a fine-toothed comb. I'll let you all know if I turn anything up. If there's nothing new, I'm just going to go ahead and upload the project to torrent. But if we have to go back and edit anything, we'll update you with an approximate time frame.<br />
<br />
Till next time...Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-88630186342024406592015-03-29T22:57:00.003-07:002015-03-30T01:14:29.601-07:00Screen Shots and Technical ErrataIn response to inquiries, we've put up some screenshots from Disc One (of five) which is the worst looking out of the set. What I mean is that it has the highest percentage of material lifted from less-than optimum sources and it serves as the litmus for just how badly some of the footage looks. If you can live with this, then you should be satisfied with the rest of the feature.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFzSvet3CidP7JVPZL88gP1Y7MTIJ7sRcVCwyEvTQvttzR62bKjkKJiyFrAsDx431X3KKtUTT5DUqdz0NuOfS2qhvR6pHeeJ0obgllDTd37BbmxjQs7N9hHd5tXJ9N_cDtOOgKfGv7670O/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h41m26s204.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFzSvet3CidP7JVPZL88gP1Y7MTIJ7sRcVCwyEvTQvttzR62bKjkKJiyFrAsDx431X3KKtUTT5DUqdz0NuOfS2qhvR6pHeeJ0obgllDTd37BbmxjQs7N9hHd5tXJ9N_cDtOOgKfGv7670O/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h41m26s204.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taken from the 1977 NBC Saga broadcast.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSywrll0XytLBB6ymvToY3MpU-nrSw7jw4JqMdL2LIqIbHLoCuHLgaGL_kmgLZ2gZLGwINGCvOJENvloufxVGE9nXbIsLPhih6dUMjs59TY14lWR9GkBJwc66n37iP_HOkKvEinflgRtx/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h41m58s170.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSywrll0XytLBB6ymvToY3MpU-nrSw7jw4JqMdL2LIqIbHLoCuHLgaGL_kmgLZ2gZLGwINGCvOJENvloufxVGE9nXbIsLPhih6dUMjs59TY14lWR9GkBJwc66n37iP_HOkKvEinflgRtx/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h41m58s170.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">199? USA networks Saga</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYhhBTPVcCSWR_Xh1B4wGPz2Q9ktQxFiRAu8AJpN5jQREUy58loL3ZG55iPk4FzC7KDq_YzlhPvqb5LmWsnCWgkeH84TUNgy98yRmPzdxgMD3yLfd0a0HdkpzQ8uobRcb8jUUbMJlB3Rb_/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h42m18s93.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYhhBTPVcCSWR_Xh1B4wGPz2Q9ktQxFiRAu8AJpN5jQREUy58loL3ZG55iPk4FzC7KDq_YzlhPvqb5LmWsnCWgkeH84TUNgy98yRmPzdxgMD3yLfd0a0HdkpzQ8uobRcb8jUUbMJlB3Rb_/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h42m18s93.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coppola Restoration</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0EzvSDEL_hm09P2ZXFlYGnwEeI4rrEm7s2MIcb1mYfbFsW33ddh1t_RLCpzqh2PnbkJN5QS36mQyQ6MIjNXdGe2rufWSWB7uqmNgYoclJAjXPustICnsu0KCalDauHAzALm5jVI6bPcs1/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h42m36s21.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0EzvSDEL_hm09P2ZXFlYGnwEeI4rrEm7s2MIcb1mYfbFsW33ddh1t_RLCpzqh2PnbkJN5QS36mQyQ6MIjNXdGe2rufWSWB7uqmNgYoclJAjXPustICnsu0KCalDauHAzALm5jVI6bPcs1/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h42m36s21.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2001 DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ff4xCuATAcqxUOawdkM5ukLeYg4Oyav2f_-Zz_EfDxYcFSv9zQMHZSJSpvC8Dcm-qGG4ZKXCVEFo9TYMAlV1VXQ09qlgum1cqSdG-cdUci93BSL-LL0jfD3VJKIA60n7j5pgObH3EnTb/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h42m57s238.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ff4xCuATAcqxUOawdkM5ukLeYg4Oyav2f_-Zz_EfDxYcFSv9zQMHZSJSpvC8Dcm-qGG4ZKXCVEFo9TYMAlV1VXQ09qlgum1cqSdG-cdUci93BSL-LL0jfD3VJKIA60n7j5pgObH3EnTb/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h42m57s238.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coppola Restoration</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBuwPkqjFS9X7O4pkDboJoG9f4F4UMxsL4ljkqBNB5In2zEPB3LtApFDFaSpF29s-oHD1GmodI6TvvRoxL2aQeNc4B_j_jaoTOwxnZUdeBuDlZKrg3iIXSrCLlpAEBGfXhXhQGXXKjI4Jp/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h44m27s118.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBuwPkqjFS9X7O4pkDboJoG9f4F4UMxsL4ljkqBNB5In2zEPB3LtApFDFaSpF29s-oHD1GmodI6TvvRoxL2aQeNc4B_j_jaoTOwxnZUdeBuDlZKrg3iIXSrCLlpAEBGfXhXhQGXXKjI4Jp/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h44m27s118.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1997 Laserdisc</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbVkbBV5tgmF56O1YV_x-k_Ot6eoFPRLnZWPKz9X00d252tJK1k5rUtfq3TpaLzFFLi-gsw3hlhFQwlU_llLmelOvntDVmJ6RgHgCOH5iIJZqSKqxnPEBfkt3Q9mPYdGDalIvKhgkoTQf/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h46m09s205.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbVkbBV5tgmF56O1YV_x-k_Ot6eoFPRLnZWPKz9X00d252tJK1k5rUtfq3TpaLzFFLi-gsw3hlhFQwlU_llLmelOvntDVmJ6RgHgCOH5iIJZqSKqxnPEBfkt3Q9mPYdGDalIvKhgkoTQf/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h46m09s205.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AMC Saga broadcast</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4bMPDOtz26yMCLHdZm-Jx0JyiKX5EnHXwKaQXhpybbHs6BFimytP2hpBS-Vt11vmHMFeBy6UrzGMM376ZNJRUk-0eE1cuwcoBpj8TDOUjAVswsbImYji367DIOpAdKCCRAfxzekuDu7_0/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h46m42s127.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4bMPDOtz26yMCLHdZm-Jx0JyiKX5EnHXwKaQXhpybbHs6BFimytP2hpBS-Vt11vmHMFeBy6UrzGMM376ZNJRUk-0eE1cuwcoBpj8TDOUjAVswsbImYji367DIOpAdKCCRAfxzekuDu7_0/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h46m42s127.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trilogy Laserdisc</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFMO7xDUJSUZhNgZyYD55qxC7P4RkBNGBdeVCnUM1rgts0TPsbA6WolOYjrZZnN0NH0dYemIegV83dmAzxIvDTbCjMAPQZxBV6zMBEctL-ttpjnc6HNS76xR3V2NxUTiCnwoY317LN60l5/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h47m03s98.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFMO7xDUJSUZhNgZyYD55qxC7P4RkBNGBdeVCnUM1rgts0TPsbA6WolOYjrZZnN0NH0dYemIegV83dmAzxIvDTbCjMAPQZxBV6zMBEctL-ttpjnc6HNS76xR3V2NxUTiCnwoY317LN60l5/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h47m03s98.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AMC Saga</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8ozbWV1JjqFnNlvCvsqKKPzNz52yGnfgiiE2KNcmII2w9BRjmBkn0kSHlMMBOnPGkUe20KHAzRUkCSiHjvY-xao580SHQ0RXikVq7L5TnkzcH1y-KDm8rYC3VGuJkO5qo1t-KWcs7qhN/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h48m00s200.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8ozbWV1JjqFnNlvCvsqKKPzNz52yGnfgiiE2KNcmII2w9BRjmBkn0kSHlMMBOnPGkUe20KHAzRUkCSiHjvY-xao580SHQ0RXikVq7L5TnkzcH1y-KDm8rYC3VGuJkO5qo1t-KWcs7qhN/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h48m00s200.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">German Laserdisc</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXTg2mN6m6lm6k8QfW1NeViri-xEBI6vuOR09auZXj6cCsa_V3SPjGDbJkCFYUEtRJuPjAD5wTSUSOpfTdrm7YI9gmVTwZOWFuqUDz4CCuv04G9fUGTYxTnNFQt-atRzevVTBMf9oBdGty/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h48m39s82.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXTg2mN6m6lm6k8QfW1NeViri-xEBI6vuOR09auZXj6cCsa_V3SPjGDbJkCFYUEtRJuPjAD5wTSUSOpfTdrm7YI9gmVTwZOWFuqUDz4CCuv04G9fUGTYxTnNFQt-atRzevVTBMf9oBdGty/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h48m39s82.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trilogy Laserdisc</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtUI5oJdjejDkrr7jblrCpULlydx4qE1S5A6gsoGQzgv-xmwH8pAWw_NBNwXwciv1089UOvDXeoV0lCjqq4OmaAmI-Z8VqGICBDHAqxwdZEzugBhfZDnlRykaN91ObwaQo-qaLbPYIukWs/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h49m26s1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtUI5oJdjejDkrr7jblrCpULlydx4qE1S5A6gsoGQzgv-xmwH8pAWw_NBNwXwciv1089UOvDXeoV0lCjqq4OmaAmI-Z8VqGICBDHAqxwdZEzugBhfZDnlRykaN91ObwaQo-qaLbPYIukWs/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h49m26s1.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2001 DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggI3YT7vB9surkkCd-hwL29f_fcD0PU8uFtBZaddZkG5teJOpIV1osS7FtRAbxFzCwFJT3U__FvUuqWBHF3ne_TY90-eMtKnCS9uI-sG3m4s8ht5zUUSlR6fIteW6b4D80oUozBPaYYA_9/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h50m17s39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggI3YT7vB9surkkCd-hwL29f_fcD0PU8uFtBZaddZkG5teJOpIV1osS7FtRAbxFzCwFJT3U__FvUuqWBHF3ne_TY90-eMtKnCS9uI-sG3m4s8ht5zUUSlR6fIteW6b4D80oUozBPaYYA_9/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h50m17s39.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">VHS Trilogy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-noRb8SXgqK9-GJPXHnL2v3JOS1eUt8KK38zUlqz9RH43M6ody0WWmuwrdxlEkcm-2Ev6ZY8kctlKktdjytaGxpMQ0rSZ8itPElokYqAlOVBtcxCuP4BxGnYVikm2x8Xq7bbBrKv_LMux/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h51m38s2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-noRb8SXgqK9-GJPXHnL2v3JOS1eUt8KK38zUlqz9RH43M6ody0WWmuwrdxlEkcm-2Ev6ZY8kctlKktdjytaGxpMQ0rSZ8itPElokYqAlOVBtcxCuP4BxGnYVikm2x8Xq7bbBrKv_LMux/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h51m38s2.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Japanese Trilogy Laserdisc</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi61z1l9kANiXl8DyE1BuyxRQbtb5wmQV7yPpOdjrgLPnlIFvYEHiDMTVssaGHlhjlnT94y3QoqMSKIuSVCorXn5rfVGH5lJVvDpiv2mZneVckzfJFl7hg2K6YSJbBUXXWs5jd5a3Dy-Lgj/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h52m56s219.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi61z1l9kANiXl8DyE1BuyxRQbtb5wmQV7yPpOdjrgLPnlIFvYEHiDMTVssaGHlhjlnT94y3QoqMSKIuSVCorXn5rfVGH5lJVvDpiv2mZneVckzfJFl7hg2K6YSJbBUXXWs5jd5a3Dy-Lgj/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h52m56s219.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2001 DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZmE-X_nFXklYtIqh6_yp-GbA08LF2XEl4ibA6nHQsgB_BgRtGstpeF1IpHaYiTlm-J9bAcU2QC0Dpqy68L49rbirxBaNnuC4sS25un-SH1M8ErRNpnXAIAjW30FvPysugHhVI2F7gGsH/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h58m52s108.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZmE-X_nFXklYtIqh6_yp-GbA08LF2XEl4ibA6nHQsgB_BgRtGstpeF1IpHaYiTlm-J9bAcU2QC0Dpqy68L49rbirxBaNnuC4sS25un-SH1M8ErRNpnXAIAjW30FvPysugHhVI2F7gGsH/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h58m52s108.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1977 NBC Saga</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimY8Q1QL8XJ3PDCk3OqCaOF1g8f2ILC0SOv5h52aUlO1pSQWFX09iESUIAtXuoB-MV9XfbhGVmMiQIIvMfQzvbANpTHofLc6omFpttDxpH88leuDfu81YnpwxcdANoLG0QQrih-YWXFdlT/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h59m30s145.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimY8Q1QL8XJ3PDCk3OqCaOF1g8f2ILC0SOv5h52aUlO1pSQWFX09iESUIAtXuoB-MV9XfbhGVmMiQIIvMfQzvbANpTHofLc6omFpttDxpH88leuDfu81YnpwxcdANoLG0QQrih-YWXFdlT/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-17h59m30s145.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2004 DVD Extra</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCBzxzDZXOgJhyphenhyphenVPWg-hWcUEv7sUHZAeiqyy_ma-FoQCXYZbQl3mDTOxdi2t5FrmAIlAR-HRhIRtxUsWtZXd6C5jpVb8QuZDlR0gwArA09GKKmHmm-o50gvz3cII_k4vJ9OsOt234pxkq/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-18h00m05s233.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCBzxzDZXOgJhyphenhyphenVPWg-hWcUEv7sUHZAeiqyy_ma-FoQCXYZbQl3mDTOxdi2t5FrmAIlAR-HRhIRtxUsWtZXd6C5jpVb8QuZDlR0gwArA09GKKmHmm-o50gvz3cII_k4vJ9OsOt234pxkq/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-18h00m05s233.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AMC Saga </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY1zXZiJ4sOKCFrYsbB5JWs8iWcYY4p5I6NfFElptuk4ZFnUHe_yGzjX58Ca2eDWMHjzdCvksXj_T0gOd9dtS1nTuYK5SE9Zk5CdleJWYUFcjF1zXhXUia3kNAS715mjE7JbY3QrbI-7_t/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-18h00m58s21.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY1zXZiJ4sOKCFrYsbB5JWs8iWcYY4p5I6NfFElptuk4ZFnUHe_yGzjX58Ca2eDWMHjzdCvksXj_T0gOd9dtS1nTuYK5SE9Zk5CdleJWYUFcjF1zXhXUia3kNAS715mjE7JbY3QrbI-7_t/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-18h00m58s21.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DVD Extra</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOzKMEZcqJx8tdAcv3uxEwWtNLZ3q0Fp5xIS3V6J0wB8QQYrehX-I0gVC7Tk-WqQTLRGLLbKu2i_bhW97bH-8ro8iCSlqwfojXqKuRCdvLC2hNAKxRp3nO0nB3Si3-9DVrBJvQXokRwjf8/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-18h12m52s61.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOzKMEZcqJx8tdAcv3uxEwWtNLZ3q0Fp5xIS3V6J0wB8QQYrehX-I0gVC7Tk-WqQTLRGLLbKu2i_bhW97bH-8ro8iCSlqwfojXqKuRCdvLC2hNAKxRp3nO0nB3Si3-9DVrBJvQXokRwjf8/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-18h12m52s61.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coppola Restoration</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgruyNYrkwPlOQqERg_tm9-zMXEenOSYH60YZEx2xEddkf2s58tZ-nWQG2Ipe4JeXZYa8bWgnTYbLQOcal-7n6urbmLpzGW3ZBjBJiebkaZ-jOzFt4sBPOpgd1dDXcm5ZyadWN4Sne8YItp/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-18h12m56s107.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgruyNYrkwPlOQqERg_tm9-zMXEenOSYH60YZEx2xEddkf2s58tZ-nWQG2Ipe4JeXZYa8bWgnTYbLQOcal-7n6urbmLpzGW3ZBjBJiebkaZ-jOzFt4sBPOpgd1dDXcm5ZyadWN4Sne8YItp/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-18h12m56s107.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2001 DVD</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
We did all that we could to color correct the footage to make the film as uniform as possible but we were only able to go so far without ruining the scenes.<br />
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<br />
Comments:<br />
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<i>•Will this be released in single or dual-layer DVD-R format? And that's six discs total?</i><br />
<br />
There will be five h.264 files (plus a bonus disc) which can be burned to your satisfaction. Each disc averages around 2 hours and 20 minutes, so it's really up to you whether you want to stretch them over six discs or do three dual layers. One guy I know wants to burn it to six dual layer discs for as little compression as possible, so whatever floats your boat.<br />
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<br />
<br />
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•<i>What Day Will It Be Released</i><br />
•<i><span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d">yes what day ?, i am losing in it here , i cannot wait !!!!</span></i><span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d"> </span><br />
<span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d">•</span><i>What Day Will It Be Released</i><span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d"> </span><span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d"> </span><br />
<span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d">•</span><i>yes please! , post it already i don't have the patience to wait :]</i><br />
<span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d"></span><span id="bc_0_6b+seedMBhqD" kind="d">•</span><i>are we gonna wait another three years for this?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!!?!??!?!? </i><br />
<br />
<br />
Actually, everybody but you has already downloaded it. It was posted three years ago and you probably just missed it.<br />
<i> </i><br />
Seriously though, I wrote that it would be ready the first week of April, so within the next few days. We put together some disc labels that you can print out over your set plus some DVD case covers and an extensive liner note booklet that you can also print out if you wish. The booklet is in standard PDF format if you just want to read it on your monitor or in a print-ready PDF booklet format. All you have to do is print out the first half of the pages, flip them over and print the second half, then staple it down the middle and presto- DVD booklet. If your printer has double-sided printing capability, then you don't even have to manually flip the pages.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
•<i>What will the screen resolution be? Is it true high-def or is it upscaled? </i><br />
<br />
We were going to release this as a high-def set, but a couple of things got in the way.<br />
<br />
First, 80% of the footage comes from a standard definition source. Very little came from the Blu-ray restoration, so when the film was upscaled it looked pretty rough.<br />
<br />
Second, each disc came out to about 15 gigs. Nobody wants to download a 90 gig torrent, much less seed one. We compressed it down to about half that size, but then we asked ourselves if it was better to just release it with a full-resolution DVD quality format or settle for a compressed 720p high def at five times the size of the DVD files? Looking at them side by side, there really wasn't any higher quality between the HD and SD versions, so we encoded it in SD.<br />
<br />
