The Extras
The Extras
Reanimating the Robot: Restoration & Extras
Bob Furmanek, Greg Kintz, and Sean Thrunk from the 3D Film Archive join the podcast to discuss the 70th-anniversary restoration of the 1953 3D film ROBOT MONSTER. The film stars George Nader, Claudia Barrett, and Greg Moffett as the boy. Shot in four days on a budget of $16,000, the film earned a million dollars at the box office and has endured despite being labeled the second-worst film of all time.
3D Film Archive founder Bob Furmanek details how he found the 3D assets to the film back in 1990 and the 30-plus-year journey he's taken to restore the film and bring it to the market. Technical director Greg Kintz reveals the challenges they faced in the restoration process, including the immense work involved in reviving the 3D effects of this enduring film. And extras producer Sean Thrunk discusses the two new documentaries he created for the release.
Bob, Greg, and Sean then delve into what fans can expect in the rest of the two-plus hours of exciting extras included in the DVD and Blu-ray release from Bayview Entertainment. Bob also previews the upcoming graphic novel and other merchandising projects in the works. And the group discusses some recent theatrical showings and the enthusiastic fan response.
We wrap up with an update from Bob about the 3D Film Archive's upcoming release schedule, including an exclusive update about the eagerly anticipated "Bwana Devil" 3D release.
Link to purchase Robot Monster:
https://bayviewentertainment.myshopify.com/products/robot-monster
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Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group
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Hello and welcome to the Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies and animation and their release on digital DVD, blu-ray and 4K or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim, a larger host, and today I have three special guests from the 3D Film Archive to talk about their 70th anniversary restoration and release of Robot Monster in 3D. Bob Furmanek is an award-winning producer, author and motion picture archivist who was on the podcast last summer to talk about Abbott and Costello. He founded the 3D Film Archive in 1990 and over the past decade the archive has restored over 30 vintage titles for release on Blu-ray, and joining him are 3D Film Archive technical director, greg Kintz and Extras producer Sean Thrunk Guys, welcome to the Extras.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, it's great to be here.
Speaker 3:Hello Tim, Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great to see you again, bob, and I know you guys have had a busy year since we last talked, which was all the way to last summer, actually, when you did, I think, the 2D restoration of the 1952 Abbott and Costello film Jack and the Beanstalk, and I think that was a pretty good seller for you. I know the podcast was very popular.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that worked out very well. You know, I was so thrilled to be able to work with Jack Thieksen and our team to restore that, and one of the nice things about the reception to it is people that have thanked us for rescuing it from public domain hell, and saying that, you know, seeing the film in a good quality really kind of elevates the movie and that's very gratifying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I know since that time even you've had quite a few releases. Maybe you could tell us a little bit of the highlights over the last year.
Speaker 3:Well, we did the Diamond Wizard for Keena Lorber, which was a 3D film shot in Great Britain. Our latest release is a 70s title, prison Girls, and I'll let your imagination run with that one. Greg is finishing up another, an 80s 3D film called the man who Wasn't there. That will be out from Keena in a few months, and Robot Monster, which is out July 25th from Bayview Entertainment. And it's I say this a lot, but it's really true. We are so incredibly proud of this release, not just for the feature restoration but the over two hours, nearly three hours, of bonus content on it.
Speaker 1:So we'll get into the restoration in a bit and all of those extras, because I know people want to know about that. But first off, kind of what went into choosing? Hey, we're going to work on Robot Monster. Obviously you had the 70th anniversary coming up, so that plays into it. It's always nice to hit those anniversaries. But take me into the conversation where you guys say we're going to do this restoration of RoboMan.
Speaker 3:Well, robot Monster has been on my radar for many, many years because when I found the only complete 3D version of it in 1990, and I saw what a high quality 3D film it was, despite its microscopic $16,000 budget and four day shooting schedule, the 3D rivals anything the studios were doing at the time and I wanted people to see it the way that it was meant to be seen.
Speaker 3:So I've been trying for over a decade to get Robot Monster restored for 3D Blu-ray and there were a lot of obstacles, but we finally were able to move forward with it. We did a Kickstarter campaign which was enormously successful. We had over 1,100 backers and raised a good amount of money to really restore it properly, and that was the motivation. And there were exactly 50 Golden Age 3D features done domestically and they're all important. I don't place one over the other. To me, restoring Robot Monster is as important as dialing for murder or something else, because it's giving us a chance, or giving people an opportunity, to see the films as they were intended to be seen, and I think that's important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this one has a unique kind of place in the history of 3D, doesn't it? I mean in terms of being maybe considered so bad that it's good, or would have read some things of that nature.
Speaker 3:Well, I put it this way If a film was really as bad as people say it is, would we still be enjoying it 70 years later? We just had a sold out show in New York on the 70th anniversary of its world premiere in 1953, and about 100 people and it went over like gang busters. And I think the film has its own very unique charms that make it work and it's a lot of fun with an audience and it really really cups to life that way.
