George Sewell commentary

Hi all,

Someone asked me a while back to comment on the George Sewell
commentary on the Australian UFO DVD set after I've heard it.
Well, I've now heard it. :-)

It is nice to hear George talking about UFO for an hour,
and it's nice to hear that he sounded well and in good
spirits when this was recorded. Although this is supposedly
a commentary track for the episode "ESP", there is actually
very little time spent actually talking about this episode,
which I actually think is a good thing, because it's more
interesting (I think) to hear George discuss his memories
of UFO in general.

This commentary is a bit different than the other commentaries,
in that it has a moderator/interviewer asking questions of
George (Jaz Wiseman). While I don't think there is anything
particularly wrong with this sort of format, I found myself
frustrated by the questions that Jaz asked George. Specifically,
he asked several questions which (to me) seemed obvious that
George would not have known the answer to, and of course,
George didn't! (for example, how could George Sewell
comment on working with the actress who played Croxley's
wife, when he never had any scenes with her? Or how could
he comment on the UFO episodes at Pinewood or even Space:1999,
which he never worked on?) I find this sort of problem crops
up frequently in fandom -- certainly when I interviewed
Antonia Ellis at the San Diego Comic Con, when we started taking
questions from the audience, most of the questions were the
sorts of things that *I* knew the answer to, but Antonia
certainly didn't. Oh well, I guess it might be good for
fans to realize what actors do and don't know... I on the
other hand found it a waste, and certainly could have
thought of better questions to ask.

So far, my favorite UFO commentaries have the ones produced
for A&E (Mike Billington/Alan Perry for KILL STRAKER,
Wanda Ventham/Sylvia Anderson for TIMELASH), followed by
Gerry Anderson's commentary for IDENTIFIED. I'd say that
the worst commentary (and an unfortunate case of bad
producing) was Ed Bishop's commentary for SUB-SMASH.
I guess I'd rate this George Sewell commentary as
possibly being about the same as the Gerry Anderson
commentary. That is, it could have been better, but
it's certainly not bad.

This new UFO DVD set also has a commentary for PSYCHOBOMBS
from Deborah Grant (moderated by Jonathan Wood). I haven't had
the time to listen to this all the way through, but in
this, they are definitely focusing on the episode, and
the commentary has a certain charm that is lacking in
the Jaz Wiseman/George Sewell commentary (this could be
due to the female presence, as the Wanda/Sylvia commentary
has a charm to it as well).

Also, I had a chance to look at a few of the photo galleries --
this set obviously wins the award for best UFO photo galleries
for all of the DVD releases, which previously I thought belonged
to the Carlton DVDs. However, the Carlton galleries didn't
have many photos, and the photos that it did have took up only
a quarter of the screen. The Australian galleries have lots
of photos, and they take up the whole screen. However, there
is a problem with consistency -- in using every photo
they could find, there are good quality photos, and not-so-good
quality photos. And a lot of the photos are simply lifted from
my UFO website (which is fine by me -- they asked if this was
okay with me before they did it).

Also, the clip of Sylvia Anderson being interviewed with clips
from Antonia Ellis (Tomorrow Today) is higher quality than
what I had for making the movie clip on the website. It has
no time code overlayed, and the colors and contrast is better.

Well, that's my report for now...

Marc

> there is actually very little time spent actually talking
> about this episode, which I actually think is a good thing

Sorry about that... three uses of "actually" in one sentence
is a bit much! :-)

I can also add that the packaging is quite nice -- the pictures
on my website don't really do it justice (and these will
be replaced in time).

The menus are rather simple -- no fancy computer graphics here,
so the Italian UFO DVDs remain the set with the best menu
computer graphics.

Another new extra is a comparison between the old UFO masters
and the new 2002 remastering. They go back and forth
comparing what I guess must have been the laserdisc masters
(?) with the new set, and of course the new ones look much
better. There are also some comparisons with masters from
2000, which I think I'll have to watch again to understand/appreciate.

