Backstage at TCM Fest: VistaVision's Big Comeback

[00:00:00] Welcome to the audio only version of the Perf Damage podcast. We highly recommend checking out our YouTube channel for the full experience where you'll see visuals and details that we might not fully explain here. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the episode. Welcome back to Perf Damage. Welcome. Hey, on this show we're gonna do something a little bit different. That's right. We're going to talk about your experience at the Turner Classic Film Festival. Well, it'll be our experience there.

[00:00:29] Yes, I was there too. You were there. You were there. Yep. All the VistaVision goings on. Yeah, but I wasn't the talent. So that's the exciting part. Here we go again. Oh, the talent. Yeah, that's what he's been calling me the last two weeks because I had a talent writer. Uh huh. Uh huh. Anyways, we're done with that now. So yes, we are going to show you the behind the scenes footage that we captured and tell you all the goings on. Yeah.

[00:00:59] This is sort of a follow up episode to our last one about how the whole thing came about. Right. And yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're going to show some behind the scenes footage of the actual projectors that were built specifically for the screening live from the booth. Yeah. Very cool stuff. We're going to show some scenes from Charlotte's presentation that she did. That's right. Because we can't post the whole thing. So we're going to show a few little teaser clips for you. Right.

[00:01:28] We're going to show the whole intro video that you did for that presentation though. Yeah, I'll show that. I'll show that. That's pretty cool. And you might notice Adam's wearing a cool t-shirt here. Some swag that they did special for the festival. It says VistaVision at GCM Classic Film Festival. And if you stick around, you might get one of those shirts yourself. I don't know. They were special edition and they sold out twice. Twice. Twice they sold out. Anyways, stick around.

[00:01:56] Find out more about that at the end of the video. Let's get to it. Shall we just get into it? Let's get to it. All right. Well, first of all, I kind of wanted to play, and I know you're going to hate this, but I did want to play like a little clip of you walking the red carpet. Oh no. This is just to embarrass her, honestly. She hated doing this. Didn't want to do it at all, but it was required.

[00:02:21] So first of all, when I saw walk red carpet, you actually have to walk on the red carpet to get to the screening. So I just thought that's when it opens. That's when you can get in there. So we go pick up our tickets. And little did she know. We step on the red carpet and then I get attacked. Well, she has a handler. First of all, who says, Oh, Charlotte, wait right here. And then whips out a thing with my name on it.

[00:02:51] Look, I thought it was cute that you were embarrassed by this. And so I just recorded the whole thing. So I recorded the entire experience and I want to publicly share it with all of you guys out there. So you can see her like total embarrassment at having to do this. Because I'm a self deprecator. I'll let you share it. But yeah, you're the worst. Sorry. I couldn't help it. Oh, my God. It was so funny.

[00:03:20] So anyway, after that, we were going into the opening night screening, which was Empire Strikes Back and George Lucas was there. And you know what? I actually have video I took at you. Yes, you do. Ha! Ha! I completely forgot about it until just now. Yep. So this nerd over here was watching George Lucas do an intro for Empire Strikes Back. Literally on the edge of his seat. Oh, man.

[00:03:50] I was so excited. I leaned back in the seat and recorded and watching him. I have seen everybody in Hollywood. But I have never seen George Lucas. Yeah. So I was just nerding out so hard. You were so nerding out. Anyhow, that was all Thursday. Friday was the presentation that I did on the history of this division, bigger, sharper, better. So I did an hour long presentation at Club TCM, which you had to have those super duper cool passes for to get in.

[00:04:18] It was a very small group. It was standing room only. People started lining up for this presentation two hours before they opened the door. Well, I mean, you did debut some outtakes from White Christmas there that no one had ever seen before. Yeah. That was very cool. But we had a little video that we started the presentation with, which was fun, which we're going to show you here now.

[00:04:58] Today to get the public to attend a picture show, it's not enough to advertise a famous star they know. If you want to get the crowds to come around, you got to have glorious technicolor, breathtaking cinemascope and stereophonic sound.

