Page 1 of 3

First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 1:33 pm
by Chris Seguin
Sounds fantastic; packaging and frame grabs look amazing...but no word on the big question: film speed:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/dvd_revi ... ystone.htm

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 9:22 pm
by Rob Farr
Cue the ominous chords. Look at the running times to the right of the bitrate charts. The Knockout clocks in at half an hour, as does Dough and Dynamite. 85 minutes for Tillie, but that was expected since the Alloy score was timed for that speed. Most of the one-reelers come in at 12-15 minutes. Our only hope is that these times include loooong Blackhawk intro cards.

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 11:02 pm
by Richard M Roberts
Rob Farr wrote:Cue the ominous chords. Look at the running times to the right of the bitrate charts. The Knockout clocks in at half an hour, as does Dough and Dynamite. 85 minutes for Tillie, but that was expected since the Alloy score was timed for that speed. Most of the one-reelers come in at 12-15 minutes. Our only hope is that these times include loooong Blackhawk intro cards.


Yep, this is spelling "Comedy Killing Shepard Slo-Mo" to me as well.

So it will really be TWENTY MINUTES OF LOVE

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 11:14 pm
by Steve Massa
Looks like Slo-Mo Shepard crawls again.

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:39 pm
by Gary Johnson
Maybe the Keystones could stand a little slowing down.

All of Chaplin's little tics and mannerisms that he said he was always trying to sneak into these films have
been lost through the generations of blurred, random violence involving scratchy sped-up stomach kicks.

I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Gary J.

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:01 pm
by Joe Migliore
I'm just looking forward to being able to follow the action in these films. We've all spent our formative years watching muddy dupes of these titles, re-edited for countless reissues, often rendering them incoherent. I don't mean to sound like a girl's blouse, but I'm excited.

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:13 pm
by Jim Kerkhoff
Just received my pre-ordered Chaplin set today and have done a quick look-see at the contents. The films are indeed run at a slower speed. But it doesn't bug me that much since it's such a pleasure to see decent prints of these formative comedies. I've been collecting since I was in high school, back in the good old 8mm days. It still boggles my mind that I can have virtually all of Chaplin's Keystone output in such pristine quality for what I paid for this set. It's totally worth every cent!

Jim K

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 12:08 pm
by Michael J Hayde
Richard M Roberts wrote:Yep, this is spelling "Comedy Killing Shepard Slo-Mo" to me as well.

So it will really be TWENTY MINUTES OF LOVE

RICHARD M ROBERTS


Sadly, you're right. I just watched GETTING ACQUAINTED and, to these eyes, the action seems even slower than the Image ESSANAY set.

On the plus side, the mini-docs, especially John Bengston's, are delightful. And of course the restoration work is wonderful. But it looks like it's gonna be a chore to slog through these films, if the one I did watch is any indication. DOUGH AND DYNAMITE at 28 minutes, 29 seconds? I don't think the Syd Chaplin-intertitled abomination ran that long!

Michael

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:06 pm
by Ben Model
The current release of VLC includes the option to play back DVDs at 1.5x speed. Motion is smooth. I have a Pioneer DVD player (DV200, from last year) that goes at 1.4x with audio, and then 2x, 4x etc without audio and wonder if there are other players out there with this feature. Great for watching silents on DVD when you're not wild about the transfer speed.

Re: First review I've seen of "Chaplin at Keystone"

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:29 pm
by Rob Farr
Sounds like there might be a market for Ben Model Alt Scores timed for 1.5x speed. Don't forget we need a score for 1.5x Tillie too!