Speaker 1:So you also had been out here. I think you talked about the kind of what 10, 15 year journey or whatever, since you first wanted to do this. But you even started, I think, on one of the extras. You came out to LA, you went to Bronson Canyon, you did some stuff. So how did that kind of all develop? Did you start also working on some of the extras all the way back then? Or how does that timeline work for the restoration and the development of this?
Speaker 3:It's been on the radar for a long time and we were. It was a rare case where the entire team was in Los Angeles in 2006 for a screening at the World 3D Film Expo and a wonderful friend of ours, bob and Kathy Burns, have the original prop helmet from the movie. And just on a whim we said, hey, wouldn't it be cool to go up to Bronson Canyon and bring the prop helmet? And Jack Theakston had the great idea. In the car he said why don't we get a bubble machine? So he stopped at a magic shop in Hollywood Boulevard and bought a couple of little bubble makers and had a blast. And when we were putting the bonus extras together for the Blu-ray, we decided, yeah, let's put that video on there as well. So yeah, we've been wanting to do this film for a very, very long time.
Speaker 1:So you chose to do it. How did you go about finding the prints that you needed to work on? And then let's get into a little bit of discussion of the restoration.
Speaker 3:Well, the prints were left and right 35mm side that I found in 1990 and it's quite an interesting story that I don't want to get into too much detail with you. But I will say that there's a bonus extra on the disk produced by Sean that will tell you the whole story. I am not was the basis of the restoration. We did 4k wet gate scans with Brad Miller At film tech cinema systems and Brad was able to, with the wet gate, clean up a lot of the damage.
Speaker 3:But it was still Enormously challenging because the 70 year old prince had just about every problem you can imagine A vinegar syndrome where the bases deteriorating, shrinkage from the vinegar syndrome Curl, so when you try to scan it it's not going through the gate properly. Water damage. It was a textbook example of everything that could be wrong with an element, but the scan was was wet gate and then Greg Kintz was able to work his magic along with the digital clean up that we had two people that worked on it. That come a roski and Catherine Pratt did supplemental image restoration. So there are a lot of people that came together to fix a lot of the problems on this material.
Speaker 1:Well, greg, what did you dive in here? We haven't heard much from you, but talk a little bit about that process of Getting a print and, you know, looking through it and seeing what you're gonna be faced with.
Speaker 2:This really was a case of years long process Finding the best elements available. And then you know, with a 2d movie, to have a complete element, you just have to worry about one side, whereas we need a complete left eye and complete right eye elements. So finding those that are gonna match start to finish and they're gonna pair together well was a challenge, and if you, if you watch the 2d bonus section, you'll see some of the issues that we dealt with in the before and afters, and it was, in some cases, very substantial uphill battle.
Speaker 1:I don't think I asked you how long the movie is, but it's not necessarily a long movie.
Speaker 2:No, no, not at all, it's just over over an hour just a few minutes, yeah, and what's really nice, though, is the way Bob compiled it. It is just like you would have seen it in the theater where you have. The original 3d short that was made for this movie is in front of the film, and then afterwards there's a little little bonus section that I won't. I won't say much of, because it's a nice surprise. We can see it after the credits finish.
Speaker 1:So tell us a little bit about some of the maybe the challenges or the biggest challenges that you had, greg, in the restoration.
Speaker 2:One of the things that we had to deal with, besides water damage, is making sure that these elements were good to the frame and doing, sometimes, some frame patching, and that was a necessary thing we had to do. And stabilization scratches, you name it. We had to deal with it and it was. It was. It was a tough battle, but I mean, at the end, I mean it was amazing for us to watch this and go, wow, you know what we started out with, you know a year ago, and then six months and then now, you know we just kept making Little inroads and you know saying, ok, this is our work section, what can we do? And looking around finding other elements or new processes. And yeah it, I was very, very happy with the end result.
Speaker 1:So it took a what about a year, you say to, to kind of get it to where you wanted it to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say so, and then before then it was just calling all available elements. You know worldwide On what we could get.
Speaker 1:Right, well, that's not horrible, is it, bob? I mean it's about, you know, maybe average for restoration a year or so.
Speaker 3:It's a little bit longer. Generally, once we get scans on a title that we're working with, it's about a three month process and a lot of that is juggling with multiple titles. We've got so much in the pipeline now that you know Greg's got two workstations going 24 seven to keep things moving. So, yeah, if you, if you consider, an average is three months, 12 months on Robot Monster is is a lot, but all of us were really committed to making this the best it could be and honoring the film and the team that came together to make it.
Speaker 1:When you guys do these restorations, you also do the. You do the 3D, but you guys always have a 2D or this. What do you call it? Your 3D anaglyphic.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Tell us a little bit about that so that those people aren't familiar with it, kind of understand.