One thing I noted was that the episode picture quality seemed
a bit lackluster... not the "jaw-dropping" quality I recall
from the Carlton and A&E sets. But I'll have to take a closer
look at this. Don't get me wrong -- they still look good
and they are from the same set of masters. I'm thinking
that the MPEG-2 encoding may not be as good, possibly due
to too many hours of material being squeezed into one disc
(I mean really, 4 hours of material on a disc is going
to cause the image quality to suffer a bit). So that's
one possible drawback of having so many extra features...
(e.g., the UFO Documentary is an hour, INVASION:UFO
is 90 minutes, etc., and this is all being squeezed
onto the same 8 discs that previous sets used)

Marc

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Martin" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 7:02 PM
Subject: [SHADO] George Sewell commentary



I agree with you 100%, Marc.

The Umbrella DVD set was worth the price just for the Billington/Perry
commentary alone - not only did they bounce off each other very well indeed,
but each had plenty to say and considerable recall about the series. They
were also funny. Obviously anyone who had the A+E set won't bve hearing
anything new here, but for those like me who only had the Carlton UFO set,
there is much here to enjoy. I haven't as yet heard the Ventham/Anderson
commentary.

I've never been sure why Gerry Anderson agrees to do commentaries since he
doesn't seem at all comfortable talking about his programmes - consequently
they are a bit dull. Also he doesn't ever seem to tell us anything new. The
Ed Bishop commentary was a major disappointment when I first heard it a few
years back - anyone expecting to hear Ed as he is when he appears at
conventions etc would have been taken aback, since his comments are few and
far between.

I am sorry to say (because I've heard the commentaries Jaz has moderated on
other Umbrella sets and thought them superlative) that the George Sewell
commentary was also a little lacklustre. George comes over as a very nice
guy but the fact remains - and its quite obvious - that after 35 years his
recall of the series is actually not that good at all. And I suspect that
Jaz also isn't that familiar with the series - consequently some of the
questioning was alittle strange. When he asked George to comment on the
actress who played John Stratton's wife in ESP - really, little more than a
bit part - I was frankly amazed, and I wasn't at all surprised that George
could not respond. Jaz seemed to be struggling a little to think of things
to ask......

Marc Martin wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Someone asked me a while back to comment on the George Sewell
> commentary on the Australian UFO DVD set after I've heard it.
> Well, I've now heard it. :-)

There exists software you can use to download the contents of a group's
YahooGroups posts.

By doing this, the contents can be then uploaded to a website and
therefore be searchable by, say, Google. There's a lot of content posted
here (this list) but it sits behind Yahoo's wall, so much discussion is
not indexed.

The trick is in splitting one giant text file into reasonably-sized
parts and converting to HTML.

Let me know if you want a link to it. I don't have it handy but can find it.

Paul

Hi all,

Previously I had mentioned something about the video quality
on this new DVD release might not being as good as it was on
the earlier releases. I think this might simply be a case
of my not having the best setup for watching PAL videos.
And even in watching it on my computer, my newer LCD monitor
is probably not as satisfying as my older Trinitron monitor
was. Also I note a large difference in picture quality
when using two different software DVD players -- WinDVD
being much better than VLC.

I also looked at the episode file sizes for a couple volumes.
For the discs which feature 3 episode, the episodes are
2200 - 2400 MB in size. For the discs which feature 4
episodes, the episodes are 1800 MB in size. This is
no worse than the Carlton discs.

And finally, I think perhaps my standards have been
raised, now that we are in the age of HDTV, which
of course looks better than even the best DVDs.

By the way, one annoying thing about these discs is that
the episode titles are not printed on the disc label
(what were they thinking?!)

Marc

In a message dated 9/21/2007 2:12:02 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:

By the way, one annoying thing about these discs is that
the episode titles are not printed on the disc label
(what were they thinking?!)

Marc

It could be worse. Some of the TV show video's are now on double sided
disks. The quality is better than VHS, but not by much.

Wendy



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> It could be worse. Some of the TV show video's are now on double sided
> disks. The quality is better than VHS, but not by much.