[00:05:27] The customers don't like to see the groom embrace the bride unless her lips are scarlet and her mouth In glorious technicolor, breathtaking cinemascope and stereophonic sound. The customers don't like to see the groom embrace the bride unless her lips are scarlet and her mouth is five feet wide. In glorious technicolor, breathtaking cinemascope or cinerama, Fistavision or Superstay. And stereophonic and stereophonic sound.

[00:05:57] Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most important announcement we have ever been privileged to make. This theater is now being ready to present the first motion picture ever filmed in Fistavision. Sounds great, but what is it? This division, the ultimate in film presentation that will thrill all your senses, touch all your emotions with its unbelievable clarity. This is the first time in my whole life I have ever been happy. Sharpness.

[00:06:24] Even in this light I can tell where your eyes are looking. Brilliance. Wait, let's separate her. Maybe she's in there. Glowing color. The fox, there's only one of me. Till suddenly there's two of me. When two is what you see of me. Gadzooks! Three of me. For years, scientists have been working in the world's greatest optical and electronic laboratories to develop this system that combines spectacular size with complete focus across the screen to bring you the perfect motion picture at last.

[00:06:54] Vistavision. Well, that about adds it up. So what exactly is Vistavision? Imagine taking standard 35mm film and unlocking three times the image area, all by changing the way the film moves through the camera. In traditional 35mm filmmaking, the film runs vertically through the camera, exposing one frame every four perforations.

[00:07:21] Then came Vistavision, developed by Paramount in the 1950s. Vistavision reimagined the mechanics of image capture. Instead of running the film vertically, Vistavision turned it sideways, feeding 35mm film horizontally through the gate. This innovation allowed each frame to span eight perforations across two standard 35mm frames, tripling the image area captured. The result? A native widescreen aspect ratio.

[00:07:49] Vistavision wasn't just a new format. It was a leap forward in cinematic image quality. A large format solution using standard film stock, engineered for the silver screen. So that's how we started the show. With that. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. That was the most annoying sound ever.

[00:08:16] Yeah, and then of course I had to walk out and I did the whole thing, you know, the whole thing. That's the picture that we showed. And totally forgot to tell the joke that Richard Nixon was actually just a really big Vistavision fan this whole time. Oh yeah, you never said that. Yeah, I know. I forgot to say it. I know. Well, you had some show and tell too. You actually brought one of the Vistavision cameras from the Paramount lot with you.

[00:08:41] Yes, number 33 we brought because that one we have, if you've ever been on a tour of the Paramount Archive, that is in the main lobby area and that is complete. It is a beautiful camera. It has movement inside and it's beautiful. So we had it on stage with us for the presentation and... That was a big hit. A lot of people came up to look at that thing afterwards. It got delivered in a very big oversized truck.

[00:09:08] So we had that on stage with us, which was fun just to have it there. Some of the other stuff that I had on stage with us was little memorabilia things, some things that I've either been given from friends or that I bought on eBay, which the eBay stuff, Craig had a funny little story that he had to bring up at the presentation. Maybe we'll just play the clip from that.

[00:09:34] And unlike CinemaScope, this would improve image quality, make it look better. At least that's what they told the execs at the time. And it shot a perf, an eight-perf image. And the idea was we will shoot a large image and then we will print it down to a four-perf image for releases. So any projector in the world can play this. We'll shoot large, turn it down, send it out. But then some venues might have Vistavision projectors. That was the thought at the time. Oh, okay.

[00:10:03] Not at the time, per the card, which we'll get to later. These cards, these show up on eBay, by the way. And you and I always go into a bidding war. Don't even bring it up. We finally realize that we're bidding against each other. It's not this card. No, Craig told me about this cool card he saw on eBay. Hey, I saw this cool card, but I got outfid.

[00:10:33] And I had to tell him, Craig, I'm the one that outfid you on it. So if you see these on eBay, forget that she's going to get it. Sorry. Sorry, Craig. He won't let me forget it. All the resources is to get it on my kid. I'll never let you live that down. Yeah. Yeah. So he has not let me live that down. It was so funny when it happened.

