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Author Topic: Perspect-A-Card Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-18-2009 04:15 PM                        We are going to play FORBIDDEN PLANET again and I am wondering if all of the prints carried the Perspecta signals or are some missing it? I would consider trying to find a Perspecta unit if I could be assured of getting a print with it was not going to be a hunting expedition. If the answer is, getting a Perspecta print is not a problem, then what would be the best place to look for a integrator unit? Anyone have one sitting on a shelf they would like to rent? For those of you who have heard the process on FP, how impressive is the steering....is it worth the effort? I have a sound engineer who has an incredible ear (mixes audio for Jazz at Lincoln Center). All I would have do to is let him watch the DVD a couple times, which has the steering on it, yes?, and I am confident that he would be able to mimic whatever they can do with the three tones, he can easily do manually sitting at his console in the middle of the house. Might be allot easier than finding an integrator and getting it calibrated and all.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 09-18-2009 05:12 PM                     Frank, I can't say if all prints of this title have Perspecta on them, but there are certainly prints available which do; It's been run this way at both the Loew's jersey and the Pictureville within the last few years. Are you looking for an original Integrator unit or a card to fit a CAT. 150 slot? If a card, then John Stewart has my one at the moment, see higher up this thread, and I'd be happy for you to borrow it if you can come to some arrangement with him re. postage etc.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-18-2009 06:38 PM                        That's great, Steve, I will contact by email as soon as I can pin down the print issue. No point going through a lot of work if I can't get my hands on a Perspecta print. Thanks big time.  |  IP: Logged Dick Prather Master Film Handler Posts: 259 From: Portland, OR, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 09-18-2009 10:10 PM                     I have a very pink print of Forbidden Planet from the 50's. Unfortunately it has a couple of reels with VS but still runs. The soundtrack had electronic music and sounds great in Perspecta Sound. Separation close to magnetic. Worth running it that way if you can. Unless they played or remixed the Perspecta tones should still be there. Dick  |  IP: Logged John Stewart Film Handler Posts: 67 From: Austin, TX, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 09-18-2009 11:13 PM                     The print of FORBIDDEN PLANET we had this summer did have the tones in it. You can't miss it when you look at the print, the sound track is never "quiet". Always some low freq. present. I can get a print number for you sunday if that would help. The print is about 10 years old but is in good shape. Email me direct if you need me to send the card soon. I don't always get to look at the forum. Oddly enough, AMERICAN IN PARIS the next to last reel had Perspecta encoding in the 1st half of the reel. The rest of that reel plus the last reel of the print is SVA. J  |  IP: Logged Jack Theakston Master Film Handler Posts: 411 From: New York, USA Registered: Sep 2007 posted 09-19-2009 12:31 AM                     The Perspecta mix on FP is very good. Quite aggressive, compared to the VistaVision titles which didn't utilize the process much at all. Unless they re-recorded the track (doubtful), they'll still be there. FYI, all of the cards I've seen and heard DON'T have the GAIN control that original Perspecta integrators have. That's half the system!  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-19-2009 09:18 AM                     Dions card from the UK has gain riding the one made by chace did not  |  IP: Logged Richard P. May Expert Film Handler Posts: 243 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Jan 2006 posted 09-19-2009 10:27 AM                     The optical track negative which we used thru the MGM/Turner/WB period had the Perspecta tones, so assuming you are booking FORBIDDEN PLANET with WB Classics, it will be Perspecta. It can be easily identified, assuming the original leaders are intact, as "Perspecta" is written on the sound track in the identification frames. While the sound is sort of corny the way it was used, so is the movie. Both are quite entertaining. DM  |  IP: Logged Dick Prather Master Film Handler Posts: 259 From: Portland, OR, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 09-19-2009 05:03 PM                     The Perspecta prints, I ran, always had a tone on. The Perspecta units took 7 to 14 seconds to turn on and dropped in 3 to 4 seconds. This kept the unit on through out the print and changeovers. Later prints had lower tone levels. I used a Fairchild Perspecta unit to start. I had to go through it and replace most of the caps. The hardest was getting the tone filters back on frequency. Never got the 40 Htz perfect but close. I paid 300BP for the Dion's card and it works great. Plugs in to the Cat 150 slot. Leave the processor in stereo with NR off and your all set. I plan to use a separate SA4 cabinet for the Perspecta card into a CP-200 when I can figure it out. If you are using a subwoofer or base boost these must be turned off as they will pick up some of the tones. It's nice to hear a print the way it was intended. Dick  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 09-19-2009 06:09 PM                     'Forbidden Planet' is probably the best Perspecta that I've heard, though I have to admit that I've not heard a great deal. What I'd really like to hear is the 4-track mag for the 35mm version of 'Around the World in 80 Days', which used a slightly modified Perspecta on the surround track. It's strange that this doesn't seem to have been used on the six track mix for the Todd-AO version. The cinema which ran the infamous 34mm print of this in London, the Astoria Charing Cross Road, which had been a music venue/nightclub for many years has been demolished within the last few weeks.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-19-2009 09:08 PM                        Toho Studios in Japan also released ther films with Perspecta Sound. Although all of the titles are in Japanese. The end title card with "Owari" (The End) in large kanji in the centre. It states very clearly on the bottom left of the scope frame in English -Perspecta Sound. Some of the later films by Alira Kurosawa that was released by Toho such as AKAHIGE (Red Beard) had it as well as every TohoScope films from that studio -Claude  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 09-20-2009 01:33 AM                     Use of Perspecta continued in Japan for some time after the the process was abandoned in the US and Europe.  |  IP: Logged Tom Doyle Expert Film Handler Posts: 176 From: Bristol, CT, USA Registered: Nov 2002 posted 09-23-2009 03:00 PM                     Frank, when are you planning on doing the show? I have a Perspecta unit that you're welcome to borrow. It's unrestored but I could start working on it ASAP.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-08-2009 11:23 PM                        Hey guys, first off, many thanks for the generous offers. But I just found out they are scrapping the FORBIDDEN PLANET engagement, at least this time around. It was to be part of our bi-annual, three day International Electro-Acoustic Music Festival. FP is the first film use the theremin or "aetherphone" instrument exclusively as the music score (Bebe Barron and her husband or brother, not sure which & can't remember his name either -- whilst Bebe Barron just flows off the tongue). Our Conservatory of Music was to have both a Theremin and Moog artist demonstrate and give a concert playing these early electronic music synthasizers. The Conservatory has always been very prominent in the electronic and Musique Concrète genres -- I actually helped set up one of the very first Moog synthesizers in a studio down the hall from mine. Unfortunately, the theremin player had to back out of this concert/film event, so the producers don't want to throw the movie away without the full concert and special event aspect of it and all the attending hype they expect they can generate. It's a bi-annual festival, so it will come around again in the spring. By then I should have the technical end of it nailed down. Again, guys, thanks for the offers; I may come a-knocking again in March. Oh, PS -- I may have an original Perspecta unit that I can get my hands on, but Tom, you mention the originals need to be refurbished? Is that just replacing caps or it is more complicated a job?  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-09-2009 07:25 AM                     Frank, All caps should be replaced for safety reasons. The bandpass filters need to be checked to make sure they are within tolerance. As capacitors age the bandpass filters can drift off their intended center frequency. Then the control tones have no effect what so ever. This is not that all that difficult with the aid of a low frequency spectrum analyzer such as the old Hewlett Packard 3580A which has a 1 hz resolution. Mark  |  IP: Logged

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