Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Wanting to book decent prints of Fantasia & Raiders

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Posted by Vernon Cramer (Member # 1181) on 04-11-2003, 10:00 PM:

I'd like to be able to book a decent print of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the 1990 restored version of Fantasia this summer. Wanted to find out if anyone has played a decent print of these titles in the last year or so and, if you did, do you have any information on the print number?

Since both films are for a non-theatrical 35mm screenings, we have to go through Swank. The only way I can be assured of getting a decent print on either title is if I request a specific print number. Otherwise all bets are off on what will actually show up in the cans.

As I've combed through some postings in various places I have run across a few reports there have been instances of fairly recent prints of Raiders circulating. Fantasia seems to be more of a problem as evidently it is possible to receive a print from one of the releases prior to the 1990 restored version.

If anyone out there can offer any useful information on print numbers (or suggestions or contacts to get this information) I'd really appreciate it.

Many thanks.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 04-12-2003, 01:16 AM:

I'd question whether you could get the quality you want. I would suggest that your best bet is really to bug your Swank rep to tell you who booked the prints in question last, and call up those people and get an evaluation. (Hmm; perhaps I should try taking my own advice...)

In March of 2002, we at MIT ran TES/Swank print #0004 of Raiders of the Lost Ark. We rated it "Fair" on our Excellent/Good/Fair/Poor/Awful scale, with a particular note of "annoying platter damage on R4 & R5." I think that was probably some diagonal green marks, but I cannot rightly recall.

--jhawk

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 04-12-2003, 10:55 AM:

I could be wrong here, but I seem to recall an explanation regarding Paramount that Swank gets a copy or two of repertory films and they send those out to colleges and non-profit situations. The other prints are used for standard cinema repertory use. If that is still the case, unless you make a stink about it you won't get a print from the regular repertory section because you are booking through Swank and not Paramount repertory.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 04-12-2003, 05:16 PM:

Brad is certainly correct that if you're booking through Swank, and "Swank prints" exist, it is very difficult if not impossible to get a print from the studio's repertory collection.

Brad, I assumed Vernon was aware of this and was asking for quality information on various Swank prints...

--jhawk

Posted by Tao Yue (Member # 836) on 04-12-2003, 06:35 PM:

As long as we're discussing Swank print #4 of Raiders, I'll add: Although we rated that print "Fair," that was probably due to severely diminished expectations. Swank print #4 looks really crappy, like "gosh, a 20-year old film really gets beaten up" crappy. Very noticeable fading (to SP brown, not Eastman pink), heavy black, white, and green scratches throughout. Reels 4 and 5 were just worse than the others.

OTOH, there's a very nice one-year new polyester print of Raiders around. I suspect you'd have to go through Paramount repertory, not Swank, to get it.

Frank Angel has quite a bit of info on getting a quality print of Fantasia. Might turn up with a search of the forums.

Posted by Vernon Cramer (Member # 1181) on 04-13-2003, 07:23 PM:

I want to see if we can get Swank to actually book a decent print of Raiders from Paramount. My Swank rep doesn't really want to book the Swank print(s) of Raiders because of the incredibly poor condition (the most recent communication sounded as though what Swank had wasn't playable anymore and could have been withdrawn). Supposedly Swank is going to get a new print but not until sometime in 2004.

We'll push the issue with getting a Paramount print as far as we can and see whether we actually are able to keep Raiders on the Summer schedule.

Thanks for all info on this one. I'll provide a follow up once I know how things are going.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 04-13-2003, 07:55 PM:

There is a new 35mm print of raiders in the depot in toronto of paramounts