Re: The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (HD 16mm Scan)
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2024 8:14 am
Thank you for the scan of the 16mm film! This inspired me to start on a project I have wanted to do for a while - putting together a package with both versions of the film and all the audio tracks that have been available over the years.
I am one of the people who swears by the "widescreen" aspect ratio of the film, but with the 16mm version, I have a reference for the full image on the film and I can build on top of that with the other "full frame" video releases and show as much of the image as possible. In order to do this, I pulled in a variety of sources and started lining them up in Davinci Resolve. This has been a fascinating process so far because it reveals some oddities in how the film was presented on video.
For example, I knew of one shot in the 1999 version (at the start of "When I'm 64") that was "slipped" and started a couple seconds late; the first part of the shot is still there - it's just at the end. Now I've found one near the start of the film too.
Most frustratingly, I also discovered a couple seconds of footage missing on the Blu-ray near the opening of the film, right as the Blue Meanies drop the bubble on Sgt. Pepper's band and the citizens start running. The gap is taken up with a repeat another set of shots. Very bizarre.
I wanted to put something out as a taste of the work I'm doing. So I jumped forward to the "All You Need Is Love" segment and made a side-by-side comparison showing the original and revised cuts of the song.
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53464956201_6f6b55d266_o.jpg)
Link to view/download:
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/s1iopisy1qicqu9h ... j0qph&dl=0
This process has also given me a crash course in dealing with mixed frame rates. Some material is at 25fps, some at 24 and some at 23.976 (US speed to be compatible with NTSC standards). I have a capture that was done from a PAL VHS of the 1999 version, which was full frame rather than letterboxed. That conforms well to the timeline I am working with.
Something seems to be off with the 1988 laserdisc transfer mentioned in this thread, however. When played on its own, it looks like a very clean conversion from interlaced 29.97 frames per second video to 23.976 progressive frame video. However, when played next to the video from the official Blu-ray or the previously mentioned 1999 VHS capture, there are definitely missing and/or duplicated frames throughout. I think I have another video captured from the 1988 laserdisc, but it is not as clean. I will have to do some experiments to see if I can convert (reverse telecine) that to the original film frame rate.
Also, I haven't done a full comparison of the single file of this 16mm transfer to the two raw files, but I wonder if a time interpolation problem crept in. I noticed the raw scan frame rate reports as 24 frames per second where the full version of the print reports 23.976 frames per second. If indeed the source scans are in a 24 fps timeline but output as 23.976, I'm suspecting the time difference was made up by dropping a frame approximately once every 50 seconds. I know there are parts missing in the print that was scanned, but comparing to the blu-ray version, there are single frames missing throughout - approximately every 50 seconds or so. That seems like a video problem rather than the actual film print missing one frame.
I may have to put this project aside for a few weeks, but I do plan to keep working on it when I have spare time. I may next work through the rest of the sequences following "All You Need Is Love" where the other changes to the film were made.
I am one of the people who swears by the "widescreen" aspect ratio of the film, but with the 16mm version, I have a reference for the full image on the film and I can build on top of that with the other "full frame" video releases and show as much of the image as possible. In order to do this, I pulled in a variety of sources and started lining them up in Davinci Resolve. This has been a fascinating process so far because it reveals some oddities in how the film was presented on video.
For example, I knew of one shot in the 1999 version (at the start of "When I'm 64") that was "slipped" and started a couple seconds late; the first part of the shot is still there - it's just at the end. Now I've found one near the start of the film too.
Most frustratingly, I also discovered a couple seconds of footage missing on the Blu-ray near the opening of the film, right as the Blue Meanies drop the bubble on Sgt. Pepper's band and the citizens start running. The gap is taken up with a repeat another set of shots. Very bizarre.
I wanted to put something out as a taste of the work I'm doing. So I jumped forward to the "All You Need Is Love" segment and made a side-by-side comparison showing the original and revised cuts of the song.
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53464956201_6f6b55d266_o.jpg)
Link to view/download:
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/s1iopisy1qicqu9h ... j0qph&dl=0
This process has also given me a crash course in dealing with mixed frame rates. Some material is at 25fps, some at 24 and some at 23.976 (US speed to be compatible with NTSC standards). I have a capture that was done from a PAL VHS of the 1999 version, which was full frame rather than letterboxed. That conforms well to the timeline I am working with.
Something seems to be off with the 1988 laserdisc transfer mentioned in this thread, however. When played on its own, it looks like a very clean conversion from interlaced 29.97 frames per second video to 23.976 progressive frame video. However, when played next to the video from the official Blu-ray or the previously mentioned 1999 VHS capture, there are definitely missing and/or duplicated frames throughout. I think I have another video captured from the 1988 laserdisc, but it is not as clean. I will have to do some experiments to see if I can convert (reverse telecine) that to the original film frame rate.
Also, I haven't done a full comparison of the single file of this 16mm transfer to the two raw files, but I wonder if a time interpolation problem crept in. I noticed the raw scan frame rate reports as 24 frames per second where the full version of the print reports 23.976 frames per second. If indeed the source scans are in a 24 fps timeline but output as 23.976, I'm suspecting the time difference was made up by dropping a frame approximately once every 50 seconds. I know there are parts missing in the print that was scanned, but comparing to the blu-ray version, there are single frames missing throughout - approximately every 50 seconds or so. That seems like a video problem rather than the actual film print missing one frame.
I may have to put this project aside for a few weeks, but I do plan to keep working on it when I have spare time. I may next work through the rest of the sequences following "All You Need Is Love" where the other changes to the film were made.