[00:11:03] Yeah. And when, when you guys were finished, he tried to steal it. Oh, he did. Yeah. He grabbed that thing and tried to put it in his coat. He was like, yep. So that was fun. I mean, the presentation I thought went really well. I did run out of time. We got a little chatty, especially towards the beginning of it that we didn't do in the, in the run throughs that we did. There were some things that I really wanted to get to at the end that we ended up running out of time on specifically some of the debunking stuff that I had all prepped.

[00:11:31] One of them, I, I feel like I got across really well and that was about my six loves. Right. Well, you know, we have a clip from that too. We should probably play this. This is your by the numbers part where you kind of run down how many films were actually produced in Vista vision. And then it goes right into that. So I think we should play that clip here. So, so quickly a couple of numbers, 101 features and shorts were shot in this division during the initial years.

[00:12:01] So 79 were paramount. So we got Marla in a bathing suit here and just got her in a bathing suit so that the rank guy didn't feel, you know, undergressed 13 in the UK were shot by the rank organization five were hitchcock. When I searched for hitchcock in a bathing suit, this was the picture I got. Don't Google that. He's not happy. A couple, Craig told me not to include the slide, but I told him I'm including this slide. Okay, sorry.

[00:12:31] Films that are not Vista vision that are often reported in Vista vision, including a deadline today which said the last Vista vision film shot in 1963 is not my six loves. It is not Vista vision. Here is the scan of the negative. Notice it's four perfs. It is not Vista vision. If it was Vista vision, it would be that way there'd be eight perfs on the top, not Vista vision. There's a bunch more that aren't Vista vision. I'll tell you about it later because they're going to yell at us because they're going to get a book coming soon. So there you have it.

[00:13:01] My three loves, not a Vista vision film. Also my six loves, not a Vista vision. I didn't watch the clip. So apparently you didn't watch the clip. He didn't even see the presentation. I was asleep the entire time. So boring. So the first negative review. So the other one that I had prepped was about the Japanese films and that when I rushed

[00:13:26] through and I feel like I just bombed that slide because I was not prepared to rush through that. I just needed a little more set up, I think. Well, when you've got the people at TCM looking at you going because when they flashed a five minute warning, we were on slide 39 of 51. So we had been rushing through those slides and then I kept looking around and you know, you just, you know, you're at a time at that point because these were some of the last slides that we had.

[00:13:55] So the thing that I really wanted to tell everybody was about the Japanese films that are probably not Vista vision. And I guess I can take. Yeah. Well, I think, you know what? She didn't do it that well there. So why don't we just do it for you guys now? What if I don't do it that well? I'm actually not prepared. No. So one of the things that I wanted to share was that there are in Japan, the non anamorphic widescreen films are called Vista negatives.

[00:14:25] So that became shorthand for non anamorphic widescreen. So something that's not so cinema scope, right? That's not a, you know, anamorphic widescreen, like something that hasn't been stretched and needs to be reduced back down during projection. Yeah. Yeah. So that became shorthand. And then over the years, film critics would see Vista negative and they would assume that meant Vista vision.

[00:14:53] So there are several films like death by hanging was one of them. I can't why can't in the realm of the senses is one of the senses and some other Japanese films that fall into the same category that are all flagged as being Vista negatives. Slowly, some of them have been disproved as being not Vista vision as they've been restored by certain companies. For example, death by hanging was restored by criterion a few years back and they found

[00:15:21] when they were looking for this Vista vision negative, they assumed because it was a Vista negative that it was actually a four perf negative. I've been trying to do research again for the book to figure out a lot of these films that are flagged in either IMTB or in other books as being Vista vision films, as being these ones that you have to see, especially the Nagisa films that everybody thinks are Vista vision films.

[00:15:48] I've been trying to figure out, are these actually Vista vision? And slowly I've been finding that many of them are not, but it's really hard to figure that out from Los Angeles. Well, the thing that bugs me is when you see people recommend Vista vision films, it's always Vertigo. It's always North by Northwest. It's always the searchers. And then it's always the Nagisa films. Now what's missing there?

[00:16:16] A ton of Paramount films, short Vertigo. Yes. Paramount film, but God, there are tons of other Vista vision films. She wants Vista vision, true, true Vista vision films to get some love. I do. That's what you want. Ultimately that's what this all boils down to. I did leave everybody at the end of the presentation with, I think eight films. I put up a little thing and I said, these films should be released on TCM.