One day, and that day may never come, the average download speed in the US will be 50 mbps. Blu-Ray will be an obsolete format. The basic hard drive will hold 100 terabytes of memory. 4320p will be the new standard for home theater. Maybe, just maybe, Paramount will reconstruct the Godfather negatives in 8k UHD and the heavy gold/black color correction of the Coppola Restoration will be ignored in favor of a pallet that matches the original negative.<br />
<br />
And when that day arrives, we will attempt The Complete Epic Trilogy version 2.0. We will use the best available video editing software and reconstruct our edit from the ground up. It will be in sparkling Ultra HD and it will be in Dolby Atmos 236.8 Surround Sound. What's that? Don't have a 250-piece home stereo setup? Fine. One of the audio tracks will be in the antique 7.1 Surround (if you want to live like a caveman.)<br />
<br />
But until then, plain old DVD quality will have to suffice. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
• <i>Hi, I was recently visiting Italy and saw on TV a version of the saga called Il Padrino. I noticed some things that weren't in the US saga and was wondering if you have seen this version. Looking forward to the release. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>Yes, we have utilized this cut as well. The Greek and Italian 'Il Saga de Il Padrino' has two unique scene extensions. When Vito kills Strollo on the boat, it plays out several frames longer than in any other version. Ditto the scene where Michael gives his blessing to Sonny's daughter in marriage. <br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>• I love these old magazine scans! Want moar! </i><br />
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<br />
Unfortunately it will probably be about another six months before we scan any old articles. One of the guys involved in this project has pretty much every newspaper and magazine article related to the Godfather and was scanning them and sending them to us on disc. He's not been responding to any emails in the last couple of years so if you're reading this DQ we can use some more material.<br />
<i> </i><br />
I have my own little archive but I recently moved and all of that stuff is packed up in storage. When I get a chance, I will fish it out and scan it here.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<i>• I have a question that maybe you can weigh in on. I recently bought a BR player and my wife got me the Restoration set on Blu ray and it looks a little different than the DVD version of the Restoration. Am I imagining things or is it the same exact feature?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
I don't think you're imagining anything:<br />
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<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigqPwY7k6reTBqKLXY0LQVT_YJXAFHIInGuMotBGvB4FWIolupzbI9ej5mCeGMYPseiV-paMBCzgBkIWt62zudTmR3QNgrXFxYlZz4oZUa58EOGAek2YgcXOrjmtBG8cejdyV5xibtpBXV/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h07m03s122.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigqPwY7k6reTBqKLXY0LQVT_YJXAFHIInGuMotBGvB4FWIolupzbI9ej5mCeGMYPseiV-paMBCzgBkIWt62zudTmR3QNgrXFxYlZz4oZUa58EOGAek2YgcXOrjmtBG8cejdyV5xibtpBXV/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h07m03s122.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9N2P_n38uikzP5jHneXpZ6CXjVnzop2N8KpeB11Q4e7U4WGgMjQon_fUj440fQf6C14Tk9lxX3ba89i_7LFCLP0vUn7xpbIP5tH2q6C0u4vtujvqEkbe6B0Npki-cl4ZeWFBBAxcRujt/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h07m59s122.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9N2P_n38uikzP5jHneXpZ6CXjVnzop2N8KpeB11Q4e7U4WGgMjQon_fUj440fQf6C14Tk9lxX3ba89i_7LFCLP0vUn7xpbIP5tH2q6C0u4vtujvqEkbe6B0Npki-cl4ZeWFBBAxcRujt/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h07m59s122.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZOwS_W5mY6_IubGfs2H1dA-C9cjR3Ih3UnY_nxA1Itq96TzCPmU0dF0M0Ol9wpEsI5gby0nxRKdp0YxeiZCBg1QBx2TIOZBLIgqnY0_fUMWpQXKJR3ZH1iBuEbLaSXpUDEhv0d5LOkGG/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h08m14s101.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZOwS_W5mY6_IubGfs2H1dA-C9cjR3Ih3UnY_nxA1Itq96TzCPmU0dF0M0Ol9wpEsI5gby0nxRKdp0YxeiZCBg1QBx2TIOZBLIgqnY0_fUMWpQXKJR3ZH1iBuEbLaSXpUDEhv0d5LOkGG/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h08m14s101.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdsH8Dw3aV1lonuLN7kIgpxuLd0dmjr1b6Ubm0RBpLJLITcQIGvkmOhyphenhyphenRoyrDXDFzcgDwwrnRg0HCz1bNl486hj64Z2KkfgfO649FBI9-Itv9fLRr11TKXBA1DC4CBSb_X-UQWEu3KQkmD/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h08m50s101.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdsH8Dw3aV1lonuLN7kIgpxuLd0dmjr1b6Ubm0RBpLJLITcQIGvkmOhyphenhyphenRoyrDXDFzcgDwwrnRg0HCz1bNl486hj64Z2KkfgfO649FBI9-Itv9fLRr11TKXBA1DC4CBSb_X-UQWEu3KQkmD/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h08m50s101.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH_F2lmL6YdpQMoxOxKy35i6YnmjIY8nfV7dQBgufZzRJavTuL4CusknocZQ8OveXgbZYUkXbgkp5HUh8vQZ8ebs5w1ED45ShUowZXn2QGWllIqeqfS6DJHcCzySdOh_NfMDDMF_h-jV9T/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h08m58s38.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH_F2lmL6YdpQMoxOxKy35i6YnmjIY8nfV7dQBgufZzRJavTuL4CusknocZQ8OveXgbZYUkXbgkp5HUh8vQZ8ebs5w1ED45ShUowZXn2QGWllIqeqfS6DJHcCzySdOh_NfMDDMF_h-jV9T/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h08m58s38.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just for comparison's sake, this came from the first DVD set (2001) ...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmu_tPocJ3uOR54JPh_QMxoxVTumik-fg1JhLAhiqwFsltB98zohyphenhyphenVCHp9psEQbI89Vamt67C2suwXu3mP59T-aqx79vjPOaFiTstDS9QDyrFgOx9-RGVsOCYwJpprdvxe7pBh7UbFTtFc/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h09m34s38.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmu_tPocJ3uOR54JPh_QMxoxVTumik-fg1JhLAhiqwFsltB98zohyphenhyphenVCHp9psEQbI89Vamt67C2suwXu3mP59T-aqx79vjPOaFiTstDS9QDyrFgOx9-RGVsOCYwJpprdvxe7pBh7UbFTtFc/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h09m34s38.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">... while this one came from the 2008 restoration. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgaZaun2xUw9EotCj4C5NVRjF44JRXI9-jueCy7c563troxx1wFZ7wzD22bBLVlCeNkQaoSvBYE9EQGHOta_cs45f5RRT7P0Jd0tK0-LvJYmo_Z_T9ueE0gIhrt-fVsXA7IfeAmZIRR5o/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h10m13s25.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgaZaun2xUw9EotCj4C5NVRjF44JRXI9-jueCy7c563troxx1wFZ7wzD22bBLVlCeNkQaoSvBYE9EQGHOta_cs45f5RRT7P0Jd0tK0-LvJYmo_Z_T9ueE0gIhrt-fVsXA7IfeAmZIRR5o/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h10m13s25.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBKxgdBpHnUI-Iu3VQkkn5QU6UM1jL_Ug3eiOpIChVoGcLiOw6z0Ip05jEQcXlurm4XS168OLfeQeXXXlXGo2YfRLkoBooHBsX7_r0s9FKWtA0-j18jjZAosxzkxOBLgjrDLEL7dy4v_A/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h10m59s25.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBKxgdBpHnUI-Iu3VQkkn5QU6UM1jL_Ug3eiOpIChVoGcLiOw6z0Ip05jEQcXlurm4XS168OLfeQeXXXlXGo2YfRLkoBooHBsX7_r0s9FKWtA0-j18jjZAosxzkxOBLgjrDLEL7dy4v_A/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-03-29-20h10m59s25.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BD</td></tr>
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As you can see, there's some pretty startling contrasts between the BD (Blu-ray) and DVD Restoration. In some cases, the DVD looks much better than the BD. In other cases, the Blu-ray beats the DVD. And in a few cases, the original non-restored DVD looks better than both. <br />
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What's the cause of such difference? Is it because the films were transferred in 4k and then downsampled to 1080p for BD, then a further 480p? This is why I don't like to weigh in on which version is "best."<br />
<br />
The way we constructed the CET was a democratic vote between four (sometimes five) people involved in this project. We took screenshots from each major scene from the Laserdiscs, both DVD sets and the BD. Then we tried to match them up to whatever 35mm footage we had access to. From there we voted on the source that looked the closest to the original film stock. You be the judge!<br />
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This question kind of ties in with this discussion: <br />
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<br />
<i>•What do you know regarding the film to video transfers done in the past prior to the Coppola Restoration?</i><br />
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We have a source at Paramount who tells us this: (my comments are in <b>[brackets]</b>)<br />
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<i>The first transfers were done in 1980 for VHS, CED, and Laserdisc. The original negatives had been used to strike new prints as Parts 1 and 2 were re-issued several times throughout the 70's and so by the time that they had already been run through the ringer. So even on those first home video releases the print looked like shit. They made a transfer from the negatives onto U-Matic tape.</i></div>
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<i>In the mid-80's Sony and Zenith were putting out higher resolution TV sets and Paramount was reissuing most of their catalog and Part I and II needed a new transfer and the U-Matic master was toast. All the first gen Paramount and MGM transfers were on U-Matic because it was cheaper. But around 1985-ish most everyone used Telecine which was a way better format. So they tried to make a telecine master from the original negative but it kept breaking up in the gate. They couldn't find the interpositive </i><b>[a first-gen dupe of the original negative] </b><i>so they glued the negative back together with chewing gum and scotch tape. Only a slight exaggeration. And they complete fucking ruined the negative in the process. </i></div>
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<i>You were asking why the fade outs and dissolves are different in the first gen releases vs the second gen. Well I will tell you. These geniuses, when they were putting the negative back together, tore off the original dissolves. I don't know how much you know about negative dissolves but basically if you want a soft dissolve like in the Godfather and especially Part II, you take a smaller piece of film like from 8mm or 16mm and splice it over the 35mm. Instead of a quick wipe like in the </i>Star Wars<i> films, you get a gradual, slow dissolve. So when they tore the smaller film off of the 35mm, they just patched it up with a 35mm dissolve, which obscures everything instead of gradually dissolving into the next scene. So that's why you have more visual information in the first-gen releases, simply put the dissolve doesn't completely mask the image like it does in the second gen transfer. I would guesstimate that for every scene with a dissolve, you're missing about three feet of footage </i><b>[about 2 seconds of runtime]</b>. <i>That footage is gone. For good. And the Restoration edition comes from those same botched negatives. They're only preserved on those first gen home video releases.</i> <b>[And now, finally, in our edit.]</b></div>
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<i>So aside from that, the 2nd gen releases which came in I think 1986 looked a lot better than the first gen. And then in 1990 they made new prints for rerelease and they made an interpositive duplicate from the negative. The new prints were struck off of the interpositive. </i></div>
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<i>For the 25th rerelease in 97 they sent the IP</i> <b>[interpositive]</b> <i>over to Skywalker Ranch to get a new THX digital Telecine master. Actually they did two masters: a pan and scan and a letterboxed master. Note that I didn't write full-frame, I wrote Pan and Scan. They actually panned a few shots instead of just doing a full blowup in the middle. That's why the non-widescreen '97 release looks so terrible in spots, because they blew up and panned so deeply in certain sections that it brought out all kinds of grain and mar that you couldn't see in the widescreen version. That version is absolute garbage. It looks even worse on laserdisc since there's more detail.</i></div>
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<i> Lucasfilm did a hell of a job cleaning up some of the artifacts but they fucked up the color. If you look at a lot of THX lasers from that era you'll see that there's way too much blue and red. The reason is because they were struck off of an interpositve. Back then interpositives were on a yellowish-orange masked stock. You had to crank up the blues in order to get a nice tone. But in dark scenes, which is like 90% of the Godfather, you get no blue to play with, so the yellow masking gives flesh colors a dull reddish-brown look. I'm thinking either </i>Robocop<i> or </i>Star Wars<i> where the blues, greens and greys were beautiful but the flesh colors were shit. But I guess the new masters looked good enough for Paramount because after they struck new prints for the rerelease they (wait for it) lost the interpositive. That's right. The lab that struck the new prints went out of business and sold off all of their assets, including the Godfather interpositives. It's possible that someone out there has the interpositive in their possession but who knows. </i></div>
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<i>So when the time came for the DVD in 2000 they for whatever reason decided not to use the THX telecine and instead located some prints owned by private collectors. These prints came from an interpositive that was struck from the original negative, so these DVD telecines were in effect third generation dupes. But they still looked better than the THX versions and I think with a little more time they could have really done something special with them. </i></div>
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<i>Then came the actual restoration. I've got mixed feelings about it because I know Robert Harris and some of the guys that worked on it and they put in so much work to bring the negative to life. But they had guys like Gordon Willis standing over them saying "no no, this scene was supposed to be more golden. I need more warmth etc" and you've seen what the original looked like. So they color corrected it to Gordon's liking. But the films Never. Fucking. Looked. Like that. Except maybe Part III. So on the one hand you have a beautiful transfer but the color is off. Badly. And it's not going to be corrected in this lifetime. </i><b>[We did our best!]</b></div>
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That's it till next time!</div>
Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-69482713268042316212015-03-21T19:37:00.003-07:002015-03-21T19:53:17.583-07:00SourcesSomeone recently wrote me inquiring about the sources we used in the making of The Complete Epic Trilogy. I thought that I could whip up a short list for anyone else who may be interested.<br />
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<br />
[Note: I've included all of the sources we've referenced in the making of this feature, including sources that we didn't necessarily use any footage from but used as a guide in the editing or color correction process. Some of the dates cited are estimates based on best available info. All sources are full frame (4:3 ratio) unless otherwise noted.]<br />
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<h2>
The Godfather: </h2>
<br />
<b>VHS- </b><br />
<br />
US (1980)<br />
US (1989)<br />
US (1991)<br />
US (1997- Full Frame)<br />
US (1997- Widescreen)<br />
Argentina<br />
Brazil<br />
France<br />
Germany <br />
Japan<br />
Portugal<br />
Spain <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Betamax-</b><br />
<br />
US (1980)<br />
Japan (1980)<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Laserdisc-</b><br />
<br />
US (1980)<br />
US (1991)<br />
US (1997- Full Frame)<br />
US (1997- Widesreen)<br />
Germany <br />
Japan<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DVD-</b><br />
<br />
US: 2001, 2004, 2008 (Coppola Restoration)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Other Formats:</b><br />
<br />
8mm reels (B&W- US)<br />
16mm (Color- US)<br />
35mm theatrical print (assorted clips, US, pre-1997)<br />
Blu-Ray (2008)<br />
Video8 (Hi8, 8mm Video) (US, 1991)<br />
RCA Selectavision (CED) (1980 US)<br />
VCD (Japan)<br />
VHD (Japan)<br />
S-VHS (US)<br />
Various home recordings of television broadcasts <br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Godfather Part II: </h2>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>VHS- </b><br />
<br />
US (1980)<br />
US (1989)<br />
US (1991)<br />
US (1997- Full Frame)<br />
US (1997- Widescreen)<br />
Brazil<br />
Germany <br />
Japan<br />
Spain <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Betamax-</b><br />
<br />
US (1980)<br />
Japan (1980)<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Laserdisc-</b><br />
<br />
