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Nathan Strum

Entry posted by Nathan Strum

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The digitizing is complete! Stella at 20 is now in the computer, backed up to a second external drive, and backed up to DVCAM tapes.

 

172.42 GB is how much space the source footage takes up. That translates into roughly 14 hours.

 

Wanna see it?

 

stella-at-20-files.gif

 

What - you thought I meant the actual video? Sorry. I don't have that kind of web space. :P

 

Also in that list you'll see Stella at 20 volumes 1 and 2, which I digitized as an editing guide.

 

After having watched all the footage, I can tell you there's some really cool stuff in there. There's also a fair amount of stuff that's unusable for one reason or another. That's just part of filmmaking. Off-topic conversations, bad takes, stuff that's repeated numerous times, general cacophony, and so on. Even so, I'm quite sure that I can extend Stella out to include more footage that the original version had (which ran about 90 minutes per volume).

 

I'm now in the process of coming up with a plan of attack for editing this. In general, I'll be following Glenn's original concept, where one volume was about the history of the 2600, and the other focused more on the programmers and some of the games they created. Where I may deviate from this some (and I just have to see how the footage will play out), is to try to clarify the chronology of events a bit more, and expand the information to go beyond the scope of the 2600, since other aspects of Atari are mentioned - most notably how the 400/800 fits into all this. Also, I want to make it clearer during the documentary who is talking at any given time (and what they did at Atari), since even after watching all of the footage - I'm still not sure. :lol:

 

Since the goal for this is a DVD, I'm hoping to add some interactivity to it. Not sure to what degree yet, but there will be something in there. Also, there will be new graphics to help explain some of the technical concepts being discussed (assuming I can figure out what they're talking about in the first place), and hopefully an audio commentary track with Glenn. And maybe some other stuff, as well. ;)

 

One of the big plusses about going to DVD, is how everything can be organized. Besides merely splitting things into chapters that you can skip ahead to, we can create indices that will let you just play specific interviews, so if you only want to watch Tod Frye talk about why Pac-Man flickers so badly, you can do that. There are a lot of neat possibilities here to explore.

 

So hang in there - it will be worth the wait. :)

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Nathan Strum

Didn't happen. There just wasn't enough response to make it worth doing. I'd like to include homebrewers somehow in the DVD, but exactly how that's going to happen is the question.

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batari
Didn't happen. There just wasn't enough response to make it worth doing. I'd like to include homebrewers somehow in the DVD, but exactly how that's going to happen is the question.

Too bad :ponder: Yeah, that's a hard problem to solve, as we're literally all over the world.

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jaybird3rd

That's absolutely amazing! I'm truly impressed at the amount of work that's been done since I first started bugging Glenn about releasing Stella at 20 on DVD. Thanks so much for doing this, and definitely try to get together with Glenn for a commentary track; I think it would be fascinating to hear more about the production of both the original documentary and the Stella at 30 re-release.

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SpiceWare
Didn't happen. There just wasn't enough response to make it worth doing. I'd like to include homebrewers somehow in the DVD, but exactly how that's going to happen is the question.

iChat video conferencing :ponder:

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Nathan Strum

iChat is a possibility I've been considering, but only as far as conducting interviews remotely. The subjects would still need to be shot locally on high quality video. That's the tricky part.

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supercat
iChat is a possibility I've been considering, but only as far as conducting interviews remotely. The subjects would still need to be shot locally on high quality video. That's the tricky part.

 

Your target format is standard DVD, right? A lot of digital cameras can do 640x480x30fps. Not as good as a professional-quality video camera, but not horrible.

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Nathan Strum

Actually, most of the video I've seen coming off of digital still cameras does look horrible. Way too compressed.

 

The minimum acceptable quality for this would be from a DV camcorder, and then you still have to have good lighting, good sound and good shot composition. And even then, the quality from one DV camera to the next varies wildly. Getting any sort of consistency would be extremely difficult.

 

That's not to say impossible. But we'd have to figure out some sort of system, and a set of standards for people to follow, and at this point, there's already plenty to do with what we have. :ponder:

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DEBRO

Hi Nathan,

 

Great to hear about the progress of this! I'm really looking forward to it.

 

I was going throught some old boxes of mine trying to clean out a room in my basement and I came across un-opened copies of both VHS volumes. I have opened copies that I copied to my PC. Not the best quality but it saves my original tapes from wear and tear.

 

Anyway, I'm willing to part with the unopened copies if anyone want's them. I was thinking of putting them on e-Bay but I don't think anyone there would know what they were. Plus selling them here at least they get in the hands of someone that would really like to have them. I'd sell both for $10 + shipping if anyone is interested. IIRC I got these for $5 each when Glenn gave them to Randy to sell.

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