Speaker 2:Sure, one of the things that we had to deal with. As far as the 3D Blu-ray format, it's what I would call the Rolls Royce of 3D. You know, if you have the right gear, it really is. Finally, technology catching up with dual strip 3D from the 50s. As far as overall quality, the problem is with special gear and sometimes it not always being readily available or per somebody's exact setup, they may not have that, so we have been trying to include anaglyphic 3D as a alternate viewing option and with our proprietary methods we've helped reduce ghosting. And also the newer displays have helped as well. There's a lot of TVs with expanded color gamuts and expanded color gamuts being better left and right, 3d cancellation or anaglyph, so a better 3D experience. And, of course, the 3D Blu-ray format allows for 2D viewing just by default. So you have three viewing options with most of our newer discs.
Speaker 3:If I may add, one of the ironies of that development is, for a very long time we were battling the misconception that these films were originally shown with red and cyan anaglyphic glasses like these that got out there because some were reissued that way and they were shown on TV that way in the 80s. But they were all shown originally with polarized glasses, which was a very high quality presentation, very similar to the kind that you'd see in a theater today. The way it worked was you had two 35 millimeter prints that were interlocked in the projection booth and you would have these type of filters on each port that would Separate the left right images so that your eyes would see the image that it was dedicated to see, and they had these type of really cool glasses. As one example, these are magic viewers that were used in 1953 and they're polarized and that's how the films were shown. But we fought that anaglyphic myth and we were fairly successful in clearing it up.
Speaker 3:But now, because the display manufacturers dropped support of 3D TVs around four or five years ago, we've had to start converting them to anaglyphic so that people can see them. So it's a little bit of a double edged sword. But Greg's new system that he developed, the multi band adaptive conversion, is miles improved over any old anaglyphic conversion. So Even if you think you've seen bad anaglyphic 3D in the past, I think people would be really surprised with how good the new versions look.
Speaker 1:And just for our listeners. Bob was holding up some props, so for those of you who want to watch this on YouTube, you'll see those. Those of you who weren't familiar with the fact that you can now Catch many of the podcasts on YouTube, there's a good reason there. And, bob, what is that head that's sitting there behind you?
Speaker 3:Oh, he's not usually in the room with me, but because we like being on your show and you do great shows. This is the original prop head of Charles Bronson from House of Wax and it was rescued in the 1970s by Dan Sims from the house that made the prop, and we acquired it from Dan Sims about 15 years ago, so it's part of the 3D film archive collection now.
Speaker 1:It actually is in great condition, so it doesn't look spooky or weird, it actually looks pretty cool.
Speaker 3:No, but it's not something you normally see in someone's home.
Speaker 4:it's quite a conversation maker, it really was you meet this eccentric film guy and then all of a sudden you walk into the kitchen and there's just a head in this glass case.
Speaker 3:So that's what.
Speaker 4:I'm dealing with. Okay, I'm in.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe it's good we're hearing from you, sean, because I didn't want to get your perspective. What's your interest in a film that's 70 years old? 3d for a guy? I mean, are you in your 20s or you're pretty?
Speaker 4:young.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm actually, I'm just 20.
Speaker 4:But yeah, so when it comes to the why I would be interested in these older kind of films, you know, first off, I'm a filmmaker and I love history, and it's one of those things where to expand upon the future of filmmaking, you know you need to understand the past.
Speaker 4:And then you know, as a documentarian which is the aspect of filmmaking that I'm looking to get into, every story to me has some value to it. You know there's always an angle to be shown, and so when it comes to a film like Robot Monster, you know you got this film that was called the second worst film of all time in the Golden Turkey Awards, and you know that is an interesting story and yet it's been able to survive. So it is this underdog story that like it is that you know, even these turkeys are able to get enjoyment out of it. You know what happened to the director, phil Tucker, what was the process of restoring it and getting it into modern audiences' hands. It's interesting as a filmmaker and just as a human story of the perseverance of art. It was fascinating to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think when you talk about movies at the extremes, you know the best ever or worst ever, or those are the ones you want to learn more about. Actually, they actually call out to like, I want to see that. Is it really or did it just get kind of, you know, shoehorn into this category? Absolutely, and it doesn't actually deserve it. And that's the beauty of, I think, you know, home physical media, home entertainment, the ability to see these things and evaluate on your own. But the way you guys have done all of your releases is that you have made sure that people understand the context, not only of what the movie was about and the time and what it took to restore it, but to kind of just tell the whole story of why you should, why this movie is important.
Speaker 2:Right, and I think one of the neat things in that regard with Robot Monster is for decades everybody's seen mostly the 2D version, or they've seen an Antigliff version where literally a third of it was flat 2D because the distributors didn't have proper element and you know the movie is always going to be this wonky, crazy thing that makes it so unique. But what's really cool is when you see Bob's complete elements, which beforehand had never been seen stereoscopically. This is a really enjoyable 3D experience and that's something that just has not been able to be seen properly until now and that's a neat thing to bring to the table.