[00:16:43] You should ask TCM to do a Vista vision marathon, or you should ask Paramount to release these on disc because these are all films that you possibly never heard of. And they're all really good for different reasons. And so I left everybody with some recommendations at the end of the thing, which we'll also put up here. Yep. And they're worth your attention too. Yeah. So yeah. Lesser knowns. Lesser knowns. All right. Well, so that was your, that was your presentation. It went well. It went well.

[00:17:12] It was wonderful. Yeah. Thanks to the margarita I had beforehand. Secrets. So then what else did you have to do? What was your next thing that you were on your itinerary? She got a, like an actual itinerary of things that she had to do. That was it for the day. For that day. Right. Yeah. The next day was all about the Vista vision prints and that, I mean, leading up to that was just a handful.

[00:17:42] I mean, getting the audio ready for that, that took some time. I worked with Liz Kirksey at Paramount and Nick Berg at Endpoint Audio to make sure that that all went right. And I mean, those two were the leads on it. And I was just involved just because of course that was involved. You were just overseeing basically. Yeah. Especially for weirdo angels, because that was the one that was Perspecta. And we wanted to make sure that the Perspecta sounded good.

[00:18:08] And Nick actually owns a Perspecta integrator and Perspecta is a version of, well, it was an attempt at stereo in the 50s that Paramount used with Vista vision. Right. It was a way of making monophonic sound spread over three channels, a left, a right and a center in order. But it was always, it was always monophonic was never like actual discrete audio channels. Right.

[00:18:35] So it wasn't like you had a separate left and a right, like you do with stereo. Right. Mono is always the same. You know, it's just basically one channel, but you could have it play in three different speakers. And the misconception about Perspecta is that you could only use one speaker at a time. That's what a lot of people. Yeah. They thought it was all or nothing. It was like, oh, it was all in the center or all on the left or all on the right. But we found out just through working with Nick because he has a Perspecta integrator

[00:19:04] and also Bob Furmanek has been saying this for years because Bob had a Perspecta integrator too, Bob from the 3D archive that you guys met from the aspect ratio talks is that Perspecta was a lot more nuanced than that. And you can actually see here, these are showing you what the activity that's going on on the speakers as this donkey drawn card is going across the screen.

[00:19:32] And you can see that it's playing on more than one speaker at a time. Right. So I recorded this while we were at the session just so I could show that, hey, look, it's actually a lot more active than you would think. And it's not just on one speaker. Yeah. Nick, he did a really good job describing what Perspecta is like. It's like a bunch of gates, right? And the gate is never fully closed. Right. So there's always a little bit of sound coming through the left and right to enrich the center channel.

[00:20:01] And depending on whether they were doing effect or not, then, you know, this gate would close down to almost nothing. And this gate would open to more to enrich, you know, to make it directional. Right. Yeah. Right. I can't take credit for that. It was all Nick. No, it's great. I was describing that. And it was like fascinating. That's when I finally got the concept of Perspecta. Yeah. We had to run the audio separately because there was no audio on the prints.

[00:20:29] Because the prints that were made were actually archival prints. So they didn't have audio on them. They weren't actually ever meant to be distributed. You know, these are preservation assets. So the fact that we were showing these publicly is kind of cool because again, they weren't actually ever made to be screened publicly. Yeah. In fact, like gunfight was never actually screened in the Vista vision eight perf format. Right. Not from what I've been able to find.

[00:20:59] It was only a four perf. I'm not even sure that we're no angels was distributed that way. Yeah. I haven't been able to find that yet, but again, still doing research. Right. So I'm not going to make a definitive claims yet. So the prints themselves were actually picked up a week and a half before they played at the festival because they had to prep them. And I actually, about three weeks before they were picked up, I got them pulled into my office because I wanted to make sure nothing happened to them.

[00:21:27] And I am just here to check on the prints that are going to TCM festival. They are being picked up tomorrow. The prints for the screening of We're No Angels and the print for gunfight at the OK Corral. Right here. All in these boxes. I have them here because I don't want them to get lost because we have zero backup for these prints.

