10/25/2002

Mark Center wrote:

Hi, We've been going over the Film Review site and we noticed this: "The complete Alien Autopsy Film has been digitized using the first generation Beta cam copy made from the actual 16 mm Alien Autopsy footage. "This statement is very confusing.Do you mean that this Beta Cam was struck from the ORIGINAL COPY of the 16mm film which was then Edited & Pieced Together using (possible) 22 film reels, misc. film snippets and some video segments that Ray then supposedly had Mastered to VIDEO at Cannon or Rank or wherever.

I'm sure this copy WAS NOT made directly from the 16mm film, because as we now know the film/video transfer process seems to have been done just the once to a master tape(s) under Ray's supervision by a commercial film services company. Philip Mantle has interviewed the guy who did the transfers and should his new AA book ever find a publisher, full details are included there.

Or, is this a first generation copy of the Master VIDEO which was made from the Edited & Pieced Together Copy Film and Video segments? In essence, I assume that your Beta Cam is either a first generation copy of the edited FILM (a copy of the original copy film) or it's a first
generation copy of the final VIDEO.

My own belief (i.e. I can't prove it) is that this is a 1st generation copy compiled from "some" of the master film/tape transfer video material.

I say some, as we also know from the person who performed the transfer that some sections of the films WERE NOT transferred. These sections seemed to involve military personnel who could be seen and what's more, who's faces COULD be seen, and presumably identified!. Plus there is no material from Autopsy 1 seen on the Beta tape.

Or, saints be praised! Is this a Beta Cam copy struck directly off the ORIGINAL COPY as Ray was having it transferred from his 22 reels and other pieces BEFORE he then edited his copy of the film together to make his Master Video?

Like I've said, Ray used an outside services company to do the transfers and it seems he only went through the process once, producing a master video copy version of the films. As for 22 reels??, the transfer guy didn't count, he does recall some of the film was in fairly good condition, some of it was in very poor condition.

Also, which of the at least four "complete" versions we have seen is this one?? (I never could get the CD-ROM's to run right on my PC) Is this the Santilli's video release, the Chuck Harder video release, or the Fox TV release ( versions 1,2 or 3 take your pick). I have noticed some scenes missing, others added in each version, along with the light struck headers and tails. No version I have seen shows the flash frames, so none of them to my knowledge was either "original" or "complete." You see, it's very confusing.

The Fox version was heavily cut and "censored". Ray's own "Raw Footage" release was several generation removed from the master and bleached out, and Chuck Harder's was a rip of Ray's as I
understand it.

The Beta is like no other I've seen, and unlike any of the above, the image detail is far superior to any I've seen, I will forward a comparison image showing approx. the same frames side by side, one from the "raw footage" tape and one from the Beta, unfortunately it's on my home machine so it'll have to be sent this evening.

As for "complete", the digitized version does contain all the publicly released footage I'm aware of, including the "fragments" (which are not on the Beta tape) these I digitized from my copy of the later "raw footage" video.

Hope this helps clarify things. No, I doubt it's a direct copy from the 16mm film, but due to the fact it appeared very early on in the story before any other video material had been released, and the fact it was produced as a "one off" and not part of any mass duplication, if it isn't a 1st generation copy (it's image quality seems to supports this) from the master or near master video copy material I'd be surprised.

On a technical note, even though Betacam is an old analog system, it could preserve very good quality and detail over a number of copy generations i.e. in off-line editing. Even though it's now an outdated system it was widely used over here in professional video editing suites in TV advertising, and is still used widely by TV ENG and OB teams. The digitized version was produced with the "unofficial" help of a local TV broadcast studios who still have and use
Betacam equipment in those roles.

Best Regards

Neil Morris

10/26/2002

Mark,

I've attached the two images mentioned in the earlier email for you to compare. As marked, one from the commercial Raw Footage video the other from the Betacam tape. I've also attached 2 other images taken from the Beta tape, these show details of the form the doctor is seen filling in, regrettably there is just not quite enough image detail to read it!, other than the odd number.

Neil

Click on each photo for enlargement