Speaker 1:Well, why don't we talk a little bit about the extras? Because I think you can't separate on this release. I know when you guys do your kick starters that that's part of the big draw is that people want to see these films restored, but they also are looking forward to hearing the stories and all of the extras that you put on this release. Maybe, Bob or Sean, you guys can take us through a few of these, because I mean I'm looking here, I'll hold up this and then you look, you turn, I guess this is the insert, the sleeve insert, and then you're looking, you've got all of the 3D and 2D bonuses and it just it fills up everything. But which one did you kind of work on first and which ones do you want to highlight here in our discussion? Because I don't know we have time to talk about all of them.
Speaker 3:Well, I'll take that and just tell you that. You know one of the nice things about meeting Sean and you know his group from the college was showing them these films and the discussions that we would have after them, and this came about just as kind of an 11th hour surprise. I was telling Sean the story about Tristan Howard and Slick Slavin and how we found this film, and I remember when I was telling you the story, sean, that you were just sitting there with this big smile on your face and I think the ideas were starting to percolate your head for a documentary. So why don't you take it from there?
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, when he was so first off, let me set the scene for a second when he was telling me and my camera person, josh, who I typically work with, he was, you know, sitting in this nice big cozy rocking chair with this beautiful like golden lamp just illuminating it, like as a filmmaker. Your brain's just going and you know the way that Bob tells his stories is they are stories, and so you know we're going through who Tristan Howard was, what happened to Robot, monster and Stardust in your Eyes, how it came back. He was telling the story like it was a movie, like it was a documentary story, and so it was very easy to work with the script on it. And so, as a documentarian, you know, I think that every story has merit to it. And so when you know, when Bob and I came together and we went yeah, we actually wanted to do this, that's how I conducted my interview is I just said tell me that story you told me the other day. And then you know whatever he said that interests me. You know we went on from there asking other questions and so I think we had, I think I just let you go on for about like an hour and then no, and it was great, and it was great as a, as a, as a documentarian, I love just having as much as possible, because then it is my job to to edit and edit the script and make it all coherent and so it.
Speaker 4:But it was very exciting having this incredibly detailed and human story because Bob is such a such a smart guy, such a passionate guy when it comes to this 3D stuff is he could tell you everything about about Phil Tucker, tristan Howard, stardust in your Eyes, robot, monster, and so when you have that much information to work with, it's not only interesting on the emotional level but but the intellectual level. So much about what I was doing with these documentaries was was trying to convey that information but then also tell that the human aspect of it. I mean Tristan Howard was, was a nightclub comedian and then this was his first time ever doing film and then this film was almost lost and so then, however, many years later, to be able to to see that again and get new stardom again in his in his 90s. You know that's an underdog story of of coming up and the power of art living on and how it can almost, in a way, make you immortal.
Speaker 4:You know we're talking about Tristan Howard past his death, and you never would have thought to have done that if not for the great work that they've done at the archive and the important archiving work that Bob and all of them have done, and so what I am proud to share of that is, you know, I got to be a part of bringing that new life to Tristan, and not only that, but the way that I handled it was I wanted Bob to be a character in himself.
Speaker 4:You know he was this kid who loves sci-fi movies, who wanted to restore the films that he couldn't see, and he did it just like how Tristan wanted to be comedian. And then, years later, not only was Bob able to live his dream, but he was able to help Tristan's live his dream, and it's a powerful, powerful story, and you know for how much information you can get to to learn. It's the emotional side of it that that really did strike me, because everything that the archive done is done through passion and it's and it's giving these underdogs new life, and to me that's just a very powerful thing.
Speaker 1:Tristan Howard was AKA Slick Slavin, and that's the, the comedian who does the. I guess it's his standup routine, so to speak. Before the movie begins yeah, he performed.
Speaker 4:So they have this little, this little sketch I guess you could call it before this little short that they play before Robot Monster called Stardust in your Eyes, and it's supposed to be this little way to ease the audience in. You know, he does some 3D bits, he goes to hand some tissues out and he does this little, he does impressions of the times while singing this song that he made about a robot in love, very similar to our great friend Romain, but it was his first ever time on camera. But it's so funny too, you know, not only because, like, oh, the impressions are nice. If you know the impressions, I didn't know a lot of them.
Speaker 4:But, it's funny too, just on the production level, because not only is this his first time in front of a camera and he kills it, but it's just him in front of this like burlap background and you know, right in the beginning a plane flies overhead and you know they only had one real chance of it so they couldn't cut. So there's this, there's this whole thing where they just show this 2D plane and he's like goodbye, goodbye. But he handles it like a champ because that's just part of the performer that he was and it's a really good way to get set in the scene of this very cheap indie 3D film is this very cheap indie short Comedy right before it. It's the perfect segue.