Yes, I realize that most TV shows don't look perfect on DVD either...
I just want UFO to look as good as possible! Although to do that,
I'd think that you'd have to limit each disc to 2 episodes, and
frankly, most people (other than myself) probably wouldn't notice
any improvement in quality anyway!

Marc

Which TV shows have you noticed on double-sided discs with poor picture quality? I DESPISE double-sided discs (VTTBOTS and original BSG, for example)!

Jeff


[hidden email] wrote:
In a message dated 9/21/2007 2:12:02 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:

By the way, one annoying thing about these discs is that
the episode titles are not printed on the disc label
(what were they thinking?!)

Marc

It could be worse. Some of the TV show video's are now on double sided
disks. The quality is better than VHS, but not by much.

Wendy

************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 9/21/2007 10:15:11 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:

Yes, I realize that most TV shows don't look perfect on DVD either...
I just want UFO to look as good as possible! Although to do that,
I'd think that you'd have to limit each disc to 2 episodes, and
frankly, most people (other than myself) probably wouldn't notice
any improvement in quality anyway!




HA! I think many in this group would notice the difference right away. But
we allowed to dream anyway. The only regret I have is that I didn't know about
the Australian version six months ago when I bought my Carrolton set.

Wendy



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 9/22/2007 12:30:22 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:

Which TV shows have you noticed on double-sided discs with poor picture
quality? I DESPISE double-sided discs (VTTBOTS and original BSG, for example)!

Jeff




Jeff,

You bought me here from the Voyage list, Remember? :-) Marc, you know who
top blame now!

Honestly, those DVD's are crap. But I doubt they will ever be released in a
better form.

Wendy




************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I was dreading compression artefacts all along... BTW, Carlton UFO set looks more than great upscaled with updated PS3 on 52" 1080p TV. I even took a few shots if anybody's interested...

All the best,
Branko


To: [hidden email]: [hidden email]: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:11:19 -0700Subject: Re: [SHADO] Re: Australian UFO DVD




> It could be worse. Some of the TV show video's are now on double sided > disks. The quality is better than VHS, but not by much.Yes, I realize that most TV shows don't look perfect on DVD either...I just want UFO to look as good as possible! Although to do that,I'd think that you'd have to limit each disc to 2 episodes, andfrankly, most people (other than myself) probably wouldn't noticeany improvement in quality anyway!Marc






_________________________________________________________________
Invite your mail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces. It's easy!
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Guilty as charged, LOL! But I think it's great to have you here. : )

I do remember the discussion of double-sided discs from the VTTBOTS group. I just didn't recall specifically which other series were on double-sided discs that look terrible. Early senility, I guess.

Jeff

[hidden email] wrote:

In a message dated 9/22/2007 12:30:22 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:

Which TV shows have you noticed on double-sided discs with poor picture
quality? I DESPISE double-sided discs (VTTBOTS and original BSG, for example)!

Jeff

Jeff,

You bought me here from the Voyage list, Remember? :-) Marc, you know who
top blame now!

Honestly, those DVD's are crap. But I doubt they will ever be released in a
better form.

Wendy


************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

That was me. I appreciate the time taken to provide your analysis. It's as close as I'll probably ever come to hearing it. Thanks again, Marc!

Jeff

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi all,

Someone asked me a while back to comment on the George Sewell
commentary on the Australian UFO DVD set after I've heard it.
Well, I've now heard it. :-)

It is nice to hear George talking about UFO for an hour,
and it's nice to hear that he sounded well and in good
spirits when this was recorded. Although this is supposedly
a commentary track for the episode "ESP", there is actually
very little time spent actually talking about this episode,
which I actually think is a good thing, because it's more
interesting (I think) to hear George discuss his memories
of UFO in general.

