ambersons ambersons ambersons - ambersons ambersons ambersons

[blunted by community]

computer generated image, i think.

i saw some samples but they were of spinning cigarette boxes. kind of hard to judge how wilber will be by seeing animated cigarette boxes each with a halo around it like saturn

[Christopher]

Thanks, Blunted.

I'm trying to visualize the various elements that have been suggested for a reconstruction of TMA -- charcoal drawings, stills, CGI (now I know what it means), storyboards, clip art, etc., etc., -- all of which seem to have their problems, and I'm wondering if you couldn't just use music, sound, and narration for the reconstructed parts. Maybe it's sacrilegious to suggest a recurring blank screen in this visual age, but I'm thinking of radio and how hearing sound alone can trigger the imagination. Anyway, it's just an idea.

[Roger Ryan]

Hi everyone! I've been following the discussions on this board for the last few months and finally got around to registering. I completed my own restoration of TMA about ten years ago using stills, freeze-frames, composite images for the video and recreating the audio with a small group of non-professional actors and a sound effects library. The music cues all came from the 1990 Australian Philharmonic CD. This was not an attempt to do a letter perfect restoration, so most of the smaller edits (i.e. George's line about "people not bringing their elephants with them") I left out along with certain incidental scenes like the druggist telling his poolhall cronies about Lucy. What I ended up with was a 111 min. version of the film with all the scenes in their correct order, the four major excised scenes (Friends of the Ace, both veranda scenes and the boardinghouse closer) reinstated and many of the other existing sequences extended to proper length (Last Ball, snow ride, Jack & George's rainstorm argument, Major Amberson's fireside chat, etc.).

The point I wish to underline is that the approach I took works if the audience is prepared for it. The friends and interested parties I've shown the restoration to have all responded well to the actual "story" of the film, some without having seen the original! Just re-editing the scenes back to their original order makes a big difference for me (the opening montage plays so much better the way Welles planned it with the clever lap dissolves on the Johnson house). I also think the music cues work wonders for the film as well; try cueing up the music meant to accompany the scene with George and Lucy's carriage ride or the scoring for the first stairway scene between George and Fanny.

I've worked professionally in video production for 20 years, but the most rewarding time has certainly been the nine months I spent creating a version of TMA I could watch without being heartbroken (well, my heart still breaks watching the film, but for the right reasons).

[Johnny Dale]

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[Glenn Anders]

Congratulations, Roger Ryan, for doing what others dream of, and doing it first. I guess the question is obvious: Where can those less talented than a few of us here manage to see your film? I should think that you could duplicate your tape in quantity and make a modest profit on it.

Perhaps there are others at wellesforum who might help you market it.

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks Glenn. I have no desire to make money off the project; I really just wanted to have a version to watch that would be closer to Welles' original. I'm happy to share it with whoever would like to see it, but not sure how that could be done with the folks here. Right now I have a U-matic SP master (yep, that's the old 3/4" video format) and a small handful of VHS copies. I really should attempt to make a DVD copy, but have not purchased a recorder yet. If anyone has any interest, I could mail out a VHS copy that could be passed around; don't know how realistic that would be, though.

I'm certain the Wellesforum members would be my toughest critics and would probably be perturbed with certain liberties I took (such as new narration adapted from the novel to cover the transition of Eugene going from factory to hospital to boardinghouse, and to give the film's ending a better sense of closure). At the same time, as a Welles fans, I'm sure you'd appreciate discovering cool things like the lightning/thunder at the end of Jack & George's rainstorm argument transitioning into the hammering iron sparks of the factory scene, or how perfectly Hermann's original music cue works on George slamming the bathroom door. Let me know what you guys think.

[mteal]

Roger Ryan,
Congratulations on completing an Ambersons restoration of your own. I'm very intrigued by the fact that yours runs about 111 minutes, because ours is about 135 minutes! Yours sounds very impressive, maybe we could trade copies sometime. We've taken some liberties too, such as adding a few things that were in the script, but not in the original film. And it's amazing how you've thought along similar lines in other ways too, such as voiceovers, plus eliminating George's "elephant's" line, and the druggist's poolhall scene. We've also used the Bremner/Australia CD to reinstate the music cues too, like George's door-slamming cue that ends the bathroom scene, and the somber music that accompanied Jack and the Major in the carriage; and they do make a big difference. But didn't you think the "1st porch scene" music (First Nocturne) was played far too fast on the CD?

Again, congratulations. Jeez, I wonder how many other amatuer or semi-professional Ambersons restorations there are out there? I figured we were the first, but I suppose that was pretty unrealistic. Oh well...

[blunted by community]

i think welles fans are feb up with the release version and would welcome ANY improvement on the jumbled up mess that ambersons is now.

[Roger Ryan]

Thank you mteal. The running time of 111 min. comes about because mine is really a selective restoration. I didn't approach it as an academic exercise as much as wanting to create something that would flow for the uneducated viewer (I wanted to turn more people onto Welles without them judging him from the studio release version of Ambersons - which I'm afraid has now become virtually unwatchable to me). As previously mentioned, I left out all the small asides or single lines cut from existing scenes. I also decided against including the scene of Eugene and Lucy pulling the auto into the horse shed, I eliminated George's fantasizing about Lucy at the end of the first veranda scene and I went with Wise's reshoot of George's reaction to Eugene's letter in Isabel's bedroom instead of attempting to recreate Welles' original version (this last decision I now regret, by the way). Also affecting running time would be restored scenes that once involved sceen action without dialogue (last ball, boardinghouse) that probably play faster in my version than in Welles' original.