Speaker 1:And it's very heartwarming. I is it in the saving slick documentary short I can't remember which one it's in where you guys tell the story about finding him and he had no idea he's that this footage was even still available somewhere.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no. So I made two bonus features for the robot monster release to short documentaries, one called saving slick and rescuing Roman. Bob helped me title them. He really likes the iteration.
Speaker 4:And so and so, yeah, each of them tells the story about the restoration finding the robot monster or monster from Mars at the time, finding that, that film reel, and then it goes through the story of a to B, you know. But I try to tend to focus more on the emotional side of it, the more human side of it, because that's what's going to interest you. In a story you know as much as like, can you add the minutiae, like, of the details, and that's fascinating as well. But to me, I will never get over how powerful and interesting the human aspect of restoration is.
Speaker 3:Well, and that's, if I could add, that's one of the things that's so wonderful about the films that Sean did and the ones he's going to be doing for us, because he knows how to reign me in. I can get really caught up in the minutiae of it. And, sean, I'll tell that one story. When we were going to be shooting in the editing room and I had made all these notes about, okay, the film shippers weighed 85 pounds and you had 5,000 feet of film and all this and I said you know when you're blocking the shot, I said you mind holding that and I could refer to it and you just kind of looked at the notes. He said I don't think we need this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And he was absolutely right, because the story he wanted to tell didn't need that kind of minutiae Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could just feel the listeners and the viewers fading away. There's a few hardcore ones that might stick with you, but you know what I thought is great, sean, as you just mentioned, you're 20 years old, but I love it when we can talk about classic films and this is a 70 year old film, this is a classic, you know Hollywood film and get renewed interest. Obviously you've got some people who maybe maybe remember growing up watching this film because it's not that old, but there's probably a huge gap and I'm one of them that had no idea what this film was. Maybe you hear a glimpse, like you say, on on lists of films or something over the years. But I love the fact that you guys are able to bring this back to the public guy but then to have a kind of a new perspective, like you're, sean, that maybe we can get.
Speaker 1:You know, more people who are of a certain younger age, interested in buying physical media and looking at these, are going to the live screenings that you guys had with this, which I thought was great, bob, to see them as they were back then in the in the 50s. You know that experience because I think we're all looking for experiences, to looking for experiences that we can go to that are unique, and then we're looking for product. We can buy that unique, where the extra is just not the same promo trailer that they played on YouTube. It's actually something new, it's a documentary. It takes you deeper and and tells you something you didn't know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, when it comes to the fact of younger people being interested, I mean, when we had that screening in New York, I mean my partner Emma was there, my friend Marley was there. You know, these two people that are my age, that aren't even necessarily film buffs, they loved it, they had a really great time with the film, they thought it was very, very fun. And so, and so my partner Emma, she's 22. And well, not 22. She is 20 as well, and you know and she's not the biggest movie person you know lasting I'm sure she would ever see on her own, is this 70 year old film. But I'll tell you what, she really had a blast with it. And so, if you, you know, you get those, those, those people like myself who really find these films interesting, and then, you know, you are able to share it with your friends, share with your loved ones, and you know they might get renewed interest in it as well. And so just to even have the catalyst of having these DVDs is phenomenal and it's the true testament to digital media.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, if you throw this thing up on a streaming service, you know it's, it's, it's a dime, a dozen. You're not going to be able to know what to pick. You're going to overshine that. But if you, you know, somehow, if you choose to buy this, you're going to look at your tinier collection. You're going to say that one. You, you know me personally, I have my robot monster Blu-ray, like everyone else should, because it's a great film with some great bones, right. But you know, when I, when I go across my little films back there, I'm going to go oh, robot monster would be great. Hey, you guys want to watch this old film that's seven years old? Yeah, that sounds interesting, sure, and, but with a streaming service, you know, you never would have, never would have done that.
Speaker 1:You know we talk on this podcast a lot about classic film and one of the reasons why I obviously worked for the studio in home entertainment, but one of the reasons why I think it's so important is that when you're able to take an older film and give it a proper restoration and then now watch it with the picture and sound maybe an HD, and so you're, you're seeing it on your beautiful monitor. If you have a nice setup at home, you're hearing it through your nice speakers. And this is a new experience where these older films they've never looked this good or sounded this good, and so now you have an opportunity to bring a whole new audience. Or if you were used to watching a gist on broadcast, maybe in a very low resolution, you have a greater appreciation for these classic films and what they mean to film history and just pure entertainment experience as well.
