Over 10,000 Frames!!!

This last week, I met my goal of over 10,000 frames completed. It may not sound like much out of almost 73,000 frames, but I am definately making progress. The next target is to get to the first commercial break. For the most part, there haven't been many instances where I don't have any restored footage in this first block before the commercial break. Actually, the only two instances are the speaker/sign zoom in at the very beginning and when No. 6 is asleep in bed and waking up - there was an extended sequence under the covers. I did have to reorder some of the scenes to make it match the alternate version, but for the most part, everything looks good.

Where am I?

I finally had a chance to copy over all the files from my backup hard drive last night. I compiled all the frames and made a video. I have so far completed approximately 5 minutes of video - 7,413 total frames. I am hoping to finish up to 10,000 frames by the end of the week - we will see.

Restoration status

Wow..... it has been soooo long since I have updated this page. To be honest, I haven't worked on the project in over a year. Other things have come up and I just haven't had the time. All of my files are stored on a hard drive and packed away. I am planning to get back into this once again and finish it this time. From what I remember, I am about 20% finished. I will make some room on my hard drive tonight and copy the files over to my computer and see exactly where I am and pick up where I left off. Maybe I will put up another YouTube video of the opening.....

Busy Week

Sorry for the lack of updates - it's been a busy week and I haven't had much time to work on this project. I have progressed into the episode itself and I found that with the exception of the very beginning with the zoom ins of the speakers in the village, many of the scenes are the same - with the exception of an extended clip of Number Six under the covers in his bed. There are 3 scenes of the camera zooming in on a speaker. The first scene is in the "Chimes of Big Ben," the third scene I found in "Free for All," but I haven't been able to find the second scene, pictured below:











If anyone can tell me where I can find this shot elsewhere in the series, it would greatly be appreciated.

More Updates

After posting the Opening Sequence on YouTube, I am trying to finish up the Opening Titles. There are many frames that are exclusive to the Alternate Version, so there are quite a few untouched frames. With a few notable exceptions, however. One is the Scene with Rover bouncing on the beach:



The restored scene actually comes from the additional stock footage from the Network DVD Set. The next restoration comes at the end when Number Two is laughing at Number Six:



This scene was taken from the restored alternate version of Arrival at the end of the episode. It looks good here. The only scenes that were not restored yet are the following:



Rover is "born" from the ocean.









George Markstein's credits are shown.








George Markstein's credits are NOT shown.








and a scene where Number Six is chased out of the water by Rover.






If you have any ideas where these clips are found in the rest of the episodes, please let me know so I can insert them in here.

Here's a preview....

Ok. Here's the preview of what I'm doing and a chance for you to see what the restored version will look like.



Of course, the part where Number Six is driving the car sticks out like a sore thumb, but hopefully after I get the entire episode restored, I can go back and clean up some of the original frames.

The opening credits, with the title of the episode, is progressing nicely. I will post some pictures tomorrow when I get the chance.

The Big Decision

I have been trying to figure out what to do about the sequence with Number Six driving in the opening credits. I decided I had three options.

1) Use the restored frames and then tack on the unrestored frames.

2) Use the restored frames and then copy them and reverse the order of them so it looked like Number Six was leaning back in the car.

3) Use the unrestored footage for the entire scene.

I ruled out the first option because the frame location was off-centered and it didn't look like it flowed properly. I just wasn't happy with the result.

I also tried the second option. It took several hours to get the frames right and the end result looked really good. I was very pleased with the results, but then the actual episode was changed from the original intent. It was no longer the Alternate Version of the Chimes of Big Ben, it was the Altered Alternate Version - know what I mean? Number Six was originally shifting gears and not leaning back.

So, to be true to the nature of my project here, I decided to use the unrestored footage for right now until I can take the time to restore each frame. I'm guessing this entire process of going frame by frame and replacing the original frames with the restored frames is going to take almost six months to complete - without even modifying the original frames. In the process of doing this, however, I will discover all the little differences in the scenes and I will probably start another blog to list all the visual differences in the alternate episode.

With that said, I can state that I have completed the opening sequence and restored it to the best of my ability, with the exception of the two or three seconds of the car sequence. Maybe I will put it up on YouTube later. Eventually, at the very least, I will clean up the unrestored frames and try to edit out the dust and dirt on the sequence so that it at least looks like a clean print.

So I think that is the way I am going to approach this project - replace the original frames with the restored frames and wait until it is finished before I start trying to clean up the original frames - it's just going to take too long. My next step is to work on the opening credits. Already I can see that I am going to have plenty of unrestored frames, but I will see what I can find in stock footage and other episodes to replace them.