US (1980)<br />
US (1991)<br />
US (1997- Full Frame)<br />
US (1997- Widesreen)<br />
Germany <br />
Japan<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DVD-</b><br />
<br />
US: 2001, 2004, 2008 (Coppola Restoration)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Other Formats:</b><br />
<br />
8mm reels (B&W- US)<br />
16mm (B&W Spain)<br />
35mm theatrical print (assorted clips, US, pre-1997)<br />
Blu-Ray (2008)<br />
Video8 (Hi8, 8mm Video) (US, 1991)<br />
RCA Selectavision (CED) (1980 US)<br />
VCD (Japan)<br />
VHD (Japan)<br />
S-VHS (US)<br />
Various Home recordings of televised broadcasts<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Godfather Part III: </h2>
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
</h2>
<b>VHS- </b><br />
<br />
<br />
US (1991)<br />
US (1993) <br />
US (1997- Full Frame)<br />
US (1997- Widescreen) <br />
Germany <br />
Japan<br />
Portugal<br />
Spain <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Laserdisc-</b><br />
<br />
US (1991) (Full Frame)<br />
US (1991) (Widescreen)<br />
US (1997- Full Frame)<br />
US (1997- Widescreen)<br />
Germany <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DVD-</b><br />
<br />
US: 2001, 2004, 2008 (Coppola Restoration)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Other Formats:</b><br />
<br />
<br />
35mm theatrical print (assorted clips, US, pre-1997)<br />
Blu-Ray (2008)<br />
Video8 (Hi8, 8mm Video) (US, 1992)<br />
VCD (Japan)<br />
VHD (Japan)<br />
S-VHS (US)<br />
Various home recordings of television broadcasts <br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Godfather: The Complete Epic 1902-1959</h2>
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US: VHS, Betamax (1980)<br />
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<h2>
The Godfather: The Epic 1901-1959*</h2>
*Same release as above, with altered title and new packaging.<br />
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US: VHS (1990)<br />
Europe PAL (1990)<br />
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<h2>
The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (First Version)*</h2>
*Note: The first version of "The Godfather Trilogy" was released in 1992. It is not the same version as the 1997 release with the same title. This edition combines The Complete Epic/The Epic with the Final Director's Cut of Part III. It was monophonic and full-frame.<br />
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US VHS 1992<br />
Japan Laserdisc 1993<br />
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<h2>
The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (Second Version)*</h2>
*Note: See above. This 1997 edition featured a brand new edit of the three films and was remixed to 2.0 Surround Sound. It also featured "The Godfather Family: A Look Back" on a separate disc/cassette.<br />
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US VHS (Full Frame)<br />
US Laserdisc (Widescreen)<br />
German Laserdisc (Full Frame)<br />
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<h2>
The Godfather Saga (AKA Mario Puzo's The Godfather: A Novel For Television, The Complete Novel For Television)</h2>
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Various recordings of TV Broadcasts 1977-2014<br />
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<br />
<h2>
The Godfather Novelette </h2>
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Home recording of 1986 broadcast<br />
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<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Box Sets:</h2>
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1991 VHS/Laser<br />
1997 VHS/Laser (Full Frame)<br />
1997 VHS/Laser (Widescreen)<br />
2001 DVD<br />
2008 Blu-Ray<br />
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<br />
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<br />
<h2>
Other film sources:</h2>
The Godfather Family: A Look Back (1990 Documentary)<br />
Theatrical Trailers<br />
Godfather Family Timeline (2001 DVD Extra) <br />
Visions of Light (1992 Documentary)<br />
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<br />
<h2>
Print Sources:</h2>
<b>Note: The following books were instrumental in determining scene placement, sound and dialogue as well as the reconstruction of missing sequences such as intermissions, time/location cards, entrance music and exit score.</b><br />
<br />
Paramount shooting scripts and screenplays<br />
Various newspaper and magazine articles<br />
<div class="r">
<i>Masters of Light </i>Dennis Schaefer, Larry Salvato</div>
<div class="r">
<i>Color Correction Look Book: Creative Grading Techniques </i>Alexis Van Hurkman<i><br /></i></div>
<i>The Godfather </i>by Mario Puzo<br />
<i>The Godfather Papers</i> by Mario Puzo<br />
<i>The Godfather: Intimate Francis Ford Coppola</i> by Gene D. Phillips<br />
<i>The Godfather Movies</i> Gerald Gardner<br />
<i>The Godfather Treasures</i> Peter Cowie<br />
<i>The Godfather Family Album</i> Steve Shapiro<br />
<i>The Godfather Annotated Screenplay</i> Jenny Jones<br />
<i>The Godfather Trilogy</i> Nick Browne<br />
<i>The Godfather (Ultimate Film Guides)</i> <span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Bill Malyszko</span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><i>The Godfather Legacy</i> Harlan Lebo</span><br />
<span class="irc_su" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><i>The Godfather Companion</i> Peter Biskind </span><br />
Booklets/liner notes for <i>The Complete Epic</i>, <i>The Godfather Trilogy</i>, 2001 DVD and 2008 Blu-ray<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
I believe that this is everything that we used, but I could swear I'm missing something else. Oh well!<br />
<br />
Also, a correction: this project is going to be mixed down to 2.0 Dolby Digital and not 5.1. The preliminary 5.1 mix that we tried just sounded artificial, so after experimenting a bit we've found that 2.0 sounds better for what we're working with.<br />
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<br />Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-61057280157682821402015-03-16T22:26:00.000-07:002015-03-16T22:39:55.859-07:00New Trailer, Q&AGood news- the final version is being prepared now and should be available for download next month. Here is a quick trailer we threw together (sorry, it doesn't contain any "bonus" footage).<br />
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<br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UIDPCSHe0d4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<br />
And now, about a year's worth of questions and comments!<br />
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<i> <b>Hey guys, just a few questions. How many DVDs is the project slated to
take up? Will you be using the AMC HD airing of the Saga as the main
source for the extended footage? Will the final edit be entirely in
anamorphic widescreen or will it jump from full to wide? Will the
candles ending from Part II make it in there somehow? Thanks again for
all your hard work these past two years!</b></i><br />
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<br />
Thanks for waiting! Currently the presentation stretches over five discs, with a sixth disc devoted to bonus material. When downloading, you will be able to uncheck the box for the sixth disc if you don't wish to download any supplementary material.<br />
<br />
The entire presentation is matted to 16:9 widescreen. Since almost all of the bonus footage is 4:3, I was originally going to make the whole feature in 4:3. But since most of the core footage came from the Coppola Restoration, which is a cropped 16:9, I went ahead and cropped the 4:3 footage to match the rest of the film.<br />
<br />
There is still the debate over which ratio is the "correct" ratio, but I'm not going to go into much detail (at this point at least.) Suffice it to say that since it was filmed full frame, it looks great in either 4:3 or 16:9. But since most people now have widescreen TV's, it makes sense to feature it in 1.85:1 (which is close to what it looked like in most theaters.) I say that it's still worth viewing at least once in 4:3 as there is a lot of detail at the top and bottom that is cropped out in widescreen.<br />
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We don't have any one "main" source for the deleted footage, but if I had to name a "go-to" source it would be the bonus clips found on the DVD set. They simply looked better (in most instances) on the DVD and very little had to be done to them aside from cropping and slight color correction.<br />
<br />
The candle ending is present in two places; first, the closeup of Kay lighting the candles is presented exactly where it was originally intended, after the Intermission in the first film. This takes place right after Michael kills McClusky and Sollozo in the diner. The organ music swells as Michael leaves the diner, then plays over a brief intermission, then we see Kay lighting the candles, and then the film returns to the newspaper headline/gang war montage. This is where the intermission originally took place in some theatrical screenings (the footage of Kay, however, was not used.) We placed that scene according to the original screenplay. <br />
<br />
The second half of that scene, the long shot from behind of Kay lighting the candles while the credits roll on the right, appears during the final end credits.<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<b><i>at last Guys ;) I hope You'll make it soon... <br />check this german version please:<br />http://www.feature-film.org/16790/der-pate-die-saga/</i></b><br />
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Thank you for sharing that!<br />
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<i> <b>Good luck with the project. I know what hard work this entails, so respect to you as they say in Godfather land. Couple of points I would be interested to hear your views on.<br /><br />1.
Where do you reckon that short scene of Connie bringing Michael a cup
of tea (or whatever it is) goes? Clearly it's deleted from GFII, and
appears in one of the AMC opening credits. It seems to me that Pacino
has his older 1968 make-up and slightly greyed hair, so my guess it
comes just before he sits smoking and pondering his sins at the end of
II. <br /><br />2. There are a few short sequences in the GFIII trailer that
are not in the finished movie (Theatrical or Director's Cut). Have you
ever seen any longer versions of those scenes anywhere? </b></i><br />
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<br />
<br />
We had a few discussions on where those shots of Michael ca.1968 were supposed to go and we finally arrived at the conclusion that it could only work during the opening credits, the same as the TV <i>Saga</i>. We tried editing it together with the footage at the end of Godfather II and it just didn't work. <br />
<br />
The footage in the GFIII trailer is another point of contention we had. No, we weren't able to find any longer versions of the unique snippets in the trailer and we fought over where the trailer footage was supposed to go. I spent weeks editing all of the footage back into the main core of the movie, but just like the 1968 scenes, it simply didn't work. For one, almost 3/4s of the trailer is unique footage or dialogue or alternate takes of scenes that ended up in the final movie. Second, the way the trailer is edited, dialogue either runs over into unrelated footage or the soundtrack intrudes over the spoken lines.<br />
<br />
We arrived at a compromise. This was unique footage and it needed to be preserved within the project and not just as a bonus trailer. So we hit upon the idea that the trailer could be part of the flashback of memories Michael is having at the end of Part III. It kind of works, kind of doesn't, but we were able to insert it into the final product without a great deal of heartache. We had to remind ourselves that this edit was less an artistic statement and more of a preservation effort and within that context, the footage works. But linearly, Michael is having memories of events that he didn't witness firsthand, so the logic is kind of off. It is what it is. <br />
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<b><i>I hope they will post updates next month :-)</i></b><br />
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<i> </i>It ended up being next year instead of next month, but hopefully this will let you know where we're at! We apologize again for the lack of info. The two of us (Doug Q. and Doug F.) went almost a year without speaking and I thought the project was dead in the water. But we've since reconciled over our artistic differences and I'm proud to say we're about 90% finished. We should have this up for download sometime in April. (Next month, not next year!)<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i> </i><br />
<i> </i><br />
<i> </i><br />
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<b><i>Hi, guys... I'm awfully late to the party, but since you're running late
as well, I guess it's OK. Without much of the skill you guys likely
have, I created my own edit of the epic some years back, calling it "The
Abbondanza Edition" - I worked from various sources, including the 80s
home video, the FOX broadcast, the US chronological laserdisc and --
here's a key source: the Japanese laserdisc of the saga which included
quite a few trims and lifts I couldn't find anywhere else, despite the
fact that I had to cut around the burned-in Japanese subtitles. IIRC, a
key shot in there was the establishing shot of the Sicily train station
prior to the family's arrival (from GFII). Hope you have the time soon
to get this puppy sewn up and keep us informed: I'd dearly love to see
your work (and supplant my own as well!)... </i></b><br />
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You know what they say... better late than never!<br />
<br />
Glad to meet a fellow Godfather fan and faneditor! To be honest, we really don't have much skill in editing. This whole process was seat-of-our-pants learning. We'd try one thing, then wipe the slate clean, and start over at the beginning. After almost five years I'd have to say what we have now looks a lot better than what we started with but I'm still not satisfied. I wish everything synced up better than it does. I'm hoping that maybe someone else with more technical skill can take what we did and turn it into something prettier. I was absolutely blown away with what the guys over at originaltrilogy.com did with the new Star Wars "Despecialized" edits and I wish we had their level of expertise.<br />
<br />
We had access to the sources you mentioned and made use of all of it. We examined the Japanese laserdisc Saga and discovered that it was exactly the same as the German (or Swiss?) laser set, and we used that version several times. The main reason we went with the Euro Saga was because the subtitles weren't hardcoded and could be turned off on certain players. The soundtrack was also dual audio (German on one track and English on the second.) This was immensely helpful, but we did end up taking the train shot from the Japanese set because there was no subtitles in that sequence and the color of the Japanese print put the Euro version to shame. There was another scene we used from that set but I can't think of it offhand.<br />
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<i><b> Loved your post about the movies' running
times:http://godfathermuseum.blogspot.com/2012/05/brief-history-of-chronological-cuts-fan.html<br /><br />Regarding
Godfather 3, My take on it, this version that exists, the "Director's
Cut" or whatever its called, is still too long. If the film were cut to
2hrs it would actually work. I've seen the film more than 20 times, it's
like the Magnificent Ambersons, you can tell there's stuff thats
missing (Duvall, a better opening and a more satisfying conclusion) –
but people who hate on Sofia Coppola's performance actually miss the
whole performance for what it is, it's actually Diane Keaton who doesn't
belong in the movie. If someone were to edit her performance out of the
film (leaving only the scenes where she confronts Michael about Tony
& the very end of the Opera House sequence) the film might work.
There's other tweaks that should be done… there's an annoying sequence
in where we hear Andy Garcia in voice over telling what he's going to
do. I don't recall voice overs in the first 2 Godfather movies.</b><br /><br /><b>A
good start might be re-editing the film closer to what Coppola sort
hinted at in the rough cut of the film that's been posted on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/A0fgIgnV1-4<br /><br />There are other scenes that don't
work, the Sicily sequence in G3 is poor in comparison to G1 & G2.
