Re: TKAA DVD Review

["Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I hope I didn't come across too hard with my complaints about the picture
quality on the TKAA DVD.  Watching the bonus feature about the restoration
really enlightened me as to what was done.

First of all, the darkness I complained of was most likely the result of
the increased contrast they used to bring out better definition in the 
colors.  So, the London Coliseum (YMB) & Woodstock footage (which were
already dark to begin with) became even darker.

Regarding the smudges & spots on segments of the film that I still noticed,
the restoration documentary informs us that they couldn't get rid of *every*
little scratch or spot because that wouldn't have been cost effective (i.e. 
it would've been way too expensive).

I was just surprised to see that *big black* spot during the Melvin Bragg
segment, hanging there, very obvious.  I don't know if there was something
weird about that spot which made it impossible to remove - but, to me, it
looks like something I could take care of on Paint Pro.  I just can't see 
how they missed that.  Or why they couldn't get rid of it.  But, like I
said,
there may be other reasons; I wasn't there during the restoration.

And similarly, I noticed a *white* spot in the upper left-hand corner of the
film on certain camera shots during the "Roadrunner" / "My Generation Blues"
segment.  Something I wouldn't have seen on full-screen, cropped video, but
was very obvious on the DVD.

God, I sound so critical & picky, I know,.....but I've only been reading
for the past eight months about how they were fixing *blatant* anomalies 
like that.

Oh well,.....I'll get over it.  Petty stuff like that can't ruin the brill-
iance & excitement of this film.

Now, on to better news.....

I worked my way through most of the bonus features.  The two quizzes are a
riot.  Especially if you choose a wrong answer!  I think I blew two
questions
on the first quiz (the easy one) & probably about six on the second quiz
(the more difficult one) because I was guessing at times.  Ha!  I'm laughing
to myself right now, thinking about it!

The prize for getting all of the first quiz's questions right is an audio
TKAA promo by Ringo Starr.  The prize for getting all the questions right on
the second quiz is a neat 5.1 remix (I just have stereo TV, BTW) of "Who
Are You" (album version) which plays along with a neat "slide show" feat-
uring some rare photos.

The multi-camera angle thingies for "Baba" & "WGFA" are actually *very* in-
teresting & fun to toy around with.  You girls out there (and maybe a few of
the guys, as well) will enjoy the camera angle called the Roger Crotch Cam,
......I mean the Roger Ass Cam,.....I mean the Roger Pit Cam.  Yeah, that's
it,.....Pit Cam.

Honestly, it was a blast watching "Baba" & "WGFA" from different camera
angles I wasn't used to.  It's not as daft as it sounds.  The Moonie Cam 
reveals a tentative, unsure Moonie at times, more so than comes across in
the original edit.  Still, there are moments of brilliance where you think
to yourself, "Wow, that was a cool roll across the toms."  Or, "Who but
Moonie would've thought to play the beat *that* way?"

"Baba" has four camera angles to choose from.  "WGFA" has six, including a
Wing Cam, shot from stage left, or stage OX.  Little written notes pop up
from time to time on some of these camera shots, too.  Notes like "Damaged
Frames," "The Wing Cam Ran Out of Film. Choose Another Camera," "Audio Will
Begin Shortly - Turn It Up LOUD," things like that.  Not too intrusive, but
since some of this footage is damaged & unrestored, the producers felt the
need to give the viewer little heads-ups to help out.  

The comparison/contrast segments where the viewer can see & hear the dif-
ference in sound quality & picture quality from the video to the DVD are
informative.  They do a split screen thing to demonstrate the difference
in visual quality, & for the changes in sound, they juxtapose the previous
sped-up video sound against the proper DVD speed & the difference there is
striking.

The Who's London "tour" is interesting, too.  We get to see current video
footage of famous Who landmarks.  It's brief but entertaining.

Gosh, what else is there........?  Like I said, the Daltrey interview is
OK.  He tells some good stories.  He calls Entwistle a "rotten fucker" for
dying when he did (!).  And at the end of the interview he maintains that
he & Pete will make their best music yet within the next two years.  "You
wait & see," he challenges us.

I liked the Jeff Stein interview better because, like I said, the guy's a 
trip.  I wanna hang out with this Who freak.  He's funny, loopy, well-
spoken, intelligent, self-effacing, knowledgeable,....  A great, great in-
terview.  Only bad thing is that it's divided up in segments with the ques-
tions appearing on a black screen & the interview segments built around
them.  That sort of disrupts the flow of the "interview."

That's all for now.  If I think of anything more, I'll let you know.  I 
didn't find any of the Easter Egg thingies.  There was a website which, I
believe, explained where they were.

Oh, one more thing, Brian Cady not only wrote the opening essay in the book-
let, he also wrote the liner notes for the individual movie tracks.  Well
done on both accounts.


- SCHRADE in Akron

Nature does not deceive us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
	- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)