I would very much enjoy seeing any other homemade versions out there. I can't imagine there are too many fans with the resources and/or time to tackle this project. At least not as many as the growing horde who've attempted to create their own Beach Boys' "Smile" album (which I've attempted myself on multiple occasions)!

Finally, I agree that something is off with the "First Veranda" music cue found on the 1990 CD; it's the only piece of Amberson music that doesn't seem to sit well with the dialogue.

[mteal]

Try slowing it down sometime if you have the technical means; I'm sure you'll find the dialogue falls into place quite nicely, including the rather outrageous camp touch of George's vision of Lucy (which, in the music, is represented by the return of the Amberson waltz). You're right that the studio-release version of Ambersons becomes almost unwatchable once you know of the crude butchery that went into it. And despite the fact that that version is what turned me into a Welles freak in the first place.

[R Kadin]

Roger - having had the immense good fortune to see mteal's fascinating work-in-progress some months ago (from which he has probably advanced yet again) - coupled with the miserable experience of sitting through that A&E travesty (at what point, exactly, could they have not known they had signed on the wrong director?), I am among those that would dearly love to see any credible restoration attempt.

Therefore, put me down as one party who is definitely interested in viewing - on an expenses-paid basis - what you've put together.

I am also attempting to advance the idea of a Wellesnet member peer-to-peer materials lending library, a concept that Jeff W has mentioned could take the form of a member-updated lending list. With Paypal available to so many here, there's an easy payment mechanism to cover off any reproduction (where permissible) and shipping costs.

And that's even before I get into the idea of online peer-to-peer file-sharing technology as an extremely low cost and on-demand digital alternative. When associated with the collectively and blatantly academic focus of this little community, the use of such technology, to my way of thinking, could hardly be more justified! Even access to services/hardware that could bring much of what is not now digital in line with today's worldwide technology, thus granting it a more assured future shelf-life, would be a marvellous bonus.

Hey - if WE, given a halfways decent chance, don't do something to help make Welles's hard-fought, one-of-a-kind works more accessible and more timelessly available, then who will and what, exactly, are we doing here?

Welles had very little time for academic discourse purely for its own sake; what impressed him most were the actions behind the words. Were he around today, what do we think OW would be hoping to see from our merry little band, if not such action as lies within our grasp to take? From what I have seen so far, there are a lot of people here willing in their own ways to take action, from the modest to (as in Rick Schmidlin's, Jeff's, Roger's and mteal's cases - plus yourself, Roger) the utmost. Let's unite those energies, tap into that vast collective storehouse of knowledge, network our ingenuity and turn these shared strengths into something that would make our man truly proud. Who knows? There might come a point on another plane where we'll each have to face him. At such a time I would far rather be embraced than be dressed down, justifiably, for letting perfectly good opportunities like this one go to waste.

So, Roger, please do consider my invitation seriously. I am, indeed, game.

And to all other Wellesnetters, let's give these resource-sharing ideas some serious thought and feedback. As a group. we're sitting on an awful lot of excellent stuff. Let's really see how far we can take it. Welles fought so hard for production and distribution funds to have his art widely enjoyed. We, for next to no money, might just be in a position to help make that dream come true. As his supporters, scholars, devotees, and fans, what better enterprise could we possibly imagine?

Hello? Anybody???

[Glenn Anders]

R Kadin: These are the kind of words, positive words, I like to see here.

I suppose Jeff would be the logical man to set it up. He has given so much already to this site, which I consider the best forum that I've found on the Web. Whatever I can contribute, I shall. Just tell me what, how and when.

R-R-R, you are indubitably "proactive" (an adjective I don't like, but it fits here).

Let's go forward.

Glenn

[Dylan S]

I would be IMMENSELY interested in seeing both Roger's and MTeal's "Magnificent Ambersons" restoration. If any of you would like to offer to send/lend me a copy, I would be obliged beyond words. I love "Ambersons" to death, even with my knowledge of it's editing. I would be incredibly interested in viewing restoration work by other passionate Wellesians. MTeal and Roger, may you both please e-mail me at Ymir4@aol.com? Thank you in advance.

Best Regards,
Dylan

[Johnny Dale]

I'd like to see members donate worthwhile Welles memoriabilia that they no longer want to hang on to, to Wellesnet. Some things that you buy, for example te limited edition stuff, you may not care for, but others might find useful. It seems to me that we could let Jeff decide what's worth saving, and offer the rest in the trading area, with the proceeds to help finance this very valuable web site. We need a more accessible repository than the Lilly or Munich. How hard could it be for a member, other than Jeff, who has done so much already, to do the paperwork to start a non-profit. We can't trust that stuff that's on the internet will always be there and accessible to us. Think, for example of Welles's FBI file. If we want to get it again, we'd have to file a Freedom of Info request, and then the FBI would probably start a file on us. Or for example, I'm doing a research paper on the Welles & the Federal Theater. I may not want it on the web, but, I plan to email Jeff a copy of it "for the files"
Just an idea.

Lee

[Christopher]

Johnny Dale: I would be extremely interested in reading your research paper on Welles and the Federal Theater. Here's a thought. If you were to send it to Jeff Wilson as an e-mail attachment, he could then forward it to interested Wellesnet members who would each pay a fee for the privilege of reading it. These reading fees could be used to support this website.