There's no nostalgic care to it… there are long-shots of Sicilian
hillsides that seemed to be tacked on by a an assistant at the last
minute. And the whole Michael shows Kay the real Sicily has to be
removed completely from the film.</b></i><br />
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I do believe that the major problem with Part III is that it is overlong. Don't get me wrong, I love long movies (why else would I be working on a Godfather edit!) but the first two films never feel like they're outstaying their welcome. Part III is long, but it doesn't seem to accomplish much in comparison with the first two films. I think the story could be adequately told in two hours or less.<br />
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While people love to bash Sofia Coppola in this film, I often wonder why Diane Keaton isn't more of a target. She phones in her performance in this picture and it's clear when she gives lines like "You know Michael, now that you're respectable your much more dangerous, etc" which she reads off like she was reciting a shopping list.<br />
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When I first saw the film, the major flaw that stuck in my craw was the absence of Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall). They caved in to Al Pacino's salary demands (and Diane Keaton's, whom Pacino was dating at the time) but were unwilling to pay Robert Duvall's sum. Robert Duvall wanted a payday that was halfway between Keaton's and Pacino's, which I feel was reasonable since he would have had the most screentime after Pacino. But instead we got... George Hamilton!<br />
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I could go on about Part III but it's already been blasted to death. The film was made for money, was rushed, suffered from a million flaws, but at the end of the day it was still a watchable film. Was it good? Yeah, I think so. Was it great? Not even close. But we still treated it with the same level of respect we did the first two films when it came to editing and sequencing. <br />
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<b><i>hello, i know this will be more work for you, but, being italian, i
would like to listen to this treasure in my own language (maybe the
mono) and so i think about the other countries enthusiasts around the
world, for the extended scene i would hope in some subs. i think this
would be the best and most complete version possible of The Godfather
trilogy, and will be so much appreciated.<br /><br />PS what do mean for Grandfather Novelette (recorded in 1989)??</i></b><br />
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We would love to do different audio tracks for different languages (and maybe add in the Director's commentary from the DVD sets) but the only thing hindering us is that we only speak English. Most of the added footage is in English (some in Sicilian) and the only thing we did was add English subtitles to the parts that were in Italian. (The subtitles are hardcoded, as someone asked recently.) We also had an Italian friend translate a couple of sequences (the diner scene and Tom Hagen speaking to Pentangeli's brother in the courtroom) that were not subtitled in the original films. Coppola always said that the diner scene wasn't subtitled because there was too much dialogue that went by too fast, but we seemed to have made it work.<br />
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The reason we didn't add the Director's commentary or foreign languages on additional audio tracks was for two reasons: one, there would be significant gaps in commentary and language whenever the added scenes played out. True, we could have possibly just filled in the blank spots with a music track or something, but we (secondly) figured that since the folks that are watching this presentation already own a copy of the trilogy in their native tongue or with the commentary, the addition would be redundant. (Remember, if you end up downloading this project, you should already own the individual commercial releases before doing so. We're on an honor system here and we're not trying to infringe on Paramount's rights. So if you don't already own these films on DVD or Blu-ray, buy them now! Our edit's coming soon!) This is also the reason that we didn't include any of the special features found on the DVD sets, since viewers of this project already own them. <br />
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<i>The Godfather Novella</i> was aired throughout the 80's as an alternative to the <i>Saga</i>, which NBC still owned exclusive broadcast rights to (NBC signed a five year deal for exclusive broadcast rights to the <i>Saga</i>, which expired in 1982. That year, they once again bid the highest out of all the networks and retained exclusive broadcast rights to the <i>Saga</i> which they held until 1987).<br />
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After losing out to NBC for the <i>Saga</i> rights, ABC, CBS (and later TBS and Fox) wanted to air something similar to the<i> Saga</i>, just not as long. The <i>Novella</i> aired over two nights instead of four and was cut by about 2 and a half hours. Though it was structured chronologically like the <i>Saga</i>, most of the Sicily and Little Italy sequences were cut and much of the Cuba footage was excised. The <i>Novella</i> was aired in two 3-hour blocks, usually on Saturday and Sunday. The recording of the <i>Novella</i> broadcast we own doesn't feature any real deleted footage except for a few lifts that run 2 to 3 seconds longer than they do in other formats. (Yes, we included these lifts as well!)<br />
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Unlike the previous network broadcasts of <i>The Godfather </i>and <i>The Godfather Saga</i>, editing on the <i>Novella</i> was not supervised by Francis Ford Coppola and was done without the involvement of anyone affiliated with the two Godfather films. <br />
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<b><i>Are you going to include any of the special features on this movie?</i></b><br />
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If you're talking about the box set special features, see above. We will however include a sixth disc of supplementary material not currently available, including trailers, television introductions, and the documentary<i> The Godfather Legacy</i>, which was released to DVD in 2012 but is now out of print. We're still putting this disc together so if you have any recommendations, let us know!<br />
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<b><i>Guys PLEASE stop to mislead us!!! Write us the thuth that you are not doing anything with this project don't you ?!<br />I'm comming to this site almost every day(more than 2 years) and I'm just getting sick of it !!!<br />I remember when you wrote that this project will be finished at summer 2013..................<br />I
have also a baby and lot of work to do but at least I have a time to
post this comment but you have no time all year round !!!!<br />Be honest and don't trick us anymore!!!</i></b><br />
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Sorry. It's taken a lot of time to put this together. A lot of time and money. We're not looking for anything in return, we just ask that if you download this project as a torrent that you seed it for as long as possible.<br />
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The reason that I didn't post any updates for so long was because I didn't know what to tell you all. I went over a year without talking to my partner in this edit due to a falling out that we had and I honestly didn't know whether this was going to ever be finished. He had all of the files on his computer so that he could edit the sound mix. When he disappeared, the movie disappeared with him.<br />
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When I finally tracked him down and we made amends, I came here to let everyone know what was going on. I threw the trailer together today to help get the word out. We anticipate the remixing to be done in a couple of weeks. After that, it's just a matter of finalizing the project and getting it out to download.<br />
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<b><i>^^^ How about this...YOU try to to piece together three 3-hour films
plus all of the deleted footage into a 10+ hour epic in strictly
chronological order, with sources from all around the world ranging from
Blu-Ray and HDTV to VHS and Beta. Let us know how long it takes you. I,
for one, have been patient with this project because I know what a
tremendous undertaking it is.</i></b><br />
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YES! Thank you!<i> </i>We appreciate your patience. We've definitely been up to our necks in pretty much every home video format ever made, checking for anomalies. This has been the biggest time-eater. For each 3 hour film, we had to screen it a minimum of three times to check it against our other prints to spot differences. We ended spending sometimes as much as a week or two just synching up one print against all other prints. Then we would have to make the transfer to digital and then go on to edit it into our master print. VERY tedious, but a labor of love.<br />
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Speaking of obsolete home video formats:<br />
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<b><i>What's the most surprising find you've come across so far?</i></b><br />
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Before VCRs came along, the only home video format was film projection. For a ridiculous price, you could buy 8mm or 16mm "condensed"<i> </i>versions of your favorite films. (Not all, but most of the time, 8mm "quickies" were black and white while 16mm clips were in "Super Video Color", which was anything <i>but</i> "Super". 16mms were generally a few minutes longer and correspondingly cost more than 8mm reels.) A collector in Pittsburgh contacted me after reading a post on a forum, and we negotiated a deal that got me a few Godfather reels, among others. This guy had already transferred his collection on to DVD and no longer had any use for the originals. <br />
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Part I and Part II were both released as b&w 8mm reels and at least one company made a color 16mm reel for Part II, which we were never able to locate. We're pretty sure that it's exactly the same as the b&w 16mm reel though. I purchased a 1976 model Vivitar which is capable of playing 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm. When I plugged it in and spooled the film, I discovered that the bulb was burned out. Another two weeks later and I got a new bulb in the mail.<br />
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I was surprised by the short films. They're really hard to describe, but basically the story jumps from point A to point B with a few frames of footage sandwiched between title cards that are describing the events in the film. There was no sound, at least not on the copies I owned. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPT8Q_-R3_YukXiGfAYDx56hYcSr-aVqw1Rq9OKB0w6A0fCvCdRBqg1vCBdESUwQNPfKgpbtvCXfDa-fZFAdNB53Udaxjo6Hrh_jFoh5xkf7QGDTEkuMnqWQCNXlMMYS8JhFHuIvOEgAf6/s1600/!CFDgccQ!mk~%24(KGrHqJ%2C!l!E1GC-3wz7BNT3i2WyKg~~_3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPT8Q_-R3_YukXiGfAYDx56hYcSr-aVqw1Rq9OKB0w6A0fCvCdRBqg1vCBdESUwQNPfKgpbtvCXfDa-fZFAdNB53Udaxjo6Hrh_jFoh5xkf7QGDTEkuMnqWQCNXlMMYS8JhFHuIvOEgAf6/s1600/!CFDgccQ!mk~%24(KGrHqJ%2C!l!E1GC-3wz7BNT3i2WyKg~~_3.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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What I ended up doing was filming the projection digitally and then put it on my hard drive to synch up with my other footage. There were no real surprises except for the opening shot of one of the b&w Part II reels. It was a scene cut from the theatrical version but was reinstated in the Saga. Except one of the scenes played out several seconds longer than in any other cut of the film.<br />
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What to do? Here was a legitimate "lost" scene that needed to go in our cut. But it was soundless, black and white, and 8mm. I contacted a company that transfers film to digital and they wanted $100 minimum to transfer the reel. I didn't have that kind of time or money, so I got a good projector screen and filmed the footage with a digital camera. Then I put it on my PC, cropped the footage, darkened the blacks and inserted it into the timeline.<br />
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There it was, sticking out like a mute, colorless sore thumb. I ended up photoshopping the color in frame by frame, which took me forever. But I still had no sound, and nothing else to dub into place. I could tell what the character was saying from the title card, but had no reference audio. My only solution was to call in a friend who does a mean Al Pacino impersonation and have him voice the line. Then I added an ambient noise track underneath which matches the rest of the sound for that scene. Finally, it was done. There went a number of weeks preparing footage that amounted to a little less than three seconds of screen time!<br />
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I won't state explicitly which scene this was. I'm wondering if anyone can spot it without any hints!<br />
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Also, it's not the strangest find, but I definitely wonder why they released Godfather movies on Hi 8. If anyone remembers, this is the little 8mm videocassettes that you used to use in camcorders. Sure, there were a few dedicated VCR machines that played 8mm cassettes, but most people either transferred 8mm to VHS or bought one of those weird contraptions that were shaped like a VHS tape and had a spot in the middle where you could snap in your 8mm cassette and have it play on a regular VCR (but it never seemed to work right.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJvfEnjrrLrs9PeBb3kZHxPD4NTZIUSwHhJgWGO_DYuvT8KM8-iO8ea4_7Ij6hGNqxIg9-m9k5VgsCAQu1JOMTnlw5Jj2qYwJXt282hqUWXLAw3f6J00pc_hDBW1SvGmmLsk3XovQyxKw/s1600/GF+III+V8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJvfEnjrrLrs9PeBb3kZHxPD4NTZIUSwHhJgWGO_DYuvT8KM8-iO8ea4_7Ij6hGNqxIg9-m9k5VgsCAQu1JOMTnlw5Jj2qYwJXt282hqUWXLAw3f6J00pc_hDBW1SvGmmLsk3XovQyxKw/s1600/GF+III+V8.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Godfather III on Video 8: An offer you <i>can </i>refuse.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Not to mention that pre-recorded movies on Video 8 were almost always issued in LP format if they were over 2 hours long. Why didn't they just use two SP tapes like VHS or Beta or two discs like Laser and Videodisc? Who would buy this? (Not counting one idiot who decided he needed to own every version of the three films ever released so he could edit it all together.) First, you have to be one of the four people on the planet who watched movies in his camcorder or be one of the two people in the world who had a Video 8 VCR. Second, you have to be fine with getting a studio movie released in LP or EP format. Third, you have to be fine paying more for this 8mm tape than you would a regular VHS tape, which actually comes in the higher quality SP format. Fourth, you need to hold on to said tapes for 25 years and then put them up for sale on Ebay, hoping that the aforementioned one idiot who needs every Godfather tape ever made will buy it. Mission accomplished!<br />
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<b><i>What soundtrack will you be using, the digital remix or the original mono?</i></b><br />
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Neither! Let me try to explain.<br />
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In the late '90s, I was lucky enough to see a re-release of the three Godfather films in 70mm. It was a hell of an experience. The third movie looked especially good; the first two films... not so much. The negative was obviously in need of dire repair and the 70mm blowup looked exceptionally grainy and dark. Also, the projectionist obviously had no experience with 70mm as the lens wasn't masked. In simplest terms, a gutter at the top and bottom of the lens is added to mask the upper and lower parts of the frame while it's being projected. Otherwise, you see a lot of stuff at the top like boom mics and at the bottom you get to see set directions and arrows that are written on the floor.<br />
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But the real treat that day was getting to hear the films in stereo for the first time. Not just any old stereo- THX certified 6-track stereo! When the trilogy went to DVD with a 5.1 sound mix, I was hoping that it would be similar to the 6-track mix. Boy, was I underwhelmed. In my opinion, even the 2.0 remix found on the Trilogy laserdisc was better.<br />
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So we discussed different sound ideas and we knew we were in for a lot of work with all of the mono footage that we had. We needed to sync everything up together with one sound profile. So we took the soundtrack from the 2.0 laserdisc, mixed it to 5.1, and cleaned up and remixed the rest of the soundbites. In certain scenes we used the 5.1 soundtrack from the DVD set instead, depending on which mix sounded better to us. Overall, the goal was to try to recreate the 6 track sound I remember, From what I've heard so far, it's sounding pretty good.<br />
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Well, that's it for today. Thanks again for your support, and we'll keep you updated!<br />
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<br />Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-66630795237639378132014-03-20T13:44:00.002-07:002014-03-20T13:45:42.044-07:00Yes- This project is still going!<br />
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We have not given up.<br />
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After posting our initial blog, we have been inundated with copies of the Trilogy from different countries and have found minor differences here and there that warrant an entire redo of our work.<br />
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Be patient- we are working as fast as we can and rest assured that THIS PROJECT WILL NEVER DIE as long as we're still breathing.<br />
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Thanks for the patience and we'll post updates as we move along.<br />
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All the best,<br />
The Godfather MuseumGodfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-67211944747170173622012-10-28T15:22:00.001-07:002012-10-28T15:22:11.814-07:00UpdateFolks, we wanted to thank you all for the questions and comments and let you know that YES, this project is still ongoing and will be released soon. There have been a few delays caused by our personal lives; one of us is military and was called back to Afghanistan, there was a death in the family, and I've been busy with the birth of a new child. The project pretty much came to a standstill in late July, but I'm picking up the pieces and forging on, hopefully to have this project available to the public by the end of the year.<br />
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After starting this site, a film collector got in touch with me and informed me that he had another recording of the original <i>Saga</i> on tape, so before we went any further we wanted to screen his copy to see if it (A) has any more footage than our cuts and (B) if it's in a better shape than our old Betamax transfers. Thankfully, after six months I've finally received his DVD and will be examining it as soon as I get a chance.<br />
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So there you go, we've been incommunicado for three reasons: Uncle Sam, screaming babies and new stuff to investigate. But we're slowly getting back on track.<br />
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Thank you guys for sticking around while we get our stuff together. We'll try to keep this site a little fresher than it has been lately.Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-45263214777199567492012-06-08T10:14:00.001-07:002012-06-08T10:14:47.967-07:00Article: TV News, Nov 12 1977Here's another article about the <i>Saga</i> from a midwestern TV Guide clone entitled <b>TV News</b>. The two page spread doesn't offer much in the way of new info, but what the heck- this is the Godfather Museum after all, and we thrive on meaningless trivia!<br />
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Keep clicking the pics to get to full size. Depending on your browser settings, you may have to right click and hit "View Image" and go from there. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first thing you notice about the cover is that it's not drawn (painted?) very well. One thing about all of these regional TV weeklies is that they never seem to have a very good cover artist. Why didn't they just run a still from the film instead? Reminds me of all those Monster Mags from the 60's and 70's who couldn't afford to hire Basil Gogos, so they would commission art from high school students and pay them a few cents for the rights. The better mags just stuck with color stills.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As far as I know, TV Week was only distributed throughout Indiana and Illinois. Its cover price was .25, a whole nickel cheaper than TV Guide. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've never seen that classification before- "Mostly re-run." Despite The Saga being an all-new project, and Godfather I comprising less than half of the running time, it's mostly re-run. I guess this sounds better than saying "partially comprised of a film that was shown in a different format a couple of years ago." </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO6JIWXrlroqEiMHh5YQR9Jy_4nYB01MfmyXIAhPVDcJHwKMqZn0cSKMsANPti7ti3wnwEuNNjZyfYaLyOOethJPJ3UrRSZDn54kpK2LxTxh1nkPzTj02BhI81WqU2XtpSRBwMvAbueLI7/s1600/scan0006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO6JIWXrlroqEiMHh5YQR9Jy_4nYB01MfmyXIAhPVDcJHwKMqZn0cSKMsANPti7ti3wnwEuNNjZyfYaLyOOethJPJ3UrRSZDn54kpK2LxTxh1nkPzTj02BhI81WqU2XtpSRBwMvAbueLI7/s640/scan0006.jpg" width="440" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I threw this back cover in just for fun. I've always had a fascination with the address labels on old magazines. Who was this person? Is Willis L. Draper still alive? How many times did Willis L. Draper read this issue before tossing it in a box in the closet? 35 years later, who found it and put it on Ebay? Oh, and completely off topic- but who would order a toupée from the back of a TV Week? Obviously not Willis L. Draper, since the coupon is still intact. </td></tr>
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Now on to the comments. We just had one from last week:<br />
<br />
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<i>What a great read, thanks very much for scanning and posting it. I wish
they were able to show the original NBC Saga in its entirety on AMC.