Speaker 4:And I'll tell you what's so great too like when it comes to to what the archive does is. You know, the experience with the 3D is just phenomenal. You know, when it comes to my generation, I, we grew up with Spy Kids 3D and that was our first introduction to 3D and that's probably the last one that they ever saw. And so when it comes to the idea of also getting to, you know the entertainment of experiencing 3D as well and experience it properly, so you're not going to get a headache. You know that's. That's very cool for someone my age. You know we don't get a lot of experiences with with made for 3D anymore. I mean we got Avatar, but that's, that's pretty much it, and those movies are very long and not a lot of people my age have the attention span for it. So you get a nice, fun 3D film. That that's what. That's what like 70 minutes it's going to fulfill that that perfect kind of entertainment value, especially with the 3D.
Speaker 1:Right, right yeah.
Speaker 3:The goal for the from day one for the archive was rescue as many of these films out of the vaults as possible and get them seen again and reappraised. And I make the point, I think, in rescuing Roman, that you know film doesn't do any good sitting on a shelf unseen. We've developed a really efficient workflow for, you know, being able to get these done at a very reasonable cost so that you're not breaking the bank in getting these digitally mastered for either 3D, blu-ray or DCP and get them out there, get them seen again on the big screen. In fact, robot Monster is going to kick off a 70th anniversary 3D film series at the Film Forum in New York City and that's a wonderful opportunity, you know, to get a lot of younger people in to see these films with an audience on the big screen, and that's what we've been trying to do.
Speaker 1:Now, you've had some live screenings already. Maybe you could tell us about where they were and how successful they were.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've done a few. We did Madison, wisconsin at the Wisconsin Film Festival, columbus, ohio, as part of the Moving Picture show. We did it in Los Angeles with Eric Curland at 3D Space at this incredible I'm going to botch the name, but it's a panorama wonderful historic building in Los Angeles. And we're starting to get a lot of bookings now through our distributor, bayview Entertainment. And we just found out yesterday that a art house and repertory theater in Maine is going to run Robot Monster for a week, which blows my mind. I mean it didn't get that much exposure in 1953.
Speaker 1:The reason why I wanted to bring it up, bob, is because if any listeners out there who runs the theater, they can reach out to you right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and we have it available in multiple formats. So even if a theater doesn't have real D or Dolby 3D, they can run it in anaglythic, which doesn't require any special screen or equipment whatsoever. So we're making it available in as many technically different versions as possible for that reason.
Speaker 2:Tim, one of the things, too, with these theatrical showings is with 3D. It really is to see it on the big screen with a packed audience and with 3D, bigger really is better. It's a neat thing to see.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and just from going to these live showings I was at the one in Columbus and in New York. You know you get such a silly movie like Robot Monster and the audience will eat it up. It's a very fun theater experience. It's a great movie to watch with people because you'll just laugh. You'll laugh and you'll have a very good time. You'll hear the words pooped out pinwheel. People will laugh and then you'll laugh with it. It's a very fun film to laugh with rather than at. It's a very wholesome movie to watch with people.
Speaker 1:And in that sense it's a group experience makes you enjoy it more, so, which is what films in theater are meant to be. It seems like so many times these days you're walking out of movie and everybody's so critical it didn't have this or that. It's like you enjoy the movie or not. I mean, they're not all meant to be critical. It's meant to be a fun night out. But this memories of a pooped out pinwheel is that's the name of one of your, your 3D bonus extras, is it not? Or is that just?
Speaker 3:No, absolutely. We're very fortunate and this rarely happens when you restore a movie that's seven decades old. But Greg Moffat, who played Johnny in the film, is still going at 80 years young, a remarkable man with an energy of someone half his age. And Greg worked with Eric Curland and Mike Blue and Lawrence Kaufman and recorded a commentary track for the film and also the pooped out pinwheel feature, and it's a nice bonus feature getting someone that was there 70 years ago talking about his experience making the movie.
Speaker 1:Then you have, let's see, you've got a lot of other ones here we should probably just mention, but you've got some. What's this? Bella Legosi? You asked for it, I saw that.
Speaker 3:That is a 16 millimeter kinescope of an appearance on live television that Legosi did in the summer of 1953. Jeff Joseph had an original print. This has been floating around for decades in really bad, horrible quality versions. Our associate producer, Jack Theakson, worked with his technical man, Scott Jondrow, and did a new restoration of it which restores it to the original live television experience that audiences would have had in 1953. We had Gary Rhodes, who's the world's foremost Legosi scholar, do a commentary track for it. There is a 3D angle because Legosi was developing a 3D film with Ed Wood, of all people. It's a great bonus feature. Again, it gives us an opportunity to restore something that would have been lost otherwise, or at least in a high quality version.
Speaker 1:I thought that was one that we should talk about. And then you have Joe Dante, who people are very familiar with. You have his thing from a piece from Trailers from Hell, where he talks about this release as well. Right, the movie.