[00:21:56] So if anything happens to them, there's no show. And then Will and Julie from TCM came and picked up the prints, went to the little TCM lab where they clean everything and they assemble everything. And I got a lot of video there because I went over, of course, because I was newsy about this whole project and just involved. But also everybody. Those were your babies too. They were. But everybody was really interested in just talking about it because again, this had not been done before.

[00:22:25] This was on so many people's bucket list. I had so many people say this has been something that I've always wanted to happen. So I was constantly meeting people who wanted to tell me how excited they were for this to happen. Elena, who was building the prints and cleaning them and getting them. Yeah. And again, these were virgin prints. They had never been exhibited before. So that's not what they were made for. That's not what they were made for. Right. So this, you know, the, when they actually did that first slice into it, that was the first time it had ever been cut.

[00:22:55] I also went up to the projection booth because the projectors had been delivered and they were being reassembled because they were assembled or they were built in Boston, shipped across the U S and then reassembled in Los Angeles. And the guy Thomas was up in the projection booth reassembling them. Yeah. What was it? Boston light and sound. Um, they actually built the projectors.

[00:23:20] One of the really cool things is that the projectors that we used are two of the original sixth century projectors that were built for the original white Christmas premiere. So these are the projectors that were built in 28 days by century. Those are the ones that were being reassembled in the booth at the Chinese theater at Hollywood and Highlands. Yeah. And another really cool feature of this is they, they built these really big take up wheels

[00:23:49] because they only wanted to do one changeover because they didn't want to have multiple points of failure on their sync with sound. Mm hmm. So a single changeover. So they built up half the movie on one and then half the movie on another. And they look like big bicycle. Yeah. Big giant bicycle. I'd never seen giant wheels or wheels, reels, reels like that. Yeah. It was, it was really cool seeing the projectors being assembled and just hearing about the

[00:24:14] lenses that they had to, they had to come up with a lens that would work to get the throw that they needed for the screen that was at the, the IMAX because it was so far because of the tilt that it had. So they actually had to put two lenses together to make the throw work. A few days before the festival started, we actually got into the Chinese theater because they built the projectors.

[00:24:39] They were able to test them by running the film and projecting it onto a little piece of cardboard to make sure it worked. But the theater at the time was still showing centers. So we couldn't actually test projecting it on the screen until a few days before. So we got a call at night saying, Hey, we got into the theater. They're going to let us do the test tonight. So I went over at, I think it was like eight o'clock on a Wednesday. Yeah. Right.

[00:25:08] Say so that we could test or check out gunfight at the okay corral. So I went in, checked it out. So it was the first time that I got to see these projected on that screen, which was pretty exciting. And one thing that was great during the test, the sound actually stopped working. There was a little like little blip in the sound. It fell off, right? Yeah. And Pro Tools had an issue. So we actually got to test the backup, which was good. Right.

[00:25:38] Always good to have a backup. Yeah. So they got to test the backup system. So let's cut to the premiere of We're No Angels. That was the first one that was shown. Yep. The Saturday night TCM Fest. Yep. 615. 615. 615. There was a, a debut, a surprise debut. There was. Before the film. I feel like it was a really horribly kept secret. The screening was almost sold out, right?

[00:26:06] At the time that we were, we went on the stage, it was 85% full. So I don't know what the final number ended up being, but that was, you know, we went to do our intro is 85%. Nice. Which in a, you know, thousand seat houses. Yeah.

[00:26:22] Which is a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, especially considering that we were against the AFI lifetime achievement award for Francis Ford Coppola, which I knew a lot of people were at that, that couldn't make the screening that were really upset about that. And then there was also a print for jaws that the BFI had, that was supposed to be this incredible print. So we're also against jaws. So, you know, for a little Christmas movie, I thought it was pretty good turnout. Yeah.

[00:26:51] Well, the surprise debut. I'm sorry. That I set up. Yeah. That I set up, um, was actually a trailer for PT Anderson's new movie one battle after another. And it was, he actually had a trailer printed in a per fist division because he shot it in fist division, which was really, really cool. And we got to see it projected on the screen. It looked fantastic. Yes, it did. And everybody was really excited to see that.

