| |
' You may have caught the news that rapidly circulated the internet a
' week ago, when the press release concerning the release of the Led
' Zeppelin live double DVD set and the accompanying triple live CD
' package was dropped on a (relatively) unsuspecting world.
'
' I was lucky enough to be invited to spend an hour in the company of
' Dick Carruthers, who is co-producer/director of the DVD alongside
' Jimmy Page, at M Productions studio in West London.
'
' Dick was a voluble and enthusiastic guide to the genesis and
' philosophy of what must be one of the most highly anticipated music
' DVD-V releases ever.
'
' This project has been in the works for the last year, and the result
' of some very intensive research and restoration is intended as a
' definitive statement of all that is fit for release, although as Dick
' is keen to point out, that quality threshold has been set very high.
'
' While Dick trawled the archives for film and video material, Jimmy
' Page and Kevin Shirley were assembling corresponding surround mixes
' from the huge archive of live recordings Page was known to be sitting
' on. Page is reputedly now a multi-channel convert, which begged the
' inevitable question "Does that mean he's ready to start the DVD-A of
' Led Zepp IV now?" Dick pleaded the fifth on that one with a knowing
' smile...
'
' Not only is the audio presented in pristine and powerful DTS, Dolby
' Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo (presumed to be 16 bit - these discs seem
' too full to allow space for 24 bit), but the level of attention which
' has been paid to preparing, cleaning, colour grading and restoring
' the film and video elements is worthy of a feature film remastering
' project, and a high budget one at that.
'
' The discs present the material in chronological order as shown below,
' and just play when started. Escaping to the menu enables you to
' appreciate some brilliantly subtle and tasteful moving menus,
' consisting of left over footage from incomplete tracks, and some of
' Dick's own footage of the tape archives and negatives being cleaned.
'
' One of the bonuses of selecting out individual concerts, rather than
' let them play through end to end, is the insertion of some subtle
' extra transitions as the program returns to the menu, such as the
' guys getting onto their legendary plane.
'
' There is also supplementary material, consisting of early European TV
' appearances on the first disc, and interviews and 1990 vintage promos
' on the second, including the only decent interview footage of the
' late John Bonham.
'
' It's a shame we didn't have a five and a half hour slot, because that
' is what it would have taken to view everything there is to offer
' here. Dick took two of us through the concerts in order, explaining
' different restoration issues as he went.
'
' The Albert Hall footage is from a two camera 16mm shoot, and in its
' restored form looks and sounds simply glorious. Page's punchy guitar
' blams out of the right channel, appropriate to his stage left
' position, only occasionally circuiting round the room during solos,
' and Bonzo's thunderous bass drum is thuddingly rendered by the DTS
' soundtrack, noticeably better in comparison to the Dolby Digital,
' even to previously non DTS-convert Dick!
'
' On to Disc Two, and a stunning version of The Immigrant Song for
' which footage could not be found, and so some Super 8 footage from
' Australia has been edited promo-style to accompany it.
'
' Then Madison Square Garden, and I got Dick to hit that audio button
' to get the DTS again. Black Dog tears out of the speakers and it is
' immediately apparent that although this 35mm footage is familiar
' from "The Song Remains The Same", the level of the restoration from
' negative, and the new edit, coupled with the incredible remixed
' sound, give a whole new perspective. There is also the fact that
' Misty Mountain Hop and The Ocean, not in the original film, have been
' recovered from the reels and reels of unmarked negative.
'
' As New York changes into Earls Court, film footage changes to video,
' and we get the acoustic sit down of Going to California, proving that
' not only does DTS do power better, but it also does delicate mandolin
' strums in a brilliantly lifelike way.
'
' Cussedly avoiding the chance to sample Stairway, we get a blast of
' the crunching riff from Trampled Underfoot, before viewing the
' version of Rock n' Roll from Knebworth (video again, although
' complemented by drop-ins of crowd-shot Super 8), and a quick bit of
' Kashmir before Dick shows us the end credits, which once again
' consist of snippets unused elsewhere.
'
' Throughout, modern effects gimmickry is left out and edits to cover
' film loading and other transitions are kept to an elegant and
' appropriate-to-the-period minimum. Footage is left in the original
' 4:3 (somebody tell Queen!), except for the Madison Square Gardens
' section, which is letterboxed 4:3 at what looks like 1.77:1, for
' composition reasons, matting the original open gate 35mm.
'
' All in all a superb looking and sounding package, release details for
' the UK cannot be confirmed at the moment, but all Led Zeppelin fans
' should save their pennies and then rush out and buy this in a couple
' of months. The fact it was done in the UK has also got to mean the R2
' PAL version is the one to go for!
|
А что за Led Zeppelin на DVD (+) -- badcompany -- 12.04.03@21:39 (Чит.: 88)