Speaker 3:Yeah, joe Dante narrates the trailer for the film and talks just very briefly about the film and his observations on it. That's a really nice bonus feature, courtesy of Trailers from Hell organization. Another one that we're incredibly delighted with and people love is called Travels Through Time and Space. It's done by a stereoscopic anthropologist named Hillary Hess. What Hillary has done is takes these vintage stereo slides that were photographed by amateur photographers with a stereo camera and does these incredible curated slideshows. This is her best work to date.
Speaker 3:Every time she does another segment for us she knocks the bar up a little bit higher, but it's a wonderful feature about different slides from the 40s through the 90s. There's one in there that I took of Singer Scream and Jay Hawkins backstage at a club in New York. That's a great bonus feature as well. Jack Vickston put together a wonderful segment on what other 3D movies were showing in Los Angeles in 1953 when Robot Monster was released, with original trailers and snipes from that period. There's a lot of extra content for people to dive into that I think they'll find very interesting.
Speaker 1:I'll mention this other one. I want to get your take on it, sean, this ability to watch 3D comics in ventures. I think it's called Adventures in 3D newly restored Golden Age 3D comic book. I was watching that with the glasses and everything. I kind of found it fascinating. What were your thoughts?
Speaker 4:Sean, it's amazing. I don't know for audio listeners. I got a little green lantern back there. I'm a big comic guy Like a big fan.
Speaker 4:yeah, it's just crazy that they were able to, and comic book artistry is such an underrated art form. But to know that they were even able to figure out the exact I'm going to not use the phrase properly but to be able to figure out how to make the effect truly work and pop at the time is just amazing. Again, you come from people my age. We think that 3D was made in the early 2000s with Spikets. When you watch Back to the Future and they're in the 50s and you see that one person wearing the 3D glasses, you go that's weird. It's been around for so long, even to the point with the Golden Age of comic books. I'm a big Golden Age guy. I love the JSA. Even when around then they were so smart enough and so creative enough and so talented enough to be able to figure out how to make it work. It's jaw-dropping, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought that was really unique. I mean, I'm counting. I don't know. I counted close to 20 different extras that you have on here. Some of them you have listed as 3D bonus features, some as extras in both 3D and 2D, and then you have 2D bonus features. It's just a lot, but I watched them all. It took me a while. They're all really good. I thought that those that we mentioned especially were the ones who wanted to highlight. But for people who pick up this disc, obviously if you go to the live screening, that's a great experience with people, but I think you want to own it, because then you get all of these extras and you can experience the storytelling and everything that you guys do. It was nice to see you on camera there, bob, of course. Wait, sean, I'm sitting there in the chair.
Speaker 4:That was my current person, josh. Great cinematographer. Really proud of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really well done. Going back to this comic book, did I just see an ad for in one of your promo pieces about some future comic book? You got a graphic novel you guys are working on.
Speaker 3:Yes, we're developing several different robot monster related projects moving forward as part of the 70th anniversary. One of them is a graphic novel a robot monster in Kaiju land and other tales, and a wonderfully talented gentleman named Paul Castiglia, who worked in the comic industry back in the 90s, is overseeing producing this and bringing together some really great storytellers and artists. So we're going to be doing a robot monster graphic novel sometime in the very, very near future. We're also developing some other merchandising for robot monsters, so there's lots of things coming ahead that I think people are going to really enjoy, relating to romance and great guidance and all the characters in the original film.
Speaker 1:Well, for years I go to Comic Con San Diego and the other commissions here in LA. So I just think that's kind of a very smart thing to do, because when it comes to my generation I'm older than you, sean, but I grew up with comics. I just think finding that angle where you saw the comics in 3D and then actually doing other comic book, I like that. I like that a lot. I think that expands the scope of some of maybe this one specifically. But so many of the 3D films that you guys have worked on can work as a comic or come from comic or, you know, they're either sci-fi or they're kind of fantastical, you know which really fits into that world. And I'd love to see you guys premiering this movie at some cons around the country.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in fact, we're going to be running it at Monster Bash in Pittsburgh in October and there's a few other things in development. And I should say, as young as Sean is, we're also working with a really really smart, talented young man named Carl Shekel of Carl's Comics, and Carl is, I think, 15, maybe 16 now what we're going to be developing some really interesting projects with the Golden Age 3D comic books that Carl's going to be part of. So we've got a lot of irons in the fire.
Speaker 1:Sean, you're already the old guy. You just found out. No, no, that's amazing.
Speaker 4:Look, I'm going to say this. I'm going to embarrass everyone at the archive. You know what, though? What's so spectacular about the people that run this company? Like, if you ever worry, like, oh, I hope my profits aren't going, like, my money isn't going to some evil corporation.