It's a piece of television history.<br /><br />I'd really love to see all
that lost footage from Godfather I and II, I'm sure it was cut for a
reason but I'd love to see any extension to the story. Coppola should
recover those scenes before it's too late, although I think the chances
are about as slim as seeing an official release of the 5-and-a-half hour
long cut of Apocalypse Now (which if there's a God in movie heaven
we'll get to see in better quality one day).<br /><br />Any tentative
release date for the Complete Epic Trilogy? Your poster says spring 2012
and summer is nearing lol not to rush what I'm sure is a very rigorous
project, but just very anxious to see it.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Thanks for writing! We were anticipating a release last month but both of us got caught up in family/work/life routines that have kept us from finalizing anything yet. We're realistically shooting for a late summer release now. We have our fingers crossed!<br />
<br />
We too would love to see a complete, better quality <i>Apocalypse Now</i> restoration. I thought about doing an epic cut of that film as well, but the workprint is just so bad that I don't think any amount of restoration would make it sync up with the other footage.<br />
<br />
There's so many "holy grails" of lost footage out there from films that I'd love to find. The lost "giant spider" scene from the original <i>King Kong</i>. The workprints from the <i>Evil Dead</i> trilogy. The original five hour rough cut of <i>The Wild Bunch</i>. I've never given up faith that one day, somebody somewhere will turn up some of these missing relics. In my lifetime, I've been able to witness the unearthing of Edison's 1910 <i>Frankenstein</i> adaptation, the (mostly complete) <i>Metropolis</i>, <i>The Bat Whispers</i>, the original version of <i>Shadows</i>, <i>The</i> <i>World's Greatest Sinner</i>-- all of these films that I grew up reading were lost for good eventually turned up. I'm hoping that one day, the same can be said for Francis Ford Coppola's films and fragments. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Next week, probably another article scanned and reprinted. Take care!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-85750254340785423182012-05-28T09:51:00.002-07:002012-05-28T09:57:22.856-07:00Article: TV Guide (Nov. 1977)As promised, here's the first in a string of articles we're reprinting for archival purposes. This week it's the TV Guide from the week of November 12-18, 1977, featuring a cover story on the making of <i>The Saga</i>.<br />
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(Click on each image a few times to increase the size to a readable format). <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front Cover. This particular copy was for eastern Colorado, FWIW. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I find it amusing that Judith Crist gives the <i>Saga</i> such a rave review here when she was one of the very few critics that panned the original <b>Godfather </b>five years earlier. She deplored the violence and compared the character of Vito Corleone to Hitler, going so far as to call Francis Ford Coppola "morally bankrupt" for depicting Don Corleone in such a positive light. "The film is as ‘good’ as the novel; essentially immoral and therefore far more dangerous," she wrote in <i>New York</i> magazine. "The whole function of the film is to show us that Hitler is a grand sort of family man, gentle with children... Disgusting." </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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That's all the Godfather material from that particular issue. We've literally got dozens of articles to reprint, so don't think this is the only one you'll see.<br />
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<br />
On to the comments from last week:<br />
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<i>I must say this site is amazing. Do you know exactly how much the AMC
version of the saga differs from the original airing? You say it's 5
minutes shorter even with the trilogy scenes included. I wonder how many
scenes they had to remove. <br /><br />Another thing, to me it sounds like
De Niro overdubbed the first line that old Vito (Marlon) says in his
first scene in the saga. Like it was supposed to connect the young Vito
with the old. Do you agree with this?</i><br />
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<br />
It would take a side-by-side analysis to list all the differences between the two, which we can certainly do in the future. Most of the cuts were very minor: a line or two here and some dialogue there, but they all added up in the long run. But we noted dozens of these minor alterations while we were comparing it against the original airing.<br />
<i> </i><br />
Excellent catch on that first line of dialogue! You're the only other person we know that has picked up on that overdubbing. I think that Coppola killed two birds with that stone.<br />
<br />
That scene was the first one to be shot for the film, and Brando hadn't quite perfected Vito's voice at that point, which is why it sounds kind of different from his performance throughout the rest of the film. Though he did re-do a lot of lines for post-production, by the time it came around to redub certain scenes at the last minute, Brando was long-since gone. Coppola brought in a Brando impersonator* to redo certain sections, including this opening scene, but Dick Portman (the sound editor) convinced him to keep Brando's voice in this part.<br />
<br />
*The impersonator's voice can be heard when Vito asks Tom "Is this Woltz so tough?", which was changed at the last minute from "Does this Woltz have balls?" when someone pointed out that the phrase didn't become popular until the 1960's. This part ended up being cut from the film anyway but made it back into <i>The Saga.</i> The only part of the theatrical film that has been absolutely 100% confirmed to be voiced by Brando's double is when he asks Tom "Is this absolutely necessary?" in reference to having to speak with Luca Brasi at his daughter's wedding. The difference in quality between the two lines leaves us to wonder whether or not there was more than one voice actor dubbing Brando's lines. <br />
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I think that Coppola, having always been dissatisfied with this line, wanted it redubbed to begin with, and what better way to "bridge" the two stories together, as you pointed out, than by having DeNiro redo it? We debated using this redubbed line in our cut, but in the end we felt that the original Brando line worked better.<br />
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<i>Great to hear you used a few of the scenes from the AMC Saga<br />But can you use all scenes from AMC Saga to replace taped scenes? <br /><br />It would be much better for your EPIC EDIT :)<br /><br />Cheers :)</i><br />
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<br />
For each scene, we used the best source we had available. For some scenes, this was the AMC Saga, but as noted elsewhere much of the footage was unusable for various reasons. Mainly that the scenes in AMC's version were shorter, or trimmed for time/content, than the original broadcast recording.<br />
<br />
Another factor to contend with was that AMC broadcast their version in a matted 16:9 ratio with the AMC logo at the bottom, or with a bumper for another show down there, or with the puppeteer logo in the corner. This meant that we had to mat the scene even further to remove the superfluous data and by the time we've zoomed in to the center of the picture, we had a super-blown up image with thousands of specks of grain in it. Believe it or not, doing a mat job on the 4:3 videotape actually looked better than it did from the HD broadcast.<br />
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So rest assured, we utilized the best source for each scene.<br />
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More next time!<br />
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<span id="goog_259199526"></span><span id="goog_259199527"></span>Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-28658641991026068652012-05-22T17:02:00.000-07:002012-05-22T17:03:24.209-07:00CommentsFor some reason, I'm not able to respond to any of the comments that have been left so far, so I figured I'd throw a new post up to respond to the folks that have been kind enough to write in. Feel free to continue commenting; if I don't respond personally, I'll try to come up with a post like this ever so often.<br />
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<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Onizuka wrote:</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>It's interesting to see that the AMC broadcast of The Godfather Saga seems pretty close to the 35mm :<br /><br /><a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/121480">http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/121480</a><br /><br /><a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/121481">http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/121481</a><br /><br /><a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/121487">http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/121487</a><br /><br />Even
more closer that the 2001 DVD. But there is just a slight green tint,
perhaps due to the broadcast or the encoding of the release.<br /><br />I'm very interested by your project and i wish you all the best for the future.<br /><br />Best,</i></span></div>
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<i><br /></i><br />
We noticed that too. Our source at Paramount confirmed that AMC's print of <i>The Saga</i> was actually from a private collection and had been stored away since 1977, meaning that it had basically been shown once or twice before being put away for safekeeping. <br />
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This print then was pretty important during the restoration because (A) it was a first generation transfer from the original negatives, which at that point were only 5 and 3 years old and (B) it hadn't experienced any wear and tear from repeated screenings. This was the closest that Paramount could find to an untouched theatrical print (in fact, some parts of The Coppola Restoration came from this print of <i>The Saga</i>) so in many ways it was like having an original 35mm print of the first two movies.<br />
<br />
The problem with this print is that being produced on Eastman stock, it didn't age well at all. Most theatrical prints saved on Eastman stock tend to lose their blue and green dyes over time, which makes the picture turn kind of reddish brown. (This was especially noticeable in the laserdisc Trilogy as well as parts of the 2001 DVD set). <br />
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However, this print of <i>The Saga</i> was an interpositive print, which suffers from a different type of degradation. Instead of losing its greens and ending up red, interpositives tend to lose their yellows and end up green. This explains the greenish tint in AMC's <i>Saga</i>. Which is a shame, because even though a new master was struck in HD, no film restoration or color correction was attempted. Instead, they just cut out the scenes that had really degraded and/or substituted them with footage from the regular TV prints of Part I and II. (You can spot these parts pretty easily; they appear overly dark and devoid of the green tint present throughout the rest of the picture.)<br />
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We've actually used a few of the scenes from the AMC <i>Saga</i> in our edit, simply because they were in much better shape than our old video tape recordings. We toned down the green as best we could by adding more red and giving it a slight yellow sheen to match the core footage from The Coppola Restoration. <br />
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Anonymous wrote:<br />
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<i>I can't wait! What do you think happened to the two segments (Clemenza's hoods beating the guys,and Michael killing Fabrezio)? Does
Paramont have them,or someone else,or are they forever lost?</i></div>
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Unfortunately, they're probably lost for good.<br />
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Our source at Paramount confirmed the rumors concerning the original negatives for the first two Godfather films. Either intentionally or through neglect, most of the footage has been destroyed over time. About the only thing that we're sure still exists is the Master Print for the <i>Saga</i>, which means that it is possible that we may get some more additional footage over the years. (Remember, not all of the footage from the Master Print has been released- there's still at least a half hour of footage unaccounted for.)<br />
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But these two scenes were never part of the Master Print, which means they were kept in the vault. And as we found out a few years ago, most of the vault footage is destroyed.<br />
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The only hope that we will some day finally get to see these scenes is if Barry Malkin held on to his tapes from '76. In preparation for editing the <i>Saga</i>, Coppola had all of the vault footage (over 90 hours worth) transferred to videotape and sent to Barry Malkin so he could construct a rough edit of <i>The Saga</i>. If these tapes were kept in a safe place, then who knows...<br />
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Anonymous wrote:<br />
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<i>just found this old cover of TV guide for the saga.<br /><br /><a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="http://chrisbaker.typepad.com/.a/6a01156f1b6b31970c01348870a069970c-320wi">http://chrisbaker.typepad.com/.a/6a01156f1b6b31970c01348870a069970c-320wi</a></i></div>
<i><span class="comment-actions secondary-text" id="bc_0_1MN" kind="m" style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8709302268493572206" kind="i" target="_self"></a></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stay tuned over the next few weeks. We're going to start reprinting a slew of articles concerning the <i>Saga</i>, including the TV Guide cover story!</span><br />
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<i>Watching the AMC version of the godfather saga again, the scenes used
during each opening credits montage are definitely from the lost
godfather II scenes.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, they mainly came from the 1968 sequence that originally closed the film. According to the screenplay:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Michael is diabetic and walks with a cane. Connie has become his caretaker, his only confidant, cooking his meals and taking him on walks. He spends his time staring at the lake where Fredo died. He is prematurely aged, decaying from within like the abandoned ruins of the Corleone compound in New York. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A slow closeup to Michael, sitting outdoors in his chair. It is late fall, and the leaves are dead. The wind rustles in the background. A cigarette rests idly in his hand, as if forgotten. Michael closes his eyes, and his head nods forward slightly. Is he napping, or is he dead? Fade to black, dead silence. Credits roll. </span> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span> <br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Naturally, Paramount vetoed this ending. It was too depressing, according to them. (Notice how Michael's ambiguous death scene in this version came pretty close to the way he actually died in Part III). So all the parts with Connie and Michael eating dinner and walking around the Lake Tahoe property were nixed and the final "chair" scene was reshot </span>with Pacino in slightly less aged makeup. But thankfully some of these scenes wound up in The Saga's opening credits, otherwise we may have never seen them!<br />
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Not only did Coppola rewrite the ending at Paramount's request, he also added the end title theme that begins to swell as Michael sits in his chair and the credits start to roll. Even with the less-depressing new ending, Paramount lobbied for "epic" music at the end in order to make the ending feel more upbeat. In our edit, we've gone with the original idea of ending in silence. The scene, we feel, is a million times more powerful without the orchestral score in the background.<br />
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Next time: rare articles scanned and posted here at the Godfather Museum!<br />
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<br />Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-24528319872808813232012-05-02T18:31:00.000-07:002015-03-21T19:44:50.292-07:00A Brief History of the Chronological Cuts, Fan Edits and Extended Editions<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">1971-1972</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Combining the two (and later, the three) Godfather films into one chronological cut with deleted scenes added is an idea that has kicked around since 1971, before the first film was even finished shooting. Early into production, Coppola realized that his cut stood a very good chance of running over four hours. Paramount was demanding a two hour long film, which meant that he was going to have to cut the film in half in order to get it into theaters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Rather than despair, Coppola continued shooting with the intention to air the film as a two or three part mini series (after its initial theatrical run) with all of the additional footage included. His rough cut ended up running just under four hours, and he whittled it down to two hours and sent it off to Paramount, where Robert Evans complained that it felt like a trailer instead of a finished film. After two more different cuts (at 210 minutes and 189 minutes) a compromise was reached and the final cut ran 175 minutes (plus a ten minute intermission that was later excised for its national run). This left a good <b>45 minutes </b>of finished footage sitting on the cutting room floor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">1973</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Before work began on Part II, Coppola was again struck with the "extended edition" idea and in 1973, announced to the press that Part II would not be a standalone film. Instead, it was to be edited together with Part I to form one long, continuous theatrical movie to be titled <i>The Godfather Saga</i>. "The movie isn't a sequel in the Hollywood sense of the word. They're two distinct pieces that are formed together to make one story. They should be told together. I want the [Saga] to be an event... like, you have to call out sick and take the day off because you know you're going to be sitting in the theater for 8 hours!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When Paramount got word of this, they quickly reminded Coppola that the complete artistic freedom granted to him for Part II did not extend to any repackaging of Part I. Part II was to be a "Hollywood sequel", albeit an unconventional one. