History Channel's WWII in HD..Starts TONIGHT !!

[Bob Womack]

Of course, most of this footage was shot using 16mm and the film often spent days in the can before it was developed. At best, 16mm is grainy in anything less than idea circumstances. Sitting in uncontrolled environments after being exposed increases that grain. But it was shot 16x9 in a format designed to be shown in theaters. What ARE Hi-Def are the transfer and cleanup methods used to resurrect these sources. We are able to do so much for old footage with so little effort and expense these days that a series like this in HD is just becoming possible.

Colonial Williamsburg, VA, recently restored their 70mm, thirty minute, wide-screen introductory film, Williamsburg, Story of a Patriot starring a young Jack Lord, that was theatrical state-of-the-art in 1957. Even though they had been properly stored in temperature and humidity control refrigerated vaults, the masters and all copies had degraded so far in the intervening years that they were right on the verge of being un-restorable. It cost over one million dollars to have Kodak's Cinesite film restoration group and Todd AO/Glen-Glenn Sound restore the 30 linear minutes of film and audio soundtrack. The process took hundreds of man-hours to accomplish. Now, the result is virtually immaculate, but the film is still state of the art for 1957, including some grain.

But think about it: to produce this series of five hours of WWII footage probably required a minimum of four times that amount of cleaned-up source footage from which to choose, ie. twenty hours. Their standards of restoration were lower, but their budget-per-minute, based upon the final five hour product, not the stock used to edit, was MUCH lower.

Okay, I was a bit verbose. I'm a recording engineer. I work in audio for video and film and do sound track restoration, so it is a bit of a passion for me.

Bob

More on Williamsburg's film restoration, HERE and HERE .

[Jim Long]

Well, they said it was in HD.. I don’t have it so I can’t comment.. But what I saw was a choice to use as much as possible a now preferred (by producers at least) color footage...What I have heard about WWII color footage in general is, there was a shortage of the preferred (faster) B&W film...Therefore different cameras and color film was issued to keep up war coverage..
I really enjoy seeing WWII footage that I’ve never seen before, be it B&W, or color... But when I see footage that I know was made under different circumstances than the context it was presented in, the whole thing starts to look like a story made up to fit he available film... Many of the sounds spun in were totally inappropriate too...The sound of idling helo rotors when Jap carrier borne ( colorized BTW) planes are on deck! And, Is there no other sound of a plane crashing, or in a power dive, other than the sound of a diving Stuka with it’s siren on?.. The AAF story/footage was mostly from the great war time documentary “Memphis Bell” There is plenty of combat footage of both B17s and B24s but it seems not in the now preferred color footage... They mentioned the early war aircrew’s chances of survival as being 2 out of 3 with no escort planes...But they neglected to mention that even with escort two ways to the target, the number of plane/air crew loses were greater in 1944 than any other time in the war...Tapering off right after D-Day. True what they said about bombers used to lure Luftwaffe up to engage..

I just about heaved when the spin suggested that it was some form of bigotry that there is limited color footage of the Tuskegee Airmen.. As we know, B&W film was the preferred film of choice...I enjoyed seeing the color footage of the Tuskegee Airmen, wish there was more...
I guess I’m glad it was on TV.. Hopefully it will generate more interest in our history..

[phil441]

Unfortunately, I don't think the History Channel has ever fully recovered from the writer's strike several years ago when they started showing programs showing idiot "experts" spouting lines of pure un-researched junk.
I quit watching for about a year because the programs were just too full of obvious errors that even I noticed.
They've got a bunch of priceless film, just no researchers to write the scripts.
Hopefully things will change given enough time.

[bigmo]

i watched it today back to back ,,,it was every well done!!!!

[imarangemaster]

Unfortunately, I don't think the History Channel has ever fully recovered from the writer's strike several years ago when they started showing programs showing idiot "experts" spouting lines of pure un-researched junk.
I quit watching for about a year because the programs were just too full of obvious errors that even I noticed.
They've got a bunch of priceless film, just no researchers to write the scripts.
Hopefully things will change given enough time.

Being a History teacher, my favorite History channel blunder was when I watched a thing on the Spanish American War (1898) and they said American troops used the Panama canal to go to the Philippines to fight the Spanish! The canal did not open until 1914.

[phil441]

And what about the narrator on a nature program who proclaimed "there are no black cats in the wild because they wouldn't be camouflaged during the daytime"! I guess he never heard of the black panthers that gave Fort Worth its nickname of "Panther City".
It just kept getting worse. Where did the laid-off researchers/writers go after the strike was over? They didn't go to History Channel.....
It just irks me that they have so much really good stuff in their video files but no researchers to match good info to it.

Hopefully time will fix it.

[painter777]

The series showed that all the returning vets didn't get the big ticker tape type return celebration.
I just couldn't help but think of all the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf war and other vets that didn't receive any type of welcome home.

Hats off to all that have served, for all are the greatest generation.

Charlie

[phil441]

You're absolutely right Charlie. Sorry if I kinda hijacked the thread with my rant.

There are an awful lot of guys out there who deserve a great big "THANKS for a job well done" that they've never received. I guess that I was kinda miffed that their stories were not done near perfectly as a tribute to them should have been. It will be done well someday, but I'd rather it be sooner than later, while they can still appreciate and accept our thanks.

My opinion is that the History Channel fell short of what those guys deserve.

Phil

[painter777]

No Sorry's due Phil.
I just spent the weekend deer hunting with a friend who had both legs blown off below the knees during the Vietnam war (conflict). We had been watching the show together at night. We spent the better part of a day and a half talking about his time over there. First time in the 25 years I've known him that he spoke in depth of his experiences over there. I think this show is what pulled it out of him.
He loves to deer hunt but couldn't get out there to anything other than a token spot. I built a raised deck with a nice enclosed heated shanty together for him that his wheelchair could motor up. I set him on the tail gate of a old beater 4x4 jimmy we use. Get him in his chair and he motors right up. Spent the time hearing some real funny and some horror stories. His eyes wet with tears at times. It was not so much because of loss of both feet, he felt more like he was gut shot. Said he felt like he was never accepted back home, left more than his feet over there. He said life back here just went on without him. His wife left him shortly after coming home, it was too much for her to handle.
He shot a buck Saturday just before dark. I tracked it at first light. Cleaned it, loaded it and let him drive us back up to the barn. Used 2 walking canes.....1 for the gas...1 for the brake. His memories are fading, a few days of hunting and scoring a nice buck went a long way to raising his spirits.

Cheers,
Charlie

[phil441]

Charlie, You're my new Hero.

Not too many folks nowadays with time to spare from their busy lives to care that much.
My thanks to him, and my thanks to you.

Phil