Speaker 4:The people at the 3D Film Archive are some of the nicest people you could ever meet. I mean, I gave them no reason to believe that I could do anything that I did, but they took a chance on me because they want to inspire the next generation of film lovers and filmmakers and artists I mean the Cal Curran, josh Carmona, my cinematographer, every single person who even shows a remote interest in they will plant the seeds of loving and caring for these films in such a positive way. Taking these chances on people. It's a beautiful thing, and it's a great thing to support as well, and it's nice. You know, when I was growing up, you're like oh, the film industry is really evil, and I'm sure it is, but this side of it is beautiful and I've been honored to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:That's really great to hear and I think having you join the conversation was really nice because it added a kind of a unique element to kind of expand the conversation from just the movie to, I don't know, the whole experience. And I love the fact, like I said, that you guys have this comic book as one of the extras, this 3D comic book. I don't know, I was like that should be like on a panel at a con where you're showing people and you pass out the glass. I mean that seems to me like something that would be really interesting and to draw that crowd. But here, with this purchase of this Blu-ray and is it also on DVD?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for those people who haven't upgraded the Blu-ray but still want to catch this on DVD, so you can get all of these as well. And then I did before we kind of wrap this up, I did want to ask you what are some things that you want people to know about that are coming down the line? No-transcript.
Speaker 3:Well, if you haven't noticed, in the background I've got a poster for Money From Home, which was a Dean Martin Jerry Lewis Technicolor 3D film An amazing production because it was photographed in Dynoptic 3D which used Technicolor cameras, meaning that there were six rolls of film going through for every take. A Paramount archive is scanning 72 reels for us in 4K resolution 54,000 feet of film from camera negative. It's going to be a remarkably beautiful looking 3D Blu-ray. Sean Thrunke is doing a documentary for that release about the restoration as well. So that's coming from Keynote Lorber.
Speaker 3:Another title you may spot in the background here is Buona Devo, george Ober's film that kicked off the big 3D boom of 1953. And we are restoring that for Keynote Lorber and the announcement I have which has not been shared before, so it's a preview debut here for your podcast. Keynote Lorber has stepped up to the plate and is actually paying for 4K scans of the original camera negatives and that doesn't usually happen because it's very costly and very expensive. But Frank Tarzy and Richard Lorber are very committed to preserving these films in the best possible quality. So you are going to see Buona Devo looking better than even it looked in 1953. So some very exciting things in the pipeline and I keep telling Greg take your vitamins, man, because we're going to keep you busy for a long time.
Speaker 1:Well, that's great to hear Obviously, the robot monster promotion and everything it releases July 25th, but it's going to continue to run all summer long, from what you've just related, for all the events and places where you're showing this, and not just for the summer. I think this one has some legs in terms of live events and things of that nature. So I wanted to go to the one in LA but I was on vacation so it just didn't work out from a timing. But if it comes back to LA I'd love to see it live with a group.
Speaker 1:I've watched it at home, but then it's funny because my daughter kind of opened the door Daddy, what are you watching? And so I gave her the glasses and she was watching. She's 10. And she found it very interesting. But I think if we were at a live event she would have found it even more interesting with the audience because she loves it. When we just recently watched the Avatar 3D and she loves the 3D, so I think there's a real appetite for it, whether it's the newer films that introduce you to it for the younger audience, and then going to an event maybe where you can see it live with other audiences, yeah, I mean, that's what it's all about is introducing new people and young people to it and seeing that the films live on, and that's very important.
Speaker 3:And if anybody wants to keep track of these various events and screenings, there's three ways. We're very active on our Facebook page, 3d Film Archive LLC. We have an Instagram account, 3d Film Archive and on our website there's a news page which will have updates for any of these screenings and new releases and various announcements. So there's several ways to keep track of what's coming up and, like I said, we're thank goodness we're busy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just for the listeners, I'll have those links in the podcast show notes and on the Facebook page as well for the podcast so that you can find those easily and follow along. And be sure and follow the 3D film archives of Facebook page. You guys have a lot of interesting posts there with what's going on. So, bob, greg, sean, it's been great having you on the show.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having us. It's been a pleasure. Thank you, yeah, thank you so much, tim.
Speaker 1:You bet.
Speaker 1:Well, that was a lot of fun talking Robot Monster 3D and the new 70th anniversary restoration coming out from Bayview Entertainment.
Speaker 1:I hope you guys enjoyed that as much as I did, and if you're interested in purchasing the DVD or Blu-ray, I will have links in the podcast show notes to Bayview Entertainment and on our website at wwwthexfusetv, so be sure and check those out. I'll also have links to the 3D film archive Facebook page and website so that you can follow them and see all the titles that they have available in their library. If you're new to the podcast, I hope you'll follow us on your favorite podcast provider and if you're on social media, be sure and follow the show on Facebook, twitter or Instagram, as that's a great way to continue the conversation and be a part of our community. And check out our YouTube channel, as we are posting more videos there all the time and, as we mentioned in this podcast, we do have a video version of this episode. You can find all the links in the podcast show notes. Until next time you've been listening to Tim Mallard, stay slightly obsessed.