[00:27:18] And let's talk about how we're no angels play in the room. Oh man. That was such a great experience that night. Anybody that was there just, if you had seen the movie before, you'd never seen it quite like this. And not just because of it being on Vista vision. It just, the crowd was so perfect that night for that movie. Everybody was just really into it, laughing nonstop. The picture again was beautiful.

[00:27:48] The sound was great. It just, everything was just so perfect that night. I mean, it was just a, I mean, I hate to say transformative experience, but it really, really was. It just, it played so well for that crowd. Yeah. I feel like even people that had seen that film before were rediscovering it for the very first time. Yeah. Should I bring up your bow before the film? No.

[00:28:14] I think, I think we need to just play a clip of Charlotte's bow here. Eddie Muller embarrassed Charlotte so hard on stage. It was so great. I was loving every second of it because Charlotte again, it does not like pub public recognition. That's the thing. She loves to give public recognition to other people, but she does not like to receive it. And it is so funny. The look on your face when you have to take this bow, when he asks you to take a bow.

[00:28:43] So he was just standing there. He was not going to move until you took your bow. Yeah. And I think you could see in the video where I punched him in the shoulder and then I lean over and I said, I hate your guts right now. I feel like he knew exactly what he was doing to you too, because you guys know each other. So yeah. Yeah. I have, I have a feeling that he knew that he was doing this to you and that you would absolutely hate it.

[00:29:09] So let's talk about gunfight at the okay corral. Yeah, it was okay. Okay. Corral. Yeah. Got the Frankie Lane song. No, that one was great. Did not stay for that whole one. I was exhausted. So well, you did get a write up in variety. Like the variety guy came up to you while you were talking to Chapin and interviewed you. Yeah. Which was very cool. And then what was that Monday?

[00:29:39] The write up for. Yeah, something like that. No, it was a very nice article. So I guess that only leaves us with like the, the big question is when's the book coming out? Yeah, I got that. I got that a lot. I'm still getting that a lot. I don't know. Although I did reach out to some publishers yesterday. So I officially started doing that. Yeah. I did include the variety. She's at the point where she's actually looking for publishers. Yeah.

[00:30:07] So I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I only asked a question because again, she didn't want me to. So. Look at your freaking notes. Ripped them up. No, I'm working on it. I'm working on it. All right. But now for the good stuff. As we teased, we have two shirts that we can give away. These are ones that I got.

[00:30:32] They gave me some extra ones because I hooked them up with the trademark, with the trademark logo to make these shirts. Apologies. We only have a medium and a large. At least we have two. But we would like to share them with you. But we want to share with you guys. Yes. Our friends are not getting them. Sorry, friends. Well, our friends can comment on here and win them. We're going to do a random drawing of a random picker thing. So anyhow, Adam, grab the shirt. Yes. Here we go. I mean, not that they can't see you wearing it.

[00:31:02] Yes. This delightful shirt. So if you would like this shirt, again, we have a medium and a large. Comment. Tell us your favorite Fist Division film and put the word medium or put the word large, depending on what size you want. Yeah. Spell it out too. Do not just put M or L. Put medium or large the words. Because that's what we're going to search on. That's what we're going to use. We're going to use with our random picker. Yep. To pick one for each. Domestic only, please.

[00:31:32] We can't afford the international shipping. So I do want to think. I do want to think for the presentation, though, the stills archive at Paramount. Yes. They hooked me up with some great stuff. I don't know that I thanked them really. So if they're watching, I don't know if they are. Caitlin, Becky, you guys are awesome. Thank you for the photos. People would say you're rad. Very rad. Yeah. They're rad. They're rad for what they did. Yeah. And Joel Lopez, also Paramount. He helped cut together that opening video.

[00:32:02] And if there's anybody else, there's other people. I'll put them in the thank yous at the end of this video, because I'm sure I'm forgetting it. And we need to wrap this up. Wrap it up. All right. Wrap it up. Well, until next time. Thanks for joining us here on Perf Damage.