This commentary is a bit different than the other commentaries,
in that it has a moderator/interviewer asking questions of
George (Jaz Wiseman). While I don't think there is anything
particularly wrong with this sort of format, I found myself
frustrated by the questions that Jaz asked George. Specifically,
he asked several questions which (to me) seemed obvious that
George would not have known the answer to, and of course,
George didn't! (for example, how could George Sewell
comment on working with the actress who played Croxley's
wife, when he never had any scenes with her? Or how could
he comment on the UFO episodes at Pinewood or even Space:1999,
which he never worked on?) I find this sort of problem crops
up frequently in fandom -- certainly when I interviewed
Antonia Ellis at the San Diego Comic Con, when we started taking
questions from the audience, most of the questions were the
sorts of things that *I* knew the answer to, but Antonia
certainly didn't. Oh well, I guess it might be good for
fans to realize what actors do and don't know... I on the
other hand found it a waste, and certainly could have
thought of better questions to ask.

So far, my favorite UFO commentaries have the ones produced
for A&E (Mike Billington/Alan Perry for KILL STRAKER,
Wanda Ventham/Sylvia Anderson for TIMELASH), followed by
Gerry Anderson's commentary for IDENTIFIED. I'd say that
the worst commentary (and an unfortunate case of bad
producing) was Ed Bishop's commentary for SUB-SMASH.
I guess I'd rate this George Sewell commentary as
possibly being about the same as the Gerry Anderson
commentary. That is, it could have been better, but
it's certainly not bad.

This new UFO DVD set also has a commentary for PSYCHOBOMBS
from Deborah Grant (moderated by Jonathan Wood). I haven't had
the time to listen to this all the way through, but in
this, they are definitely focusing on the episode, and
the commentary has a certain charm that is lacking in
the Jaz Wiseman/George Sewell commentary (this could be
due to the female presence, as the Wanda/Sylvia commentary
has a charm to it as well).

Also, I had a chance to look at a few of the photo galleries --
this set obviously wins the award for best UFO photo galleries
for all of the DVD releases, which previously I thought belonged
to the Carlton DVDs. However, the Carlton galleries didn't
have many photos, and the photos that it did have took up only
a quarter of the screen. The Australian galleries have lots
of photos, and they take up the whole screen. However, there
is a problem with consistency -- in using every photo
they could find, there are good quality photos, and not-so-good
quality photos. And a lot of the photos are simply lifted from
my UFO website (which is fine by me -- they asked if this was
okay with me before they did it).

Also, the clip of Sylvia Anderson being interviewed with clips
from Antonia Ellis (Tomorrow Today) is higher quality than
what I had for making the movie clip on the website. It has
no time code overlayed, and the colors and contrast is better.

Well, that's my report for now...

Marc





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> That was me. I appreciate the time taken to provide your analysis. It's
> as close as I'll probably ever come to hearing it. Thanks again, Marc!

Sure... and the other comment about George being very complimentary
about everyone and everyone is true as well... although he wasn't
complimentary about the clothes that he had to wear in the story
(as he didn't like wool turtleneck shirts).

Also, I just read a 6-page PDF file that was included on the discs.
This gives details on the remastering process from film to video,
and was written by Jonathan Wood. I found this interesting reading,
and am surprised that it took this long for this article to surface
(since the remastering was done many years ago). They really
went to a lot of effort in making these video remasters look
as good as possible, and of course this effort does indeed show!

Marc

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Martin" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 2:46 AM
Subject: Re: [SHADO] George Sewell commentary


> Also, I just read a 6-page PDF file that was included on the discs.
> This gives details on the remastering process from film to video,
> and was written by Jonathan Wood. I found this interesting reading,
> and am surprised that it took this long for this article to surface
> (since the remastering was done many years ago). They really
> went to a lot of effort in making these video remasters look
> as good as possible, and of course this effort does indeed show!



Yes, I was going to check my Carlton discs to see if any sort of article had
been included with that set, because I couldn't remember it. Clearly there
wasn't, although Jonathan did write one for Network's Space:1999 Year 1 set.

Anyway the UFO article was very interesting - although to be honest, even
though Jonathan was trying to keep it all in layman's terms, I still found
some of it baffling!. It shows what a huge amount of painstaking work went
into the restoration.

Of course, the fact that Jonathan was/is a fan to start with can only have
helped the entire project, along with the skills of his team of course. I
think the enthusiasm shows :-)


Simon