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When the rough cut of Part II was assembled, Coppola had a movie that was 6 hours long. It was basically two different films separated by an intermission- the first three hours detailing the rise of Vito Corleone and the last three hours chronicling the fall of Michael Corleone. At this point, the idea of combining the two stories as a flashback-driven narrative had not been thought of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Paramount's idea was to make two different films, a prequel and a sequel, to be released a year apart from each other. Coppola hated the idea. His partner at American Zoetrope, George Lucas, was blunt: "Francis, you have two different movies. Throw one of them away, you'll never make them work together." But Coppola played around with the flashback idea until he had a "dynamite" structure that told both stories in tandem. This first "parallel narrative" cut ran 4 hours and 45 minutes. This 285 minute version was cut down to 200 minutes for theaters (210 minutes for theaters that snuck in an intermission). This left approximately <b>2 hours and 25 minutes*</b> sitting on the cutting room floor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">(*About half of this 185 minutes of excised footage was made up of more of Vito's earlier exploits, the rest mainly taking place after Michael Corleone kills his brother Fredo. Many fans would be surprised to know that after Michael kills Fredo, the movie goes on for another hour and a half. Some of these plot points (Michael getting involved in Washington politics, later ending up running what's left of Hyman Roth's Miami business) would be touched upon by Mark Winegardner in his atrociously-written and poorly conceived <i>Godfather Returns</i> and <i>Godfather's Revenge</i> books. The film finally ends in 1972, with Michael Corleone back in his Long Island estate, sitting in a chair, smoking and contemplating his life of crime. After this sequence was shortened and the preceding hour cut, this scene was re-shot with Michael in slightly-less aged makeup and the time frame was bumped up to 1968.)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Early advance one sheet for Part II. At this point, the film was still being edited and the 1962/Washington and 1972/Miami sequences had not yet been dropped from the final cut. The film played on for another 80 minutes after Fredo is killed on the lake. </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Young Vito sequence likewise lost about an hour and a half. In the finished film, his story stops in 1925 as he's leaving Sicily. But much more took place when he returned to America. There are scenes with Vito establishing his budding empire, recruiting a young Luca Brasi, teaching a young Sonny the ins and outs of gangster life, and a long sequence in the 30's where the Corleone family is busy fighting off a war with a rival Mafia clan (even Al Capone sends some guys after Vito!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">De Niro gained an additional 40 pounds for these later sequences. Some stills from these shots were released as publicity photos. (The cover of <i>The Godfather Companion</i> contains the only known studio still from the 30's sequence; here, De Niro's bulk is much more apparent and his resemblance to Marlon Brando's Don is startling.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvktc29Uiczbg8odckJfkbhB-mkGns2S5pcMsCcdsfn1Ug-uhff7bSLSu1vkFgOoEa-wCsFqd_A5qsXaXAIwJgrKTS-xurj8dskWt5NWrT36voJB-6o2DjerQi9SLupDbnmwhyphenhyphen9-RVHTDj/s1600/GF+II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvktc29Uiczbg8odckJfkbhB-mkGns2S5pcMsCcdsfn1Ug-uhff7bSLSu1vkFgOoEa-wCsFqd_A5qsXaXAIwJgrKTS-xurj8dskWt5NWrT36voJB-6o2DjerQi9SLupDbnmwhyphenhyphen9-RVHTDj/s320/GF+II.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Back to the main article:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you're trying to keep track, that's 45 minutes of additional footage in the workprint for Part I, and 2 hours and 25 minutes in the workprint for Part II, meaning that Coppola had <b>3 hours and 5 minutes</b> of excised footage that he could potentially reincorporate into the proposed "Saga" cut.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">1974</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">While still editing the theatrical cut of Part II, Coppola was approached by NBC to turn his "Saga" into a two part miniseries. This would have been comprised of the theatrical cut of Part I (minus the violence, raw language and sex scenes) plus several of the excised scenes that were cut from the theatrical print. The proposed title for this extended cut would have been <i>The Godfather: A Novel For Television</i>. Coppola was intrigued, but he was knee deep in postproduction for Part II and had only a limited amount of time to devote to the television project, so it was decided that he would instead oversee a slightly cleaned up version of the theatrical cut.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Coppola and Barry Malkin called in James Caan and a few more of the original cast members to re-record certain dialogue (ie, Sonny's line "I don't want my brother coming out that bathroom with just his dick in his hands" was changed to "a stick in his hands"). Malkin dug up alternate takes of some of the more violent scenes (Sonny beating Carlo Rizzi in the street, Woltz finding the horse's head) and Coppola recorded an introduction (filmed within the Part II editing room) that was aired before the broadcast. <i> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>The Godfather</i> premiered on NBC on November 18, 1974, one month before the theatrical release of Part II, and was at that time the most watch event on television history. Though it ultimately wasn't the extended cut of Part I (<i>The Godfather: A Novel for Television</i>) that NBC originally called for, and it wasn't Coppola's grand combination of the two films (<i>The Godfather Saga</i>), this original telecast was notable in that it was the first time the public had seen any non-theatrical footage, even if they were just minor longshots substituted for more graphic closeups.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sonny beating Carlo in the theatrical version.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">... and the scene as it appeared on television. In our edit, both takes have been integrated to produce one extended sequence. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">1977</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">While shooting <i>Apocalypse Now</i> in the Philippines, Coppola was running out of cash and needed help financing the project. He turned to Paramount, who suggested that instead of simply airing <i>The Godfather Part II </i>on NBC, Coppola could instead make his <i>Saga</i> cut (combining both films) and NBC would be forced to pay more for the two films combined than they would have for just the sequel. Coppola would see a percentage of this purchase since he owned backend points on both films. Coppola agreed. Approximately 90 hours of footage was sent over to Barry Malkin in LA with the instructions to "make it work." </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first cut of <i>The Godfather Saga </i>ran over 9 hours. The allotted time for the entire screening was nine hours total (3 hours one night, and 2 hours for three more nights) <i>with</i> commercials, meaning that the final cut couldn't be over 7 1/2 hours long. After removing the two intermissions and cutting a few unreleased scenes that he knew would be too violent for television*, the running time was down to 8 and a half hours. This 8.5 hour second rough cut is known as the <b>Master Print</b>, and all deleted footage and chronological edits that have been issued to date come from this print. But for this initial airing of <i>The Saga</i>, Malkin still had about one more hour of footage to excise. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Two of these "too rough for TV" scenes have seemingly been lost for good and have developed an almost legendary status among Godfather fans. (Contrary to some reports, both scenes were in fact filmed, edited and included in the near-final cuts before being removed at the last minute.)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">First, a five minute sequence in which Clemenza's hoods brutally beat the guys who raped Bonasera's daughter and leave them bleeding in the street; the second, Michael Corleone casually walking into the pizza parlor owned by Fabrizio, the treacherous bodyguard that murdered Mike's first wife, and shooting him over and over with a sawed off shotgun. This latter sequence was a favorite of Coppola's, and was rumored to have been even more bloody and violent than Sonny's assassination. Knowing that the censors would never allow it, Malkin instead used the second, less graphic, assassination of Fabrizio from Part II's workprint.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The scene plays like this in the screenplay:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After watching Carlo Rizzi get garroted to death, Michael and Al Neri get into the car and pull off. </span> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnMvMA95haVczsxWP1rUsSVtSruSEz7kfjgfanOEB9ppoKeXQf2-nYs1lJPXCe3ORcYRnzdgd3ju4Uf-8DUqUjBppzY00XmSpRliu5WF1IYCMX-Jx2JK4M0vEmEQYFxArkmFijKRwEMuh/s1600/scan0004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnMvMA95haVczsxWP1rUsSVtSruSEz7kfjgfanOEB9ppoKeXQf2-nYs1lJPXCe3ORcYRnzdgd3ju4Uf-8DUqUjBppzY00XmSpRliu5WF1IYCMX-Jx2JK4M0vEmEQYFxArkmFijKRwEMuh/s320/scan0004.jpg" height="279" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Michael jumps out of the car with something under his coat. The audience isn't sure what's going on at this point. Why is Michael rushing into a pizza parlor? </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfH6A8nssDrjnErAei-h2f7SskPY83lsA5Qs4GI9TQYAPoQgeXQHC81-oLHUyXgLOlkhk3HE_vxVlAxnIj9MvHN6kYFvTGpnd6RL3bYmprt8Pcnb5ySfsN_kG9s9yw2-QwR9MER5nRuQe/s1600/scan0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfH6A8nssDrjnErAei-h2f7SskPY83lsA5Qs4GI9TQYAPoQgeXQHC81-oLHUyXgLOlkhk3HE_vxVlAxnIj9MvHN6kYFvTGpnd6RL3bYmprt8Pcnb5ySfsN_kG9s9yw2-QwR9MER5nRuQe/s320/scan0001.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As Michael opens the door, his eyes fix on something. Cut to Fabrizio, his treacherous bodyguard, spinning a pizza behind the counter. A voiceover plays: Michael shouting "Appolonia, no!" and the sound of the car exploding. Now Fabrizio sees Michael, and he stops dead in his tracks.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkXzTiuXrYJJK7wma_y4oIm8de6T4Els1PvR_LRNTwyeaHUPlclVlN_V3A18mF35I4yyBidAqSCCb_raO0oOYHJeYI0cV7Nr6GqjBY7OkTHj973NHOEVcdEwPxpoZ1BFt4XKRBGIDK1U1/s1600/deleted-scene-michael-shoots-assassin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkXzTiuXrYJJK7wma_y4oIm8de6T4Els1PvR_LRNTwyeaHUPlclVlN_V3A18mF35I4yyBidAqSCCb_raO0oOYHJeYI0cV7Nr6GqjBY7OkTHj973NHOEVcdEwPxpoZ1BFt4XKRBGIDK1U1/s320/deleted-scene-michael-shoots-assassin.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Michael lets the coat fall to the ground. It was Fabrizio's <i>lupara</i> that he was concealing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"Hello Fabrizio."</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN3zT-iDa8Hd1qlzuMPmeb3p3800iKUmXVU5dvqghv4AS-b10jZhbwM67cgN-RsnbXj6HtKYK7AXsJLbebPPHAr0WPLpQr-sz1Ijf1m32klCRebDMkkj91u9-0qL2ED9drTqqBa7Nc5peF/s1600/Mike+Shotgun+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN3zT-iDa8Hd1qlzuMPmeb3p3800iKUmXVU5dvqghv4AS-b10jZhbwM67cgN-RsnbXj6HtKYK7AXsJLbebPPHAr0WPLpQr-sz1Ijf1m32klCRebDMkkj91u9-0qL2ED9drTqqBa7Nc5peF/s320/Mike+Shotgun+2.jpg" height="249" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">BLAM. BLAM. (reload) BLAM. BLAM. (reload)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Walks over, stands over Fabrizio's slightly twitching body. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">BLAM. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDk_kZBaKS2Qu8de63FVDu1fy5MBK6v4PvMhWYmwLyjl0edvewt5_-H8noJ-IrVtXP2FHBm1FcSZ60TM0bWMkk3kT4RGimAaslH5ax-66Tpc8cuwQXpYlGCORV51OzmpaF41Ebi6l3IgoU/s1600/scan0005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDk_kZBaKS2Qu8de63FVDu1fy5MBK6v4PvMhWYmwLyjl0edvewt5_-H8noJ-IrVtXP2FHBm1FcSZ60TM0bWMkk3kT4RGimAaslH5ax-66Tpc8cuwQXpYlGCORV51OzmpaF41Ebi6l3IgoU/s320/scan0005.jpg" height="218" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Michael lays the shotgun on Fabrizio's back. The camera stays on his corpse while Micheal's footsteps fade away. </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdIvbPmDKMOv4lKvBhi3kYBS7W8M5mkZtAqSQTyNe0qEX2WOWWxXuDA_V3sOUKe3FRb_ZyjTfFkrlOmegpQC7EEyo21dZfsZ0a6vwR4p7hc0sam576lAceqD7QCUQh3LePAiOUfeA5v_y3/s1600/scan0006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdIvbPmDKMOv4lKvBhi3kYBS7W8M5mkZtAqSQTyNe0qEX2WOWWxXuDA_V3sOUKe3FRb_ZyjTfFkrlOmegpQC7EEyo21dZfsZ0a6vwR4p7hc0sam576lAceqD7QCUQh3LePAiOUfeA5v_y3/s640/scan0006.jpg" height="640" width="440" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">This would have been immediately followed by the scene in Michael's office, where Connie rushes in and calls him a murderer for having assassinated her husband. Had the gunning down of Fabrizio remained in the film, it would have made Michael's subsequent lie to Kay all the more chilling. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">While cutting the Saga down to its 7.5 hour length, Coppola placed the events in Part II in chronological order (the Vito Corleone/Little Italy sequences <b>before</b> Part I, and the Michael Corleone Lake Tahoe/Cuba sequences <b>after</b> Part I.) This was done solely to aid in cutting and sequencing the scenes, but Coppola liked the chronology so much that he decided to make the entire presentation linear, sans flashbacks. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Like the earlier television cut of Part I, Malkin and Coppola dug into the vaults to find alternate takes of violent scenes. They also called in Bruno Kirby, Robert DeNiro, and several others to record new dialogue and voiceovers. (In addition to "clean" dialogue in place of profanity, NBC also insisted that the subtitled Italian dialogue during the Little Italy sequences needed to be replaced by English language dialogue. The idea was that viewers would tune out if they thought they were watching a foreign film.) Some of the workprint footage had unfinished audio that needed to be re-recorded. Unfortunately, not all of the original actors were willing to come in and redub new dialogue, which resulted in subpar scenes like Vito Corleone speaking in a voice that is clearly not Brando's. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">For several months, the project had been referred to in the press and by Paramount as <i>The Godfather Saga</i>, Coppola's original title for the combination cut. But prior to airing, NBC requested that it be retitled <i>The Godfather: A Novel For Television</i>, the original title for the aborted "extended" TV cut of Part I. Coppola argued that since this version contained both movies instead of just Part I, it should be called <i>The <b>Complete</b> Novel For Television</i>. The film, when it finally aired, displayed the official title <i>Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel For Television</i>. Newspapers and TV listings still referred to it though as <i>The Godfather Saga</i>. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">1980-1981</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoREPxbeblrWJCVWGKDSIv_v_evyZ2uE7rgrzVNLgi1w88TJq-beapuu30kv7s7BNhRR3ioVyN0Qf5DNJHNxU6_fCwGfHKSlbXGcwZlX44y25XIkGvpL6nT7Ue3Ytz54p46w09hyoeEW_p/s1600/5e7ec060ada0359553399110.L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoREPxbeblrWJCVWGKDSIv_v_evyZ2uE7rgrzVNLgi1w88TJq-beapuu30kv7s7BNhRR3ioVyN0Qf5DNJHNxU6_fCwGfHKSlbXGcwZlX44y25XIkGvpL6nT7Ue3Ytz54p46w09hyoeEW_p/s320/5e7ec060ada0359553399110.L.jpg" height="163" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though it is often thought of as the "home video version of <i>The Saga</i>", <b>The Godfather: The Complete Epic 1902-1959 </b>was a completely different edit. This cut was rush-assembled in order to make it to stores for the Christmas season. (Part I and Part II were released separately on VHS and Betamax that summer, and Paramount had a hard time meeting demand- the two films were constantly sold out in stores, making Part I and Part II the very first home video blockbusters). </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nTId1mNXdSSW7fk9PI-aiMmvz_08sheRwSRBzz74rKKAzEOKOi5kxH3J2nhIeVyv2IP2HWb4Y1wFZV7aRVujqC0J9IVUybha-lsi8J3J5c5EQi_MgQQm-uH2EipYdi5qXdTQwIF2kdYG/s1600/$%28KGrHqJ,%21iQE2LH%29eUFSBNveVKqQTw%7E%7E_12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nTId1mNXdSSW7fk9PI-aiMmvz_08sheRwSRBzz74rKKAzEOKOi5kxH3J2nhIeVyv2IP2HWb4Y1wFZV7aRVujqC0J9IVUybha-lsi8J3J5c5EQi_MgQQm-uH2EipYdi5qXdTQwIF2kdYG/s320/$%28KGrHqJ,%21iQE2LH%29eUFSBNveVKqQTw%7E%7E_12.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigSd1oTfRjSRad490f28MTqRwrdE0Vh-o_KB4oLl4fv2LHarOSS5egho4GJoGg3LxlOITTreB1TyACkfoINmqVz57gmY27Wg6xLkg7PQ5Fw7V4PvFrwpo92IGxqKLLrsBIEHIRkKawUcbw/s1600/$%28KGrHqJ,%21loE2D6HN%21QrBNv%21QDEznw%7E%7E_12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigSd1oTfRjSRad490f28MTqRwrdE0Vh-o_KB4oLl4fv2LHarOSS5egho4GJoGg3LxlOITTreB1TyACkfoINmqVz57gmY27Wg6xLkg7PQ5Fw7V4PvFrwpo92IGxqKLLrsBIEHIRkKawUcbw/s320/$%28KGrHqJ,%21loE2D6HN%21QrBNv%21QDEznw%7E%7E_12.JPG" height="179" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Dig that crazy Beta!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">NBC still owned exclusive broadcast rights to <i>The Saga</i>, so if a chronological cut was to appear on home video, it needed to be a new edit that didn't infringe on their contract. Thus was born the 386 minute <b><i>Complete Epic, </i></b>clocking in at nearly 45 minutes shorter than the <i>Saga</i>. Much of the bonus footage that appeared in the <i>Saga</i> was missing, although new footage that wasn't included in <i>The Saga</i> was used for <i>The Complete Epic</i>. Again, this version was whittled down from the <b>Master Print </b>and reassembled in a slightly different order for home video. The alternate longshots and redubbed profanity were jettisoned and the violence, sex and swearing were thrown back into the mix. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The rush release of <i>The Complete Epic</i> was apparent. The subtitles and location cards were in a font totally unlike any seen before or since in a Godfather project (ditto the end credits). Even the title was wrong: the story spanned the years <b>1901</b>-1959 and not <b>1902</b>-1959. (Technically, the last shot of the film, with Michael Corleone sitting alone in his chair, took place in 1968, though this was uncommon knowledge to anyone that hadn't read the original screenplay). Nevertheless, <i>The Complete Epic </i>was a best seller that stayed in print for many years, longer than any of the other chronological cuts. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Due to the overwhelming number of pre-orders, most stores didn't actually receive their copies of <i>The Complete Epic</i> until after Christmas 1980, which is why you often see the erroneous release date of "1981" ascribed to it. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">1982</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">A new edit of <i>The Saga</i> was produced for network TV entitled <b><i>The Godfather Novella</i></b>. This was basically a special presentation of <i>The Saga</i> which had been cut by two and a half hours in order to be shown over two nights instead of four. Coppola and his associates had no involvement with this project. Almost the entire sequences in Sicily and Cuba were excised, along with most of the Little Italy footage. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The only unique footage to appear in this cut were a few pre-commercial break scenes that ran several frames longer than what had appeared in The Saga or The Epic. Hardly discernible to the naked eye, we still dutifully included these extensions in our edit. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">1990</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqpLsvkB_Cy7J09vvmXhERh9LY8xJ00bZXe6Hu_VEzOhYKFmWL5qOhGxy4ewgYEHtIm_vdiDSab8ppq7LrRadOkBFe5MmKe6-vUgmR1yiReyA4rzjK32Q_UYHeGEGIttcBxDFt4nTMAVgc/s1600/god22jx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqpLsvkB_Cy7J09vvmXhERh9LY8xJ00bZXe6Hu_VEzOhYKFmWL5qOhGxy4ewgYEHtIm_vdiDSab8ppq7LrRadOkBFe5MmKe6-vUgmR1yiReyA4rzjK32Q_UYHeGEGIttcBxDFt4nTMAVgc/s1600/god22jx.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Prior to the theatrical release of Part III, <i>The Complete Epic</i> was repackaged in a smaller slipcase and </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">retitled <b>The Godfather: The Epic 1901-1959</b>. It was the exact same cut as <i>The Complete Epic</i> with just a minor titular change. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">1991</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYJTo9M7z6fVCRw4iBJ3P0kTZxvMPNg28OiQdF5rgnwG_Bw3JmTQIK_WFXxvFZOZ884F25mJaw2L2BsR9-c9om5DHrMxLnzn1avwh1XDHmVp0fXhrJZz5ihaW3bsB0zd0hKRlo59TwdzjG/s1600/GF+%21%21%21.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYJTo9M7z6fVCRw4iBJ3P0kTZxvMPNg28OiQdF5rgnwG_Bw3JmTQIK_WFXxvFZOZ884F25mJaw2L2BsR9-c9om5DHrMxLnzn1avwh1XDHmVp0fXhrJZz5ihaW3bsB0zd0hKRlo59TwdzjG/s200/GF+%21%21%21.JPG" height="141" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;">When it was released to home video, The Godfather III ran nine minutes longer than the original theatrical release. This "Final Director's Cut" became the official version of the film, although the theatrical cut was still shown on HBO and other cable channels for several years. </span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCr6lGlC64Q97Y9l-n4fCaPY3w84gsJGf0XMHhA2-UiVV14lLwcZZwGhf_-W6bAuq9pF8HbGsJudfWkYgmYylzLHa8fJO3xGtGSDj2a0ER8zQEwbPRhoYzQxar29Kna8mLxDCwMLm9uZTJ/s1600/gf_trilogy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCr6lGlC64Q97Y9l-n4fCaPY3w84gsJGf0XMHhA2-UiVV14lLwcZZwGhf_-W6bAuq9pF8HbGsJudfWkYgmYylzLHa8fJO3xGtGSDj2a0ER8zQEwbPRhoYzQxar29Kna8mLxDCwMLm9uZTJ/s320/gf_trilogy.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Paramount releases <i><b>The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 </b></i>on VHS. Not to be confused with the 1997 chronological cut with the same exact name, this edition was basically <i>The Epic/The Complete Epic</i> with the Final Director's Cut of Part III tacked on at the end. (From this point forward, the 1997 <i>Trilogy</i> will be referred to as <i>The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980</i></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>²</b></span>). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji5atmSelnl1wEe8EGOD3rXS-RSmdHqKwe-3YgTlMauemlJcHr8cnUl2W_ga8pJC3thlgsHT51ULkrZdtXnKktZODORnOVwPDoNIiOgN-CDUru3SRR6HgzCJrqgr2_bUZRotHfJDnby5py/s1600/the-godfather-trilogy-1901-1980-793748l-thumbnail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji5atmSelnl1wEe8EGOD3rXS-RSmdHqKwe-3YgTlMauemlJcHr8cnUl2W_ga8pJC3thlgsHT51ULkrZdtXnKktZODORnOVwPDoNIiOgN-CDUru3SRR6HgzCJrqgr2_bUZRotHfJDnby5py/s1600/the-godfather-trilogy-1901-1980-793748l-thumbnail.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">1997</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">USA Networks shows <i>The Saga</i> on television for the first time in ten years. The <b>USA Cut</b> is is not quite the same cut as the original <i>Saga.</i> Certain sequences that had been deemed too violent in years past were allowed to air uncut, which meant that the alternate longshots unique to <i>The Saga</i> were gone. Also, since it was shown in 2 parts instead of 4, the second and fourth title sequences were excised. Overall, the film was about 15 minutes shorter than the original <i>Saga.</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though it was missing some of the added footage of <i>The Saga</i>, the <b>USA Cut</b> did contain some unique scenes. First, the title card finally reads "Mario Puzo's The Godfather Saga" instead of the previous "The Complete Novel For Television." Second, the party sequence for Part II was recut and some long shots of the partygoers that had never been exhibited before were thrown in. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The scene with Don Fanucci backstage at the playhouse was altered. In the theatrical release, Genco and Vito go backstage to talk with Genco's girlfriend. They open the door and find Fanucci shaking down the theater owner for protection money. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">In <i>The Saga</i>, the scene plays a bit longer and when Genco and Vito first open the door, Fanucci is nodding to a passing troupe of actors before he begins to shake down the theater owner. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the <i>USA Cut</i>, Vito and Genco open the door, and Fanucci is telling the theater owner that he needs to feature more Sicilian songs instead of Neapolitan. He starts to do a bit of opera singing and then shakes down the theater owner. Gone is the part where he nods to the passing troupe of actors. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">(The <b>AMC Cut</b> from 2012 combines all of this footage, but it <i>excludes</i> two brief shots of Genco and Vito standing at the door reacting to the violence! Our cut, of course, contains all of the footage.)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Around the same time, USA also showed a unique version of Part III that has never been shown before or since. This version is known as <b>The Godfather III USA Cut</b>. The film starts off with footage of an elderly Michael Corleone sitting in his chair (taken from the end of the film) but features a couple of unique closeups that never made it into either the theatrical or home video version. The intro voiceover has been trimmed and most of the opening montage showing the neglected grounds of the Corleone compound (which had actually come from <i>The Saga</i>) was excised.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ4dibQwLyu9rn7Nv87eroSH7aHhtzlUKTKSfyjsaRVpNF4MmzInSApn817YZPIT_jf6KmbaB68cIyvfRaC5MIC4GCCUdap6W0E_XsUfTvwBMwF11blTPyh4vBhY65LQ7Qu4A5itmL5HHR/s1600/GFIII.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ4dibQwLyu9rn7Nv87eroSH7aHhtzlUKTKSfyjsaRVpNF4MmzInSApn817YZPIT_jf6KmbaB68cIyvfRaC5MIC4GCCUdap6W0E_XsUfTvwBMwF11blTPyh4vBhY65LQ7Qu4A5itmL5HHR/s320/GFIII.jpg" height="225" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alternate intro for GF III</td></tr>
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The GFIII USA cut is essentially the Theatrical cut, but two extra scenes from the Final Director's Cut made it into this version: BJ Harrison asking the Archbishop "How do you think I got this grey hair?" and Don Altobello handing over a big check for the Vito Corleone Foundation. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7azNPdqgIaateV5eafYNJbplarPxTrop_KKOEBr27gFeTePlSQRjbUifsgA7WnDEg2N96lcAEeg97baIVeH1_VgwUNsx1D7l0Ze-CjMCWXGV2GWURaafX9htQSybWyt5Hx3ufU_dYIZ2z/s1600/The+Godfather+Trilogy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7azNPdqgIaateV5eafYNJbplarPxTrop_KKOEBr27gFeTePlSQRjbUifsgA7WnDEg2N96lcAEeg97baIVeH1_VgwUNsx1D7l0Ze-CjMCWXGV2GWURaafX9htQSybWyt5Hx3ufU_dYIZ2z/s1600/The+Godfather+Trilogy.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Later in the year, <b>The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980</b></span></span>²<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> is released to laserdisc. This is a completely new cut that had nothing in common with the previous release that used the same exact title. <i>The Saga</i> was used as the foundation to the project, and several trims were made to remove footage that had degraded too badly or suffered from poor post-production audio redubs from the original 1977 project. (The audio and video tracks were scrutinized particularly close for this project, as it was to be remastered in THX and for the first time ever, feature a stereo soundtrack remixed from the original mono). </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Master Print</b> was also referred to for sequences that were felt needed to be included but were degraded too badly from the TV print. This mixing of censored TV footage and uncut Master Print footage resulted in a strange mix that on the one hand would include the violent gundown of Sonny but would then have Frankie Pentangeli shouting "Canopies, my eye!" instead of the theatrical "Canopies, my ass!"</span> </span></span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvW6QtxkXMK6lattGnWiyVFRtyF6Q-mJznL_RYFrISUQwoqgClfYThlMGBFp_8W1T-KqOHWalFjr4UA2_E9im7C1X3SnopHn0_Smrm6F08Tj2PPV1rA1a_btRE8T1uQVDWtHzvrh3xkoAW/s1600/5144882085_da0c9b5317.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvW6QtxkXMK6lattGnWiyVFRtyF6Q-mJznL_RYFrISUQwoqgClfYThlMGBFp_8W1T-KqOHWalFjr4UA2_E9im7C1X3SnopHn0_Smrm6F08Tj2PPV1rA1a_btRE8T1uQVDWtHzvrh3xkoAW/s320/5144882085_da0c9b5317.jpg" height="183" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>L-R</b>, <i>The Trilogy</i> laserdisc set; the 2001 DVD set (in limited edition red packaging) and the 2008 Coppola Restoration Blu Ray</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">But by referring back to the <b>Master Print</b> for certain sequences, we get some exclusive "lifts" that were cut for time for <i>The Saga</i>. Most of these are minor shots, such as Tom Hagen looking up at the staircase after witnessing Woltz's nymphet being pulled back into her bedroom. In <i>The Saga</i>, the girl is dragged back into her room and the camera remains on the staircase for several seconds before fading out for a commercial break. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">In <i>The Trilogy</i></span></span>²<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">, after the girl is dragged back into her room, the camera cuts back to Tom Hagen, who is obviously trying to process the scene he just witnessed. He looks down and walks away (you can almost visualize what he's thinking; "Boy, wait till I tell the Don about this!") So while we lose three seconds of footage from <i>The Saga</i> (the empty staircase, the echoes of the girl protesting her treatment prior to fade to black) we gain a new shot of Hagen exclusive to this version. (Again, in our cut, you get the entire sequence on the staircase plus Tom Hagen walking away.) </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Several other minor shots and extensions pop up in <i>The Trilogy</i></span></span>²<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">. Perhaps the most notable addition is of Michael in Sicily witnessing a Communist march, which had never been exhibited in any of the previous edits. </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-dNHgfsxETgTp0-akPjEuinqg14dOdZJ3Jnp10eUxlBLS1XoR_qRqo6GSxN1PWUtn4BU1YMuLpIFkoGQuJZR-_HfrMy2f0hwgoe59yB1Pn7lLyt8uIWqaho1lPmZnm78_391-RnHDVmkk/s1600/51TARxahH8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-dNHgfsxETgTp0-akPjEuinqg14dOdZJ3Jnp10eUxlBLS1XoR_qRqo6GSxN1PWUtn4BU1YMuLpIFkoGQuJZR-_HfrMy2f0hwgoe59yB1Pn7lLyt8uIWqaho1lPmZnm78_391-RnHDVmkk/s1600/51TARxahH8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The three films are released to DVD and most of the additional footage from <i>The Godfather Trilogy</i></span></span><i>²</i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> is included as bonus material. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Spike TV airs <i>The Saga</i> in two parts. This version is the same as the <b>USA Cut </b>with approximately five minutes of footage deleted in order to fit in more commercials. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bravo Networks airs <i>The Saga</i> in two parts. Again, this is the same version as the <b>USA Cut</b>, but going even further than Spike TV went, Bravo cuts 22 minutes from the run time in order to fit in as many commercials as possible. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bravo also aired Part III immediately after <i>The Saga</i>. This version was essentially the Final Director's Cut, but one of the opening montages from <i>The Saga</i> was added to the beginning for reasons unknown. The montage has been slightly trimmed in order to remove the credit screens for Part I and Part II. A flashback of the events from the first two films are interspersed with a closeup of Michael sitting in a chair, smoking a cigarette. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Godfather films, AMC airs their version of <i>The Saga</i>. The AMC Cut is notable for being the first time any of the chronological edits have appeared in a widescreen format. It was also broadcast in HD, another first. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In 2008, while sourcing footage for the Coppola Restoration, Dreamworks came across a pristine copy of the original 1977 NBC print for <i>The Godfather Saga</i>. This was then matted to a widescreen ratio and the footage was synched up with the 2.0 Stereo mix from <i>The Trilogy</i><i><span class="st">²</span></i>. (For scenes that were in the <i>Saga</i> but not the <i>Trilogy</i><span class="st">²</span><i><span class="st">, </span></i><span class="st">the soundtrack reverts back to its original mono). Some of the scenes that were unique to the <i>Trilogy</i></span><i><span class="st">² </span></i><span class="st">were also flown in for this cut. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st">While this cut, on the surface, appears to be the ultimate merging of <i>The Saga</i> and <i>The Trilogy</i>, it suffers from several minor trims and lifts throughout. A line of dialogue here, a minor scene there, etc, all add up to make a cut that is almost five minutes shorter than the original <i>Saga</i>, despite having the extra scenes from <i>The Trilogy</i></span><span class="st"><i>²</i>! Some of the scenes that were exclusive to the original airing of <i>The Saga</i> are missing, like Michael asking Santino Jr. how his book is coming along. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st">Overall, it was great to finally see (most) of the original <i>Saga</i> in a cleaner format, but thankfully we held on to our 35 year old Betamax recording of the initial airing. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="st"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Fanedits</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">The first Godfather fanedit that we're aware of is The Regency Elf's VHS mash-up from 1995 entitled <i>The Godfather Epic Saga</i>. This was a chronological edit incorporating all of the then-available footage from <i>The Godfather Saga</i>, <i>The Complete Epic</i> and the theatrical cuts. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">Back in 1977, one of Elf's family members had recently purchased a Sony SL-8200 Betamax machine which was capable of recording two hours per tape. The result was five Betamax cassettes containing the whole of <i>The Godfather Saga</i> (along with an episode of <i>MASH</i> thrown in for good measure). </span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sony SL-8200 cost about 1500 bucks in 1977- over $5000 in today's money. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">This same relative in 1983 also recorded <i>The Godfather Novelette</i> (this time on VHS!) Using these two collections, Elf edited the extra scenes into <i>The Complete Epic</i> to achieve what was then the most comprehensive cut available. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">This edit saw very limited release aside from a couple of dozen dubbed copies that were circulated to members of a national Godfather internet fan club mailing list ca. 1996-7. After he was finished borrowing the original 1977 and 1983 broadcast recordings, Elf returned the tapes back to his uncle. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In 2006, Fanfiltration released his fanedit</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> entitled <i>The Godfather: </i></span><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>1901-1980 Epic Edit</i>, also known as <i>The Chronological Edit</i>. It was made up of most of the footage from <i>The Complete Saga</i> and <i>The Trilogy</i></span></span><span class="st"><i>²</i> and was very well made. </span><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">It did lack all of the exclusive <i>Saga </i>material, and while it included some of the scenes found as extras on the DVD set, it didn't feature all of them. It was also missing several scenes that were found only in the theatrical versions. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">2011: The Godfather Chronological Edit (1901-1980)</span></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In 2011, Modernknife released the first version of <i>The Chronological Epic. </i></span>It included almost all of the footage available to him at the time. Gone were some scenes from the Bonus DVD, <i>Trilogy</i><span class="st"><i>²</i></span> and the theatrical cuts. Modernknife also made several artistic changes to his version, such as placing the part with Kay lighting the candles in church after the events of Part I; re-inserting the original workprint opening to Part III back at the beginning of the film; and placing "birth and death" cards next to a screen shot of each key character at the end of the film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">TheRegencyElf came across Modernknife's version and offered to send him his previous <i>Epic Saga</i> cut so that the missing scenes could be reinserted into the <i>Chronological Epic.</i> Version 2.0 was quickly issued with the extra scenes from Elf's cut either inserted back into the film or included as bonus material.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">While I was impressed with Modernknife's cut, I wanted to attempt my own edit that I hoped would improve technically over all the previous fanedits. The main thing that stuck out for me about The Chronological Edit was that all of the extra footage was presented in full-frame while the core footage was presented in widescreen. That meant that the aspect ratio jumped back and forth, which made for a harrowing viewing experience in my mind. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">In early 2011 I began building a large collection of <i>Godfather</i> footage. Everything from the RCA Selectavision discs to each VHS version, all the way up to 35mm reels. (While I amassed several hundred feet of film from each movie, it only amounted to just a few minutes of actual screen time. A complete 35mm print of each film was absolutely not in my budget!)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">Thus began a systematic analysis of each version of the three films and TV/Home video chronologies to find every extant scene that had ever been released. Some surprises turned up: an Argentinian VHS release of Part II from 1986 had a close up of John Woltz that was not in any other print ever released. Several different edits of The Godfather III exist (some are noted above) and it would seem that most of the American TV edits of Part III that feature exclusive scenes or different takes were themselves taken from foreign prints. (For example, the <b>USA Network</b> version that is basically the Theatrical cut plus two scenes taken from the Final Directors Cut is exactly the same as the Russian theatrical version, minus cuts for dialogue/violence).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">It seemed like every day for months I was watching one or more Godfather movies. I also had to track down the equipment to play them: PAL VCRs, Videodisc machines, an 8mm projector, Betamax players, etc. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">While doing this worldwide search, I contacted many members of the Godfather fan community who graciously lent their videotaped recordings of TV broadcasts (and in some cases, reels of 35mm film) to me in order to screen. TheRegencyElf was one of those guys. Modernknife gave him credit for supplying <i>the Saga</i> footage, so I contacted him to see if he still retained the actual broadcast recording from 1977. According to Elf:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">"I called my uncle and said ‘Remember when I borrowed those Godfather tapes about 15 years ago? Do you still have them?’ My uncle never throws anything away, which is good. But it also sucked because he has three storage sheds full of old VHS and Beta tapes from the 70's through the 90's. I had to wade through them all, which took about 6 months, but I finally found four of the five <i>Saga</i> tapes and <i>The Novelette</i> to boot, which I had never even heard of before prior to this discovery." </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">The footage was in pretty bad shape, but it was cleaned up as best as possible and included in our new cut. The nuts and bolts of making this edit will be fodder for another post, but just to make it clear: EVERY scene from EVERY version made it into our presentation. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">More next time! </span></span></span></div>
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Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-57456293867671240482012-04-09T09:59:00.000-07:002012-04-09T09:59:39.116-07:00Prints of Darkness: Settling on a "look" for CPETWhile it was impossible for us to achieve one uniformed color palette for the entire presentation, we did concentrate on making the core theatrical footage match the original negative as closely as possible.<br />
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When the 2008 Restoration was completed, Paramount destroyed the original negatives and had them replaced with the new restoration prints. From now on, the 2008 versions will be the "official" prints from which all future theatrical and home video versions will spring from.<br />
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This infuriated many film historians, who feel the 2008 restorations err too far from the original prints to be considered "authentic". On one side of the aisle, we have director Francis Ford Coppola and Cinematographer Gordon Willis claiming that the original prints looked just like the 2008 remasters. On the other hand, we have hundreds of film buffs that point to the fact that in the last 40 years, not one single original print that in any way resembles the 2008 remasters has ever surfaced, leading them to conclude that Willis and Coppola's memories are faulty.<br />
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We've come to a separate conclusion based on the evidence we've amassed. We do believe that the 2008 restorations are how Willis and Coppola <i>intended</i> the original print to look like, but limitations in film stock and lab processing of the era created an entirely different look to the films and these versions, right or wrong, are what we've been viewing since 1972.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Dilemma </span><br />
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Which version should we use? Personally, I liked the 2001 DVD set the best, while TheRegencyElf preferred (for the most part) the 2008 remasters. But which one was the more accurate representation of Coppola's original vision?<br />
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To solve this problem, we purchased several thousand feet of 35mm film stock of all three films. This gave us a wide array of different prints to work from and would help to rule out aberrations unique to one set of film. (For example, if one scene looked overly "brown", we could compare it to other prints and determine if this was due to aging or processing). NOTE: we did not compare film stock taken from the 1997 THX remaster, as it was essentially the same as the 2001 DVD transfer. All comparison film stock used was from original, non-matted, pre-THX prints.<br />
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The screengrabs that are labeled here "35mm" are not the actual celluloid frames, but as close an approximation as possible that was achieved by digitally processing the DVD/BD footage to match the 35mm film as it was being projected side by side with our monitor. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">35 mm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rYbuhAh8hSE0mgzpupKLaFazvduRqu15EU-HelGUKSO-dUj_pSSZKCWNqQEAeC5qsCcerHKiQs3FpM6aieVBBVdCXDmzO51sGKWlySciGPhH0QoOPAxOvTsT9QjrpTVl6TBNvOTgbbCw/s1600/2001+DVD.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rYbuhAh8hSE0mgzpupKLaFazvduRqu15EU-HelGUKSO-dUj_pSSZKCWNqQEAeC5qsCcerHKiQs3FpM6aieVBBVdCXDmzO51sGKWlySciGPhH0QoOPAxOvTsT9QjrpTVl6TBNvOTgbbCw/s320/2001+DVD.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2001 DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2De9S3KiWZVdvHVir4MEScHnDEPJ38aNROt_et7Xa7YKu9xIVX17tZfWpRzp0MzIvxA6OUXOa5LBpeuIcj-MwxYlUYsDVdFhVBYLaC-XL8BFfQ5DhlKq94eLHVR4HaTTyE0aD1zG8Z0K/s1600/2008+Restoration.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2De9S3KiWZVdvHVir4MEScHnDEPJ38aNROt_et7Xa7YKu9xIVX17tZfWpRzp0MzIvxA6OUXOa5LBpeuIcj-MwxYlUYsDVdFhVBYLaC-XL8BFfQ5DhlKq94eLHVR4HaTTyE0aD1zG8Z0K/s320/2008+Restoration.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2008 Coppola Restoration</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrqk1LYzsXz-IRQroaM7bnB9vGw7LIKSsrLXPVmW3JJqk0yYhbqcbDN8zwFvE5ztrOKw3t1h-Wp66RPlxtG0HRdhMaADlPtuLlsWd3GjCNVahWpVda3vWPkztXTAephy-OUAF1g216pI3/s1600/GF+CET1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrqk1LYzsXz-IRQroaM7bnB9vGw7LIKSsrLXPVmW3JJqk0yYhbqcbDN8zwFvE5ztrOKw3t1h-Wp66RPlxtG0HRdhMaADlPtuLlsWd3GjCNVahWpVda3vWPkztXTAephy-OUAF1g216pI3/s320/GF+CET1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GF Saga: Complete Epic Trilogy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As you can see from the pics, we tried to match the look of the 35mm film stock as closely as possible. This particular scene was excellent in helping to highlight the differences between the various sources. The 2001 DVD set, which we call the "red/brown look" is quite different from the 2008 "golden black" look. What both are missing from the film stock is the Kodachrome neutrality of color and the soft focus grain that are only present in the earliest VHS copies.<br />
<br />
What we did with this particular scene was to desaturate the 2008 footage and add a slight noise mar to recreate the original underexposure and soft focus that are mostly missing from the digital prints. <br />
<br />
<br />
Here's another comparison:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtmuc91MWKPD8Y7pqQBvwHr5CpNZzxBshUptsGkNa8BiYH1RKjCPXkbzwX277LSXZFjec40ghNr2DzWkxPj9_oe9NPV4Cq_rAcecLZ8qVH68jHM-oLfZwErHdurU7yMXjlb_PVSWzpdEX2/s1600/35+mm+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtmuc91MWKPD8Y7pqQBvwHr5CpNZzxBshUptsGkNa8BiYH1RKjCPXkbzwX277LSXZFjec40ghNr2DzWkxPj9_oe9NPV4Cq_rAcecLZ8qVH68jHM-oLfZwErHdurU7yMXjlb_PVSWzpdEX2/s320/35+mm+3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">35 mm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWpic22IL8k2GyeKYZavofqpnkzhooa7LJ_PvmPk33ZxLCRD_tf4PCqaWo4bD0fGc43C7Rzj9Zowqy9cbQw51_MWHdUsqVVc_C3C0zC-3eiR7cc3HN-C_ZjPoGZzx2kLI_1i8Esvohl_0Y/s1600/2001+DVD+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWpic22IL8k2GyeKYZavofqpnkzhooa7LJ_PvmPk33ZxLCRD_tf4PCqaWo4bD0fGc43C7Rzj9Zowqy9cbQw51_MWHdUsqVVc_C3C0zC-3eiR7cc3HN-C_ZjPoGZzx2kLI_1i8Esvohl_0Y/s320/2001+DVD+3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2001 DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsKP2hN39IkmH1_YpiDq9zAP6Swut5KgvpQUeYZyJL0Xvy7NuTwrLnjY3IIdrBF8g7ImjjvdSJP1cXsAy650CsF5ryJRUh9Flu2p775_AU2XuUH5YlFHTI_k2rUhQBvW7RTSXHufFOLSMT/s1600/2008+Restoration+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsKP2hN39IkmH1_YpiDq9zAP6Swut5KgvpQUeYZyJL0Xvy7NuTwrLnjY3IIdrBF8g7ImjjvdSJP1cXsAy650CsF5ryJRUh9Flu2p775_AU2XuUH5YlFHTI_k2rUhQBvW7RTSXHufFOLSMT/s320/2008+Restoration+3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2008 Coppola Restoration</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkTmO2lVvJU-sZYkCZqDn9Cn9t067b0rhEpJkusVVOOJxA1p_hnfnMhhVC7fApFV68GrJcczp6_1UiYWTuX1HLfUKNTI-sIzdUIUF9AlKv3MSDOOUltriOPlazA9eBT8L8tMyiBUZBLRXF/s1600/GF+CET+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkTmO2lVvJU-sZYkCZqDn9Cn9t067b0rhEpJkusVVOOJxA1p_hnfnMhhVC7fApFV68GrJcczp6_1UiYWTuX1HLfUKNTI-sIzdUIUF9AlKv3MSDOOUltriOPlazA9eBT8L8tMyiBUZBLRXF/s320/GF+CET+3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GF Saga: Complete Epic Trilogy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The wedding sequence was originally overexposed in order to give it the look of 40's era color photography. In this case, the 2008 Coppola Restoration came closest to matching the look of the 35mm stock. Very little needed to be done to this sequence, but we tweaked the white exposure in order to give it the "gloss" that was present in the 35mm stock. (Compare the white of Connie's dress between shots: the 2008 restoration lost quite a bit of "shimmer" present in the first two examples).<br />
<br />
And finally, we have this indoor scene from Part II:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI5iRtEHP2ykJzRpGuhsyr1YBYqlDTusah5Oe3Mf9arN4TWUJAHk6bLTyfM7Av9ZXbez57XCw9dg-vn80qMaAJIKKwkzjjFl7vfafBBe5P_G1v6lWq7qvH5aRlAN2l6eTgKVRGrgw0SZG_/s1600/2008+Restoration+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI5iRtEHP2ykJzRpGuhsyr1YBYqlDTusah5Oe3Mf9arN4TWUJAHk6bLTyfM7Av9ZXbez57XCw9dg-vn80qMaAJIKKwkzjjFl7vfafBBe5P_G1v6lWq7qvH5aRlAN2l6eTgKVRGrgw0SZG_/s320/2008+Restoration+2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">35mm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8qU925Qa4rNypGf1bV02TEQ2V5V8bnQSMMZGNpB1ZQoLAarawRCGCZQFqsvQvjVVM0oF2mHL3HOU3rTrBdkbXQzjpwmNRJYeQcxwlXYvZbPEFAabXQuNlxpJ19NA6muEVpARFy1K1eYr/s1600/2001+DVD+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8qU925Qa4rNypGf1bV02TEQ2V5V8bnQSMMZGNpB1ZQoLAarawRCGCZQFqsvQvjVVM0oF2mHL3HOU3rTrBdkbXQzjpwmNRJYeQcxwlXYvZbPEFAabXQuNlxpJ19NA6muEVpARFy1K1eYr/s320/2001+DVD+2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2001 DVD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwSD_GRAi2yL2OkY5zn_PxxF40QMpoDdXG-B-RQB66VoiM1OX7pQm2D4aCF61vrIifSd0AKAAMtNDNQDaCP0oSZdHNSgi9gp14yJlM4ZZ1R5BS-g6WwkGox7-0n1Bqj3rHnX-UtLsi_uB/s1600/GF+CET.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwSD_GRAi2yL2OkY5zn_PxxF40QMpoDdXG-B-RQB66VoiM1OX7pQm2D4aCF61vrIifSd0AKAAMtNDNQDaCP0oSZdHNSgi9gp14yJlM4ZZ1R5BS-g6WwkGox7-0n1Bqj3rHnX-UtLsi_uB/s320/GF+CET.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2008 Coppola Restoration</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI5iRtEHP2ykJzRpGuhsyr1YBYqlDTusah5Oe3Mf9arN4TWUJAHk6bLTyfM7Av9ZXbez57XCw9dg-vn80qMaAJIKKwkzjjFl7vfafBBe5P_G1v6lWq7qvH5aRlAN2l6eTgKVRGrgw0SZG_/s1600/2008+Restoration+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI5iRtEHP2ykJzRpGuhsyr1YBYqlDTusah5Oe3Mf9arN4TWUJAHk6bLTyfM7Av9ZXbez57XCw9dg-vn80qMaAJIKKwkzjjFl7vfafBBe5P_G1v6lWq7qvH5aRlAN2l6eTgKVRGrgw0SZG_/s320/2008+Restoration+2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Godfather Saga: Complete Epic Trilogy</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
This scene serves to illustrate the major problem with all of the interior sequences in the 2008 Restoration: they were too damned <b>dark!</b><br />
<br />
While it's true that Gordon Willis' nickname is "The Prince of Darkness", none of the 35mm footage we reviewed was as dark as the 2008 footage. Here's one possible explanation:<br />
<br />
<i>"When we got the first prints back from the lab, Paramount sent them back and ordered them to be lightened up by about 3 degrees. What happened is that when we sent out the first exhibitor copies, our phones started ringing off the hook. These theaters with old projectors were basically exhibiting a black screen- it was too muddy. Same thing with the Drive-ins: all you could see was the occasional flesh tone. So Paramount had the negative lightened up a little, just so you could watch the thing in a typical theater."</i> -Fred Fuchs, Cinemascope interview<br />
<br />
All of the original "ultra dark" prints were recalled and destroyed, so we can't accurately compare them here. But it's a safe bet that the 2008 Restoration is very similar to the original negative that was quickly replaced as per Paramount's demands. (Side note: this situation was rare, but not uncommon for the era. Similar incidents happened with <i>Alien, Blade Runner, The Exorcist</i> and <i>Taxi Driver</i> in which the original negative was deemed too dark for drive-in screens and walk-ins with old equipment, so a new negative was restruck. As the drive-in theaters had died off by the 1980s and multiplex theaters with standardized equipment had replaced the local Nickelodeon, such concerns gradually disappeared.) <br />
<br />
What we did with most of these indoor sequences was to brighten them just a tad to match the 35mm copies and add the tiniest bit of grain, which was almost completely eradicated in the 2008 Restoration.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But In The End... </span><br />
<br />
We asked ourselves several times if it was even worth it to color correct the core footage when so much of the film would be made up of clips taken from outside sources that in essence, could never be brought up to match the quality of the core footage.<br />
<br />
For example, even though we did our best to optimize analog footage (like that taken from the VHS and Laserdisc edits) there is only so much you can do to low-resolution video before it looks worse for the effort. Therefore, glaring inconsistencies like these spring up throughout the presentation:<br />
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR21dlv4efwzPr-CnOwJDxBL-TjbT7d13kJkY4JLO6KlpxByY_Ieprg0meGaASViTlzn5m-evm9PEJsMa-scTSdnjy0iwxkwvkdQhZC20Qs85WENW_HN6_kKGrrg-AMhhxinujlIwModOm/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h27m50s168.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR21dlv4efwzPr-CnOwJDxBL-TjbT7d13kJkY4JLO6KlpxByY_Ieprg0meGaASViTlzn5m-evm9PEJsMa-scTSdnjy0iwxkwvkdQhZC20Qs85WENW_HN6_kKGrrg-AMhhxinujlIwModOm/s320/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h27m50s168.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extra Footage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjTUDKBCG3gfxKiODelA_9ulT33781Ns-jm3GNla04QfzmZ3jvUlrSc115mfk-bTmEPbGwM0Hk2OL4bJAjQntwQoZkeeR8G6JO-Pu5SdMV4rB27eEKaIWP7eo2tch8ucjw7-EO3lVgqbn/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h28m17s195.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjTUDKBCG3gfxKiODelA_9ulT33781Ns-jm3GNla04QfzmZ3jvUlrSc115mfk-bTmEPbGwM0Hk2OL4bJAjQntwQoZkeeR8G6JO-Pu5SdMV4rB27eEKaIWP7eo2tch8ucjw7-EO3lVgqbn/s320/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h28m17s195.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Core Footage</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDSbBq-tM2GtZ1hWZ24_qF9wcRkdFbvLsaeAcGL3EzHeBCvJ4ihpLXtzbf5pnUabwvopBzZ-C6Fd6TkBUZ2yalUPGaePuexm_tecAU2dz9Lsj-CvAqechBWaWhLOKvgv4JyM0HcHqKfui/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h29m44s67.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDSbBq-tM2GtZ1hWZ24_qF9wcRkdFbvLsaeAcGL3EzHeBCvJ4ihpLXtzbf5pnUabwvopBzZ-C6Fd6TkBUZ2yalUPGaePuexm_tecAU2dz9Lsj-CvAqechBWaWhLOKvgv4JyM0HcHqKfui/s320/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h29m44s67.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extra Footage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUpPle36BiP79rXybBeyos2YQ1qhgaAONw2S5mhW7qMFsuhYyGCWOJSaGRABq0lqOE0ytbSuUqHT_T9usQNQQNwgejRIsc0hxMi-OfdIMve-tcJfM9FpvwFokvLXjGDU21sDP8tTQkmZl9/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h30m23s200.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUpPle36BiP79rXybBeyos2YQ1qhgaAONw2S5mhW7qMFsuhYyGCWOJSaGRABq0lqOE0ytbSuUqHT_T9usQNQQNwgejRIsc0hxMi-OfdIMve-tcJfM9FpvwFokvLXjGDU21sDP8tTQkmZl9/s320/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h30m23s200.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Core Footage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGbePAPkhteRBJzY1cfhkWONvL1e_fT7IsCSdKqZe-9aYD7Da0YKbOHNVdpi4ig8qy5Lve0T2Ve2EJLjQswteCc4iWgN0YC6uCiBrbITAYpj6f386BIcZ2JPXVCorEACVlAI_qtolZ7IzN/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h30m50s195.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGbePAPkhteRBJzY1cfhkWONvL1e_fT7IsCSdKqZe-9aYD7Da0YKbOHNVdpi4ig8qy5Lve0T2Ve2EJLjQswteCc4iWgN0YC6uCiBrbITAYpj6f386BIcZ2JPXVCorEACVlAI_qtolZ7IzN/s320/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h30m50s195.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extra Footage</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiSU1WHR42M24l0QCiu5ao1guNosKf02lXCW4-G3vO994Au0t84mBC_IXbN45CWa3k7oGIINUbBtx6txU_waGJbDgW_x0Hp2jm20254R_KT6WOrJO-1EdvBC46Qhk4FjjOxNYIfhqpZpl-/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h31m14s185.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiSU1WHR42M24l0QCiu5ao1guNosKf02lXCW4-G3vO994Au0t84mBC_IXbN45CWa3k7oGIINUbBtx6txU_waGJbDgW_x0Hp2jm20254R_KT6WOrJO-1EdvBC46Qhk4FjjOxNYIfhqpZpl-/s320/vlcsnap-2012-04-09-12h31m14s185.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Core Footage</td></tr>
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There was just no way to make most of the analog scenes match up with the core footage, despite our best efforts. So unfortunately, the added scenes taken from other sources should stand out fairly easy compared to the BD/DVD material. (I'm not even going to go into the joys of transferring 35 year old Betamax footage to digital and trying to make it look presentable...)Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709302268493572206.post-101826882475408192012-04-08T11:11:00.001-07:002012-04-08T11:11:36.104-07:00Welcome to the Godfather Museum!This site is going to be dedicated to the upcoming fanedit <b>The Godfather Saga: The Complete Epic Trilogy 1901-1997.</b> Along the way, we'll take a look at all aspects of the trilogy and maybe upload a few historical documents for the benefit of curious fans. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDQIZZtlp3QHTHBj-dApv0BVC76fRE1lSVrIR3_M5vvYX7s2ABO_Nf-3wD70054mn6dmQNN27_ZhS4NKX2uspRN9bDHirbRLSwPjVjlhD0s08cQPU0GV33KLVdlYmlNSnSocIZs5IeaklN/s1600/GFS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDQIZZtlp3QHTHBj-dApv0BVC76fRE1lSVrIR3_M5vvYX7s2ABO_Nf-3wD70054mn6dmQNN27_ZhS4NKX2uspRN9bDHirbRLSwPjVjlhD0s08cQPU0GV33KLVdlYmlNSnSocIZs5IeaklN/s320/GFS.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
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ABOUT THE SAGA:<br />
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Clocking in at over 10 and a half hours, this chronological edit of the three films includes every single bit of footage ever shot and distributed for the trilogy. In the works for nearly two years, the editors have scoured the globe for every possible version of the Godfather films, and tracked down every known bit of footage unique to these various releases and assembled them all under one roof. From original 35mm prints to Betamax copies of Brazilian television broadcasts, all footage has been painstakingly restored for the best possible audio and video presentation for your viewing pleasure.<br />
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Some of these scenes are so rare that they have been thought lost for nearly 40 years and have never been included in any previous fanedit to date. Unless another found source of footage surfaces (which is highly doubtful) or Paramount opens its vaults (again, highly unlikely) this will be the most comprehensive cut ever assembled.<br />
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TGFS: TCPET 1910-97 is in the final stages of post production. When finished, a download link will be provided. <br />
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More to come in the next few days!Godfather Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08322039264836770361noreply@blogger.com2